The framework
The framework keeps two questions separate: what kinds of activity and contribution repeatedly draw a person, and what domain-specific capacities they can use. Those are related questions. They are not the same question.
A person may have a strong capacity without wanting to use it often. They may also feel repeatedly drawn to a kind of contribution that still requires practice, support, or skill. Calling both things “strengths” hides that difference. Multiple Natures names it.
Recurring engagement and contribution
A Nature is a relatively stable tendency to engage in certain kinds of activity and to make certain kinds of contribution.
The framework currently describes nine working Nature constructs. They give people language for examining recurring patterns of engagement and contribution.
A Nature is not an identity, a skill, a performance result, an occupation, or a guaranteed outcome.
Domain-specific capacity
An Intelligence is a relatively stable, domain-specific capacity. Depending on the Intelligence, that capacity includes perceiving, discriminating, processing, producing, generating, and/or coordinating action within its domain.
The framework uses ten Intelligence constructs. They help distinguish capacity in one domain from capacity in another.
An Intelligence is not a Nature, a preference, a motivation, a virtue, or a guarantee of performance.
Natures may help explain a recurring pull toward an activity or contribution. Intelligences describe domain-specific capacities that may be involved. One does not determine the other, and the framework does not prescribe a fixed formula for combining them.
The same activity can involve several Natures and Intelligences. The same Nature can appear through different capacities. The useful question is not “Which label is this person?” It is “What does this distinction help us examine more clearly?”
MNTEST is a 76-item pilot self-report instrument. It produces a provisional estimate of a person's Natures and Intelligences—a profile to examine, question, and revise in conversation.
It is not an aptitude test, a diagnosis, a measure of career fit, or a prediction of outcomes. A score should never be turned automatically into a job, course, or life recommendation.
