Collective intelligence is created when people work together, often with the help of technology, to mobilise a wider range of information, ideas and insights to address a social challenge.

Although people have been working together since the dawn of time, collective intelligence has evolved quickly since the start of the digital age.

This playbook will introduce you to activities you can use to orchestrate diverse groups of people, data and technology to achieve your goals.

We call this collective intelligence design.

The playbook contains all of the content you need to design a collective intelligence project. It provides an introduction to collective intelligence and illustrative case studies. It will help you identify when and how to use collective intelligence design, and explain the stages in the collective intelligence design process. It includes a collective intelligence design canvas, plus prompt cards and other activities to help you structure and stretch your thinking.

It is designed to be used by teams or groups working through the activities and exercises together.

You can download an A4 landscape version for free.

We’ve made key parts of the playbook available in larger formats for you to use as a group or in a workshop setting when you’re ready to start designing your collective intelligence project.

• The Collective Intelligence Project Design Canvas is a template for people wanting to design a collective intelligence project. You can download the template in A2 size. Use this in conjunction with the design questions and activities included in the playbook.
• The Collective Intelligence Prompt Cards provide examples of popular collective intelligence tactics and methods, with a short case study on the back. Use for inspiration at any time, or when indicated in the playbook. Download, print single-sided, cut and fold each card in half.
• The Collective Intelligence Design Activities will help deepen or stretch your thinking around particular collective intelligence design questions. Pick and mix those you think will be most relevant. You can download these in A3, to work through with your team more easily.

This is only Version 1.0 of the Collective Intelligence Design Playbook. We’d love your feedback, comments and suggestions for how we make Version 2.0 better! To contribute, follow the link to the Google Docs version.

Alternatively, please send suggestions for additional activities, or your versions of hacked activities and completed canvases to [email protected] with CI Playbook: Version 2.0 as the Subject Line.