This is a quick, lightweight exercise to help you get a personal sense of your own NQ (Network Quotient). How well intelligence moves through the system around you, and how you show up in that flow.

There’s a more comprehensive version of this assessment (including a visualization of your key “nodes” — relationships, roles, tools — and the friction or resistance that exists between them). But for now, we’re keeping it simple.

This is about curiosity, not precision. The point isn’t to get a score. It’s to see yourself in the system… and start tuning.

Step 1: Sense & Sketch Your System (5-10 min)

On a blank page, draw you in the center.

Now draw 5–7 nodes around you. These could be:

• People (e.g. manager, key collaborator, peer group, mentor)

• Systems (e.g. team, department, client ecosystem)

• Tools (e.g. AI platform, CRM, workflow tech)

For each node, ask:

• How connected do I feel to this node? (scale 0–10)

• How much intelligence is currently flowing between us? (e.g. ideas, clarity, feedback, insight)

Use arrows or lines to indicate direction and strength of flow. Solid lines for strong connections, dotted for weak or blocked ones. No need to overthink it. Just draw what you feel.

Step 2: Reflect on the Friction (5–7 min)

Now ask yourself:

• Which node(s) feel energizing? What makes the flow easy there?

• Which feel frustrating or slow? Where’s the signal getting stuck?

• Is there any node that feels over-weighted (too much flow, too much dependency)?

• Is there any important connection that’s missing entirely?

Highlight one area where you feel unnecessary latency (a delay between signal and action). That’s your leverage point.

Step 3: Shift the System (Pick One Small Action)

Choose one thing to experiment with this week to increase your NQ. Here are a few possibilities:

• To improve insight (I_h): Initiate a 15-minute signal-check with a friend or peer who sees things differently than you.

• To increase artificial lift (I_ai): Use an AI tool to explore a stuck problem in a new frame. Note what you find.

• To build alignment (A): Ask your team (or yourself), “What are we pretending not to know?” and just listen.

• To reduce latency (L): Look at your calendar. Remove one meeting that’s just information relaying. Replace it with a decision-making or sense-making conversation.

You’re not fixing the whole system. You’re tuning your part of it.

Revisit & Update (one week later)

After a week, return to your sketch… What changed? What surprised you?

What flowed more easily? What still feels stuck?

That’s the beginning of your personal NQ map.

And the start of a deeper capacity to lead systems, not just tasks.