
Newly discovered insights about the human brain at work, can transform problems into possibilities if we:
1. Replace talk with actions, and simply do something that others you most admire do daily. Why? It reprograms your brain for more of the same. We now know the human brain rewires itself nightly while you sleep, based on specifically what you did during that day. The benefit? What you do daily, will flex your brain’s plasticity and keeps it malleable to do more of the same.
2. Run from lectures and talks that work against your brain. How so? Teach others as you are learn yourself, and research suggests you’ll retain 90% of what you learn. Compare that high retention to the mere 5 % retained after hearing a lecture or talk.
3. Risk new adventures for ongoing growth. First, recognize where you stand at the moment, and then step daily toward one new destination you hope to reach. Whenever you clarify where you stand, and simultaneously create a higher target to follow, the brain creates new neuron pathways toward that target.
4. Raise effectiveness from mental chemicals for growth and well-being. Are you aware, for instance, that you can ratchet up your serotonin chemical levels, to help move you mentally to new peaks?
4. Retrofit your workspace so that you listen to music occasionally that changes moods, and so that your multiple intelligences become tools to solve workplace problems.
At times when resources are fast fleeing from some firms, people look increasingly to engage hidden and unused resource in the human brain. Not a bad idea - if you consider a brain’s real potential.










Great post, Ellen. I like all the points but especially the one about teaching the way you learn yourself. Most human learning goes from concrete and specific to abstract and general, but most teaching tries to go the other way. It's like rowing upstream, you can make progress, but it's harder. I don't remember who said it, so I can't give credit, but "the brain is wired for concrete examples" is good advice indeed.
Posted by: Wally Bock | September 7, 2008 9:08 AM | Permalink to Comment