The Triple Focus: A New Approach to Education

"Let me start with a new study just published in the last few months – this is really, by the way, heresy in the academic world, but nevertheless – the data shows that after an IQ of 120 there’s no relationship with leader effectiveness . Above 128 there’s actually a negative relationship, perhaps because instead of motivating people they are framing things in too abstract a way, a way that other people find difficult to understand. The paradox is that it’s important that we study – that will help us get a job – but once we’re in a job, what seems to matter most, and I’ve based this on internal studies done by organisations of their star performers, what matters more than your academic background or your IQ – your cognitive abilities – are your emotional intelligence abilities. Are you self-disciplined? Can you get along with other people? Those two things are far more important as you go through your career. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter As you become elite, as you go up the hierarchy, the higher you are, the less the cognitive abilities matter because you can hire people that have those abilities. It’s said that the art of leadership is getting things done through other people. So, basically, Peter Senge and I make the argument that we should be teaching children, as well as academics, how to handle their emotions, how to empathise: social skills. In other words, skills and abilities that will matter to them throughout their career. In a way, it’s grooming people to be leaders in the future. We also propose in Triple Focus that in addition to these core emotional intelligence skills, the book details that there are three other abilities that young people would benefit from developing over the course of their lives. One is skills of attention, better focus, to enable them to keep their mind on their math , and not on their phone all the time. Another is caring about people – concern, compassion. And the third is systems understanding, because it’s a complex world. If you’re going to do well in it, it would be better if you understood the particular system you’re operating. In business, of course, it involves economy , technology , culture, a very complex web of interacting systems. It could be, too, that environmental changes are going to affect everyone in the following decades."