The Art of Cooperative Intelligence

By Mark D Grissom

The success of our society is absolutely dependent upon cooperation-based activities, and environments. Regardless of who you are, how you contribute to society, or where you live, almost every important outcome in your life will be affected by your ability to work well with people who ideas may be different than yours. Yet, until now, we have n

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grissom Industries
• Release date: May 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9780692889077

Mark D Grissom

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Mr. Grissom has a Bachelors of Science in Healthcare Management from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and a Masters in Public Administration with concentration in National Security Affairs from Troy University. Mr. Grissom has developed a reputation for conceptual development and strategic innovation. Mr. Grissom is the author of the cooperative science, intelligence, performance, engagement, trending, and disciplines models and related methodologies. Although Mr. Grissom is passionate about trying to improve society cooperation and peace, Mr. Grissom's projects range from the integrity of consumer information and education improvement to artificial intelligence and planetary defense.

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The Art of

Cooperative Intelligence

by Mark D. Grissom

Copyright © 2017 by Mark Grissom

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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ISBN 978-0-692-88905-3 (paperback)

ISBN 978-0-692-88907-7 (e-book)

First Edition

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Dedication

This book is dedicated to my amazing wife, Kerry, who inspires me on so many levels; my children Ashley and Nathan, of whom I am so proud; and my mom and dad, and sister and family. To all my in-laws, friends, and mentors. And to Leo, our rescue puppy, who is such an important part of our family: We love you, buddy.

To those who have believed that improving cooperation—or, rather, our ability to improve cooperation—is crucially important for society, such as Dr. Jeff Cerny and my mentor, the Honorable Honor M. Bell, Sr., who has continuously encouraged me over the years to make this work become a reality. Finally, this book is dedicated to the cooperative spirit of humanity that is within all of us.

Abstract

The purpose of this short, easy-to-read, and common-language version of The Art of Cooperative Intelligence: Leadership Edition is to expeditiously and broadly highlight and amplify the global need and significant importance of establishing a simple, standardized, transferable, and evolving cooperative language and cooperative intelligence—and then, to provide the foundational tools for which humanity could translate the language and intelligence into a universal practice or art form. This holistic premise derives from a unique combination of psychological, sociological, and performance and systems sciences supplemented by a new, emerging Cooperative Performance Science (CPS™).

Although the concept of cooperative intelligence is broad in its descriptors and jargon, when we use the term cooperative intelligence or CI in this book, we are referring to a CPS Certified™ Cooperative Intelligence, thus creating an objective standard of process, measurement, and evaluation in compliance with a set of principles, rules, premises, approaches, models, and methods. CI represents the objective, measurable competence and subjective, transcendent wisdom necessary to recognize, analyze, influence, and improve cooperative environments and activities, and thus, outcomes.

Inherently, society cannot exist without cooperation, nor can leaders. If virtually every critical outcome in our personal, professional, organizational, and societal lives is either allowed or prevented by cooperative environments and activities, and if cooperation, collaborative participation, respectful engagement, and equal and fair opportunity and accountability are required for a sustainable and prosperous society, then it is clear that the ability to recognize, analyze, influence, monitor, and improve cooperation-based environments, activities, and outcomes must be one of society’s highest priorities—if not its very highest. For those who lead, if cooperation, collaborative participation, respectful engagement, and equal and fair opportunity and accountability are required for a sustainable and prosperous cooperative environment, then it is clear that the ability to recognize, analyze, influence, monitor, and improve cooperation-based environments, activities, and outcomes must be one of a leader’s highest priorities—if not the very highest.

If we continue to use the same incomplete, gap-filled approaches to cooperation used until now, then we always will get the same results: continuous and catastrophic cooperative failure.

Given this, establishing a transferable and standardized cooperative intelligence, or competence and wisdom, indisputably becomes crucial if we are to capitalize on the cooperative spirit of humanity. For the first time in our history, we can understand cooperation as an intellectually consumable tool, bringing us closer than ever before to the prospect of authentically and completely reducing or eliminating the suffering, anger, hatred, and fear that ultimately leads to catastrophic events such as those in pre-genocidal Rwanda and Nazi Germany. America, too, is not immune from cooperation issues, as evident in its downward cooperative trend of cooperative deconstruction and destabilization that have made us vulnerable to a total cooperative collapse. For those readers who have leadership experience, you know too well the challenges of establishing, maintaining, and improving cooperation between people, systems, departments, and organizations, whereas those who have yet to have leadership experience will then realize how challenging cooperation can be.

Chapter 1

Rough Beginnings: To Err Helps Us to Grow

Although it may not be traditional for an author to open a book by identifying his own faults and struggles rather than showing how great or accomplished he or she is, I do so because I believe that this warts and all approach helps readers, who follow or lead, better connect with the book’s content. The reader can then glean that this book is a bit untraditional, a bit less corrupted, and a bit more uncomfortably honest than most, in what I hope is a refreshing change for those tired of the same old tired platitudes.

After all, even in the best of circumstances, cooperation is messy, vast, complex, and difficult to navigate, especially when we so easily discard reality.

So, who am I? I am an average person at best, who grew up with a fairly significant but undiagnosed form of attention deficit disorder complemented with a side of dyslexia and anxiety. Thankfully, I did grow up in a loving family—thanks, Mom, Dad, and Sis! I had significant struggles in school and throughout college; that