Blending “Wisdom of Crowds” in Organizational Decision Making

Is Avataar the best movie ever made? Is Game of Thrones the most popular TV show of this year? Is The Lord of the Rings the most exceptional work of literature of the 20th Century? Public votes have awarded all three of them these titles. You don’t have to necessarily be a film critic or a literary to marvel at the knowledge of a crowd. 

More often than not, the opinions of a bunch are wiser than an individual, particularly within the organizations. Some prevalent evidence include the Linux operating system and Wikipedia, where communities of individuals have learned successfully to tap into the “wisdom of the crowd” to grow their businesses. Big names, including General Motors and Starbucks, have turned to the crowd to stimulate innovation, solve issues, and generate a competing advantage through collaboration. 

I am not saying that this should always be the case. Different situations demand different forms of leadership. A few decisions require single-minded thoughts while a few others require a collective group-based judgment. However, one thing to make sure is that you don’t pile up pieces of debris but pick up diamonds. I hope you get what I mean to say here. 

In an organization, when you’re attempting to induce contributions from everyone, sometimes, you will have to pause some people so that you can ask others to speak. At Ergode, we have adopted this method, and there are certain things that I would like to point out after incorporating wisdom of crowd in the decision-making process:

• Autonomy: The different opinions should be autonomous, which implies that every individual must make an opinion without knowing what the other person has to say about the same thing. Otherwise, there is an absolute probability of bias or influenced decision creeping in. 
• Diversity: This demands a diverse range of opinions flowing from numerous people – Few of them who are experts of the field while few with a piece of common knowledge and interest. This makes for a comprehensive variety of thoughts and values flowing in and a much thoughtful decision in action.

The critical takeaway is to remember what is your role as a leader and how you get everyone on the team heard. Every decision you make can be an opportunity for many employees to contribute and bring out the best in the company.