Meanwhile…

All this time two of our directors Marg Kouvelis and Andrea De Almeida were conducting a series of interviews of our members, facilitators, and alumni to gather data and information about why Collective Intelligence was so special.

This was an extensive piece of work, undertaken by two very smart women. 

At the completion of the interviews Andrea suggested they hand over all the data to a colleague of hers, Davy Qian to interpret and formulate into something coherent for story telling purposes. 

The board agreed and Davy went to work.

People really gave a shit

That was the overwhelming feeling for me at this stage of the process. The feedback was profound and people really cared about the future of Collective Intelligence. It was incredibly humbling and affirming.

The Māori influence lives on

During these interviews it was stated a number of times by our Māori members that if we are to have a vision it needs to be a long term vision, as in 100 years or more.

That’s really pushing the boat out. However, our Māori members have always been a big influence on the Collective Intelligence journey, and this was to be no different.

The interesting impact of a 100 year vision is that you have to take account of your actions in say year 10 or 20, as they are going to be felt over the long term. Brings a whole different attitude to future planning.

So could we create music that represented our emerging vision? 

This was a random thought that got into my head soon after our bush tour and we commissioned Dr Jeremy Mayall and Horomona Horo to create a piece of music that would depict where we were heading. 

What was cool, was when I first heard it I knew that we were on track. They nailed it. It was fascinating to hear ourselves in a piece of music and it felt very affirming.

Left field brain explosion October 2021

Then I got a message from my mate Alex Hannant who’s a Professor of Practice at the Yunus Centre in Brisbane. He says Harv, you need to get your head around the emerging world of Web3/Crypto/NFTs and DAOs. I’m like fuck off I’m focussed on learning from nature, which he knew anyway.

Undeterred Alex sends me a link to this podcast by Tim Ferris and says just listen to this, which does indeed blow my wee mind, because as Alex says this is going to be part of our future.

What was so aligned with where we are heading is that Decentralised Autonomous Organisations – DAOs – are all about being decentralised. Just like nature. Just like the Aotearoa New Zealand rainforests which are all decentralised, which makes them incredibly robust, enduring and regenerative.

Simultaneously we were also exploring new IT platforms

For five years I had been wanting to put all our members into a virtual place so that they connect and not just be siloed in their teams. I had looked at many different solutions even building our own with the help of some investors and guidance by Matt Miller. Due to Covid we didn’t proceed. 

Then with the help of Rachel Adams, GM of Manaaki which was just forming, we were alerted to the creation of a number of new very smart platforms. This was the missing piece I had been looking for five years ago.

My mind was reverberating; now how do we get all this to fit together?

Then on a Saturday morning I got a text from Davy Qian stating he had worked out why it had been so hard to communicate what Collective Intelligence is all about, and more importantly how to communicate it to the world. It was such a relief.

He pointed out we would need to shift from a traditional marketing strategy because due to our diversity we meant many different things to different people. 

Davy pitched his initial work to the Board in December 2021 and it was met with huge gratitude. I will never forget our Chair Matt Doyle announcing after Davy’s presentation that it gave him a wonderful feeling listening to it, and he promptly shut down the meeting saying he didn’t want anything to spoil that. WTF – Matt is an accountant!

Enter the Cool Kids

This was the name I gave to a group of super smart people I gathered to work on how the platform might work. 

The talented team of Finn Shewell, Alana Allen, Andy Ayrey, Tim Mahren Brown, and Alex Miller were tasked with mapping out how we could integrate a new website, and the online platform to house the members. They interviewed members and put in an enormous amount of time and effort planning our future. 

It was a very tough gig, as we were asking for more than any one system could deliver. 

I will be forever grateful for the effort the Cool Kids put in as they were at the forefront of breaking new ground we will be using for years.

Then Omicron turned up!

In early 2022 we all know the impact Omicron had on our worlds. We made the call to postpone all our first tranche of meetings for the year, and instead hosted a virtual 2-week conference showcasing the range of skills our members have. It was a first, went really well, and new growth emerged immediately.

Monthly catch ups showcasing individual members was suggested by Lynda Davison, and Online Teams were pitched as an alternative team offering. Both have been seeded and taken root.

The emergence of Hatcher Teams

I got a call from Hannah Smith one day saying she had heard we were interested in DAOs and Web3 and could introduce me to Mark Pascall, one of New Zealand’s experts in Crypto. I met with Mark in December 2021 and learned he had a project called The Wellbeing Protocol and needed help to bring this to fruition. His need was a diverse team to help him with developing the project, and I agreed to help him get that team together.

This diverse team of Collective Intelligence members worked with Mark over nine months and unfortunately was wound up for a number of reasons, but what was abundantly clear to me and others, was that this model of Hatcher Teams had huge potential to bring about change.

And so when Amanda Evans was introduced to me in mid 2022 with an epic challenge of creating a gold standard to Paediatric Palliative care in Aotearoa NZ I had little hesitation in creating our second Hatcher team. This time, I could build one with a bit of experience from the first. This second team is gathering real traction now, and I can’t wait to share the outcomes in the future.

There are other projects already on the horizon. I totally believe in small diverse teams’ ability to create new paradigms.

So how do I tell this story?

That was on my mind as it was clear this whole decentralised/regenerative gig takes a huge amount of time and effort to get your head around and can be hard to explain. So I contacted Michael Philpott who is a speech coach, and explained the situation.

This fella is pure smart as hell, and we went through a process of writing a speech. Never done that before.

Here’s the kicker – he asked me “so why do you do this work Harv?” I gave him a few responses to which he replied “nope – that’s not it” 90 minutes later I’m getting really frustrated. He then shared his reason for being a speech coach – giving people their voice, and where that came from.

Boom – I got it and for the first time understood why I do my work at Collective Intelligence.

In 1970 my cousin Harvey Crewe and his wife Janette were murdered in their home. Their 18 month old baby Rochelle was left in her cot for 4 days before being found. Luckily it was the month of June and cool, otherwise we would have lost Rochelle too.

While the murders were traumatic for our family, the greater damage was created by many officials and public servants not doing their jobs well, and the misinformation that followed was profound. Even the Royal Commision of Enquiry that ensued was politically motivated rather than focussed on getting to the truth of what happened.

Our family had support after the murders, but it was often from vested interests, and as a consequence not very effective. The amount of misinformation that was exposed over time was profound, and I realised years later that often the supporters we trusted were actually not that trustworthy at all, as they were too close to the events with a deep bias.

In essence – we struggled to find trusted sources of information.

To have trust in competent people with unbiased views supporting you, I have discovered, is a precious thing. It’s why I started Collective Intelligence.

The relief to see my WHY in action

I have never had this clarity before, and when I attended my next host day with my own Collective Intelligence team, I got to see this in action with new insight. Our host got wonderful unbiased, clear information, and could take action. 

It felt so bloody good to experience, and understand my driver for the work – finally!! Thank you Michael Philpott. 

Then we hit a snag