Thursday, April 21, 2011

Innovative Intelligence

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA

Partner, RSD Solutions Inc

www.RSDsolutions.com

info@RSDsolutions.com 

 

Just finished reading the new book Innovative Intelligence: The Art and Practice of Leading Sustainable Innovation in Your Organization by David S. Weiss and Claude Legrand.  Very interesting book with a lot of innovative (no pun intended) ideas. 

The central premise of the book is that there are three types of organizational intelligence: (1) Analytical Intelligence, (2) Emotional Intelligence, and (3) Innovative Intelligence.  Analytical Intelligence is the standard academic, think your way through a problem type of intelligence.  It is the type of intelligence that is second nature to every MBA trained student, and even more ingrained for those who have studied financial engineering.  Emotional Intelligence is understanding people and their relationships in the workplace.  Again, something that is studied (although perhaps not practiced efficiently) by every B-school student, but more foreign to those who were trained in a more quantitative program.  The final type of necessary intelligence is Innovative Intelligence which the authors define as the “capability of gaining insights into complex problems or opportunities and discovering new and unforeseen implementable solutions”.  

Risk managers tend to excel at Analytical Intelligence.  Senior risk managers also learn to excel at Emotional Intelligence.  Great risk managers excel at all three types of intelligence.  Buy the book and dare yourself to become a great risk manager.

 

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