PAS 440:2020 Explained

“It is one of the lessons of history that becoming is achieved by the mastery of our attitudes, by our embrace of the direction of change and the choice to make the change, by our living out that choice as the change itself.” – Matt Furey

Intelligence holds a key responsibility to nurture itself, and for the rest of us, improving our understanding of what we don’t yet know is of high importance. That’s the goal of this article.

In a paper published in 1985, the Concept of Intelligence was defined by Howard Gardner as “the capacity to solve problems in the face of obstacles, to respond with heightened complexity to novel situations, and to adapt well to the environment” (Gardner, 1983). Gardner went on to call this property ‘Multiple Intelligences’ (MI).

The implications of this theory are enormous, as we have previously explored in our article on emotional intelligence. IQ tests have been heavily criticized for not evaluating non-cognitive abilities, and so the emphasis on emotional intelligence as a part of MI provides a welcome corrective.

However, we have not yet addressed how these facets of intelligence appear in the practical world. That is where PAS 440:2020 comes in.

What is it?

PAS 440:2020 is short for Public Administration Standard on Training and Professional Development for Staff and Consultants. It is an open source, free to use standard hosted on the American Society for Public Administration website. It provides information and structure regarding all levels of employee training and development in government (D2L, 2015).

Why does it matter?

It’s all about making better decisions in the present. There are lots of ways to look at intelligence. One of the more interesting ones involves the idea of Foresight.

Foresight is defined as “the ability to anticipate future events or trends and prepare for them” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). Foresight is typically seen as the ability to predict the future state of the world, although most definitions include the idea of planning and preparedness in preparation for that potential state.

The idea of PAS 440:2020 as an IQ test is that it opens minds to possibility and encourages a sense of readiness and readiness to attempt new things.

The difference between intelligence and impulsiveness is pretty much just intent. It’s worth taking the time to reflect on how you treat your own intelligence. This standard is a great way to raise the bar and make sure there are no more dull moments in your own mind.