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In one of his courses, Alan Seale introduced this concept of multiple intelligences we have. As such it’s not new, Howard Gardner for instance has made this point of humans possessing multiple intelligences. Although Gardner’s work has met criticism of lacking empirical evidence, the notion of multiple intelligences is more than just intellectually attractive. Scientists have observed brain cells e.g. on the heart but also in the gut. Alan distinguishes three intelligences:
– Head
– Belly
– Heart
The head (especially the left hemisphere) is occupied with thinking (most of us are very familiar with that) The belly feels (several languages have expressions for this when people sense a feeling in their belly concerning some situation they are confronted with.) and the heart knows. These intelligences, which you can easily access, can work together for us and can help us gaining additional useful insights and get us out of overthinking. In order to do so, we’ll have to address the three areas. When faced with a challenge, simply ask your head: what does the head think? You may put your hands on your head so you actually feel the head. Listen to the answer/s the head comes up with. The next question (put your hands on your belly, just below the belly button Is fine) is: what does the belly feel? Again, listen for answers or better: observe the (change of) feelings as the belly doesn’t communicate in language. Thirdly put your hands on your heart region ask what it knows regarding the challenge you’re faced with and observe the answer.
A very powerful additional question is to ask one intelligence what it needs more of (or less) from another intelligence. So for instance: what does the belly need from the head? This is a question asked of the belly and it is the belly that should answer and not the head! It is astonishing what openings are gained through this. A while ago I was leading a leadership seminar and one of the participants was kind of moaning to her colleagues about a staff member. In a break, I spontaneously led her through the exercise with the three intelligences, after which her conclusion was that there was no issue at all. Quite a breakthrough insight, greatly influencing how the working relationship could evolve.
Needless to say. I’m not suggesting this will solve any issue right away but you probably will gain very useful insights you didn’t have before. Try it out for yourself and let me know what your experiences were. If you want to read more about the three intelligences, I recommend the book ‘Create a world that works’ by Alan Seale.
#transformationalpresence #radicallybetter #newnarrative #leadership
Geert Hofman 