This book is a must read for everyone who is involved in the decision making processes of their business or community. The insights Mr. Surowiecki unveils are especially relevant when you want to understand what's going on in today's times of crisis.

All leaders should understand the principles that drive decision making, especially when this happens in groups. In essence; groups are typically smarter than individuals when following criteria are met:

1. Diversity of opinion; each person should have private information (even if that information is incorrect)
2. Independence; people opnions aren't determined by the opinions of others;
3. Decentralization; people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge;
4. Aggregation; a neutral mechanisms exists that turns private judgment into collective decision.

I have to admit that this is typically not the way I've seen groups form decisions. We usually think of debate and argumentation as the appropriate means to come to a decision. This typically does not make the group smarter. Independent forming of an opinion is thus influenced. To make matters worse, I've seen that very often individual exploration of data is discouraged or even counteracted. Also, the opnion of people who are highly positioned in a hierarchy is often sought and usually has a lot of weight on the decision making processes of the others.

An effective leader who wants to leverage the full potential of its entourage should therefore elicit independent exploration and make sure that the group has the tools for the aggregation and forming of smart decisions.