Emotional intelligence

Goleman D. (1996). Emotional Intelligence. Why it matter more than IQ. London: Bloomsbury Publishing

This book is not a particularly new one (and more have already followed by Goleman on social intelligence, ecological intelligence, etc.), but I only recently read it while working on a pilot project on education. The concept of ‘emotional intelligence’, developed starting from works by Gardner (Gardner et al. 1995) and Mayer and Salovey (1997), has had a significant impact on education programs suggesting the need to complement traditional cognitive skills with social and emotional ones. Emotional Intelligence (or literacy) entails ‘knowing one’s emotions’, ‘managing emotions’, ‘motivating oneself’, ‘recognising emotions in others’ (empathy), ‘handling relationships’. I found particularly intriguing the counter-intuitive position that ‘feelings are typically indispensable for rational decision; they point us in the proper direction, where dry logic can then be of best use’ (p. 28). If we consider the role of design, and service design in particular, to balance the rational interpretation of processes and behaviors as predictable sequences of actions, toward more situated and human-centred approaches that tend to include emotions and social interactions into account (see emotional or interaction mapping tools), the concept of social and emotional intelligence becomes a particularly relevant one for service designers to explore.