What do we mean by co-intelligence?

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Subject: What do we mean by co-intelligence?

The Co-Intelligence Institute

August 2023 Newsletter

What do we mean by co-intelligence?

In connecting with those interested in what CII does, something that often comes up is people thinking co-intelligence is a shortened expression of “collective intelligence.” This is an understandable assumption. However, it’s only part of what we mean by “co-intelligence”.

The term co-intelligence was conceived of by Tom Atlee to embrace more than just collective intelligence. It arose out of Tom’s response to an inquiry into “What would intelligence look like, if we were to take wholeness, interconnectedness, and co-creativity seriously?”.

We see this as a very significant question that lives at the heart of our work. Colleagues at CII have been inquiring into it for over 30 years. We encourage you to sit with it too!

Here’s a beautiful quote from Tom on the subject:

"Co-Intelligence is a shared, integrated form of intelligence that we find in and around us when we're most vibrantly alive. It is also found in cultures that sustain themselves harmoniously with nature and neighbor. ...It shows up whenever we pool our personal intelligences to produce results that are more insightful and powerful than the sum of our individual perspectives."

If you’d like to dig a little deeper into the concept, here is an article that explores six ways in which co-intelligence manifests.

Results of our 20th Anniversary
Tao of Democracy Poll...

A big thank you to everyone who participated in our crowdsourced call out from our last newsletter! We were looking for ideas in response to “How would you want to celebrate the Tao Of Democracy’s 20th Anniversary?”

Here are some of the top voted ideas:

Join a 4-session book group on Tao of Democracy with Tom and others in the CII community
Join a project-in-practice mini-series with opportunity to explore with others what you’re working on & your current challenges from a wise democracy perspective
Attend a mini-course on the Wise Democracy “prime directive”: “to evoke and engage the wisdom and resourcefulness of the whole on behalf of the whole”
Give away a free copy, as a gift to a friend...
Have a CII-hosted conversation on what a sequel/evolution of the Tao of Democracy would cover if it were ever published
Join CII-hosted conversations amongst practitioners working specific wise democracy patterns

We’re in the process of designing an upcoming series in response to these ideas and interests that we’ll be sharing with you in our September newsletter. Stay tuned!

What's Listening and Love Got To Do With It?

In her latest Listening Arts blog article, CII colleague Rosa Zubizarreta explores the role of listening and love in facilitative leadership.

Rosa writes: “When those of us who are convening and hosting a group are committed to creating an inclusive atmosphere, to holding each participant in the light of love and respect, to offering clear boundaries, to welcoming differences and creating space for each voice to be heard, then, being part of a group can be a deeply healing, empowering, and co-creative experience, where even the inevitable bumps in the road offer opportunities for deeper growth.”

Read The Full Article

RWCI Is Back In The Fall!

After a brief summer break our Real World Co-Intelligence (RWCI) Community Learning Calls will be starting up again on Friday, September 22nd and will continue to be held on the fourth Friday of each month.

For our Fall season we have some wonderful featured guests lined up for you, including an innovator who has brought a radically collaborative and holistic approach to mental healthcare in the UK’s National Health Service, a digital democracy expert from Taiwan’s pioneering Ministry of Digital Affairs, and a Massachusetts based process designer and facilitator sharing a new model for citizen-driven city development.

Details and registration for these events is coming early next month!

CII Is Recruiting A Board Treasurer

The Co-intelligence Institute is seeking a skilled volunteer board treasurer who wants to support this work by sharing their financial management skills. We give great thanks to Adin Rogovin who held the treasurer role for many years and Sita Magnuson who stepped in as treasurer overseeing the transition to a new credit union and the updating of CII’s accounting systems. We’re now seeking another skilled and trustworthy person to work with our core team. Read the full job description here.

Is that you? Or someone you know? Do you know a retired accountant who shares our values? We welcome any leads. Please email us at connect@co-intelligence.org.

August's Wise Democracy Pattern

This pattern choice is influenced by the vision of issue-based stakeholder networks playing a greater role in convening citizen assemblies and other mini-publics as those deliberations begin to free themselves from the constraints of government sponsorship.

Citizen Stakeholder Integration

The citizenry know about and are grounded in the values and life experiences of the place(s) where they live. Stakeholders have energy and knowledge about their issue domains. Both roles overlap and coexist. So engage them synergistically—stakeholders especially as sources of focused passion, expertise and implementation, and citizens especially for local realities, values, participation and general-interest oversight.

Featured Question

In a wise democracy, what roles should be played by citizens and stakeholders, and why? How would we set things up for them to play their respective roles well?

Featured Resource

The Role of Deliberative Mini-Publics in Improving the Deliberative Capacity of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives.

August's Co-Intelligence Poem...

This poem by Tom Atlee has been presented in three parts over three months. Below are the final three sections of the poem. The full poem can be read here.

The Tao of Co-Intelligence - the final three sections

VIII.

And yet love and wholeness,

which are everywhere,

are not always with us.

Or so we experience --

and through that door

a journey of spirit calls us out

and calls us in:

How then do we live

into the truth of the Whole,

as if interconnectedness and wholeness really matter,

as if they truly are the fundamental reality of life?

How do we come to see and deeply know

the every-minute co-creative emergence of this, this, this?

How do we connect with and dance with

the larger intelligences that flow

through us, with us and around us?

How do we deepen our experience

of wholeness, interconnection and co-creativity

through our gifting

of greater wholeness,

interconnectivity

and co-creative power to our world?

IX.

We hold these inquiries as the edges of a sacred path

made by the walking of many in search.

Some settle here or there by the road --

the road that slowly fades as horizon meets inquiry,

as travelers become fewer farther along,

as hearts call them to this place, or that.

But travelers there will always be,

all welcomed to the hearths along the way.

For all along this path

we found fertile ground for fellowship

and harvests unending

where the joy we make meets the world's need

over and over.

And all along this path, wisdom spins its stories

from the homeful dances of life,

through sunrise following sunrise

into the world's skyward spiral

of steadily waking stardust Soul.

And in the end, the message is so simple:

We are All.

In This.

Together.

And simplicity unfolds

into something intricate:

We are All.

We are the world

showing up as a body.

We are universal consciousness

showing up as our mind.

We are everything

showing up as one thing.

We are the essence of humanity

showing up as diverse people.

We are interconnectedness Itself

showing up as separate selves.

We are every generation

showing up as one generation.

We are aliveness

showing up as alive.

In This.

This dancing day.

This Story Reality.

This intricate universal Conversation.

This fabric woven

Together:

making it...

not making it...

"We all live downstream."

"We are all connected."

The fingers of the weaver, dancing on the loom:

"All my relations."

Heya.

We are That.

We are all. In This. Together.

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Subject: What do we mean by co-intelligence?