Experiential Intelligence: What It Is and How to Grow It

Experiential Intelligence: What It Is and How It Grows

wWHEN WE THINK about success and influence, there is more to it than IQ and EQ. What unites them and contributes to our ability to manifest and achieve our goals is the totality of our experiences and what we take from them. What we talk about is ours Experiential Intelligence or ours XQ.

on Experiential Intelligence, author Soren Kaplan defines XQ as “the combination of mindsets, abilities, and knowledge gained from your unique life experiences that empower you to achieve your goals.” He added, “XQ provides a holistic way to understand what is needed for success in today’s world by contacting the accumulated wisdom and talents you have acquired over time through your lived experience.”

Lessons learned from our experiences alone are not for Experiential Intelligence alone. XQ is a framework that provides a lens through which we see our experiences. We create meaning or intelligence through a process based on three elements or building blocks:

Thoughts: Your attitudes and beliefs about yourself, other people, and the world. These attitudes and beliefs can get in your way or push you forward. When you fully tap into your XQ you may discover the self-confidence you hold.

Ability: Your skills help you combine your knowledge, skills, and experiences so that you can respond to situations in the most effective way possible. “Abilities are specific skills that link your thoughts to your knowledge. Your abilities represent the broader ways of how you do what you do, so you can use what you know when how you act in different contexts. Your thoughts guide what you see as possibly desirable, which influences where and how you decide to use your abilities.

Know-How: Your knowledge and skills. It includes formal education and tacit knowledge learned through practice or performance.

Thoughts, abilities, and knowledge generally make up XQ. When we treat these components as building blocks, with basic knowledge of how, middle abilities, and top thinking, we get a progression from the tangible to the more amorphous when it comes to self awareness. Understanding that you have specific knowledge and skills often comes easier than seeing your broader abilities. Recognizing that you have certain thoughts that influence your thinking and behavior is even more challenging.

You can improve your XQ. Bad experiences in your life can prepare you for a better future. “Embracing your XQ means finding your unfulfilled assets that owned and developed by you with of your experiences, whatever they may be.”

You grow your XQ in three ways: Reinvent your attitudes and beliefs (thoughts), Improve your abilities, and Build your knowledge and skills. Going deeper into your thoughts is the most powerful thing you can do to bring about significant change and breakthroughs.

Look for the connections you make between things that aren’t the same. Look for connections between your past experiences and how they influence you now and decide what to keep and what to let go or reframe. It usually requires a broader perspective of your experiences.

Kaplan provides specific questions and methods for digging into each of the three areas. Online you can get the Checking XQ.

Kaplan also continues to develop for your team and organization using five strategies: Connecting the dots to find focus, Rewriting the unwritten rules, Exploring uncertainty to find the new opportunities, Crating experiences to spark positive change, and Amplifying strengths to maximize impact.

Properly understood, XQ is more than finding more creative solutions but will increase your influence and give you a better lens to hire and develop people for and in your organization.

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