Exploring the evolution of human intelligence — from measurement and mind to meaning, rhythm, and relational insight.
The idea of “intelligence” has long been treated as a number — a measure of what a person knows, how they think, or how well they perform. Yet intelligence is far more than calculation or cognition. It is the rhythm of how we perceive, connect, and make sense of the world.
Across time, the concept of IQ has expanded from a narrow psychological construct to a broader recognition of emotional, cultural, and embodied forms of knowing. In this landscape, Poutama IQ™ and Poutama EQ™ bring a distinctly kaupapa Māori perspective — one that unites insight and embodiment, knowledge and presence, mind and mauri.
From Intelligence Testing to Intelligence Understanding
The first intelligence tests emerged in the early 1900s, when Alfred Binet developed a method to identify children who needed additional learning support. His work was later refined into the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) by Lewis Terman, who standardised it into a numerical scale.
Through much of the twentieth century, IQ scores became shorthand for intellectual capacity — shaping education, employment, and even notions of potential. Yet this single number could never capture the depth of human insight, creativity, or relational understanding.
Expanding the Field: Multiple Intelligences and Emotional Intelligence
By the late twentieth century, new thinkers began to challenge the dominance of IQ.
-
Howard Gardner (1983) proposed the theory of Multiple Intelligences, recognising linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, musical, kinaesthetic, naturalistic, and intrapersonal forms of intelligence.
-
Robert Sternberg (1985) introduced Triarchic Intelligence — analytical, creative, and practical ways of thinking.
-
Daniel Goleman (1995) popularised Emotional Intelligence (EQ), highlighting self-awareness, empathy, and relational skill as essential forms of human intelligence.
-
Later frameworks explored Cultural Intelligence (CQ), Spiritual Intelligence (SQ), and Adaptive Intelligence (AQ) — each expanding the definition of what it means to be wise and capable.
Each of these movements carried an important truth: intelligence cannot be separated from emotion, culture, or context.
The Evolving Landscape of Human Intelligences
Over the past century, our understanding of intelligence has expanded well beyond traditional IQ. What began as a narrow measure of cognitive ability has evolved into a rich ecosystem of intelligences — each recognising a different way humans think, feel, connect, and create meaning.
To help illustrate this evolution, the following tables group these intelligences into three broad categories:
-
Academically Established Intelligences – formally researched and validated through psychology and education.
-
Emergent and Practitioner-Led Intelligences – conceptually recognised within leadership, coaching, and applied practice.
-
Kaupapa-Aligned Poutama Quotients™ – grounded in Māori frameworks that integrate rhythm, reflection, and embodiment.
1. Academically Established Intelligences
| Type | Focus | Key Contributors / Origins | Core Idea or Expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| IQ – Intelligence Quotient | Cognitive reasoning and analytical thinking | Alfred Binet (1905), Lewis Terman (1916) | Measures logic, reasoning, and problem-solving capacity. |
| Triarchic Intelligence | Analytical, creative, and practical thinking | Robert Sternberg (1985) | Recognises multiple forms of problem-solving and contextual reasoning beyond IQ. |
| EQ – Emotional Intelligence | Emotional awareness and relational attunement | Salovey & Mayer (1990), Daniel Goleman (1995) | Recognises empathy, self-awareness, and emotional regulation as leadership strengths. |
| AQ – Adversity / Adaptability Quotient | Resilience and adaptability | Paul Stoltz (1997) | The ability to recover, adapt, and grow through challenge. |
| SQ – Spiritual Intelligence | Meaning, values, and higher purpose | Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall (2000) | Awareness of deeper connection and alignment with purpose. |
| CQ – Cultural Intelligence | Cross-cultural understanding and adaptability | Christopher Earley & Soon Ang (2003) | The capability to work effectively across cultures and contexts. |
| MQ – Moral Intelligence | Ethics and integrity in action | Doug Lennick & Fred Kiel (2005) | Doing what is right, guided by conscience and consistency of values. |
| PQ – Physical Intelligence | Body-based awareness and regulation | Peter Clough & Doug Strycharczyk (2020) | Using physiology to support performance, energy, and wellbeing. |
| RQ – Relational Intelligence | Authentic connection and trust-building | Cross & Thomas (2008) | The skill of forming and maintaining meaningful relationships. |
| LQ – Leadership Intelligence | Awareness, empathy, and vision | Applied leadership research | The integration of awareness, influence, and integrity in leading others. |
These intelligences have a clear academic lineage and form the foundation of modern psychology and leadership theory.
2. Emergent and Practitioner-Led Intelligences
| Type | Focus | Key Contributors / Origins | Core Idea or Expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| WQ – Wisdom Quotient | Integrative discernment and judgment | Robert Sternberg (2019) and contemporary leadership literature | Blends knowledge, experience, and compassion in decision-making. |
| XQ – Experiential Intelligence | Learning from lived experience | David R. Livermore (2022) | Transforms life experience into contextual wisdom and adaptive capacity. |
| HQ – Humanity Quotient | Human-centred compassion and ethics | Emerging within DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and wellbeing leadership | Emphasises empathy, kindness, and collective wellbeing. |
| TQ – Technological / Transformational Intelligence | Innovation and digital adaptability | Emerging from digital transformation practice | Ability to navigate change and apply technology creatively. |
| BQ – Body / Biological Intelligence | Somatic knowing and physical intuition | Strozzi Institute, Peter Levine | The body as an intelligent source of insight and guidance. |
| NQ – Nature Intelligence | Connection to the natural world | Gardner’s Naturalistic Intelligence; ecological psychology | Understanding interdependence between people and the environment. |
These models are conceptually credible and widely used in leadership and coaching, though not yet formalised within academic psychology.
3. Kaupapa-Aligned Poutama Quotients
| Type | Focus | Key Contributors / Origins | Core Idea or Expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poutama IQ – Insight Quotient | Reflects tikanga — revealing the direction of leadership through insight, discernment, and strategic foresight. | Megan Tahere, Manawa Kōkopu | Cultivates deep perception, strategic clarity, and kaupapa-aligned discernment — reframing intelligence as relational, contextual, and ethically grounded. |
| Poutama EQ – Embodiment Quotient | Reflects kawa — shaping the rhythm, presence, and relational integrity with which that direction is enacted. | Megan Tahere, Manawa Kōkopu | Activates coherence between knowing and being — strengthening presence, rhythm, and relational resonance through embodied, values-led practice. |
Held in relational balance, Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ cultivate the alignment required to lead with authenticity in complex and dynamic spaces.
This is not about performance — it is about presence. When insight and embodiment move with resonance, leadership becomes more than strategic; it becomes attuned, culturally intelligent, and intuitively felt.
Reading the Pattern
Together, these three groups reveal a progression — from thinking about intelligence, to feeling and embodying intelligence, to living intelligence through kaupapa and rhythm.
In this landscape, Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ bridge the gap between analytical understanding and embodied knowing. They express a uniquely Māori contribution to global leadership development — one that sees intelligence not as static capacity, but as a living process of reflection, resonance, and ascent.
Introducing Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ
Building on these traditions, Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ emerged to fill a vital gap — connecting intelligence not only to cognition and emotion, but to rhythm, whakapapa, and kaupapa.
-
Poutama IQ (Insight Quotient) centres on the ability to perceive alignment — to see patterns, meaning, and timing within complex systems of people, purpose, and potential. It cultivates strategic clarity through Ngā Rorohiko Whakaaro – The Seven Thinking Rhythms of Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership™.
-
Poutama EQ (Embodiment Quotient) explores the capacity to feel, sense, and integrate insight through presence and practice. It honours the body as a vessel of knowing — a site where understanding is not just thought but lived.
Kaupapa-Aligned Poutama Quotients™ articulate presence and leadership as both direction and rhythm — tikanga and kawa in dynamic relationship. Poutama IQ reveals where and how leadership must move; Poutama EQ determines the integrity and resonance with which that movement occurs.
Held in relational balance, they activate coherence — aligning discernment with embodiment, and insight with relational rhythm — to generate leadership that is wise in action and grounded in kaupapa.
Together, these two dimensions form a rhythm of leadership intelligence that is both analytical and intuitive, grounded and expansive. They reconnect intelligence with its whakapapa — the flow from wānanga (learning) to whanaungatanga (relationship) to whaihua (meaningful growth).
Bridging the Gap: From Thinking to Being
Many intelligence models stop at understanding how people think. Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ extend this inquiry to how thinking becomes being. Where traditional IQ measures knowledge and problem-solving, Poutama IQ engages reflective sequencing — the ability to move between perception, discernment, and aligned action.
Where EQ explores emotion and empathy, Poutama EQ brings rhythm, embodiment, and relational presence — acknowledging that coherence arises when insight is enacted through the body and felt in relationship.
This bridge between thinking and being transforms intelligence from a static attribute into a living process — one that unfolds through rhythm, reflection, and reciprocity.
The Rhythm of Intelligence
Within a kaupapa Māori worldview, intelligence is not a competition of minds but a constellation of relationships. It flows through whakapapa, whenua, whānau, and whanaungatanga, through the exchange of story, energy, and understanding.
Intelligence, in this sense, is rhythmic. It expands and contracts, awakens and rests, much like the tides. Leaders who attune to this rhythm move beyond analysis into awareness — recognising that wisdom is as much about timing and tone as it is about thought.
Closing Reflection
When we release intelligence from measurement, we return it to meaning.
Every person carries a unique configuration of insight — a whakapapa of ways of knowing shaped by experience, lineage, and purpose.
In this light, Poutama IQ and Poutama EQ are not adaptations of existing models, but distinct yet converging ontological conduits within the Kaupapa- Aligned Paradigm™ and the ascent of Kaupapa-Aligned Leadership™. Together, they strengthen both the clarity of thinking and the integrity of action — inviting leaders to integrate thought and feeling, reflection and embodiment, analysis and aroha.
True intelligence is not only what we know, but how we move with what we know — and how we activate and share what we know and what we do in service of kaupapa.
Reflection for Leaders
Take a moment to consider:
-
How do I define intelligence in my leadership and learning contexts?
-
Which forms of intelligence do I naturally value, and which do I overlook?
-
How do I integrate both insight (IQ) and embodiment (EQ) in my daily practice?
-
Where do I see rhythm, timing, and reflection influencing intelligent action within my team?
-
How might a kaupapa Māori perspective expand how I understand and express intelligence?
Further Exploration
To explore the Kura Poutama™ – Poutama IQ Ascent Series™ — including Manu Hōmiromiro: Poutama Insights™, Hā Tārewa: Poutama Flow™, and Te Puna Kōrero: Poutama Signature™ — visit the Manawa Kōkopu Poutama IQ Ascent Series.
Each pathway strengthens the practice of conscious and transformative leadership — weaving insight and embodiment into contributions that sustain kaupapa and create enduring intergenerational impact.
Image credit: Tahere, K. (2025). Used with permission.
Author: Megan Tahere. (2025).