What is Integrative Intelligence?

Last year I added another hobby into my life. I started…. Drum-roll…. putting together puzzles. This likely sounds silly, and you may be wondering what puzzles have to do with Integrative Intelligence. It turns out a lot. Let’s explore!
 
I never saw myself as a puzzle person. In my younger years, I loved extreme sports and living life to the max.
 
So, when I found myself falling in love with putting puzzles together, the younger part of me had to laugh with amusement.
 
This all transpired after watching a documentary called “The Piece Maker” about the life and art of Eric Dowdle, puzzle folk artist.
 
After finishing two of Eric’s puzzles, I ventured out to start an Italian landscape. By this time, I had created a process. Edge pieces first (of course). Then categories. I would group together all trees, mountains, ocean, sky, boats, houses, people, etc.
 
Then I would begin putting scenes together.
 
A month after starting my next puzzle my parents came to visit. My dad, an avid puzzlist, was excited to see I’d taken up one of his favorite hobbies. He looked at my process and asked, “How do you do it that way?”
 
I was puzzled (pun intended). What other way was there? So I asked, “How do you tackle puzzles?”
 
My dad groups pieces by type. When jigsaw puzzles are made, there are patterns. Some pieces have 2 knobs and 2 sockets, 4 knobs, 4 sockets, 3 knobs and 1 socket, or 3 sockets and 1 knob.
 
I thought there was no way I could put a puzzle together with his method, and he was perplexed by my method. So we integrated methods.
 
I already had the pieces grouped by category, so in each category my dad put them order by type. This allowed us to up our puzzling game to a whole new level of fun! (Well for us – my younger self is still laughing)
 
For example, when we noticed we needed a tree but there are 50 tree pieces, we could quickly see we needed a 2 knobbed tree and that allowed us to laser in.
 
What is Integrative Intelligence? This!
 
Integrative Intelligence is combining approaches, integrating diverse ideas, and creating new formulas.
 
This example is simplistic. However, it is a demonstration of how even a pastime like puzzles can benefit from integration.
 
When Integrative Intelligence is applied to bigger projects, bigger possibilities, and bigger paradigms, that is when the miracles happen!
 
Or, on the inverse, when Integrative Intelligence is applied to individuals, our inner world and self-improvement, we see growth in leaps and bounds.
 
Developing our Integrative Intelligence muscles can happen on teams, in our profession and in our lives. It elevates not only what we do, but also who we are.
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