Actualizing the potentialities that are naturally ours
- Indications
Among the difficulties in respect to which the MN tool most efficiently facilitates improved coping abilities, one finds:
- Workplace related difficulties
- Procrastination
- Burnout
- Loss of self-confidence
- Career orientation difficulties
- Theoretical Framework
The story that brought about the birth of the Multiple Natures was concept
In 1990, Steven Rudolph moved to New York City to pursue a career in music. Though an accomplished guitar player and performer, he needed to supplement his income, so he took a part-time job as an English teacher. In his first class, Rudolph instantly connected to his role as an instructor and shortly thereafter had an epiphany that he wasn’t destined to be a professional musician, but instead was meant to be an educator. The joy he experienced was unlike anything he had ever felt before, but while he was delighted by his newfound happiness, he noticed how many people failed to find work that gave them similar pleasure, and that most of those whom he met found their work to be a source of stress and dissatisfaction. The experience left Rudolph wondering why the education system did so little to help people discover who they were, and how fortunate he was to realize what he was meant to do in life.
He imagined a world where all people knew their Natures and performed work according to their innate potential. It was a dream for which he felt compelled to dedicate his life. Rudolph realized that the world he envisioned would not come about if people only discovered their natural abilities by accident. So he set out to take concrete steps to make his dream a reality.
His first plan was create a school whose primary focus would be to help children discover their unique abilities and professional paths. In 1994, with the cooperation of three friends, he set up the JIVA Public School outside of New Delhi. Today the school has over 2000 students from grades nursery to 12, and self-discovery forms the core of the curriculum.
- Aims
The development of a psychological framework, the aim of which is to help a person identify the specific natural potential that is his or her own.
Over the years, Rudolph developed tools and methodologies to assess learner abilities including the use of American scientist Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory.
In 1983, Howard Gardner challenged the I.Q. (Intellectual Quotient) standpoint, a standpoint which implicitly surmised that there existed only one way of being intelligent. He argued instead that there were in fact many different ways of being intelligent. In developing his Multiple Intelligences concept, he ended up identifying 8 main intelligencies. Gardner further argued that all of us were endowed with all 8 of these different types of intelligences, albeit in varying degrees from one person to the next.
He found that people with a highly developed type of intelligence found it easier to work in areas where this type of intelligence was required. These people then quickly reached much higher levels of performance in these specific areas, compared to people who were not naturally endowed with the same type of intelligence.
By and by, Rudolph however gradually came to the conclusion that the Multiple Intelligences model was relaying only half the story. According to him, what one additionally needs to take into account is the way in which one chooses to take advantage of the types of intelligences in which we find ourselves more proficient. It is based on such a standpoint that in 2008 Rudolph introduced the idea that above and beyond the various intelligences that structure our potential, we are also subject to tendencies that structure in very specific areas the way in which we feel inclined to want to use the said potential. In so doing, Rudolph identified 9 tendencies that so guide our behavior, tendencies he promptly defined as representing our Multiple Natures.
According to Rudolph's perspective, every person is constituted by a set of Intelligences and Natures. These translate into the unique personality that is ours. It is the specific combination of theses qualities that defines our Nature. Thus, what we should above all understand is that it is foremostly our Nature which influences our way of acting, the activities to which we feel attracted, those we love and those in which we are able to excel.
- Methodology
The Multiple Nature on-line Test
The Multiple Natures Test (MN Online Test) is a psychometric assessment test based on the Multiple Natures framework. Its purpose is to help the person identify his or her specific abilities and tendencies. Created in 2008, the MN Test contains a series of self-assessment questions and can be completed in about 30 minutes. It is intended for people of all ages from the age of 13 onwards, but there are nevertheless slightly different versions for students on the one hand and for executives / managers on the other hand.
On the basis of the answers that a person gives, the MN site first creates a specific profile that is referred to as the "personality print". In a second step, by tapping into a database containing hundreds of jobs, the MN site identifies and lists those jobs that best fit a person’s specific profile.
A "percentage of alignment" is displayed beside each job listed. The percentage represents the degree to which the listed job reflects (or not) a person’s specific profile. The person can then browse the results using different filters (relative to a desired salary, area of specialization and / or qualification required).
The path leading to the discovery of our strong potentialities and our resistances; how we may best manage these so as to achieve optimum balance
As useful as the MN online Test may be, its utility remains relative to the extent that the results that it yields are not properly interpreted, with the help of a trained Counselor. The role of the Counselor in this regard is in fact quite crucial. His role will be to help his client gain a deeper understanding of what having a high score in a given Nature or Intelligence (Strong Potential) really implies.
He will then move on to helping his client acquire a sense of how he may best invest in activities in line with his strong potential, while taking into account the impact of those qualities in him which do not fall into the category of strong innate natural potentials (Resistances).
The Counselor will additionally introduce his client to a variety of ways by means of which he may further adjust his scores so as to have them reflect the reality of his innate potential as closely as possible. Finally, he will strive to make himself available to his client in any way that might prove useful for him to better take into account his newly acquired knowledge of Intelligences and Natures, so that he can tend every day a bit more towards an “In the Flow” state of being as often as possible (Optimum Equilibrium).
- Professional affiliations
It is through the Multiple Natures International Institute that I followed my basic and more advanced trainings. And it is through this institute that I additionally continue to undergo regular supervisions.
