The Wisdom Value Chain Mike Bell and George Pòr   The essential value chain - when productive conversations are the source of wealth-creation - is a chain of intangibles: from intelligence to knowledge and wisdom.   The Knowledge of Enterprise Knowledge we can think of as contextualized information that moves to action. Peter Drucker said "Knowledge is information that changes something or somebody - either by becoming grounds for actions, or by making an individual (or an institution) capable of different of more effective action". An older Chinese sage said "To know and not to do is not to know".   The Intelligence of Enterprise If knowledge calls for a movement to action, how do we determine what action? Organizations are living social systems. What makes them able to evolve and adapt is that they have a nervous system and intelligence just like biological systems do.   The nervous system of an organization is embedded not in computers and hardware networks, but in the network of conversations which bring an organization into existence and, by learning from its experiences, sustains it over time.   Intelligence, the faculty that makes biological and cultural evolution possible, implies and guides the use of knowledge and the capacity to respond to specific opportunities and challenges as they emerge.   Intelligence is needed to guide the transformation of organizations into work systems that support all members in reaching their full potential. Only then will the organization manifest the strategic advantage of being capable of learning as fast as the changes in its environment demand.   The Wisdom of Enterprise Intelligence refers to our effective use of knowledge, and wisdom refers to our effective use of intelligence.   We're living in an attention economy where there is an overabundance of information and knowledge. Time and attention are the scarcest resource. The competition for available attention is heating up; investing it wisely has become a competence of increasing value. A factor in how wisely we used are attention is how well we balance its distribution between our current and our long-view priorities.   Wisdom has to do with intuiting the long-view through understanding systems in the context of their larger whole. It is also to do with acting in resonance with what is known to be true and lasting. Only wisdom can guide effective decisions in how we invest our attention, both individual and organizational, in the conditions of what Doug Engelbart calls "complexity multiplied by urgency".   Invitation If you have an interest in exploring how you and your organization can move further up the value chain from knowledge to wisdom, there are at least two arenas we could play together in:   Attention Mastery One of our allies,  George Por, founder of Community Intelligence Labs, is currently engaged in an action research project with three global companies to understand what influences an individual's abilities in this area.   We are currently seeking partners for the second phase of this action research and development project in which the specific outcomes will include the development of relevant practices to expand the capacity and quality of attention of leaders and their organizations.   Wisdom Practices Alan Kay, who was first at Xerox, and now is an "imagineer" at Disney, is reported to have said, "Perspective is worth 80 IQ points." The Wisdom Council, a powerful and pragmatic tool for evoking wisdom, uses eight perspective to bring forward deep insight and profound thinking.   We have only just began to explore how the Wisdom Council, and many other of the wisdom ways that we hold, can be translated to pragmatic tools for individuals and their organizations.   The Wisdom Council, in particular, can reveal the patterns in chaos, reduce complexity to simplicity, surface clarity and decisiveness from a multitude of options and uncover deep insights. Top © The Wisdom Meme 2007