Lesson 4: Aggregate the Group’s Knowledge through Debate

the logical first step toward solving the problem is to uncover a profusion of possible solutions in the hope that one will prove excellent.

First, make sure the group is sufficiently large for the challenge it faces. Second, make sure the group consists of people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Third, foster independent exploratory work by the group’s members. And fourth, create a social environment in which the group’s members feel comfortable about proposing solutions.

Lesson 1: Compose the Decision-Making Group of Individuals with Shared Interests and Mutual Respect

democratic group can vastly outperform a despotic individual, since a group’s power to explore for options can greatly surpass that of a lone individual. This is especially true if the group’s members are numerous, diverse, and independent.

Lesson 3: Seek Diverse Solutions to the Problem

By operating without a leader, the scout bees of a swarm neatly avoid one of the greatest threats to good decision making by groups: a domineering leader. Such an individual reduces a group’s collective power to uncover a diverse set of possible solutions to a problem, to critically appraise these possibilities, and to winnow out all but the best o

A second way to foster good working relations within a human group charged with a decision-making task is to stock it with genuinely reasonable people, ones who are known to be respectful of others and constructive in their comments while at the same time good at spotting hidden problems and engaging in vigorous debate.

By functioning not as a proselytizing boss but as an impartial information seeker, the leader creates an atmosphere of open inquiry that helps the group tap its summed knowledge to assemble a wide range of possible actions.