Pick up any book on the brain… or ask about pictures in brain imaging… and you might get more gobble-d-gook than thoughtful answers…but that’s 
changing. It’s a good thing…. People feel intimidated to speak when language or body language makes them feel stupid…. And when jargon is spoken to describe what's happening in their own noodles… words sail over their heads so silence replies…. Has that ever happened to you…?
I attended a leadership roundtable at Brock University recently where silences needed to shatter … and they did not…. So when faculty from several departments began to share new ideas about the brain and to ask questions together about how they could help more students to be successful in class… one tenured faculty from the psychology bullied them into silence…. The body language and sharp words of this set-in-his-ways-psychologist showed anger that others would talk freely about his turf and clomp on his terrain…. I watched faculty after faculty silenced before this man finally stomped out of the room… claiming he had other things to do anyway…. Have you seen language bullies who create silence when people try to talk and question…?
Not long after that incident… I read in the Globe and Mail Brock University students fared very poorly when compared to other Canadian campuses … and I wondered if this tenured faculty had bullied others into silences so that students bore the brunt…? Any arrogance of language that is intended to intimidate and silence other voices in your workplace…?
Have you found that those who hold secrets and good news about the brain share these gems in respectful words that welcome discussion and include others…? Maybe it’s time to start a revolution for more fireside chats on a topic we all hold in common… our extravagant human brains that yield amazing new secrets daily…. What do you think…?
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