I'm going to start by doing something I don't usually do. I'm going to brag about my team and how specialized we have become in what we do. We are a team of mission-driven coaches and trainers. We provide expertise in coaching, leadership, learning, and development, and we pride ourselves on specializing in ICF Standards. We are the only Institute on the planet teaching our trademark approach to Integrative Intelligence. We are very proud of these accomplishments and live inspired by the positive impact of our approach. Despite all this, I was missing an essential point about what we do without ever realizing it. I was speaking with two of my SCORE mentors a few weeks back. One of them asked me, "How do you define Integrative Intelligence?" I shared, "We see Integrative Intelligence as cultivating the wisdom of understanding interconnectivity." He laughed and said, "You're an academic! What you just said academics would love. I'm not an academic. That made no sense to me." I chuckled to myself because I got it. Extrapolating the full spectrum of meaning behind Integrative Intelligence has been a daunting task for me. While I was pondering how better to communicate the definition to everyone, not just academics, he went on and said, "Here is a challenge for you. Come up with a definition of Integrative Intelligence that your mom can understand." Challenge accepted! After a week of pondering and interviewing the team and my husband, we landed on a definition that my mother could understand. In basic terms, Integrative Intelligence cultivates the awareness that everything is connected in one way or another. Humanity's problems arise when we act as if they are not. Linear approaches yield linear results. In other words:
As you can see, Integrative Intelligence can be so far-reaching and has the capacity to shed light on anything we approach. Linear thinking, while it served a purpose, has also caused quite a bit of harm over the centuries. THE HISTORY: Whether for good or bad, right or wrong, the world is experiencing globalization. Western thought and approaches have permeated civilization, for better or worse. Western thinking was propagated in the mid-1600s by philosophers like René Descartes. Descartes was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician. Like many of the scientists of that time, Descartes studied everything by separating "objects" into various categories or parts. This Cartesian approach, often called "reductionistic," allowed science to rationally and mechanistically examine the parts of what they were studying. However, when applied to the lives of human beings, this fragmentation devalued the truth of how everything is connected. In the words of Dan Newby, author of The Unopened Gift, "Whatever we wanted 'to know' had to meet the rules of logic or reason or the associated disciplines of mathematics, physics, and other 'hard sciences'." In academia, we are given options to study everything as if it were separate. We have departments in math, science, psychology, etc. The issue is that separation is an illusion and not a truth. Studying disciplines separately comes with consequences and limitations. Examining things through a Westernized linear lens has equally limited the development of deeper wisdom. Wisdom that is prevalent in a variety of cultures across the globe. Linear thinking, seeing things separately, acts like blinders, eclipsing our understanding of interconnected reality from both our hearts and minds—the result: divided economies, racism, sexism, hierarchy, war, and so forth. All are based on different forms of division. A NEW APPROACH: I say it is time to bring back the more integrated perspectives that were prevalent centuries ago, prior to globalization. It is time to view all of our intelligence beyond the intellect. Westernized thought gives preference to the intellect, yet the intellect is also where the most limitations abound. The mind (intellect) is the center of intelligence most susceptible to self-deception and illusion. When we view the human being as a whole, we see that we have eight domains of intelligence centers, the intellect only being one of those. Human beings have the capacity to develop emotional, somatic, cognitive, relational, motivational, energetic, spiritual, and integrational capacities. A visual example of understanding the importance of developing our Integrative Intelligence is understanding this: In order to prevent this: What can happen if we continue to live within the limits of linear approaches? What could be possible if we start living through our wholeness and full capabilities?
Integrative Intelligence is providing a new innovative approach. Truth is not new, but how we approach the truth deserves some well-deserved innovation. IN CONCLUSION: We are here to teach methodologies and frameworks empowered by Integrative Intelligence. For example, consider how it is one thing to coach and another to understand what your coaching is connected to. One of my favorite testimonies to receive is not just from my clients. My favorite testimonials come from a spouse or co-worker who expressed gratitude for the positive transformations they are experiencing within the person being coached. Coaching is integration work. Integration work has massively positive impacts. Positive impact radiates out to positively impact others. We are all connected. Everything, in fact, is connected. When done well, leadership is also integration work. Masterful leaders see how things are connected and respond with a bigger-picture problem-solving paradigm. Will we develop the wisdom to see this? That is up to us to decide. I say yes!
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