Asked how he developed his famous law of universal gravitation, Isaac Newton quipped:

“By thinking on it continually.”

Contrast this with the myth that it came to him all at once when an apple fell on his head!

Albert Einstein attributed his own achievements to his willingness to spend 20 minutes on a problem that others would give up on in two.

“It is not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”

The extended processing time of intelligence at work – that these great minds attest to – is something we must account for. But we seem to undervalue it in the business world. Or fail to understand it entirely! This may be for good reason, yet is also not without consequences.

Of course we hire experts for the express purpose of bringing ready plays to the game. That is reasonable. No one has time to ruminate when an anxious customer is on the line! When a key asset breaks down, you want your best mechanic on the job – one who is already familiar with the equipment. Relying on even your smartest engineer, if she has no prior knowledge of its functionality, will leave your operation down far too long.

But by demanding fast answers, we discourage exploration of systemic problems. And, without deep understanding, we fail to develop effective, lasting solutions!

The function of expertise is to act with certainty. No doubt. The function of intelligence, however, is to grapple with uncertainty. And doing so takes time.

Yet we are so ready to write off the guy or gal without a ready answer. “He who hesitates is lost,” as a tired old saying has it. The ‘thinker’ pauses at her own peril. The conversation moves on. We jump to a conclusion and assign some action items. – You need to be quicker next time!

This is a troublesome issue. What I am calling the “Myth of Intelligence” includes a whole set of false assumptions. These assumptions impact the way we process information and how we assess and attempt to solve problems. They also impact how we evaluate the intelligence of other people, compared to our own.

For now, I submit the following for your consideration:

• Intelligence is distinct from Expertise. The former is our capacity to learn, the latter is the sum of our experience and knowledge of a topic.
• Expertise has limited breadth and depth. In simple terms, that means there are practical limits to what any of us know, on any topic.
• Intelligence picks up at the point where we butt up against the limits of our expertise. Here, the failure to say “I don’t know” becomes costly, even lethal.
• Intelligence requires processing time, time to examine, test and reflect.

The Path Forward

The “Myth of Intelligence,” then, means that we feel stupid – or fear appearing stupid – when we don’t know the answer to a question or problem. Actual stupidity is to invest more energy in hiding our ignorance than in making the effort to learn new things.

That is why this blog prizes critical thinking as an essential attitude and discipline. It is also why I spent 20 years practicing Continuous Improvement (CI) methods in my professional life.

Lean and Six Sigma are preeminent CI methodologies. They help us to insert intelligence in a fast paced business environment. Lean and Six Sigma provide a path forward when we are dealing with uncertainty:

• Define and clarify the problem you’re trying to solve for.
• Identify (or develop) adequate ways of measuring your impact on that problem.
• Analyze the situation and experiment with possible solutions.
• Work out the change(s) needed. Communicate that change to everyone involved and supervise its implementation.
• Verify that you got the expected result and solved the original problem. If not, rethink your solution, or implementation plan.

To be sure, the process described above takes time. It takes a lot more time than wild guessing.

Even going with an expert’s hunch relies on considerable luck to be more effective than this. That is, when the experts are taking on challenges at the limit of their knowledge. But the power of what amounts to applying the scientific method to problems in your life and business is worth the investment of time and effort.

Yes, there are occasions when we must be “bold and decisive,” relying on our intuitions and hoping for the best. But operating in such a dysfunctional mode on an ongoing basis is no way to level up!

Don’t spend your life and career going only after the ‘low hanging fruit’ and expect the rest will just fall on your head in a “Eureka!” moment. You may feel like you don’t have time to stop and think, or learn, or to engage in some trial and error. But if you accept how intelligence works, you will make the time.

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