
Practical intelligence is the capacity to learn and improve your skills. It is beneficial in various settings, and improving it makes it simpler to change your career or occupation, learn new skills, and communicate more effectively with others.
You can develop a special ability and become more productive by learning more about practical intelligence. When you have the knowledge, you may begin to develop practical intelligence both inside and outside the workplace. Some of the steps you may take to improve and increase your practical intelligence include; learning from experience, exploring your strengths, and learning new skills.
The Practical Intelligence Test
To assess practical intelligence, Sternberg employs tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge has three distinct characteristics:
- It includes hands-on experience of how to do jobs.
- It is personal and private to the user, and it is frequently mastered without supervision or instruction.
- It’s natural and learned via experience, and it’s difficult to convey or write down.
Sternberg’s tacit knowledge test is based on real-world scenarios. The more competence you get in your chosen profession, the more tacit knowledge you have. If you can create tacit knowledge, you’ll be successful in your career.
Practical Intelligence Enhancing Activities
Practical intelligence is a broad approach to learning new skills and abilities. Here are some of the practical intelligence-enhancing activities:
- Learning How to Program
Learning how to program a computer can help you improve your practical intelligence by teaching you how to reason. Coding isn’t just for computer experts. Coding will improve your work efficiency or add some standard information and a fun activity to your checklist.
Coding creates new synapses in the brain by analyzing and solving situations. It will teach you how to learn and improve your practical intelligence.
- Building a Structure
Because of practical intelligence, you can test it out even if you have no prior knowledge of how to make things. You may watch movies that will walk you through the process of constructing wooden crafts or projects. Simply understanding how to make anything increases your practical intelligence in your work.
- Participating in an Escape Room
An escape room exercise can help you improve your practical intelligence. It is an immersive experience in which you are confined to a room and must solve puzzles or riddles to escape. This experience aids in developing practical intelligence, problem-solving abilities, and the ability to make quick decisions.
Importance of Practical Intelligence for Adults
Practical intelligence results from a hands-on, practical working style that leads to specialized learning. It uses emotional, mental, and behavioral abilities to make better decisions. So, why is practical intelligence important? Read on.
- You Will Gain Useful Knowledge
Practical intelligence is crucial because it allows you to build valuable information by doing and learning. It’s critical since you’ll have a better chance of excelling in business or a career if you have this knowledge or intelligence.
- Practical Intelligence Allows You to Interact With the Environment More Efficiently
Practically intelligent people are effective in their interactions with their surroundings. If you have practical intelligence skills, you will be able to persuade others and know when to quit.
Steps on How to Improve Practical Intelligence
Learning from your experiences, especially your failures, is how you develop practical intelligence. According to Robert J. Sternberg, knowledge isn’t enough to build your practical intelligence.
You can learn how to become intelligent by experimenting with various methods of work completion. Here are some ways to improve your practical intelligence:
- Take Notes
Every day is a fresh learning opportunity, and the more you can learn from your own life experiences, the more practical intelligence you will develop. Consider noting down what you learned from the incident the next time you make a mistake.
This might help you weigh several options in a similar situation and revisit problems as they emerge. The more you learn from your previous mistakes, the less likely you will repeat them.
- Be Open and Flexible
Fixed thinking is one of the most significant barriers to learning. You must be open and adaptable to trying new things and doing things in different ways to increase your practical intelligence. Allow yourself to let go of what you believe you know and start over. This is the most effective method for breaking free from previous beliefs.
You might discover a blind spot that has been holding you back by being open. An example of practical intelligence is that nailing a job is not solely based on your CV. To increase your practical intelligence, you must be open and able to negotiate in a stressful scenario, communicate effectively, and influence the individuals with whom you are conversing.
The best method to improve your practical intelligence is to learn. The capacity to learn quickly is a valuable skill.
- Change Your Mindset
Sometimes it feels as if the entire world is resting on our shoulders. Finding a solution to a range of problems might be challenging at times. It is crucial to shift your emphasis from the issue to the solution to quickly find answers to your concerns and improve your practical intelligence.
When an issue emerges at work, set a goal for yourself to develop solutions. If you can’t change something, try shifting your perspective on it. You may not always have control over your external circumstances.
Solution-focused thinking is a fantastic way to grow and improve your practical intelligence. This is because it entails concentrating on what is going well rather than becoming over sidetracked by the nature of the issue.
- Develop New Skills
You can develop your practical intelligence by reading new books, watching videos, or taking a course. When learning new skills, concentrate on one new ability at a time. You can learn to draw and use it to express yourself and comprehend concepts.
Coding is another excellent skill to master because it teaches you how to examine an issue in various ways. Choose a talent that interests you the most and set goals for yourself to accomplish it. Your practical intelligence will develop when you select a plan to achieve anything.
- Examine Your Capabilities
Knowing your strengths can help you improve your practical intelligence and develop other skills. It can also assist you in dealing with new challenges more effectively. Recognizing your strengths might also help you feel less stressed.
As a strategy to discover your abilities, you should think about how you behave in various situations and what you’ve accomplished. Keep a log of your work accomplishments, including positive outcomes and feedback from your supervisor or team, and your practical intelligence will improve.
- Find New Approaches to Completing Tasks
Because you’re concentrating on figuring out what works best for you and what doesn’t, finding new approaches to complete jobs can increase your productivity and improve your practical intelligence.
Make a daily list of what you wish to accomplish. Note down your activities as soon as you think of them, and try to concentrate on the ones that will require the most time.
It’s also a good idea to identify the less efficient activities you conduct throughout the day and focus on cutting down on the time you invest in doing them. You’ll have more time to perform the most critical chores, and your practical intelligence will grow.
Take Away
Being a practical intelligent person entails using your knowledge and expertise to create solutions that function in your everyday life or career. Practical intelligence is a continuous learning process that can help you stay innovative and assess various parts of your life.
You must develop practical intelligence to assist you in dealing with life events and issues in your profession if you want to have a successful career. You never know when you’ll need to make a quick and decisive decision to alter your life.
