IntelliSynthesis

IntelliSynthesis® is an inquiry-based method for thinking alone and with others—exactly the breakthrough we need to move society forward. This method has proven effective in countless engagements across our work, including developing our forest-to-market strategy in New Mexico to revitalize forests and communities, and assisting stakeholders in Nevada in creating the most comprehensive, holistic state freight transportation plan in the country.

Learn more about why IntelliSynthesis is needed and its principles.

How to Use IntelliSynthesis

Start with Questions

The foundation of IntelliSynthesis rests on a simple but powerful insight: the way you frame a discussion determines the thinking it generates. Organizing meetings around topic phrases invites competing opinions, complaints, and debates about known problems. Structuring dialogues around carefully crafted questions transforms problems into challenges and orients everyone toward discovering solutions together. Statements keep groups stuck in what they already know. Questions open pathways to breakthrough thinking.

Before convening stakeholders, you generally gather and review relevant existing materials—such as reports, financial statements, studies, and news articles—not only to find potential answers but also to identify gaps, shortcomings, and questions. What is missing from previous approaches? What perspectives were not included? What assumptions went unexamined? What questions were never asked?

Based on this review, draft the initial dialogue agenda as a series of questions, not topic phrases. This may seem like a small change, but it makes a big difference in practice. Most of us are trained to organize meetings around topics like "Budget Review," "Stakeholder Engagement," and "Timeline Discussion." IntelliSynthesis requires turning each of these into actual questions: "What budget level enables the outcomes we're committed to achieving?" "Which stakeholders must participate for this work to succeed?" "What timeline allows for genuine collaboration rather than rushing to predetermined conclusions?"

The Art of Question Design

The questions themselves matter enormously. A yes/no question shuts down further thinking; an open question encourages exploration. "Should we expand rail service to rural communities?" leads to a yes or no debate. "How might expanding rail service transform economic opportunities in rural communities?" promotes collective thinking.

Questions should follow a logical order. Some questions need to be answered first so you can effectively address later ones. You might need to understand current conditions before imagining future options or clarify goals before discussing methods. Still, natural dialogue sometimes jumps ahead, and that's okay—IntelliSynthesis remains flexible rather than rigid. However, it’s best to try to consider the questions in a logical sequence.

The Dialogue Unfolds

When stakeholders gather—whether on Zoom or in person—something different happens with IntelliSynthesis than in typical meetings. Instead of presentations followed by discussion, or worse, back-and-forth debate among the loudest voices, the facilitator displays the inquiry-based dialogue agenda on screen and invites participants to speak to the questions.

Here's where the magic happens: the facilitator captures almost every word in real time, visible to everyone. Not summary notes or paraphrased minutes, but the actual substance of what people say, typed directly into the document under the relevant question. IntelliSynthesis allows groups to think together. Collective intelligence is revealed and agreed upon in real-time as discussions unfold. This does several things simultaneously.

First, it slows the conversation down. The facilitator often needs to interrupt speakers—not to silence them, but to ensure their thinking is accurately captured. "Hold on, let me make sure I have this right..." This interruption is respectful, not disruptive. It signals that every contribution matters enough to be recorded precisely.

Second, it transforms the nature of participation. When people see their words appearing on screen in real time, they think more carefully about what they're saying. The stream-of-consciousness that characterizes typical meetings—people talking quickly, hoping someone catches the key points—gives way to more intentional articulation.

Third, it enables collective intelligence gathering. Someone makes a point, it gets captured, and the next speaker can build on it directly because everyone can see it. Ideas connect and synthesize in ways that verbal back-and-forth alone rarely achieves.

Fourth, participants' reflections get captured as additional questions rather than rushing to premature answers. Someone might say, "Before we can answer that, we'd need to understand..." The facilitator converts that into a new question and adds it to the agenda. The dialogue document grows organically, guided by the group's emerging collective intelligence.

Meeting notes, therefore, rather than reading as the disjointed record of the cacophony of typical discussions, become the clear, substantive record of collective thinking. This method turns standard meeting minutes into an inspiring, coherent record of the group's thinking, decisions, and action plans.

Between Sessions: Synthesis and Refinement

After each dialogue session, the important work of synthesis begins. The facilitator reviews the document, editing for clarity, sometimes reordering questions based on logical flow that emerged during discussion, consolidating similar points, and identifying where consensus is forming and where genuine differences remain.

This edited document serves as the foundation for the next round of dialogue. It is not a vague snapshot of the meeting; it is a dynamic, clear record of collective thinking that even non-attendees can use to understand exactly what was discussed. Participants can review it between sessions, add written reflections, and identify what should be explored next.

For complex initiatives, this process might unfold over weeks or months, with multiple rounds of dialogue—some synchronous (live meetings), some asynchronous (participants contributing on their own schedules). The key is that everyone remains engaged with the same evolving document and questions, building collective intelligence round by round.

Truth-Telling and Whole Systems Thinking

Throughout this process, the facilitator creates space for what typically doesn't get said. Environmental realities like water shortages or pollution impacts. Financial instability. The reality is that less might be more. The acknowledgment that past approaches created current problems.

This requires establishing safety—that every perspective is useful and that critique of past decisions isn't an attack on the people who made them. When a 12-year-old can say, "There's always money for buildings, not books or teacher salaries," and that observation gets captured and engaged rather than dismissed, you know IntelliSynthesis is working.

The facilitator also watches for when discussions stay safely within conventional boundaries—limited by political concerns, agency mandates, or established industry practices. IntelliSynthesis works when participants let go of these artificial constraints and think about whole systems. The forest ecosystem doesn't stop at individual property lines; the freight transportation network doesn't respect state lines. When groups start thinking and speaking beyond traditional silos, breakthrough solutions become possible.

From Dialogue to Action

Eventually, the dialogue document evolves from questions into answers, from exploration into commitments, from collective thinking into action plans. But this happens organically, not by forcing premature closure. The document that began as a series of questions becomes a comprehensive record of what the group collectively understands, what they've agreed to, what each stakeholder commits to doing, and when.

This final document is the solution set agreed upon by all stakeholders. It functions simultaneously as the meeting record, the strategic plan, the implementation guide, and the accountability framework.

What Makes This Work

Several elements must be present for IntelliSynthesis to generate its characteristic results. You need someone willing to convene and facilitate—to take responsibility for creating the space and shepherd the process. You need participants willing to engage beyond their narrow self-interest toward mutual and community benefit. You need the discipline to capture thinking in real time rather than settling for conventional meeting minutes. You need patience to let collective intelligence emerge rather than forcing predetermined outcomes.

Most fundamentally, you need trust—both in the process and among participants. This trust isn't assumed at the start; it's built through the experience of being truly heard, seeing your perspective captured and valued, watching the group synthesize diverse views into solutions that serve everyone better than anyone's initial position.

IntelliSynthesis saves time. Yes, the initial dialogue takes more time than a quick decision by a small group. However, that decision often fails, gets resisted, requires endless revision, and ultimately costs far more time than the collective process. When you involve everyone impacted by a problem or opportunity, you access intelligence that no individual or narrow group could generate alone. IntelliSynthesis creates solutions that last because all stakeholders work together to create and implement them.

This is IntelliSynthesis in practice.