Did you like school growing up? Were you one of the “smart” kids or did you just get by? Were you bored in the classroom or excited to be there?

How about at work? Are you one of the “smart” ones? 

When you are training or in a learning setting on the job, do you pick up on concepts quickly or do you find yourself being one of the “slow” ones?  Does the learning engage your attention or leave you questioning why you are doing what you are doing? 

Whatever category you fall into, I’d challenge you-and maybe more importantly, those teaching and leading- to think about the source of the ease or difficulty.  This may have more to do with how things are being taught and whether they cater to specific types of intelligences rather than whether or not people are “smart”. 

And in most formal learning environments, we tend to only cater to two of the nine intelligences postulated by Harvard Professor Howard Gardner- linguistic intelligence and logical-mathematical intelligence.  Gardner says of these intelligences, they are “particularly important for learning in the kinds of schools that we have today- ones that feature listening to lectures, reading, writing, and calculating- and they are crucial on those tests that purport to assess human intellect and cognitive potential.” 

But Gardner says we get it all wrong if we stop here.  Other intelligences that Gardner suggests from his research are: 

“Noncanonical” Intelligences: 

• Musical Intelligence: “Facility in the perception and production of music.” 
• Spatial Intelligence: “The capacity to form spatial representations or images in one’s mind, and to operate upon them variously.”
• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: “The capacity to solve problems or create products using your whole body, or parts of your body like your hand or your mouth.” 
• Naturalist Intelligence: “Entails the capacities to make consequential discriminations in the natural world.” 

Personal Intelligences: “Knowing Human Beings”

• Knowing Oneself: Self-Awareness
• Knowing Others

Existential Intelligence: “Religious” or “Spiritual” intelligence

I’d venture to guess that as you read this list, there are one or more where you feel like you excel.  Is it recognized in your workplace?  Does learning content cater to your style? 

If you are a leader or trainer/facilitator, I’d encourage you to examine your learning opportunities at work to see if you are reaching everyone in your audience with their particular intelligence so you can capitalize on all people’s “smarts”. 

Some ideas for doing so: 

• Incorporate games and puzzles 
• Incorporate music 
• Incorporate outdoor activity and/or break up content where breaks in learning require participants to move around and go outside if possible
• Provide things to “fidget” with
• Get people to draw in order to convey thoughts and learning- to visualize concepts
• Have people interact with others regularly- through questions, role play, case studies, etc.
• Provide questions for self-reflection and thought and the time to do this
• Get people to teach what they have learned to others- creating and incorporating their own ideas for conveying concepts
• Give tools for people to practice and apply learning on the job and record and report their findings in the format or mode they prefer

When we begin to realize that all people are “smart”, we can then use that information to make sure we are incorporating a variety of ways to make sure our workplaces allow for the expression of each individual’s unique talents and contributions. 

What kind of intelligent are you?