Heart intelligence in action

Obstacles and levers

What is the Heart intelligence (HI)? Can it be taught and learned? To what extent can managers transform themselves by developing it, and thereby help their companies to evolve? What are the levers and obstacles to this transformation? What is the impact of the “from heart to action” programme developed by our association on the participating managers? These are the questions at the heart of the research programme that we have entrusted in June 2021 to Stéphane Labranche, sociologist and scientific coordinator of the International Panel on Behavior Change (IPBC).

Main research results

Stéphane La Branche’s action research was based on :

  • a review of the academic literature on the different dimensions of the intelligence of the heart (intuition, empathy, courage)
  • three sets of semi-structured interviews with participants in the first year of the Heart in Action programme (June 2021 to January 2023)

The action-research enabled us to identify whether, and to what extent, the course, through its pedagogical staircase and its specific learning methods (through practice, meetings and exchanges between peers), provided the right conditions and appropriate tools for leaders to transform themselves and their companies.

The small number of leaders, their predominantly humanist value system, and their pioneering nature, do not allow us to assert that the pathway as such is a systematically efficient (and reproducible) tool for the profound transformation of a leader and his or her company, but from this sample, three key facts can be noted:

  • The course has provided the managers with a deeper understanding of themselves, enabling them to gain in personal alignment, and to have a better, more solid basis for taking action.
  • The very "hands-on" dimension of the course has made it effective in terms of getting people to take real action in a wide range of strategic areas. Indeed, changes in practice are more effectively brought about by active teaching (experimentation, putting things into practice): HI cannot be taught in theory, but managers can be encouraged to practise it, and to help each other.
  • The obstacles to taking action have been identified and, where possible, totally or partially removed: obstacles internal to the manager (in particular certain fears), obstacles specific to the organisation (its type of corporate governance and its rigidities, the culture and the common standard of thinking, resistance from employees), and finally external obstacles (cyclical or more structural relating to the vision of the role of a company).

Through a series of encounters, mutual support and in-depth self-examination, the course has enabled several participants to dare to take action (with greater knowledge and confidence), and to make atypical, out-of-the-ordinary decisions.

Download the report (May 2023)

Our

Research partner

IPBC is an international, interdisciplinary group of behavioural scientists. Its aim is to produce reports summarising the state of the art of knowledge on environment-related behaviour change, and to integrate multiple disciplines around behaviour/Human Factor, to make knowledge, indicators and practices more robust and predictive with a view to sustainable, desirable and fair transitions.

This research is complementary to the “Power of the Heart : Impact study and reflections on the transformation of corporate governance through the intelligence of the heart” program run by Prophil, which focuses more specifically on governance issues. Find out more on the dedicated page.