James Surowiecki Quotes

There is no name for all who participate in group decision-making or the organization which they form. I propose to call this organization the Technostructure.

No single person can possess the wisdom to chart our course.

The counsel of many wise men is better than the counsel of one man alone.

In modern societies, all things, even in the military department of affairs, are decided, not by individual effort, but by the combined operations of numbers;

A committee is not a good instrument for final judgment.

... this idea that all wisdom is in the President, in me, that's baloney.... I don't believe this government was set up to be operated by anyone acting alone; no one has a monopoly on the truth and on the facts that are affecting this country.

At State Bank, all decisions are collective decisions. I have created the comfort zone.

Government is a collective unity. There is no decision by cabinet which can be attributed to one individual.

Crowds of minds can be wise, but crowds of bodies just aren't.

Many individuals and organization units contribute to every large decision, and the very problem of centralization and decentralization is a problem of arranging the complex system into an effective scheme.

No deliberation made by a single person will be successful; the nature of the work which a sovereign has to do is to be inferred from the consideration of both the visible and invisible causes. The clearance of doubts as to whatever is susceptible of two opinions, and the inference of the whole when only a part is seen is possible of decision only by ministers. Hence the king shall sit at deliberation with persons of wide intellect.

When I made the decision - when my team-mates made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision - it was a bad decision and an imperfect time. But it happened.

The fact that cognitive diversity matters does not mean that if you assemble a group of diverse but thoroughly uninformed people, their collective wisdom will be smarter than an expert's. But if you can assemble a diverse group of people who possess varying degrees of knowledge and insight, you're better off entrusting it with major decisions rather than leaving them in the hands of one or two people, no matter how smart those people are.

The people who really run organizations are usually found several levels down, where it is still possible to get things done.

In order to get past disagreements, you just can't have one person with power decide. In other words, so just because I'm a boss, it would be terrible if I then said, "Okay, we're gonna go do this." That's why, after that thoughtful disagreement, there has to be a process of an idea meritocracy. That means okay, now you have to vote, not that the decision resides with power. And then you vote and move beyond it.

With being an Avenger there's not really a hierarchy. Everybody gets to make decisions, everybody's put in a position to save the day as opposed to standing there while one person flies in and saves the day and you're like, "Good job!" Avengers is really a team effort.

Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved. Eliminate politics, by giving everybody the same message. Keep a flat organization in which all issues are discussed openly. Empower teams to do their own things.

Producing major change in an organization is not just about signing up one charismatic leader. You need a group - a team - to be able to drive the change. One person, even a terrific charismatic leader, is never strong enough to make all this happen.

The importance of discretion increases with closeness to the top of a hierarchical organization.

I hire people who can do their jobs and who will advise me of things they don't agree with. The worst thing you can do is get in a room with 14 people who say, "OK!" Then you really are making decisions about engineering and finance and other areas.

There is no more great men; there is only great committees.

Great American power and responsibility are not unprecedented, and have been used with restraint and great benefit in the past. We have not assumed that super strength guarantees super wisdom, and we have consistently reached out to the international community to ensure that our own power and influence are tempered by the best common judgment.

Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.

There must be no majority decisions, but only responsible persons, and the word 'council' must be restored to its original meaning. Surely every man will have advisers by his side, but the decision will be made by one man.

All organizations are hierarchical. At each level people serve under those above them. An organization is therefore a structured institution. If it is not structured, it is a mob. Mobs do not get things done, they destroy things.