Iₕ Explained: The Hidden Lever of Organizational Intelligence
In the NQ equation, Iₕ stands for Human Insight. This is not just cognitive intelligence or domain expertise. It represents the individual or composite intelligence of a person (or persons) across their behavioral science systems, and in turn, what a system draws from its people. Crucially, it’s not singular.
Iₕ is a dynamic blend of intelligences — cognitive, emotional, social, intuitive, and adaptive — that influence how humans make meaning, relate, and act within complex systems.
It includes:
IQ — Analytical and problem-solving capacity.
EQ — Emotional intelligence: awareness, empathy, regulation.
SQ — Social intelligence: navigating relationships, group dynamics, influence.
AQ — Adaptability quotient: resilience and responsiveness in uncertainty.
SI — Somatic intelligence: embodied awareness, stress regulation, presence.
All of these are validated in behavioral and social sciences, and when considered together, they give us a more realistic picture of what humans actually bring to complex, high-velocity systems.
In this light, Iₕ is not just about individual performance. It’s about how those intelligences are activated, shared, and amplified within the group. In other words, a brilliant individual with low relational or adaptive capacity may have high IQ but low Iₕ in terms of system throughput.
Quantum Leadership raises the stakes:
It’s not enough to develop IQ or EQ in isolation.
The question becomes: How are these intelligences expressed collectively, and how well are they moving through the system?
High Iₕ systems have people who:
Sense emotional and relational undercurrents before they escalate.
Adapt their communication to meet the moment.
Connect dots across domains, disciplines, and teams.
Stay grounded under pressure and make sense in motion.
And that brings us back to talent development: Are we cultivating these intelligences in our people — and designing our systems to let them flow?
Because if we don’t, no matter how many training modules we deploy, we’ll miss the deeper leverage point: the intelligence already present in the organization, waiting to be released.