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What is Co-Intelligence?

The term "co-intelligence" refers to 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.

Co-intelligence shows up whenever we pool our personal intelligences to produce results that are more insightful and powerful than the sum of our individual perspectives. Sometimes this happens when we simply listen well to each other. Most of us have noticed welcome examples of this effect in our families, groups and communities -- and sometimes in organizations. But we have also seen more than enough co-stupidity. We've seen people (including ourselves) acting less intelligently together than we are individually. It doesn't have to be that way. There are many ways to become more co-intelligent, some of which are described in this site.

Significantly, co-intelligence is a capacity we all have, individually and collectively. It is not a method that can be sold by The Co-Intelligence Institute or anyone else. There is no one way to be co-intelligent. Almost all of us have already used co-intelligence at some time to improve work and family relationships, to support our communities, and to help make a better world. We could use a lot more. The Co-Intelligence Institute and this site exist to help us do that -- to point out useful paths in our shared journey. The more we can study this phenomena together, share stories of our experiences with it, develop positive guidelines and methods for enhancing it, the more co-intelligence we can bring to our lives.

Co-intelligence is about creating our shared lives together -- and doing it well. With co-intelligence:

• We learn and work better with each other and with the world around us.
• We use our diversity and our uniqueness more creatively.
• We engage more effectively with our full selves -- integrating the intelligences of our head, heart, spirit, body, intuition, creativity, and more.
• We can consciously evolve together in partnership with nature.
• We can heal and transform our culture and our world.

The more co-intelligent we are, the more tuned in we are to the wholeness, interconnectedness, and co-creativity of all life -- and the more we can sense the larger co-intelligence that is always there waiting for us, waiting to operate through us for the benefit of all.

For more about co-intelligence, see "Ideas, Theories and Models" and "Stories and Examples."

For a powerful overview, read: A compact vision of co-intelligence, a key essay which simplifies co-intelligence into two parts -- collective intelligence and collaborative intelligence. It shows how these together suggest a new vision of cultural transformation that, if understood and applied, could have a profound positive impact on our future.