1장
Unlocking the Power of Thinking Together
In an age where innovation is currency and collaboration is king, "Collaborative Intelligence" arrives as a transformative guide for anyone seeking to harness the full potential of human minds working together. Dawna Markova and Angie McArthur's groundbreaking work has become a cornerstone text for forward-thinking organizations from Microsoft to Google, with Arianna Huffington calling it "essential reading for anyone who leads a team." The book's principles have revolutionized how Fortune 500 companies approach teamwork, moving beyond traditional models of competition toward something more powerful: genuine intellectual partnership. What makes this work particularly compelling is how it bridges neuroscience and practical application, offering a framework that has helped thousands of professionals transform the statement "I can't work with that person" into "I think better when I think with you."
2장
The Hinge Time: From Market Share to Mind Share
We stand at a pivotal moment in history-a hinge time-where leadership demands a fundamental shift in mentality. The traditional market-share approach values scarcity and power over others, creating a world where giving means losing. But we're rapidly moving toward a mind-share reality where ideas and relationships generate wealth, and sharing actually multiplies what we have. This transformation is evident in how companies like Tesla openly shared their patents to accelerate electric vehicle adoption, demonstrating how giving can actually expand market opportunities.
This shift requires influence rather than power, particularly crucial in today's "Velcro teams" working remotely across continents and time zones. Leadership becomes less about heroism and more about hosting-creating spaces where diverse thinking can flourish. Companies like Spotify exemplify this through their "squad" model, where autonomous teams collaborate across global locations. The most flexible thinkers gain the most influence in this new landscape, as demonstrated by leaders who can navigate both traditional hierarchies and modern networked organizations.
While market-share thinking demands quick answers and determining who's right, mind-share thinking asks what's possible, encouraging wonder and bridging differences. Consider how Linux evolved through open-source collaboration, creating a platform that powers much of today's internet infrastructure. The most successful organizations now recognize they need both mentalities in balance. Microsoft and Apple demonstrate this beautifully-fiercely competing in some markets while partnering in others, such as Microsoft Office applications on iOS devices.
The mind-share approach doesn't replace competition but complements it with collaboration. Organizations like NASA increasingly partner with private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, showing how traditional competitors can achieve more together than alone. It's not about choosing between the two but knowing when each serves us best. Companies like Google maintain their competitive edge while simultaneously contributing to open-source projects that benefit entire industries.
This balanced perspective allows us to navigate complexity with greater agility, drawing on collective intelligence rather than individual brilliance alone. The success of platforms like GitHub, where millions of developers collaborate on code, proves the power of shared knowledge. Innovation hubs like Silicon Valley thrive not just on competition but on the free flow of ideas and talent between companies.
What would happen if we approached our most challenging problems not by asking "Who's right?" but "What's possible when we think together?" The answer might revolutionize not just our organizations but our entire approach to innovation and problem-solving. Climate change initiatives, for instance, show how global challenges require collaborative solutions across traditional competitive boundaries, with companies sharing green technologies and best practices to achieve broader environmental goals.
3장
Understanding Your Mind Pattern: The First Key to Collaboration
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to think in pictures while others process information through conversation or physical movement? This isn't just personality-it's how our minds are wired to process information.
The first strategy of Collaborative Intelligence involves recognizing these mind patterns-your unique way of processing information through three different states of attention: focused (like ice, concentrating on one thing), sorting (mediating between inner and outer awareness), and open (creative daydreaming where new insights emerge).
Our culture typically values only focused attention, dismissing sorting and open attention as "being confused," "distracted," or "spacing out." Yet these other states are precisely where innovation happens-where grand symphonies, great inventions, and solutions to sweeping systemic issues emerge.
Your thoughts combine three perceptual elements: kinesthetic (physical sensations), visual (images), and auditory (sounds/words). These elements trigger your mind to shift attention from one state to another in a particular sequence-your mind pattern. There are six possible patterns: VAK, VKA, KAV, KVA, AVK, and AKV, each with distinct strengths and challenges.
Consider Maria, a famous country-western singer struggling with overwhelming demands. By recognizing her VKA pattern (visual first, kinesthetic second, auditory third), she discovered why she thought best while driving-her eyes on the road (visual), hands on the wheel (kinesthetic), with engine noise enabling her inner voice (auditory). This insight allowed her to create an operating manual for her complex life, not by changing events but by changing how she responded to them.
Understanding your mind pattern unlocks intellectual capacity that may have been dormant. What we often label as personality traits-being inarticulate, emotionally volatile, shy-may actually reflect our attention states. We're all introverted when our attention is open and extroverted when our attention is focused.
By recognizing how your mind naturally processes information, you gain the ability to consciously shift your attention when needed. Following your 1-2-3 sequence helps move from focused to open thinking, while your 3-2-1 sequence shifts from open to focused attention-giving you unprecedented control over your cognitive states.
4장
Bridging Differences: Reading Others' Mind Patterns
When we misunderstand intellectual diversity, we attribute thinking differences to personality flaws or mental deficits, creating unnecessary friction. Even major corporate mergers have failed due to clashing mind patterns between leadership cultures.
The CQ Playbook offers a five-step process for adapting to others' thinking styles. After identifying your own mind pattern and what works with the other person, develop a game plan to modify your approach. The critical fourth step is noticing the effect you're having in real time-recognizing that disconnection often stems from how you're delivering content rather than the content itself.
Consider the case of Steve and Joseph, two brilliant architects whose partnership was deteriorating. Through careful observation, I identified their opposing mind patterns: Joseph used VAK (visual focus, auditory sorting, kinesthetic unconscious), while Steve used KAV (kinesthetic focus, auditory sorting, visual open attention). Their previous success had come from an office setup that naturally bridged these differences. After their company was acquired, new communication protocols favored Joseph's visual strengths while hindering Steve's kinesthetic needs.
The solution wasn't about personality conflicts but thinking differences. By implementing daily walk-and-talks, hiring visually-organized assistance for Steve, and establishing pre-meeting movement rituals, their partnership was revitalized. Within a month, they were functioning "like a right and left hand again," each leveraging their natural strengths.
For presentations, each type has tailored approaches: VAK types should find friendly faces and use evocative visuals; VKA types should walk around and begin with audience questions; KAV types should focus on passionate outcomes; KVA types need movement and action-based language; AVK types should research audiences beforehand; and AKV types should use visuals and ask questions.
True collaboration requires "differentiated connection"-thinking with people who bring varied talents to the table. As PepsiCo Americas Beverages CEO Al Carey notes, "The next great leader will be a diverse team. People who want to operate as the hero-who-knows-everything will either change or become extinct."
5장
Maximizing Team Intelligence Through Diversity
Jazz musician Dave Brubeck exemplified the collaborative approach, creating classic music by capitalizing on his musicians' differences rather than being threatened by them. Similarly, effective teams leverage intellectual diversity through structured approaches.
The CQ playbook offers a five-step process to transform deadlocked meetings into collaborative sessions. Step 1 involves creating a mind-pattern team map to understand intellectual diversity. Step 2 asks team members to share examples of their best meeting experiences. Step 3 involves creating a game plan considering environmental factors: kinesthetic elements (movable chairs, fidget objects), visual tools (flip charts, well-designed visuals), and auditory considerations (minimizing distractions, incorporating silence).
When an agricultural company's leadership team needed to bridge trust gaps between veteran and new members, we designed a non-habitual process using movement and visual thinking. Team members took smartphone photos representing their vision at different time horizons, which were printed and displayed. Each person identified necessary conditions and actions on Post-its next to the images.
This approach engaged even the resistant CFO Jason (an AVK pattern thinker), who ultimately felt part of the team for the first time. The process broke habitual verbal patterns and allowed diverse minds to collaborate, resulting in a unified vision that helped turn the company around within a year.
Multi-sensory team exercises enhance collaboration: Musical Brainstorm (using instrumental music to stimulate thinking before sharing ideas); The Mural (having team members draw metaphors representing their goals); The Pizza (rotating team members around a table to build on each other's written ideas); and The Sculpture (creating physical representations of challenges using available materials).
When implementing CQ principles company-wide at an agricultural business, we discovered 40% needed kinesthetic movement to focus, 40% needed visual input, and only 20% were auditory-focused. This led to practical changes: removing clutter from meeting spaces, adding whiteboards and projectors, encouraging movement, and installing sidewalks between buildings to facilitate communication. By tailoring information presentation to different mind patterns, tensions decreased and execution improved.
6장
Uncovering Your Thinking Talents: Natural Cognitive Strengths
Beyond mind patterns lies another dimension of collaborative intelligence: thinking talents-natural approaches to challenges that increase mental energy rather than depleting it. These intrinsic abilities compose your singular brilliance and can help you contribute high-quality thinking without burning out.
Thinking talents are organized into four cognitive styles: analytic, procedural, relational, and innovative-comparable to the instrument sections of an orchestra. By mapping your talents across these domains, you can identify your natural approach to problem-solving. Most people (60%) exhibit two cognitive preferences, while 30% show three, 7% have one, and only 3% demonstrate equal preference across all four styles.
We often lose connection with our natural thinking talents due to our "deficit-oriented culture." Many talents are criticized or redirected in childhood-Oprah Winfrey's self-assurance was described as being "too full of herself," while natural storytelling might be labeled as "exaggerating." Our talents can become invisible precisely because they come so naturally.
Your mind's blind spots-areas where you lack natural thinking talents-are where worry and stress emerge. Without "feeling for others," you may worry about people's reactions; without "making order," you struggle with organization; without "focusing," you worry about distractibility.
Two harmful assumptions keep us from acknowledging our blind spots: believing we should be universally competent and thinking we should solve all problems independently. Both lead to "skilled mediocrity" and ignore our fundamental need for collaboration.
Nick's story demonstrates how understanding thinking talents transforms both professional and personal life. He discovered his blind spot in the innovative domain was causing excessive worry about potential negative outcomes. By analyzing his work time allocation, he found 40% was spent in his "red zone"-tasks requiring skills but not talents. Creating a "Desired Future" chart where 90% of time utilized his thinking talents, Nick formed partnerships with team members who excelled in his blind spots, freeing him to use his relational thinking talents for mentoring.
When thinking talents work together harmoniously, they create internal coherence like musical notes forming a chord. Without alignment, talents clash, causing internal battles like "innovation" fighting "thinking back" or "get to action" battling "feeling for others."
7장
Becoming a Thinking Partner: Recognizing Others' Talents
Having identified your own talents and blind spots, you're now ready to learn how to recognize and leverage the cognitive strengths of those around you. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu stated, "The word ubuntu means that a person becomes human through other persons."
A three-step process increases permeability in your thinking: ask questions to discover what energizes others, identify which thinking talents they're using, and establish rapport by acknowledging their talents. This approach helps strengthen connections, overcome challenges with difficult people, and increase your ability to influence others-not by forcing them to think like you, but by creating collaborative possibilities.
When dealing with someone who frustrates you, become curious about the thinking talent beneath their annoying behavior. Use the shadow-attributes map to identify what specifically annoys you, which thinking talent it represents, and how you might learn from them.
Nick's story demonstrates this approach with his difficult boss Martin. By mapping both their thinking talents, Nick discovered that Martin's strengths in innovative thinking matched Nick's blind spots, while Nick's procedural and relational talents complemented Martin's weaknesses. Rather than trying to change Martin, Nick changed how he related to him, acknowledging Martin's future visions first before offering operational suggestions. This transformed their relationship into a powerful partnership.
Team maps reveal the intellectual capital of a team, showing strengths, gaps, and collective blind spots. For example, one team discovered they were strong in innovative and procedural thinking but lacked analytical talents, explaining why they implemented ideas without evaluating financial implications. Another team found most members shared the "seeking excellence" talent in the analytic quadrant, causing them to overwork small issues while ignoring other factors.
Influence requires shifting from rigid certainty to flexible curiosity while maintaining "virtuous intent." Unlike our market-share economy that values being right, developing a mind-share mentality means reconsidering what's possible for ourselves and those different from us. The practice of blending teaches that we must bend our minds to recognize others' perspectives, then blend with them while remaining aware of when they're ready to move in our direction.
8장
The Power of Inquiry: Asking the Right Questions
I've been fascinated with the relationship between great questions and expanding possibility since childhood. While I excelled at providing correct answers through my academic career, I discovered through Dr. Milton Erickson's work that questions about health rather than pathology could open minds to limitless possibilities.
Mastering inquiry requires embracing Carol Dweck's "growth mindset" rather than a "fixed mindset." With a fixed mindset, you believe intelligence is unchangeable, hiding weaknesses and avoiding challenges to appear smart. A growth mindset sees intelligence as evolving, approaching obstacles with questions like "What can I learn?" and "How can I grow my capacity?"
Three categories of questions serve as a compass for creating clarity and collaboration:
1. Success-based inquiry helps when you're stuck by accessing what worked in past situations. By recalling similar challenges you've successfully overcome, you access existing neural pathways rather than creating new ones.
2. Intentional inquiry helps reconnect with your "virtuous intent" when feeling lost or burned out. These open questions function like a compass needle, pointing to what matters most to you.
3. Influential inquiry reveals natural thinking strengths and areas needing support. Questions are organized into four cognitive styles on the Inquiry Compass: Analytic ("Why?"), Procedural ("How?"), Relational ("Who?"), and Innovative ("What if?").
Blind spots are quadrants where you habitually don't ask questions. When someone inquires from your blind spot quadrant, you might misinterpret their questions as challenges or attacks. Breakthroughs often happen when exploring these avoided areas.
George, a newly appointed senior VP, called about his "impossible" CEO Peter who had caused the company's stock to plummet after a disastrous analyst meeting. After viewing Peter's combative performance, I agreed to meet him once. When I dramatically demonstrated his problem by overfilling a water cup until it spilled, he followed me outside showing genuine curiosity. I explained his mind was so full of itself there was no room for anything else.
I challenged Peter to ask himself whether he'd rather be right or effective whenever he noticed his mind was closed. By recognizing his strength in procedural inquiry and weakness in innovative thinking, he learned to collaborate with George and his CFO during analyst meetings, each answering questions in their area of strength. The stock price rose as a result of Peter's willingness to open his mind to collaborative intelligence.
9장
Bridging Different Inquiry Styles
Different inquiry styles often clash rather than collaborate. Henry Ford's example of using all four inquiry directions revolutionized car manufacturing. To master inquiry, we must believe others' thinking matters, releasing market-share habits that minimize influence.
When left-brain thinking (analytic and procedural) meets right-brain thinking (innovative and relational), they often collide rather than create collaboration. To bridge these differences, we must identify which quadrant someone is coming from rather than focusing solely on content or our reactions. Replacing "yes, but" with "yes, and" helps resolve impasses between cognitive strengths and blind spots.
Charlotte, director of a global nonprofit operating in sixty countries, felt overwhelmed by constant changes in leadership and redundant demands. Through applying the three kinds of inquiry, she transformed her approach. First, success-based inquiry revealed her boss preferred analytic over relational thinking. Second, intentional inquiry helped her reconnect with her purpose of supporting children. Third, influential inquiry guided her to adapt her presentation style, starting with charts and data before incorporating stories. This strategic approach not only secured her budget but gained an increase in funding while creating a collaborative relationship with her boss.
Meetings represent precious opportunities to maximize collaborative intelligence rather than waste time thinking in the same old ways. Success-based inquiry examines what worked in past challenges, creating visual tracks of effective elements. Intentional inquiry clarifies desired outcomes through questions like "What matters to us all?" with visual reminders keeping teams focused on their purpose. Influential inquiry maps team members' cognitive styles on the compass of inquiry, revealing strengths, gaps, and potential blind spots.
The Four-Directions Round Table process eliminates blockages when groups tackle sticky issues by engaging both right and left brain thinking simultaneously. Teams split into four sub-groups representing different inquiry quadrants: innovative, relational, analytic, and procedural. Members join the sub-team matching their natural strengths, with each group approaching the challenge exclusively from their perspective.
10장
Creating Mind Share: The Fourth Strategy
The Kindness movement that Markova helped create exemplifies the shift from market-share to mind-share mentality. What began with one inspiring idea grew into a global phenomenon across eighteen countries, with schools hosting Kindness days and nine million copies of related books sold. This movement required no central leadership or infrastructure, yet successfully moved people from thinking apart to thinking together.
The fourth collaborative intelligence strategy-mindset-teaches how to embrace mind share through attention, intention, and imagination. These three aspects form the connective tissue of the human mind: attention connects you to the present moment where you can act; intention identifies what truly matters; and imagination explores future possibilities.
Attention is the currency of mind share-something we give, earn, and invest rather than simply "pay." In our data-flooded world, attention has become a dwindling resource that cannot be bought, only earned. To aim attention effectively, we must recognize our mind patterns and make adjustments accordingly.
Collective intention describes a group aligned toward a shared goal, magnetizing everyone involved. Without it, people may comply but won't truly commit. A compelling case study describes how the authors facilitated a breakthrough meeting between Royal Dutch Shell and Nigeria's Ministry of Energy by designing a multi-sensory environment with photographs, music, and storytelling that allowed participants to craft shared future narratives, ultimately leading to the creation of a technical university.
One of our most unused collective resources is imagination. Corporate meetings rarely call for pauses to imagine possibilities, yet imagination drives progress. Until we value it as legitimate thinking and create conditions that foster it, we cannot fully access our intellectual capital. Leaders who evoke collective imagination will lead the mind-share economy.
11장
Leadership for a Collaborative Future
Conductor Zubin Mehta united the Three Tenors by having them cook a meal together before their historic 1990 World Cup performance, creating an alignment reference point that transformed potential competition into magnificent collaboration. Similarly, Nelson Mandela bridged racial divides in post-apartheid South Africa by having the mostly white Springbok rugby team engage with black townships, culminating in their 1995 World Cup victory that united the nation.
These leaders demonstrated how to align attention, intention and action to pull people toward a possible future. The chapter emphasizes that while these examples occurred on a global stage, anyone can influence moments where people shift from thinking apart to thinking together by mastering cognitive shifts.
To generate future pull, leaders must aim collective attention (focusing on assets and possibilities, using multi-sensory approaches), intention (using all inquiry styles), and imagination (understanding what each person needs to think creatively). Creating a collaboration handbook helps teams enact mind share by having everyone prepare a summary of what supports their best thinking, then creating operating agreements based on what to stop, start, and continue in meetings.
The concept of "Randori" from Japanese martial arts-literally "grasping freedom"-illustrates the quality of mind needed for collaborative intelligence. Like a martial arts master who remains calm while facing multiple attackers, leaders today must maintain balance amid chaotic forces, responding with respect rather than opposition.
The key to collaborative leadership isn't something innate or taught in business school, but cultivating respect for differences even amid stress. Each person experiences respect differently-some through listening, others through eye contact-requiring leaders to "look again" at people and situations as if for the first time. Everyone carries a dormant seed of greatness waiting only for recognition to emerge, making every collaboration one with hidden possibility.
When leading, rather than focusing on being liked or fixing others' problems, practice seeing the lineage behind each person-those who dreamed of them, those who support them now, and those who will benefit from their work. This quality of mind determines whether you lead with respect or control, whether you see others as damaged or as unfinished works of art. The future may depend less on expertise than on connecting with different thinkers and using imagination to bridge differences. There is a collaborative intelligence larger than any individual that cannot be measured but can be trusted.
