"Build better sapiential circles"- Futurist Jim Carroll
Futurist Jim Carroll is writing a series, "25 Things I've Learned That Will Carry Me Into 2025." He is putting this together based on his 30-year career as a futurist, trends, and innovation expert, advising leaders of some of the world's most prestigious organizations on how to align to a faster future. He intends for the series to provide valuable guidance to others eager to learn how to move through a year that promises to be volatile, unpredictable, and full of uncertainty. Each day, the post will go out on multiple mailing lists, social media networks, and to the Website https://2025inspiration.jimcarroll.com
If fast science, accelerating knowledge, experiential skills, and innovative thinking are the future, how do you make sure you can keep up and align yourself to quickly accelerating change? By building yourself better sapiential circles - the external knowledge networks that you participate in that can be used to enhance, develop, and build upon your existing knowledge set.
Here's something that's massively transformative that we might not often think about because we are so immersed in the trend – for the last thirty years, with the Internet, we've seen a revolution in how knowledge moves and grows! It's not just the explosion of new information that is occurring though - it's about how much of it is now discovered, generated, and shared within specialized online knowledge communities. This might be a mailing list where scientists share insight involving some fast-moving discoveries; a Facebook group where farmers discuss new soil-irrigation technology; or an online forum where AI enthusiasts speak about the discoveries they are making with new AI language models.
If I have an idea and you have an idea, we have two ideas. If we share those ideas, we have a movement!
This is all the power to be found in what I call 'sapiential circles.' It's a trend that has been rapidly reshaping every industry we know, and I'm seeing it happen faster in real-time across the globe.
Sapiential circles? I first wrote about the idea in my 2004 book What I Learned from Frogs in Texas, where I outlined the power of collective intelligence. I based that work on work I was doing as far back as 1987 when I was encouraging the professional services firm I worked for to build online, internal collaborative knowledge networks. I called the project Linkage - perhaps a nod to the forthcoming idea of LinkedIn. The idea was ahead of its time, as no one quite understood what I was talking about - one of the core reasons I soon bailed out to build my solo career.
The phrase 'sapiential circle' itself comes from Warren Bennis, a distinguished professor at Southern California's Marshall School of Business -- he was referring to how the knowledge of a group tends to increase exponentially as new members are added to the group. What we are witnessing in the world today is a dramatic increase in the scale, reach, and speed of human sapiential circles as a result of global connectivity. The key fact is that there is a massive power in collaborative online research, idea sharing, and collective innovation, of collaborative ideas and research in driving forward innovation and problem-solving.
All of this relates to a core idea I often share from the stage - if I have an idea and you have an idea, we have two ideas. If we share those ideas, we have a movement!
Imprint that idea in your mind as to what you need to do in 2025. That's your sapiential circles!
Consider the trends at work around the world.
Think about what's happening in agriculture right now. We've got farmers in Iowa sharing soil data with researchers in India, hobbyist farmers in Germany sharing new ideas on how they've hacked their tractors to do a bit of self-driving with computer specialists in Silicon Valley, and precision-farming experts sharing insight on how they are crunching massive data sets to optimize crop yields in ways we never imagined possible. This isn't just farming anymore – it's a global knowledge ecosystem in action!
And manufacturing? This is where it gets exciting! When I talk to manufacturing leaders, they're not just sharing CAD files anymore – they're co-creating the future through distributed design networks and digital twin technologies. A designer in Detroit can upload a 3D printing concept, and within hours, it's being refined by engineers in Denmark and tested in Singapore. Someone might develop some new robotic technology concept in Korea and then, after being shared online, it's implemented on a manufacturing floor in Pennsylvania the next day. That's the power of these sapiential circles at work!
The healthcare sector is seeing the same thing! For example, we're seeing unprecedented collaboration in drug discovery, new forms of medical diagnosis, and advancements in surgical medicine. What used to take a decade of isolated research can now happen in months through these global research networks. It's not just faster – it's smarter, more efficient, and more innovative than ever before. The development of vaccines during the pandemic is a testament to the extreme power of sapiential sectors at work.
And don't get me started on energy! Local communities are becoming living laboratories for smart grid innovations, as they build small, local energy microgrids based on renewables, connectivity, and batteries. Advancements are happening rapidly - a breakthrough in solar storage in Australia can be implemented in Arizona the next day. This is the future of energy innovation - faster, collaborative, and global.
Software and technology? The entire global open-source software movement has forever changed the entire concept of software and hardware development. Linux itself is the dominant global collaborative software platform, built on the minds of millions of adherents and enthusiasts - a model that has been followed to build hundreds, thousands, and millions of new software and hardware products. And then there is AI. Much of what is happening today is happening in the core of knowledge-sharing hub communities such as GitHub, Hugging Face, and other collaborative networks. AI is one giant mind-laboratory, moving forward at a collaborative speed that is simply astonishing, where new developments are now occurring in minutes, hours, and days rather than months or years. Yesterday's discovery is already today's ancient idea.
Here's what excites me about all of these things: these aren't just isolated examples. We're seeing the emergence of what I call "hyper-collaborative ecosystems." Look at projects like Folding@home – millions of people contributing their computing power to solve complex protein folding problems to fight disease. That's not just collaboration; that's collective intelligence on a scale we've never seen before!
In today's world, innovation isn't just about what you know – it's about how quickly you can tap into what everyone knows.
But here's the challenge – and it's a big one: Many organizations are still stuck in old-world thinking. They're trying to innovate in isolation, and that's like trying to win a Formula 1 race with a horse and buggy! The future belongs to organizations that can tap into these global networks of knowledge and expertise. It's the velocity of idea flow that's the game-changer. Picture a world-class engineering team in Tokyo collaborating in real-time with developers in Tel Aviv and researchers in Toronto. That's the new reality of innovation - and if an organization doesn't have effective internal knowledge collaborative networks, it's out of the game.
This isn't just about sharing information; it's about the exponential power of networked intelligence - the power of sapiential circles. The implications are profound. Every organization needs to ask itself: Are we tapped into these rapidly expanding circles of knowledge? Are we leveraging the collective intelligence that's now at our fingertips? If you're not, you're already falling behind.
Collaborative research allows for a diversity of perspectives and experiences, which can lead to more innovative solutions. By bringing together individuals with different backgrounds and skill sets, collaborative teams can approach challenges from multiple angles and generate a wider range of ideas. Remember this: In today's world, the most powerful innovations don't come from lone geniuses in labs – they come from these ever-expanding circles of shared wisdom. The organizations that understand this and act on it will be the ones shaping the future.
What are the personal implications for you in 2025?
Think about it this way - we now have a global brain trust at our fingertips, but only if you know how to plug into it. Focus on that in 2025 because that can be one of your most important knowledge resources.
Part of the art is knowing where to look. An interesting trend that is unfolding at this very moment is that massive sapiential circles are now reforming and re-establishing themselves on BlueSky - it's rapidly emerged as the new dominant platform for collaborative intelligence. Entire scientific, meteorological, and other areas of specialized knowledge are reforming in real-time on the network, doing so to avoid the toxic hate mess that Twitter has become. If you aren't yet there, get there fast!
Bottom line? The future is rushing at us faster than ever, and these collaborative networks or sapiential circles are the rocket fuel of innovative thinking and knowledge generation. Tomorrow is being co-created by millions of connected minds right now - are you a participant? Are you ready to harness this power? Because if you're not actively expanding your sapiential circles, you're already falling behind!
Remember this simple fact: In today's world, innovation isn't just about what you know – it's about how quickly you can tap into what everyone knows.
Futurist Jim Carroll first discovered the power of collaborative intelligence when he signed onto the online world in 1982.