The other day, a good friend of mine, Pat Sherlock sent me a quote. Pat is a colleague and a scholar in the field of learning. The quote he sent me was from Capitalism and Social Progress, published by Pat’s thesis advisor in England, Hugh Lauder.

"Collective intelligence involves a transformation in the way we think about human capability. It suggests that all are capable rather than a few; that intelligence is multiple rather than a matter of solving puzzles with only one right answer; and that our human qualities for imagination and emotional engagement are as important as our ability to become technical experts."
The idea that we each have something valuable to contribute is fundamental to our business, to our design principles and to the people that we employ as our trusted facilitator teams. I don’t believe that we could be in business--I definitely wouldn’t have started it--if this weren’t one of the fundamental drivers of our enterprise.

When my now twelve-year-old was about nine, I would run along the boardwalk close to our house and she would bike beside me. We would get into some interesting conversations, mostly about the stuff that mattered like the colour of her bike, the fact that the waves were up today, or that it was a beautiful day. But one day she surprised me, which both of our kids have done consistently. This particular day she asked me a question out of the blue and with shocking articulation.

You see, before I put our kids to bed I would always say their prayers with them. Often I would say something like, “You are a very special person and you have a purpose in the world.” Like so many ‘father sayings’ I wasn’t sure if either girl really heard this, but I would often say it. So there we are on our bike/run and Emma looks over at me and out of nowhere says, “Dad, how will I know what my purpose is?” I didn’t miss a step in my run, but I can tell you my heart missed a few beats, and it still does as I write this. I said I didn’t know how she would know, but that if she realized she had a purpose, she would find it.

We can get very technical in our designs and very sophisticated in our learning theory. We have over two decades as a company doing both. Yet at the heart of what we do we need to bolster this idea that each person has something to contribute, and not just ‘something,’ but something unique and valuable. Something that the world needs to experience and something that is worthy of their own best efforts to bring out and polish. For, once we accept that we have this jewel within us, it becomes very clear that it isn’t acceptable to waste it and not let it see the light of day. It is both a gift and a responsibility to understand that we--each of us--really are valuable members of our community and this world.

At some level these very notions, Hugh Lauder’s idea of the collective intelligence, and Emma’s growing understanding of her purpose, form the building blocks upon which our designs and experiences need to grow. Without this foundation the meaning and substance behind any other learning will fall not only on deaf ears, but also on weak wills.