I ran the Army Ten-Miler with my husband a few weeks ago. We took the metro to the starting line at the Pentagon and joined a crowd of 26,000 runners; quite a crowd to move through a course of 10 miles. Twenty-six thousand of us gathered and made our way to our respective starting sections. We wove in-between each other, waited in line for port-o-potties, stretched, noticed each other while pretending not to notice each other in that usual Washington DC way, and many of us managed to stay in our perspective little worlds even though collectively and collaboratively, each one of us was there to do the same thing: run the Army 10-Miler.
Excitement was in the air! The gun went off and our crowd of 26,000 began crossing the starting line. Using the loud speaker, the announcer at the starting line told everyone to raise his or her hands in the air and cheer as we crossed the starting line; and so we did! Our collective cheers were loud and clear as each one of us, individually, crossed that starting line and began our 10 mile trek. For the first 3 miles or so, I was in my own little world, thinking about the trek ahead of me. On this particular morning, 10 miles seemed like a long way to run. Fortunately though, the weather soon took my mind off the goal ahead of me. It was one of those beautiful, humidity-free, Washington DC, blue-sky days. With 10 miles ahead of me and the beautiful weather surrounding me, one thing I noticed about this race was the amount of people constantly jostling for space. It was crowded! Having run other races that drew much bigger crowds hadn’t felt quite so “crowded,” my mind began to wonder: I started to think about book “Wisdom of the Crowds” by James Surowiecki. I also thought a bit about the nature of Wikis -- collaborative Web sites often used to power communities. I began to wonder: was running this race an individual goal, my individual goal, or was it a collaborative endeavor? Would this crowd accomplish running 10 miles by sharing this "space" and contributing the tools to do so along the way? The “space” was certainly inspiring. I rarely am not in awe of the streets of Washington, DC -- running over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, passing the Lincoln Memorial, and trotting past the Federal Reserve building. I thought about the creation of virtual worlds and Web sites in regard to space; about how we try to emulate a space that is visually inviting by using large elements that compliment and balance the corresponding smaller elements; by giving the site direction in the way that we line up of the elements, and finally, the design’s visual flow that moves readers along the path of a Web site, much like the visual flow that the streets of Washington, DC convey.
I am partial Surowiecki’s “Wisdom of the Crowd” philosophy. I relate this viewpoint to group projects at work because I think there is a more than a fair amount of merit to Surowiecki assertion about the aggregation of information in groups. Surowiecki believes that the aggregation of information in groups results in decisions that are often better than if an individual or a group of experts had made the decision. This is a powerful concept: the more input by a diverse group of people, each with varying strengths, some with ideas, suggestions, or expertise completely unrelated to the goal or task at hand, the more likely the group will be successful than if one takes on the task him or her self, or if a group of experts on the able to produce an outcome, result, or product more precise and topic had taken on the task. Considering this viewpoint affords me the freedom to let go, sort-to-speak, and allow a group do their magic, rather than to try to steer or control an outcome that I believe may be the most efficient, appropriate or right. In this book, Surowiecki also talks about three different types of crowds and their respective outcomes: cognitive, cooperative, and coordinating. As I continued running and counting down the miles and thinking about The Wisdom of Crowds, I noticed a correlation between the race and some of the types of crowd that Surowiecki denotes as a “wise crowd.” How might one distinguish the cognitive, cooperative, and coordinating features of the 26,000 of us running the Army 10-miler?
What’s more, Surowiecki discusses four common themes that accompany the wisdom of a crowd: diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization, and aggregation. I discovered some of these too, along the way. What role did cooperation and independence play in this race? I noticed a gentleman wearing a lower leg prosthetic. Actually on this particular morning, I noticed quite a few people with prosthetics, as well as varying physical and athletic ability. At about 8 miles though, one particular gentleman that I had noticed several times earlier on the run now had two other gentleman holding onto to each of his arms. I could see that the man with the prosthetic was experiencing some difficulty. But what struck me about his scene was that the two gentlemen that were assisting him were doing so in a manner that still lent independence to this gentleman with the prosthetic leg. They were encouraging him, yet they were solution focused. How could I judge that, one might ask? The gentlemen were helping him to stretch his muscle cramp. And indication that once finished with the stretching, that this runner was not going to stop. For me, the scene simple exuded that this gentleman was being supported in a way that was cooperative, yet that still allowed for his independence.
How did decentralization come into play? I noticed the wisdom of decentralization, which is the idea that people who possess knowledge or skill in an area share that specialization, at mile 9 when I heard someone shout, “It’s all in the mind.” I can completely appreciate this concept. I couldn’t help but think that whether a goal is finishing a race where you are the 9 mile marker and still have another mile to go, or you are working on a project at work with a definitive outcome, the ability to focus one’s mind and realize that the goal is accomplishable is a decisive element to success.
How did aggregation come into play? Right after the shout-out at mile 9, I noticed a couple running just ahead of me wearing matching shirts - sponsor shirts from the company Unisys, a business technology and consulting firm. The shirt said, ever so simply, “Imagine It. Run.” I thought to myself, is this message that all of us running this race in this space can use to those of us sharing this space can use. Perhaps this was a "private judgment," a component or call that propelled many of us around this couple to continue this run. To me, it did feel like a mechanism for turning private judgments into a collective decision, or aggregation. And finally, how did connectedness come into play? It was everywhere! The connectedness was inspiring; 26,000 of us ran this race. We were a completely diverse crowd, nothing homogeneous about us – we all had very loose ties and wide variety of running experiences. But on this day, from what I could see and hear, people of every race, religion, background, athletic ability – we ran together, took water and Gatorade breaks together, cheered, supported, and sustained one another. Connectedness resonated every mile of this race!
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