Rod Collins is an author and a songwriter whose musings and music explore the dynamics of the ways we live, love, and work together, and how thinking differently can open up new possibilities for building a better world. Rod’s books, articles, and songs inspire through their use of storytelling and leading-edge ideas.
As an author, Rod is continuously focused on pushing people to rethink how we organize the world. He has a regular column on Substack and is an award-winning author on organizational innovation. His books include Wiki Management, which highlights the innovative tools and practices of self-managed peer-to-peer networks, and Leadership in a Wiki World, which illustrates how leaders can leverage the power of collective intelligence to create and sustain extraordinary organizations. His latest book, Nobody Is Smarter Than Everybody illustrates how organizations can realize an extraordinary leap in intelligence by investing in the synergies of power with rather than the coercion of power over.
Rod’s current book project is an exploration of the complexities of human intelligence, focusing on the two distinct and necessary realities we navigate every day and the two very different systems of thinking identified by the Nobel prize winner, Daniel Kahneman and his longtime colleague Amos Tversky. The thesis of this work cautions that, if we are to build an AI capacity that enhances rather than enslaves humanity, we better understand how human intelligence works, and more importantly, why the vast majority of us typically engage in the lowest mode of intelligence.
As a musician and songwriter, Rod has been playing the acoustic guitar since he was a teenager. His musical tastes include folk, country, and soft rock. Over the years, he has written a number of tunes, primarily in the folk tradition. These songs capture the rhythms of life from the hustle and bustle of day-to-day living to the challenges of growing up and growing old, to the highs and lows of loves found and lost, and to the wisdom earned from successes and failures we encounter on our journeys.