Group Sense

We say that individuals have 5 senses, sight,  hearing, touch, smell and touch. Sometimes we talk about a 6th sense. Another way of connecting with others. In conversation the other day a group of us were talking about group synergy and the oft-repeated phrase that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The conversation turned to the science of Collective Intelligence. That made me think of pilot fish that swim alongside sharks, turning as the shark turns. Then I remembered seeing film of huge flocks of birds in their millions who fly fast and turn as one huge mass simultaneously. Do they all tweet ‘turn left – pass it on’ or is there something else happening there? Perhaps there is some kind of Group Sense going on here. Somehow they just know exactly when and how far to turn. Could it be that groups of people who have worked together well for a long time develop the same kind of Group Sense when making decisions? How can facilitators nurture this?