Brain Waves Blog

Educators have discussed social intelligence for over 100 years. So why am I still asked to introduce the topic to leaders so often? Perhaps because language has evolved in ways that make it hard for us to recognize the innovative application of a century-old concept that now means more than one thing. I bet you’re just as nerdy as me; let’s break it down.

Social intelligence is more than just capturing online data. It's a framework to measure and analyze data that human experts turn into insights you use to inform your strategy and take action. The framework gives you knowledge to make more data-driven decisions moving forward. 

Your social media manager isn’t the right person to determine how you use (or don’t use) social listening. And they’re not the only end user of insights—far from it.

Over the past year, I’ve noticed an emerging trend in conversations about leadership in higher education. More and more people are saying something I never expected to hear so often:

Everyone with an interest in postsecondary enrollment or the health of the industry seems to be talking about research methodology these days. A 5.5% increase in first-year student enrollment was misreported as a 5% decline due to a data coding error announced by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Professionals are frustrated that “a thermometer for a feverish sector” could have such an inaccurate reading; some maintain that a preliminary report created in response to a worldwide pandemic and possibly carried forward due to its headline-grabbing nature should never have been considered a reliable industry indicator.

I had the most wonderful campus visit in November. Two members of a university leadership team invited me to speak with a group of stakeholders about social intelligence and Campus Sonar. The visit stood out to me because they followed some best practices to vetting and building a relationship with an expert partner. Here’s how to adopt their approach.