The Collaboration Paradox
“None of us is as dumb as all of us”
MaRS
January 7, 2009
John Abele

If you aren’t prepared to change,
be prepared to be irrelevant.

How do you harness the collective
intelligence of great minds in the
presence of:
• Different cultures and silos?
• Strong egos?
• Messenger killers?
• Pontificators?
• Hidden agendas
• Group think?
• Off topic time wasters?
• Diverse levels of understanding?
• A range of bias?

Meetings can take many forms
• Physical
• Virtual
• Synchronous
• Asynchronous

• Symposium
• Colloquium
• Conference
• Congress
• Forum
• Convention
• Unconference

A well recognized problem

World’s first conference facility, The Babel Center
…. a failure

New York Times
May 9, 2006

Where Brilliant Dreams
are Born
Before the beginning of great brilliance,
there must be Chaos.
Before a brilliant person begins something
great, they must look foolish to the crowd.

Some Tools for Empowering
“Wisecrowds”, the New World Order
Do you use any?
• Wikis
• Podcasts
• Blogs
• Social networks
• Prediction markets
• Search engines

A predictive markets website for physicians

Pharma companies harness the wisdom of crowds

http://wiki.eyeforpharma.com

Boston Scientific’s fast advancing disruptive
technology presented a problem

Advances in technology in
the next 5 years will exceed
those in the previous 50.

The Dilemmas of Medical
Technology Development
/Assessment
Technology
Development
Rate
Technology
Assessment
Time

New Device Technologies
Critical Issues
1. How are new technologies and the procedures
they spawn to be assessed?
2. How can physicians best be trained to employ
new technologies and how to they stay current?
3. How can we keep up with accelerating
technological advances?
4. Who’s going to pay for it … the technology
and the assessment?

Problems of Assessment
• Bias
– Hidden agenda
– Turf
– Money
• Rhetorical/Presentation skills
• Politically Correct
– Science
– Regulation

Medical teaching, late 1800s, Billroth, Vienna

A Counter-Intuitive Innovation

Live Demonstration course, Gruntzig, 1978, Zurich
Real time sports style video, expert panel, audience guides procedures

Problem:
Not many people could see or hear
Solution:
• Special television cameras & microphones
• Multiple views
- patient
- doctor
- operating site
- physiological data
- inside of the patient

Problem:
Doctor had a limited & biased point of view
Solution:
• Panel of contrarian experts
• Simultaneous studies of the latest
research and trial data

Problem:
Students aren’t familiar with the technology
Solution:
• Experts explain the new technology
• Graphics & interactive demonstrations

Problem:
Hard to tell if students really understand
Solution:
• Audience response system
- Like “Who wants to be a millionaire?”
- Anonymous responses
- Works in parallel
- Teachers adjust
- Students learn relative to peers
- Dig deeper

Now a multimedia, multitasking, totally interactive
extravaganza…in many fields, around the world

Individual Physician success is
Measured by the “masses”
versus
Measured by the establishment

These educational programs are
Not controlled by the
“establishment”
(Universities, Professional Societies, Government)

“War is too important to be
left to the Generals”

Harnessing collective intelligence through
networks is exploding NY Times, Oct 31,
06

www.kingbridgecentre.com

The Kingbridge Mission
“Organizations are most productive when
there is great communication. Great
communication can occur when people are
stimulated, provoked and challenged in an
atmosphere of trust, respect and
accountability.

www.despair.com

“The despotism of custom
is everywhere the hindrance
to human achievement.”
John Stuart Mill

• Environment
• Atmosphere
• Networking
• Program
• Research

Atmosphere
• Personalized, “Welcome to my home”
• Stimulating and provocative art and inventions
• Environment customized to client
• “Conferencing is my passion”
• Learning laboratory with experiments
• Surprise. Humor. Challenge.
• Stories

• Goal based organization
• Parallel conversations
M • Audience response systems
• Adaptive learning
E
• Profiling attendees
N • Court jester
• Squirt guns
U • Experiential learning
• Super interactivity
• Audio visual studio
• Hybrid physical/virtual meetings

Kingbridge Institute
• Experimentation with clients
• World class techniques
• Learning laboratory
• Information clearing house
• Asking better questions
• Power of great moderating