Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Change or be Changed – it’s how the brain works. It’s also why I plan to refuse a lucrative contract offer later today … for the sake of brain based progress where I work.

I’m reminded today that all brain based business boils down to this: changing practices to improve the bottom line. Why does it seem so hard? Cognitive sciences offer a few surprising new answers – that translate into better approaches at work.

What if you were given the choice to make difficult and enduring changes that could change your workplace and your life for the better?  Would you do it? Likely you say … Sure! Seems like a dumb question… right? Research shows though … that faced with that choice you would likely still not change….

Do you remember the event about a  year ago … when IBM’s top executives  invited farsighted leaders from around the world to New York and proposed solutions to a few complex problems. They looked at the crisis in health care and found that CEOs are expected to be change-agents for their firms, but most resist change that can take their organization into the future. They also found that many leaders stand in the way of change where they work.

Some people feel that  crisis can motivate more lasting changes than calm. Research suggests … however … that change comes through appealing to people’s emotions much more than it comes through  analysis and quantitative measurement. In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.

Change is part of a person's intrapersonal or emotional intelligence … and without action from that intelligence … it is less likely to either take or hold. That's not all.... Change comes from you a bit faster when you're young and your brain’s plasticity is more flexible. There's no getting around it. But when business leaders … a bit older … notice that they've lost a bit of their snap-crackle-pop for change… they frequently overlook the mental powers gained over time and available through their intrapersonal intelligence mix.

Some call it personal wisdom … researchers say it’s  a dense and rich network of brain cell dendrites … developed through a lifetime of experiences. I say it comes far more to successful people who earn it— in simple day by day steps to exchange one practice that holds you back for one that holds enough risk to take your organization forward. What would that change look like in your day…? I plan to let go of a lucrative contract --- because I dislike the lack of forward thinking capabilities in the company that is offering it. That’s change folks … and I’ll let you know in a few days how my risk will be rewarded with a contract more in line with brain based business practices as they are collaborated with progressive thinkers. What do you think?