Sergio Vergara Venegas - Building Collective Intelligence in the Organization

EDICIONES UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DE CHILE

Vicerrectoría de Comunicaciones y Educación Continua

Alameda 390, Santiago, Chile

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COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AT WORK

A New Way of Understanding and Managing Organizations to Align People’s Well-Being and Driving Business Results

Sergio Vergara Venegas

ISBN digital: 978-956-14-2872-0

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue by Nicolás Majluf

INTRODUCTION

Collective Intelligence

Why Work on Organizational Climate?

Trying to Turn a “Soft” Topic into a “Hard” One

The Influence (and Pressure) Of Social Ranking on the Management of Organizational Climate

The Evolutionary Model of Organizational Climate

CHAPTER 1 COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Can We Learn to Be Collectively Smarter?

Key Concepts from Chapter 1

CHAPTER 2 THE ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE IS A RELATIONSHIP

First Principle of the Evolutionary Model: The Organizational Climate Is a Relationship

Understanding the Management of Organizational Climate as the Management of a Relationship

Organizational Climate versus Organizational Culture: What Is the Difference?

Tool 1: Self-Assessment Survey for Middle Managers and Collaborators

Key Concepts from Chapter 2

CHAPTER 3 FROM THE MOST VISIBLE TO THE LEAST VISIBLE

Second Principle of the Evolutionary Model: What Is Most Visible Is Not Necessarily the Deepest Issue

The Bottom of the Iceberg

Tool 2: Climate Contribution Index of Key Work Activities

Tool 3: Climate Contribution Map of Key Work Activities

Key Concepts from Chapter 3

CHAPTER 4 HOW EVERYONE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE IN THEIR OWN WAY

Third Principle of the Evolutionary Model: As in Any Relationship, Managing the Organizational Climate Requires Actions from Different Roles

Senior Management Role

Middle Management Role (leaders)

Individual Role

Tool 4: The Action Plan Model for the Organizational Climate Management That Creates Maturity

Subsystems implicit in the roles

Cases of Dysfunctional Dynamics

Key Concepts from Chapter 4

CHAPTER 5 THE CONCEPT OF MATURITY IN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE

Fourth Principle of the Evolutionary Model: If Relationships Mature, So Does the Organizational Climate Management

Four Stages in the Organizational Climate Management Maturity Pathway

Stage 1: Bewilderment and Frustration

Stage 2: Activism

Stage 3: Understanding

Stage 4: Managing

Key Concepts from Chapter 5

CHAPTER 6 MATURING THE ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE MANAGEMENT

The Levers to Make Organizational Climate Mature

Key Levers to Make Organizational Climate Management Mature (the Dos and Don’ts)

Levers between Stages 1 and 2, from “Bewilderment and Frustration” to “Activism”

Tool 5: Meeting Guidelines for Reviewing the Results of the Organizational Climate Survey

Levers Between Stages 2 and 3. From “Activism” to “Understanding”

Levers Between Level 3 and 4. From “Understanding” to “Managing”

Levers to Support Level 4 “Managing”

The Role of Human Capital Management

The Roles for Sustainable Organizational Climate Management

Structure of an Integrated Organizational Management

The Role of Managers

Tool 6: Maturity Diagnostic Instrument

Key Concepts from Chapter 6

CHAPTER 7 THE MINIMUM LEVELS IN ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE MANAGEMENT

Fifth Principle of the Evolutionary Model: The Hierarchical Ranking of Organizational Climate Dimensions

Key Concepts from Chapter 7

CHAPTER 8 WORK DYNAMICS AND PRACTICES

Before Changing Practices, Let’s Understand the Dynamics

Improving Practices Strengthens Dynamics

Examples of Good Practices to Improve Organizational Climate

Tool 7: Assessment Matrix of Organizational Climate Improvement Practices

Key Concepts from Chapter 8

CHAPTER 9 THE ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE INTERVENTION CONTROL PANEL

Why Have a Control Panel for the Organizational Climate Management Plan?

Control Panel of the Evolutionary Model of Organizational Climate Management

I. Management Model

I.1. Management Practices

I.2. Organizational Structure

I.3. Systems and Processes

I.4. Infrastructure

I.5. Compensation and Benefits

I.6. Business and Human Capital Policies

II. Culture

II.1. Implicit and Explicit Values

II.2. Group and Inter-Area Dynamics

III. Teams

III.1. Maturity of Climate Management in the Area

III.2. Climate Practices Installed

IV. Individuals

IV.1. Profile of the Critical Mass of People

IV.2. Work Maturity of the Critical Mass

Tool 8: Control Panel Checklist

From the Control Panel to the Organizational Climate Management Plan

Tool 9: Climate Maturity Management Plan

CHAPTER 10 INTERVENING WITH THE EVOLUTIONARY MODEL

EPILOGUE ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND SOCIAL MATURITY

Bibliography

To my children FELIPE and NATALIA, with whom, out of love, I learned to speak languages I did not know. To CARMEN, my wife, for so much, for everything.

FOREWORD TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

There are some books that are of value for being able to summarize some problems that require a specialized technical view. There are books that stand out for their innovation and contribution, and others that are ahead of their time and pose questions for the future. Finally, there are books that manage to interpret the sign of the times and formulate perspectives or tools that are an adaptive response to the current challenges of different disciplines.

It is rare to find a book that is able to bring together the best of these challenges in a single volume. Doing so in a timely manner, in the current difficult times we live in, is a relevant fact that is worth knowing, studying and applying.

The book you are holding in your hands, Collective Intelligence, by Chilean consultant Sergio Vergara, ticks all these boxes. It is the result of mature reflection on specific and long-standing experiences that have transcended the country’s borders.

What emerged as a result of the author’s work with hundreds of organizations and companies of different sizes and complexity, and from different areas of economic activity, and also from his work with the public sector, can today be considered a necessary response to the challenges posed by the social, health and economic crises we’ve been facing for the last two years.

His proposal is so powerful and bold that it translates the best of the economic-business perspectives with the collaborative, dialogical and transformational perspectives that give us new tools for the building of organizational purposes.

Best of all, it provides us with the tools to operate in times of crisis and in the transformation produced by these tools in our organizations and teams.

With deep conviction, but above all with great generosity, this book -originally written in Spanish, in the long strip of the southern part of the American continent called Chile- is a conceptual map and a toolbox that can accelerate the processes of change and systemic transformation that we require.

At times when global citizenship demands new perspectives, when traditional ways of living together, production and working are challenged, at times when the social contract that gave governance to countries, organizations and human groups seems to be under fire and unsuitable to respond to the current times, Collective Intelligence may be the basis of the new modus vivendi of the organizational climate that we urgently need to develop within our institutions.