A famous quote that’s been attributed to many different guru-types, and even a few politicians is a variation of this:
“It’s amazing what humans can do together when nobody cares who gets credit.”
Meaning if you combine enough people together, with a diverse enough background, and set them to a common task, their collective problem solving ability is enormous.
Much more so than any one guy or gal.
(Or even a supercomputer for that matter.)
This has been proven time and time again in all kinds of studies.
One thing that will kill this genius problem solving ability is if ONE GUY is in charge and needs to be recognized as the “idea man.”
We all have experiences with people like that.
You’re in a group, trying to figure out something, and on one level, people are trying to come up with an actual solution.
But on another level, it’s like people are having an “idea contest.” Once they spit out their idea, they defend it no matter what.
They’ve even done studies on jury deliberations that show this.
When everybody says out loud, “guilty” or “not guilty” those trials take twice as long as those when they always keep it secret.
Meaning when they write “G” or “NG” on a slip of paper and then count the votes anonymously, those trials are over a lot quicker.
People are more focused on finding the truth rather than defending their version of it.
Something about saying “your idea” out loud makes it VERY HARD to change later on.
Social scientists are always trying to figure out ways to tap the collective problem solving ability of groups, without getting killing it with the “my idea is best” syndrome.
This is one of the reasons why giving advice rarely works.
It’s a subtle way of saying, “My idea is better than you’re idea.”
And since you’re giving them advice, they sort of presupposes that they’ve ALREADY stated their idea.
But here’s the funny thing.
If you tell a story, and wrap your “advice” in the story, they’ll look at it, and see your idea, but think it was their idea.
Especially if you take a bunch of similar stories, all on the same theme, and tell them one after another.
They’ll think you’re just talking random gibberish when this sudden spark of inspiration hits them.
They’ll actually look at you as if the idea just “came to them.”
Any idea will work, so long as you can wrap it in a few simple stories.
And the more people you tell the stories to, the better ideas they’ll come up with.
The only thing you need to do is turn off your own, “my idea is best” switch in your brain.
And you can get them to do anything.
Learn How:
