Book synthesis
How to use collective intelligence in professional training in a way that is not anecdotal but enriches the subject in depth?
Bringing a moment of collective intelligence into the training
This activity is very well-suited for professional training. At a certain point in the training, participants are invited to choose a book from a library brought specifically for the occasion. The topics covered by these books align with the themes of the training.
For example, let’s take the adaptation of a city’s cultural projects to young audiences. To address this topic, many aspects need to be explored, whether psychological or sociological, understanding the specificities of youth (if they exist), or even works on digital technology, screens, social networks, education, ordinary educational violence, violent communication, etc. Indeed, to tackle a subject in depth, it is necessary to approach it from multiple angles.
Choosing a book
Each participant selects a book. This exercise is particularly suited for intellectual professions. Participants have about 20 minutes to familiarize themselves with the book and are tasked with summarizing its essence for their colleagues.
Of course, careful attention must be paid to the selection of books. The range should be broad enough, without limiting it to works strictly focused on the subject. Working on a theme also means allowing for detours. It’s not about bringing irrelevant books, but we may be surprised by certain choices and discover, thanks to the participants, important facets of the topic that may not have been included in the initial program.
The mere act of choosing books is already a form of collective intelligence, as it highlights certain aspects of the subject over others, specific to this group and the energy of the moment.
At first glance, it may seem challenging to grasp the ideas of a book in 15 to 20 minutes and synthesize them for others. There isn’t enough time to read everything, and it might feel superficial. However, even without reading the entire book, skimming the introduction, conclusion, table of contents, and browsing through the arguments and examples allows one to understand what the book is about and its approach. Of course, to go deeper, one would need to read it entirely. But what matters most in this exercise is the participant’s personal reflection based on the book’s ideas.
Presentation and discussion
Next, participants have about 15 minutes to prepare a presentation in which they explain what they took away from the book and, most importantly, how this discovery enriches the shared topic of the training. Ideally, this presentation is recorded with a microphone to preserve it, and the recordings are shared online to remain accessible. These presentations can thus become valuable resources.
After this 10-minute presentation, a 10 to 15-minute discussion takes place with the entire group. If the initial selection of books reflects the different facets of the topic addressed in the training, this moment, which can last a good two hours, proves to be extremely rich. Each person contributes, and the subject unfolds facet by facet. Each participant becomes knowledgeable about one aspect through the book they chose and connects it to the overall topic.
There is a horizontal distribution of expertise: the other participants, who have also read and presented a book, feel fully authorized to contribute to this construction of collective intelligence in a less polemical and more collaborative manner.
Identifying collective intelligence
During the discussion, the session facilitator should take notes using collaborative mind mapping projected on a screen. They simply jot down what is being said, and everyone sees a written summary of the exchanges appear on the screen. These summaries are then shared with the entire group.
Thus, this moment allows for the co-construction of knowledge, perhaps in a more in-depth way, but certainly with stronger involvement from each participant regarding the book they chose. It also strengthens the connections between people and the contributions around each facet of the subject.
In the context of businesses, as well as in associative, social, artistic, cultural mediation, cultural action, initial or professional training, and social action settings, mobilizing the collective intelligence of participants is a very powerful lever. It enables mutual enrichment, improved relationships, stronger cohesion, the emergence of ideas, the invention of projects, greater engagement, and more.
Collective intelligence tools are also powerful democratic tools. They have been largely developed within the field of popular education, where the contribution of each individual is valued far more than in the national education system, which, in France, unfortunately often remains too traditional in its approaches.
I have frequently participated in collective intelligence workshops, and I have facilitated, applied, refined, adapted, and even invented a number of them. Here, you will find a collection of tools that I have personally used, which are integrated into the methods I propose, supported by real-life use cases. I believe these tools are highly worth sharing, as I have seen so many beneficial effects from them! I often find myself thinking, during collective moments such as conferences, for example: it’s a shame to limit ourselves to passive listening—all these minds gathered together could, if mobilized more effectively, produce something greater collectively.
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The Shared Secret
When the intimate becomes collective: a method of collective intelligence through whispering, listening and creation.
Creating a space where the intimacy of a whisper becomes a collective work. Engaging empathic listening, emotional regulation and creative (…) -
The Implementation of Methods
When Words Are No Longer Enough: Toward an Embodied Transformation of Professional Practices
Methods often fail because they remain discursive. Advocating for cooperation while dominating, speaking of ecology while imposing: the (…) -
Cooperative Narratives
Creating polyphonic narrative devices to transform academic knowledge into living and operative knowledge.
How can we overcome the limits of academic narrative to create truly shared knowledge? A concrete experience of collective writing devices that (…) -
For an ecology of dispensability
Rethinking authority and transmission.
Faced with the vertical management that dominates and alienates, another path exists: that of an authority that aims for its own dispensability, (…) -
The Group Flag
Between cohesion and freedom: the fertile paradox of shared culture.
How can a common symbol liberate singularities? I propose here a reflection on the paradoxical role of the “group flag” function as guarantor of (…) -
The State of Openness
For democratic and transformative facilitation.
How can we cultivate a welcoming posture that allows everyone to contribute fully? Openness is not a method but an inner state that transforms our (…) -
Formalizing the informal
Informality, essential to learning, resists structure while calling for it. How to tame it.
The absence of informal aspects in distance learning forces us to rethink its fundamental nature. This constraint becomes a laboratory for (…) -
Framework, purpose and transgression
So as not to get lost along the way.
When the framework of a project becomes inadequate, transgressing it often allows for better achievement of the objectives by prioritizing lived (…) -
Speech takes on PowerPoint
For more useful collective exchanges.
PowerPoint presentations hinder collective intelligence by rigidifying exchanges—this is well-known and documented—yet they remain almost (…) -
Collective surveying of texts
Enrich a text with the intelligence of other readers.
Collective text surveying is a method where a group divides a document into sections, with each subgroup working on one part before sharing their (…) -
Potential development space
Collective innovation method.
The potential development space is a method of collective innovation based on intuitive encounters, without predefined objectives, where mutual (…) -
Mapping the Collective Territory
Geographical Identification of Connections within a Group.
This activity allows visualizing connections and origins within a group by creating a human world map. By positioning themselves according to (…) -
Web platform for professional training
An astonishingly powerful device.
Following the democratization of remote work, it has been necessary to rethink approaches to professional training. This proven method offers a (…) -
Digital traces as a link
The power of digital to bring people together.
The immediate sharing of activity traces (recordings, photos, mind maps) via an accessible digital space strengthens the connection between (…) -
Listener contributions via digital tool
Unleash the power of the brains involved.
In a conference where one or more people address a large audience, it is common, after the presentation, to have a moment of discussion or Q&A (…) -
The sustainable links workshop
Create meaningful connections in collaborative workshops.
This “Workshop of Sustainable Connections” encourages the creation of lasting bonds between participants in collective events. Each person (…) -
Collaborative mind-mapping
An instituting, evolving form of writing.
Collaborative mind mapping is a visual and tree-like note-taking method, projected in real-time during meetings or training sessions. This (…) -
World Café
A tried-and-tested technique that’s always being reinvented.
The World Café is a collective intelligence technique that fosters the collaborative creation of ideas and concrete projects. Through successive (…) -
Thematic groups
Elaborate together.
This method is a simplified and faster variation of the World Café method, which I have successfully implemented and tested. The goal is for each (…) -
A web platform for collective intelligence
Support collective action with a specific digital tool.
Discovering the Power of a Web Platform Specifically Designed for Collective Intelligence Contribution, Through a Concrete Example. A Digital (…) -
Exchanges in pairs
To give everyone a voice.
A collective intelligence exercise that stimulates thinking and listening. Working in pairs, each participant builds his or her own argument on a (…) -
Book synthesis
Boosting professional training in collective intelligence.
How to use collective intelligence in professional training in a way that is not anecdotal but enriches the subject in depth? Bringing a moment of (…) -
The importance of expression
Identifying an essential path to emancipation.
Expression, often overlooked, is a key element for individual and collective emancipation. By providing a legitimate framework, appropriate tools, (…) -
Reception
Interaction practice exercise.
An activity to explore welcoming and interaction: each person alternates between welcoming and being welcomed, experiences strong emotions, and (…) -
Secret tips
In-depth mutual enrichment.
A powerful exercise to nurture creativity and collaboration: each participant presents a project or idea in 3 minutes, then receives intimate, (…) -
Collective bibliography
An encounter with oneself through books.
This activity is very useful at the beginning of meetings, gatherings, or workdays. The idea is to bring a number of books that address the topic (…) -
Sit Stand
Playfully identifying the links between participants.
Sit Stand, a playful and profound exercise to identify the concept of community. The “Sit Stand” exercise is often presented as an icebreaker, (…)
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Collaborative assessment of screen literacy education in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Collective intelligence methodology, digital platform, and collaborative publication for ALCA (2026).
ALCA, Agence Livre, Cinéma et Audiovisuel en Nouvelle-Aquitaine, entrusted me with the methodological support for a collaborative assessment of (…) -
“Territorial approach, participation, youth and digital technology”: interview of Benoît Labourdette by Serge Saada (52’, 2021) Observatory of cultural mediation in the social field.
As part of the Observatory of cultural mediation in the social field, Serge Saada interviewed Benoît Labourdette on the impact of the (…) -
Codex Calligrammes
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Selected excerpts on Artificial Intelligence Bibliographic sharing.
Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic in the general public and in organizations ever since ChatGPT, a powerful tool for generating (…) -
Exchanges in pairs To give everyone a voice.
A collective intelligence exercise that stimulates thinking and listening. Working in pairs, each participant builds his or her own argument on a (…)
