Surprise! You're Smarter Than You Think You Are!

While relaxing over the weekend, I had a chance to kick back and peruse one of my favorite journals, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Okay, so maybe I wasn't exactly "relaxing" ...

Regardless, while reviewing this journal for some research I'm doing, I stumbled over a fascinating phenomenon referred to as the Dunning-Kruger Effect. While this psychological phenomenon is much more complex than we have time for today, here's what stood out for me. In essence, the researchers found that intelligent and competent students tended to underestimate their own intelligence and competence in large part because they erroneously presumed that tasks easy for them to perform were also easy for other people to perform. Fascinating!

This article became the stimulus for something I've wanted to write about for some time ... the difference between Fluid Intelligence and Crystallized Intelligence. If you're not familiar with this (or even if you are), I suggest you pay close attention because I believe this will make a big difference in how you perform both personally and professionally.

When you think about intelligence, what sort of things come to mind? IQ tests? Knowing lots of stuff? Probably. But the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence—first advanced by renowned psychologist Raymond Cattell—proposes that there are actually two distinct kinds of intelligence: 1) the ability to connect the dots while 2) learning new things.

Fluid intelligence refers to the ability to reason and solve problems in unique and unfamiliar situations, while crystallized intelligence refers to the ability to use knowledge acquired through past learning. When you use fluid intelligence, you aren't relying on any pre-existing knowledge. Instead, you're using logic, pattern recognition, and abstract thinking. When you use crystallized intelligence, you're pulling from pre-existing knowledge, facts, and information you learned from education and/or from past experience.

So here's the bad-news/good-news story. While crystallized intelligence continues to increase throughout adulthood (until very later in life), research has shown that fluid intelligence begins to decrease after adolescence. Acknowledging that the vast majority of CORE Bites readers are within this category of "after adolescence," this is the bad news. The good news? The HVAs below offer proven techniques to reverse that trend and capitalize on your fluid intelligence long into the future.

The prevailing wisdom in the past suggested that people really didn't have much control over their intelligence at all—it was believed that IQ was largely determined by genetics (so you could only blame your parents!). But this is not true after all. Read on ...

High Value Activity (HVA) Action Steps

The ability to be in an unfamiliar situation, not know what to do, and then figure it out anyway, is in high demand because of the amount of change and ambiguity that exists. If you want to increase the value you provide to your organization, use the HVAs listed below to help you extract the 'right' learnings from past experiences, understand the contextual opportunities that exist, and be able to apply the learnings to brand-new (and unfamiliar) situations:

• Status Quo Will Reduce Your 'KNOW': It's time to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. People interested in enhancing their Fluid Intelligence know they need to challenge the status quo and take interpersonal risks and challenge assumptions—all in the interest of expanding their level of understanding. Don't just accept arguments at face value; evaluate them and look for inconsistencies; ask enough questions so you fully understand the other point(s) of view. It's understandable that a 'rebellious' approach might be uncomfortable within certain corporate cultures. However, you can do this without appearing like a rebel by actively inviting your peers and your team to ask questions and offer alternatives. A spirited discussion around options is guaranteed to be more engaging—and you might just come up with some better ideas.
• Embrace the Challenge of the Unfamiliar: You've heard me say many times, "Steal the Struggle; Deny the Growth." If your response to a new learning opportunity is to stay within your comfort zone, you minimize the necessary struggle and discomfort—which means you also miss out on the rich learning and growth that can come from the experience. I'm often told that the 'learning never stops' but I must, respectfully, disagree because while the learning opportunities never stop, it is up to each of us—individually—to capitalize on, and learn from, the learning opportunity. It is only then that the "learning never stops." To expand on your Fluid Intelligence, take on a new challenge that scares you. The way to do this (and still protect your self-esteem) is to find something that is meaningful, but not so important that failure will have serious personal consequences. Create a 'security blanket' by telling others what you're attempting and seek their help and support. Most people will respect your desire to grow and cut you some slack along the way.
• Put Some RAA in Your Life: To increase your Fluid Intelligence, start using the RAA method: Reflect … Adapt … Apply. Experiences can be excellent teachers but only if you REFLECT on, and learn from, the experience. Once your reflection is complete and you've been able to ADAPT by connecting the dots (and the context) you're now ready to APPLY your learnings in a different way. RAA accelerates your ability to navigate new and challenging situations. While this may be uncomfortable for some of you, learn to rely on your intuition. When you're facing something new, look for connections and similarities between this situation and things you've done in the past. Lastly, be flexible and don't shy away from experimentation as you venture into new territory.

Seeking new knowledge and experiences helps build your Crystallized Intelligence over time, but challenging yourself with the aforementioned HVAs can improve your Fluid Intelligence as well. Go forth and be brilliant (or, at least, intelligent).