We believe people are
capable of great things.
What is Collective Intelligence?
An ecosystem of members who meet six days a year in a carefully designed and facilitated series of workshops to focus on their growth.
How we do it
We build diverse teams of competent people chosen for their ambition, curiosity and authenticity, who collaborate, collide and have fun.
We disregard convention in a safe and respectful environment, to tackle real issues.
Who are our members?
Optimists, challengers and insightful people who care enough to make a difference.
Members all demonstrate four key attributes which are often developed further.
Competent
It’s a cornerstone for all conversations.
Ambitious
Probing new frontiers.
Your frontiers.
Authentic
Be true to your values.
Do what you say you are going to do.
Curious
The birthplace of what’s possible.
The Collective Intelligence Story
Harv still says it was the most nervous moment of his life.
Nine people were coming up the stairs. This was the first Collective Intelligence team. He had no idea if the process would work and he had never facilitated before.
This team ended up staying together for seven years. They learnt stuff. They pushed, supported, challenged and stimulated each other. In essence they thrived.
As a director of a number of companies, Harv had been concerned about the development and well-being of the CEO’s. It seemed that the more successful the business became, the more isolated the CEO became. They spent their time looking after everyone else and nobody was taking care of them. His concern was that the CEO’s themselves, may well be the most limiting factor for business growth.
He looked around at the professional development available and everywhere he looked it was a ‘one size fits all’. He knew that this approach wasn’t going to work for this type of individual.
In true entrepreneur fashion he decided to design something that would make a difference. His thinking process went something like this.
He was familiar with and understood the farm discussion group model worked because farmers do not compete with each other, so thought let’s find people from completely different industries. This would avoid industry assumptions and foster cross pollination of ideas and experience. The more diversity the better was a hunch.
It took a few months to find the right mix of people and set the date. All he needed now was a facilitator. One problem, every facilitator he approached had the same response –‘what is the program?’ and ‘not sure this will work’ With time running out and no facilitator in sight, Harv realised he was going to have to facilitate the first meeting himself.
The meeting was illuminating. Even though this was nine professionals from different industries, the issues were very similar. The atmosphere was insightful, engaging, enjoyable, and inspiring. With each meeting, the group pushed each other to further achieve goals and to learn. As for Harv, he remained the facilitator, adapting and responding, mostly by the seat of his pants.
After seven years, Harv’s circumstances changed and he wound up the group due to time constraints. However, the seeds were firmly planted, and a question kept nagging at the back of his head – what could be achieved if we scaled beyond one team?
It was just a matter of time before he could concentrate and fully develop this unique concept.
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The Collective Intelligence Logomark
The Adjacent Possible
Is a biological term that describes the process of evolution, where every stage is based on the building blocks of previous steps.
In the professional world the Adjacent Possible is a source of ideas, where concepts evolve from the collision of previous thoughts and findings. To enhance this process we have developed Collective Intelligence to stimulate a multitude of outcomes from the Adjacent Possible by introducing diverse world views.
If you imagine that when you are contemplating an opportunity, or overcoming an obstacle in isolation, there may seem only one or two doors to open in exploring the possibilities. But when you add Collective Intelligence, many doors will appear, even the odd window, and the Adjacent Possible becomes numerous.
That is where great ideas come from.
Our Team
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Ian Harvey
Founder
Harv is the founder of Collective Intelligence. His inspiration stemmed from his observation as a company director that CEO’s were often not supported as individuals to develop their own potential.
Starting out as Collective Intelligence’s first and only Facilitator 7 years ago, Harv’s role now within Collective Intelligence is to oversee the teams, recruit new members, and keep developing this unique concept. His vision is to develop the most influential professional community in New Zealand by supporting its members to achieve their potential.
He sees his work as being the Chief Cheerleader – the CEO who supports the whole team’s efforts in order to give the best results to Collective Intelligence’s members.
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Mary Beth Robles
Managing Director
Mary Beth is the Managing Director of Collective Intelligence. My family and I are delighted to be back home in New Zealand after a thirty-year international career at Colgate Palmolive.
Many of the leaders I have worked with have jobs that require them to be constantly growing more capable, better able to handle complexity, and adapt to the emerging future. As a member, Collective Intelligence offers what I believe leaders need today more than ever – a fiercely compassionate community that supports us individually and collectively at our growing edges. That means lots of goodness for New Zealand. That’s what attracted me to Collective Intelligence, first as a member and now as Managing Director.It is inspiring and fun to work together with the talented and diverse people that make Collective Intelligence hum!
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Bobbie O'Fee
Chairperson
Bobbie owns and runs a large accounting practice in the lower North Island. Her extensive experience which includes Governance to Operational and IT to Marketing ensures she brings very practical knowledge to her role as Director.
Her approach is always to focus on the people involved, leveraging the power of conversation to build a shared understanding, generate new thinking and affect change where needed.
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Karen Wishnowsky
Co-ordinator
Karen is an escapee. After 22 years working in a bank she finally ran away. By the time Collective Intelligence found her she was ready for anything. And anything is exactly what she does.
In Collective Intelligence’s fast-paced, changeable environment, having someone as flexible, capable and adaptable as Karen is essential for our team and for our clients.
Karen always manages to keep her sense of humour while being an amazing juggler of everyone’s needs. She supports, organises, fills in, follows up, and cares. We would be lost without her.
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Sonia Brown
Logistics Administrator
A working history of fostering customer relations, sales management, and as a self-employed massage therapist, highlights her love of working with and helping people. After being a stay-at-home mum “for as long as I can remember” she loves being part of our team and is excited about the Collective Intelligence movement and developing and growing in her role. Sonia oozes attitude – She believes what we believe!
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Brook Weatherwell
Facilitator
For 20 years, Brook has been engaged in facilitation of groups in a diverse range of industries. She is a systems thinker with particular focus on collaborative thinking. This includes looking at the business structures, relationships within the business, and even further–reaching considerations such as the use of the space a business occupies and the health of the people within it.
Personal sustainability is a key area of attention for Brook. Her work with Collective Intelligence encourages innovative thinking and committed action within teams.
As well as being a Facilitator with the Collective Intelligence group, Brook runs a company that offers individual and group Stress and Resilience training.
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Sue Johnston
Facilitator
A collective intelligence member of a team facilitated by Sue said she could clearly see what Sue’s ‘why’ was. She told Sue that she saw her like a gardener – clearing out the weeds and mess, watering and feeding, so people could get on and grow. “You grow people”, she said.
Spot on. Sue says her why is to encourage and enthuse people so that they discover what’s really possible in their life and work – and go for it. Sue’s specialty is gently moving people and teams through the knowing – doing gap. From knowing what’s possible towards making it happen.
Sue has been a Collective Intelligence facilitator since 2011. She brings with her a wisdom and style honed by working for over 20 years with people and complex systems to find improvements that make a difference. She is a certified leadership coach with the International Coach Federation. She is also a Results Certified Coach with the NeuroLeadership Institute and a Certified Daring Way™ Facilitator working with leaders and organisations committed to becoming more authentic leaders through encouraging innovation and growing courageous and connected teams. Sue’s background as a sportsperson (she played water polo for New Zealand and represented her province in three sports), and having worked in the health and public policy space continue to shape her work as she continues to share her wisdom with people in these arenas.
Sue lives in Greytown, New Zealand where she mountain bikes, dances samba and enjoys good food and wine.
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Sarah Tocker
Facilitator
Sarah is a leadership specialist, a business coach and facilitator. Her areas of expertise include behavioral change, authentic leadership, communication, conflict management and strategic leadership development.
She works with a wide variety of people both, individually and across organisations.As a Collective Intelligence facilitator Sarah has a very direct style, and she likes getting to the nub of the issue in the most efficient way.
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Lisa Markwick
Facilitator
Lisa thrives working with the core of an organization: its people. She applies her expertise in the fields of innovation, social purpose, strategy, team development, leadership consultation, and facilitation. As a trained Clinical Psychologist, diverse experience allows Lisa to connect with a broad range of sectors and people.
Lisa was the inaugural Director of Leadership Programmes at the NZ Leadership Institute, and also the Director of the leadership consultancy Mindful Adventures Ltd. Lisa is a mindfulness practitioner, an endurance athlete, and is always up for a challenge.
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Dallis Parker
Facilitator
Dallis has worked as a Facilitator in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, and Antarctica. Her areas of expertise include behavioral change, leadership development, team management and goal setting.
Her background also includes systems analysis training, developing training materials for national and international use and leadership training. This wide-ranging experience means that Dallis has the understanding and skills to enable creative and effective dialogue to shape vision, strategy and outstanding operation.
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Kathy Tracey
Facilitator
A systemic team leadership coach and facilitator, and now based in New Zealand, Kathy spent 30 years in the UK and Europe learning her trade. She still works regularly in Europe and the Middle East and is known for an engaging style, bringing humour and genuine curiosity to the teams she works with.
Her claim to fame is a Guinness World Record for rowing across the Atlantic. She says the 67 days spent at sea not only gave her a great topic for conference keynotes, but also taught her much about personal resilience and the ‘magic’ that happens outside your comfort zone.
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Jon Lasenby
Facilitator
Jon has come to corporate facilitation and executive coaching through outdoor education and adventure based development. He always has a solid foundation of theory or research to his work, and presents this is a very practical way that connects easily to real life.
Jon focuses on the people in a business to drive improvements in performance, believing that individuals with great self awareness, make good leaders and team members, and that high levels of emotional intelligence will be the key to thriving in the increasingly technology driven world of work.
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Steve Henry
Developer
Disrupting expectation to enable new insight is Steve’s thing. He design’s for change focused in the education area. He facilitates programmes in a world leading initiative where learning is harvested for qualifications from reflecting on experience rather than teaching.
Steve has recently co-authored a Bachelor of Leadership for Change degree which curates experience and there is no teaching in its delivery.
It has the potential to be a weapon of mass disruption to the tertiary sector and make teaching and campuses obsolete.