Brain Leaders and Learners

A panel of experts on NPR just warned us again that US organizations free fall daily, while developing countries advance emerging takeovers. All through squashing or boosting innovation and discovery. Have you seen it happen?

Invention will reignite broken bureaucracies,  only if novelty  parachutes back into profitable interventions.  Only if your organization reverses tumbling markets from further free falls, before it’s too late.

Invention and workplace nosedives rarely occupy common skies.

It’s also true that workers’ innovative capability holds more than enough talent and raw ingenuity to return a zest for ongoing improvements – in spite of occasional plummets. Reinvest in an innovative process, for example, and you can stop rapidly eroding ground through vigorous and healthy new enterprises that shape an entrepreneurial era.

So how to lead change in the face of organizational freefalls:

1. Facilitate roundtables rather than dictate orders and you’ll reverse faceless commands that drive an estimated 30% of corporate workers to care less about their jobs. The clear message that top down meetings send is that one person carries the vision and new input is unnecessary to organizational growth.

2. Reward ethical leadership practices and you’ll likely discontinue downward directions from at least a few  egos that currently serve self. Impede dishonest practices and watch the advancement of  innovative approaches pop up with far wider workplace benefits.

3. Exchange multi-tasking for focused brainpower and one new invention. A central bottleneck exists in the brain, and this prevents people from doing two things well at once. Yet, while inability to process two tasks at the same time, exists in the frontal cortex, demands for multi-tasking comes with many jobs.

4. Negotiate and display short term alongside long term goals. Watch the synergy of the groups’ brainpower narrow gaps between pressured positions where workers stand unaware of organizational vision, toward calmer places where workers gladly achieve targets they helped to create.

5. Connect past cynicism of workplace naysayers. Halt disdain for innovative ideas, that pops up when cynics rail against others’ efforts, and distrust motives of  workers who differ. If you find yourself over on the darker side of life, free-falling with cynics where you work, consider ways to turn off that molecular switch in favor of healthier habits that more creative peers practice.

So how do you halt freefalls that tossed Rome and your organization into brainless routines and a diminished stature? What tactics would you add here to boost innovation and lead a culture of discovery where you work?

When Dorthy told Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore, she spoke for many who shuffle constant changes  across differences. Yet, conflict caused by lack of inclusion at work, costs billions of dollars, not to mention robs motivation and morale, expert Cam Marston reminds us.  It takes radical reconfiguration to diversify and avoid toxins at work.

Notice  any shift in your skylines? Looking over the rainbow as did the Wizard of Oz cast?  If so, you’ll likely spot  visions that fuse racial differences. It’s been suggested that the last decade of ideas is being replaced with an era of vision with innovation at its peak.

No longer can we settle for unfair top-down  benefits for a few privileged. Let’s counter policies such as Goldman Sachs financial decisions that serve one population while others topple.

Success in our change-prone era, begs new directions with sea legs ready to stand on unsteady surfaces.  Like Pfizer’s global executive, David Simmons  advanced diversified leaders, we’re ready for smart skills on the rainbow’s other side.

Diversify leaders and mind-bending results will follow

Look for people who differ and you’ll find leaders who represent culture, background, and gender strengths. Skill that reach across differences, and talents that span multiple intelligences.

The dream team over at ImagineAge sports such diversity as part of their DNA. Described as an inter-generational, eclectic group, organized to bring a wide range of information to ImagineAge, this group looks across ages through different lenses of life.

Looking for bonus benefits? When the human brain reaches past daily ruts,  mind-bending surprises result. According to Robert Lee Holtz, Wall Street Journal Science Columnist, researchers found that sudden insights or Eureka moments show unique neural activity in EEG sensors. Simply put, the brain is most actively engaged when we  lose track of routine patterns that come from exclusion, and engage differences at work.

Create new neuron pathways toward success through a fresh new reality that can only come from welcoming diversity.  Kick-start action in your brain for expanded worlds where leaders like Wegmans celebrate another win in Fortune 100 list as the best place to work. No wonder people pack into their stores as if they were its winners. They are.

While aftershocks of a crumbling economy continue to shake the ground underneath our feet, it takes brainpower to diversify and rebuild crumbling structures. A mind-bending fix for this broken economy lies less in banks, or government dictates, than in rebooting strengths found across diversified brainpower. What do you think?

Since golf’s a cerebral game, it makes sense to play with more brainpower in mind. It may surprise you that golf benefits you mentally, or that you can literally raise your golf IQ. How so?

1.Shoot for a higher target than you typically land. Need a birdie to remain under par? Then  shoot for an eagle. Your brain leaps to challenges and can create new synapses that stretch your swings to the next level. From that first shot off the tee, golfers capitalize on kinesthetic intelligence and naturalistic intelligence.  The game also adds brain chemicals for sharper focus. A growing body of research suggests how the links hold mental benefits for business brains, beyond what most golfers realize. Perhaps more even than rich alliances and friendships gained on the course, golf keeps players in top mental form.

2. Laugh lots and make light of missed shots. To keep serotonin high for the next good whack, use laughter as a fuel for a better ride on the next round. According to this YouTube video a new hazard – a fox – is now in full operation at Missoula, Montana Golf Course, near Clark Fork River Lodge. This fifteen pound red fox  is outwitting golfers at almost every hole and its fairways heists keep the most serious golfers in stitches.  It seems the little hoodwink fox is seen as a nuisance to a few poor sports yet laughed at by most golfers at the club, who take their shot and then take their chances against the 4-footed thief. What makes you laugh before you swing?

3. Conquer one hole at a time. Bank extra points for the tougher holes and with your deposit in place, relax to ward off stress before you swing for harder holes. Cortisol chemicals surge in a brain under pressure and will work against your golf skills. If you get better shots on the front nine, for instance, work harder for fewer strokes, and then treat the back nine as a learning curve. Challenges that often don’t exist in the first 9 holes tend to pop in the last 9 to give you practice shots from many angles, if you can snip the amygdala before you start the game. Rather than resent the back 9 – see it as a way to improve your brain for a better game.  Now there’s a hole-in-one-thought that offers you practice opportunities to grow new skills. Start your game with this winning plan in mind and it helps to keep your head down and swing through – though –  even on the back nine! 

4. Watch fellow players and expect growth regardless of age. Your brain comes equipped with mirror neurons and you can improve your golf skills and optimize your brainpower for better swings at any age. Simply observe what swings work well for others. In spite of a recent bout with cancer, Marjorie Brewer at  60, still swings a driver like a pro and putts like a metronome. She’s out four times a week near the grounds of her law office. People far younger struggle to keep up in one of the persistent mysteries of even an aging brain.  Marjorie found there are tremendous health care benefits to doing what she loves most – golf. But others see Marjorie’s high-performance mind for golf that keeps improving with use. At 58, Murray Jensen expected golf to help his brain to show effects of  cardiovascular disease.  Murray’s doctor seemed surprised by the mental progress and new alertness that boosted Murray’s once frail health. What could a golf game do for your aging mind?

5. Spot and name possibilities rather than challenges. Focus on new developments for your swing, rather than on difficulties that impede your swing. When one hit or putt fails, focus more on improving another shot – with a different club. Regardless of how many obstacles may impede your swing, plan another brisk round of golf’s sheer adventure. See the opportunity in spite of any difficulties and golf’s a mental tonic at once. How so? Golf allows you to capitalize on kinesthetic intelligence and it develops a better brain for business and for balance in other areas of life, than most golfers realize.

6. Risk new moves to gain another skill with each game. Try a new approach rather than fall into the brain’s penchant to default for mental ruts and repeat the same mistakes on a difficult hole. Think back to your last lesson, or to a golf tip you heard, and deliberately give it a shot. The human brain performs better with novelty and risk. When you consider long term benefits that follow from risk and novelty you’ll likely find courage to move a golf skill to the next level. Worth the risk?

7. Pack brain food and walk rather than ride. Improve your stamina with movement and mental nutrition during your next game. Expect your nourished brain to remain fast, your swings to stay strong and your mind to come alert for new challenges, while you build new neuron pathways to golf skills for lower scores. Did you know the brain demands 21 percent of the entire oxygen to your body?  Not surprisingly when you move more through walking, you enrich that supply and add to your brain’s potential.

8. Swing as if to win a top tournament yet accept mishaps as if they didn’t matter a wit. Why? We know from neurogenesis that people improve their lot by beliefs moved into winning tasks. We also know that self-competition reshapes human brains when golfers act to improve. How so? Swing those extra yards, putt a finer approach, Angle a better loft, or chip into the cup, and you literally reshape your brain chemically and electrically for higher intelligence.  Even simple competitive practice, can alter brainwaves up or down.

9. Support peers and practice thankfulness. Encouragement adds serotonin and well being to every round of golf – those that go well, and those that don’t. How so? Serotonin opens new ideas and possibilities, when you need it most. This hormone for well-being is essential to a good game and it is increased on the links when you simply expect it to help you out. Deliberately build more serotonin mental-well-being on the golf course today… by wishing others well as they approach the tee.  Image great shots whenever you take another swing, and refuse to focus on bad shots. Look forward in favor of a lesson learned for the next mentally controlled swing.

10. Compete against your own game. Whenever you focus too much on another golfer’s good score, regret over your own is apt to leave your own next shot short. Regret prevents skill growth. Rather than fight despair by comparing your own struggles to another person’s wins, it’s better to mentally spike each swing in ways that improve your weaker moves. The next time you grab a box of your favorite blue golf balls and head out for the links, visualize your best shot from the tee, and then compete against that shot for golf that follows from a high performance mind on the tee.

Ready for a game well under par? Why not try one or two brain based tips to make it happen. Let us know how you fare as we’re rooting for you all the way.

Did Tiger Woods refuse questions yesterday for the same reason others run from poisonous darts? Fact is, questions alter brainpower up or down.

Ask one question, and stir brain chemicals for innovation. Ask another and  short-circuit electrical wiring for mental blackouts. We rewire our collective brainpower through questions that stir curiosity or stomp out intelligence and growth.

No wonder people run when they feel vulnerable.

Two-footed questions jumpstart brainpower, and lead to change. for example. One foot ensures a topic is plummeted well, while the other  foot links to respect for each human’s experience. Yet questions too often come with toxic barbs from bullies or cynics.  How so?

Questions create blame or offer support

Ask, Why should we believe you? and you risk overheating a brain’s amygdala for harmful results.  Change the question to, How can we support you in the struggle you describe? and you replace cortisol with serotonin for well being and change. Do you see the difference?

We’ve rewired this nation’s brains to ask questions that create disagreeable expressions of gloom, and it’s time to transform inquiry tactics to look at problems with solutions more in mind. What do you think?

Questions cause gloom or increase hope

Ask, How can you sleep tonight after what happened? and you help to rewire the brain’s plasticity for more cynicism and angry responses.  Change the question to, How do you envision the best future possible? and you can convert tough mistakes into new neuron pathways to reshape moods and add dynamic solutions.

Questions reboot ruts or ignite rejuvenation

Ask, Why did you do such a stupid thing? and you connect a person’s dendrite brain cells to possible negative responses.  Change the question to, What could we do together for the sake of innovation in future? and you can convert common ruts into curiosity new solutions tossed into the mix. A person’s basal ganglia holds a propensity for ruts or rejuvenation. Questions can stir or stomp out either.

Questions  condemn or challenge

Ask, Did you think of anybody but yourself? and you shift the brain’s electrical wiring in the direction of cynicism. Change the question to, What past experiences could help to solve similar problems? and you challenge a person’s working memory to act as a tool for building a healthy focus forward.

Question spark humiliation or build curiosity

Ask, What happened and when? to catch another person’s ignorance of a lower level fact that you have memorized, and you humiliate a person in ways that shut down brainpower. Change the question to, How would this fact or that happening alter your position? and then name the lower level fact, to trigger the kind of curiosity that leads to higher IQs.

Do your typical questions transform brainpower into innovation? Or do  people like Tiger run from your inquisitions?

For years I sought pathways past gate-keepers in order to introduce and develop shared innovations.

Brain based renewal innovations for leaders and learners rarely make it through routine portals. Been there?

To prance past wardens of yesteryear, takes teaming up with intelligent innovators of tomorrow. It also takes not settling into the kind of peace and harmony that work against brainpower for innovation.

Pacesetters with courage to take risks – first must sidestep doors held shut by porters of the past. If your innovation has been barred behind sentients or cynics, you’ll especially enjoy the adventures of brainpower beyond the barriers.

To propel your innovations over gates – begin with your strong points and go for your brain’s infinite possibilities. The era of the brain is here! Peter Drucker said:

Knowing your strengths in how you learn and think

and acting on this knowledge

is key to performance.

Do you agree? If so, why not survey your intellectual strengths. It’s rarely easy to pioneer innovation in the best conditions, and near impossible to reconfigure tired traditions that able gate-keepers guard. In spite of  tactics proven to reboot brainpower and add innovation, protectors of old turf tend to prevent growth as tenaciously as viruses prevent health. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Move your organization beyond dyed-in-wool

custodians of past ruts -

Reboot brainpower for future expansion!

1). Rename new programs so they no longer resemble older models fiercely protected by a few dated workers, who hightail it from change like mice  run from cats. That way no red flags rise with those who insist on traditions and refuse renewal. Tried to update an innovative development course but cannot get it past an HR committee? Create instead, smart skill modules for reconfigured practices at work. Then require evidence of these updated skills by all workers who seek promotions.

2). Team with innovation investors from several departments.  Create a wider vision for a multi-faceted project made to prosper a new era at work. Gate-keepers find less support to block inventions that propose new practices across differences. Representation across multiple intelligences can catapult cultures and communities over walls that previously blocked growth in any one culture alone.  Ruts and routines are learned behavior and create neuron pathways in the human brain for more exclusion. Develop  keen inventions across wider groups, races, genders and ages, so that all  speak and feel heard at at every stage. Create alliances that pull thoughtful people together from every population group, and expect flawed systems to shrink significantly under the intellectual force that results.

3. Start where you stand now, rather than wait for resources to pour in from a shrinking public purse. You’ve likely noticed that gatekeepers tend to tighten purse strings rather than fund innovations. Use social media groups to gather insights and enlist resources from people with vested interest in changes for mutual benefits. The human brain comes with ready-to-start equipment to build and sustain inclusive cultures. Cultures where innovation,  design and the human brain, lead to profitability for all.

4. Refuse intimidation by gatekeepers, who prevent progress because of  amygdala related problems such as jealousy. How then do you rev up mental power to succeed when gatekeepers intimidate and bully? One innovative leader Dave Caiazza, said it best.

Work against the dangerous twins of jealousy and hypocrisy. They come disguised as concern, shrouded in statistics, and hidden behind a smile. When you’re good at something, there will always be someone who wants to undo you. Don’t let them.

Fortunately, a new reality is emerging where innovators circle their  gatekeepers,  inspire others past gridlocks,  and circumvent old stomping grounds. What could your workplace achieve beyond  gatekeeper barricades?

Consider countless hours wasted on counterproductive meetings, where the upshot’s  little more than routine announcements. Not surprising that Seth Godin refuses to attend meetings since meetings work against the human brain. 

How could you transform  your next meeting into a treasure trove of talent such as Paul Sloane suggests here for an  innovative takeaway?

Human brains come equipped to build and sustain innovative cultures where design leads to profitability.

Want to revitalize your next meeting to trump innovation brainpower?

1. Survey workers to identify toxins that drain brainpower.
2. Create teams to propose  workplace wellness opportunities.
3. Invite feedback to unleash brainpower beyond cynicism.
4. Collaborate tone tools to turn around broken practices.
5. Welcome solutions and alternatives from those who differ.
6. Ask 2-footed questions to engage curiosity.
7. Discuss broken systems with solutions in mind.
8. Reconfigure meetings to motivate more brainpower.
9. Encourage disagreement that builds goodwill.
10. Facilitate innovation with the brain in mind.

Here are 25 further ways to reboot brainpower and add innovation in transformed meetings. Could your next roundtable  raise the bottom line?

Who’d  guess that mere facial expressions at a meeting can limit or enhance everybody’s takeaway.  We saw it in action last night at the State of the Union Address, where some participants grimaced at most of the President’s speech, and refused to participate in anything but naysaying, and cynicism.

The purpose of this blog is not to cast blame on either party, but to look at both sides in terms of the lost tone skills and toxic workplaces in our country.

How so?

Tone is the body language of communication at any meeting, with skills vital to help people disagree with dignity. Serotonin rises with positive tone – to help people build goodwill even among those who differ.  Grimaces and cynicism increase cortisol and prevent learning from following on the heels of opposing views expressed at the best meetings.

Would you agree though, that good communication escapes too many modern meetings?

When research and tone skills work together to benefit meetings:

Disagreement becomes art when it draws together differences to help people  find common ground in controversial issues. Check out tone tips to disagree at your next meeting. In contrast, see subtle barbs from dissenters who  lack tools to disagree.

Tone takes different shapes in different settings, and yet can lead to growth or devastation in meetings. With digital sessions increasing, for instance,  online tone is also critical for building high performance climates. Survey your tone skills to see if you work in an organization that disagrees well, and cultivates healthy communication across differences.

Opposing views appear impossible at some meetings. Or can you trace tone problems to the root of  organizational failures?  Einstein put it this way … “Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment.  Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”

It doesn’t need to be that way. 

Here are a few tone tips for disagreeing in ways that build goodwill at meetings.

1. Affirm another person’s thoughts before sharing your views on the other side – to show that you really heard, sorted, and valued them. (notice I did not say agree with them)

2. Thank people for different ideas presented and show how you’ve tried or considered them further. Toss your own ideas into the ring to show and explain differences you see.

3. Share personal experiences respectfully as another angle to think about together – rather than as a need to replace the original ideas that were presented. Remember you are looking to stir and learn from diverse sides of the issue.

4. Ask two footed questions… rather than offer your own opinion too quickly. . For instance…  Have you thought about…? What if…? Could another possibility be …?

5. Add unique ideas to the mix – to inspire with confidence – more as part of a good discussion – than a need to top the original points. Make sure you support your best ideas with concrete examples to help people see possibilities presented.

Congratulations, you have just used differences to segue into a broader vision for your workplace – one that draws in multiple talents.

See further tone tips for meetings that value and learn from others’ ideas in ways that engage diverse views – and even disagree with some. What mugshot will you bring to the next meeting?

Before you pony up $50,000 or more for an MBA degree, it makes sense to check out what you can expect back for your investment. Recession begs us to rethink business schools, and to consider if the value of degrees have plummeted along with home prices and salaries. As Joe Gerstandt reminds us we need a new kind of leader. If you agree, you’ll likely also agree that renewed leadership requires a new kind of MBA, with classes that are millennial friendly. One that few business schools currently offer.

How so?

Imagine MBAs who suddenly added  innovative tactics for a new era to your organization. If well-equipped leaders facilitated cutting edge initiatives with more brain in mind. Your organization would know these new MBA leaders by sharply increased profitability and worker morale where they worked.

In a brain based program transformed  graduates would come into your organization with current business plans patterned after highly successful local, national and global leaders, such as:

• Talent – Bill Conaty leads business talent management.  Conaty raised the level of HR internationally, and convinced other business leaders to spot credibility of HR as an answer to unleashing talent as human capital.

• Finances – Jeffrey Sachs calls for a complete change in economic strategies for a crowed planet. In spite of the wonderful insights of President Obama, Sachs offers, we are still dealing economic lies and abuse in the back rooms of government and Wall Street.

• Curiosity - Ursula Burns leads Xerox from tired traditions that sagged in sales to position it back among top organizations, with the challenges that come from asking Where to from here? By stirring curiosity for answers in co-workers, Burns finds answers that many CEOs tend to miss.

• Innovation – George Lucas comes with creative insights for the future of cinema. Lucas never really wanted to make money, but passionately wanted to make art.  In art you make an emotional and innovative connection to people. Innovation for Lucas, involves telling stories to the population in a meaningful and emotional way.

• Tone - Eric Massa solves business problems with statesman-like tone that engages opposing views, while finding courage to speak out against cynicism. Only by using tone skills for tough times, can leaders facilitate innovative ideas from diverse angles so that all can both teach and learn from others who differ.

• Organization – Gary Hamel offers unique management innovation plans that would revolutionize MBAs. Hamel stated in the world business forum 2009,  To succeed in the future, organizations are going to have to find ways of energizing people, so that they bring not only their skills, expertise and diligence to work, but they bring their passion and their initiative as well.

• Change – Ann Mulcahy takes charge and draws others into change. Mulcahy faced critics and cynics alike – to embrace changes that brought Xerox back from the brink of disaster and held it in archaic practices with exclusive privileges for a few leaders at its top. By launching innovative change, Xerox is back in the race as a strong global player.

You likely have leaders in mind that qualify even more for some of these slots and we’d love to hear about them. But back to the opening challenge of why buy an expensive MBA. We are drowning as a business community,  and to revive we need to create a new kind of leader,  and pass it on to the next generation of business school grads.

Many old school skills taught in current MBA program, remind us that  a new kind of leader is urgently needed. In future posts, look for innovative suggestions for teaching MBA programs with brains more in mind. It won’t be easy to accomplish in some current campuses, nor is it a task for the faint hearted. Yet the urgent need for a new kind of leader, compels us to rethink how we can develop highly effective business leaders for a new era.

Could reconfigured MBAs carry our business world back from rags of broken banks back to riches of human achievement?  Could  leadership that models a new tone for tough times, for example, offer Wall Street’s answer to an innovative future for management? Perhaps more importantly, could a new breed of MBAs open main street’s surest segue to creative progress?

Imagine leaders who build brilliant inroads that reconnect humans to innovation through technology, management,  social media, and institutional change. How so?

Leaders would begin to address the narrowing gates to resources. We still have a long way to go!

Innovation today is tenaciously blocked by bureaucrats with power, or dismissed by politicians without vision of  innovation’s new roles for humanity. Caught in hierarchies where vision fades to the right or draws to the left, but rarely reaches progressive greens, Hebbian leaders tend to prevent innovation’s steady trajectory toward future wins.

Opposite innovative MBAs, stand Hebbian counterparts,  who appear unable to renew with the brain in mind, and incapable to override the brain’s default to ruts. What’s the solution?

Imagine the active place innovation would leap to within a facilitation style leadership, that came to business from cutting edge MBA programs, armed with innovation  in your area.

For years I attended toxic meetings where one guy yammered on and one  fellow worker turned off his hearing aids. It’s the only time I can remember wishing for Gordon’s hearing disability.

That’s how bad these meetings were. People moved back and forth  from bored to bitching, while Gordon slept with his eyes open and the rest of us envied his ability to escape through a switch on his ears.

Have you attended meetings that left you feeling dumber at the end?

If so, you’ll likely see the benefits of  calling a meeting the best brains in your company literally run to. It’s likely no surprise to you that most meetings literally work against the human brain, and therefore detract from your organization’s productivity. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Here are 5 steps to reconfigure your next meetings by facilitating with the brain in mind.

1. Question in ways that draw in new ideas and advance old ones with new leverage from reconfigured angles. Ask 2 footed questions so that people are drawn in and problems get solved. Ask for instance, If you could change one practice in your department this week to raise the bottom line, what would you change?
2. Target so that you collaboratively set one goal to improve a problem area at work. Identify one area that needs improvement by facilitating as many voices as possible on the possibilities that carry mutual dividends. Look at problems with solutions in mind, and you’ll find your goals grow bigger than any one leader, as enthusiasm springs up from many angles.
3. Expect in ways illustrate criteria most can agree to. List what’s required to ensure the change you plan to instigate. Common criteria may include: a). Date that action plan is to be completed; b). Cost allowed for improved practice; c). Evidence the new routine gets improved results; d). Assurance that all team members contribute; e). Teachable takeaways to share across the company and beyond.
4. Move resources so that people’s multiple intelligences become brainpower tools for growth in the area identified. Check out Dr. Robyn MacMaster’s cool suggestions for brainwriting at meetings, for instance.
5. Reflect in ways that sustain growth in the area of change by asking,  Where to from here? on a weekly or monthly basis.

It’s important to note that these steps to brainpower meetings that more can live with, require a skilled facilitator. A leader with acumen to draw from diverse intelligences that build a finer organization for all.

How will you open your next meeting so that more brainpower emerges?

A critic is a person who points out blunders, in such a way that simple mistakes look like launching pads for a global disaster – all fueled by your few faults.

Critics in today’s toxic workplaces often compare fault finding skills to a unique and higher intelligence, when in reality, criticism requires less brainpower than most people realize.

Opposite critics though, stand skilled facilitators who capitalize on neuro-discoveries, welcome ambiguity, and stir passion for newly discovered talents.

Take your pick!  Would you rather work alongside the well known  critic or cynic in your organization, or interact with a skilled  facilitator like Dan Isenberg over at Harvard Business Review. Dan opened a lively discussion on dangers of entrepreneurial passion, and then guided widely diverse views as curiosity-building-tools for new insights to replace old assumptions.

It’s often the difference between infighting or innovation at work, and the choice depends  on a person’s focus. Think of it this way -  your brain actually builds new neuron pathways for each criticism or innovation engaged. Why then do critics  jump in so fast on their mission to damn the dumb?

Slip into any area that could be deemed a mistake, and you’ll you spot  critics who  rush  in to strike out errors, much like a fire hose douses unwanted flames. A lifetime of work with both critical and facilitator leaders, showed me 10  common causes  that lead people to critique, criticize, correct, or outright  clobber a bloke at work.

Reasons  differ, yet critics  follow somewhat similar patterns:

1. Facts appear wrong or missing to critics and as a result they feel it’s vital to set folks straight and make records right.
2. Brainy comparisons to right and wrong, prompt  critics to refuse being outwitted by misinformed plebs and underlings.
3. Positions of power appear  available to critics who spot most errors and make these known to leaders.
4. Feedback forms come with the job and critics assume that these require a certain percentage of negative responses.
5. Opposing views confuse  issues and so critics favor one correct way, which is usually their own and often uninformed.
6. Errors offer a platform for critics to pontificate their perceived finer approach to whatever topic arises.
7. Personal reflection for growth takes mental skill -  and blame comes far easier to a cynic, than does self-reflection.
   
8. Bloom’s taxonomy that claims water-tight facts are the lowest form of knowledge, is disbelieved by critics, who insist that correct facts are highest, and depend on critiques to amend.
9. Promotions are at stake and critics qualify for some leadership roles more  than their victims, if they showcase others’ flaws.
10. Critics like to appear smarter and it helps their  genius-like status to prove others dumber than themselves.

Brain related research by Suzann Pileggi suggests that thriving relationships accentuate the positive and broken relationships tend to look more for flaws.

To focus more  on  talent and offer intelligent innovation that critics lack,   facilitators:

1. Look for more linguistic intelligence. Want words to come easier, poetry to mean more, speeches to ring truer, or books to yield more wealth? Then play with words, do crosswords, compete in scrabble, debate, or offer to speak to a local club. Search for new ideas on the internet, write a blog, or tell your best idea in 140 letters or less, and and that too will boost your linguistic brainpower. What could you do today, to gain even more mastery over language?

2. See more musical intelligence. Want music to move and shake your creative projects? Pop on Gregorian Chant to pop you out of stress. Play Bach or Handel to plan your next creative project. Toss tunes from Shumann, Chopin or Liszt into your romance and watch it grow. Or gain inspiration from Soul, Blues or Calypso. Don Campbell shows how to gain musical intelligence to jack up productivity, or to improve your moods on a bad day?

3. Spot intrapersonal intelligence. Need intuition for better decisions, common sense for keen insights, contentment in your own company, simple ability to laugh more on a busy day? Thanks to neurogenesis, we now know this intelligence too will grow with use. Panic a bit too fast? Feel sidelined a bit too much? Run from risks or new adventures? Grow sad when others celebrate family ties? If so, you’d enjoy a heaping dose of intrapersonal smarts to add contentment and turn those tougher days around. Plan a lunch alone at your favorite digs, practice smiling to improve a mood, ask a question to your day, or plan a risk today that would ratchet up contentment.  Simply put, whenever you do tasks related to introspection or personal intelligence, your brain begins to rewire brainpower for a more clever you.

4. Highlight bodily kinesthetic intelligence. Would you like to dance, better? Then step and move beside a person who dances well. Want to move with coordinated grace? Then shuffle and stretch in ways you hope to grow more memory within body muscles themselves. It’s much the same for skills intelligence to smack a tennis ball with greater ease, or put together furniture with finer flare. Do it to grow it. Then watch for wonder as the brain kicks into kinesthetic mode or shifts into movement gears that zap alive with use, regardless of age or limitations that hold too many folks back.

5. Check for mathematical or logical intelligence. Why not start a schedule to plan your next week, since sequencing and patterning is at math smart’s core. So’s organization at the heart of math IQ as is seeing the bigger picture. Like other intelligences mathematical genius grows more through math ideas that take you feet first, and then on new flights – with use. Mistakes add growth in math, yet schools use errors as arrows to kill a brain’s best. Even Einstein said that Education’s what remains after one’s forgotten everything learned in school. Have you found ways to use and grow logical mathematical, in spite of limitations learned at school?

6. Observe visual or spatial intelligence. Grab a paper along with anything that writes and sketch your funniest memory in the last few weeks? Attend an art class, and learn to paint. Visit galleries, surround yourself with images that teach you more about life, or create an avatar to show your thoughts to an online community. Graph ideas, select visuals to explain life, or take photographs to record the week of people you value to use your spatial intelligence and to develop more through use.

7. Find interpersonal intelligence. Interview a person you know to discover what makes that person smart? Ask, “How are you smart?” rather than the more traditional question “How smart are you? Narrow that person’s narrative about personal intelligence into one or two words, and you have already grown intelligence interpersonally. Would you agree that people high in interpersonal intelligence will come away with amazing insights here? Or can you see how the exchange itself offers opportunity to expand one’s interpersonal acumen?

8. Draw on naturalistic intelligence. If you spend excessive time breathing in refreshing scents of spring, surrounded by sounds of brooks running, or captivated by natures’ change for different seasons, you likely possess good amounts of naturalistic intelligence. You’ll gain more though, by using patterns and designs found outside to solve problem faced in any situation. Soil types, animal or tree patterns, or rock formations – all amount to nature’s wisdom.

For better balance than fault-finding, why not take brainpower to new levels.  First, survey your own multiple intelligences to see what’s stronger and what acumen you’d like to expand. Then, plan one activity a week to include a strength you most enjoy. Watch for critics though, because they tend to ambush any leader who takes such a risk for the sake of growth. Have you seen it?

Hello friends and colleagues!

Please join me over at wonderfully motivating community led by Huffington Post writer, Gail Goodwin, on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at InspireMeToday.com!

On Monday, the 18^th I’ll share invited insights from my experiences in an exclusive 500-word article – Act Like a Genius – on the best things learned in life full of beneficial nuggets for you! Gail hosted an audio interview on brain insights at the same site which shows how to get more brainpower up and running strong.  Would love to hear your nuggets too!

While  visiting InspireMeToday.com, Gail Goodwin invites you to sign up free daily inspiration email and free 44 page eBook Secrets to Soaring. These motivational gifts are there to inspire and encourage you on your 2010 journey.

On behalf of the InspireMeToday.com family, thanks for joining me on Monday, Jan. 18th. Greatly appreciate you!

Stay blessed in the New Year,

Ellen

How come  “Barak Obama” messages appear in my email box often, and yet no response comes back from the White house to my carefully crafted responses?

Perhaps a more urgent question is – How big a gap separates your idea of  democracy and your lived experience? For most people the concept of democracy holds brainpower possibilities beyond all forms of governance. Only for a few, though is  freedom by the people for the people. To be effective democracy must include  interactive communication and benefits for all. Do you mix social equity or brainpower from all  people groups, into your conversation or leadership?

Toss equity and collaboration into leadership and democracy’s innovative sprigs suddenly pop up at every juncture.

Why then, are so few leaders democratic as a lived experience?

Democracy requires leaders to hold a crown over any group’s head, and then cultivate a climate where all people work together to grow into its regality.  Problems arise when leaders appear unsure about what to do with many voices, especially those that express opposing views. To live democracy is to don the kind of tone that builds goodwill even among those who disagree.

As more people speak and feel heard, it takes skilled facilitators to ensure people’s wisdom constitutes the better part of all decisions made. That’s democracy’s brainpower, and very likely the part that won it such fine reputation.

No wonder lived equity  leads to peaceful resolutions, even for tough problems. See democracy in your leadership?

Over 30 years  in brain based renewal,  showed me several reasons why renewal cannot win in certain workplace conditions. I’ll admit that naivety in  younger years, prompted me to believe deteriorated settings could turn around in spite of barriers. Over time though, I observed some settings that simply cannot perk up  because organizational toxins contaminate their talents for innovation. It’s a brainpower thing. Transformation is not possible, if you consider dangerous directions of certain anti-innovative neuron pathways at toxic settings. How so?

Power struggles, like Rochester’s current mayoral demands to rule education, preclude urgently needed change. Fighting egos add cortisol, increase poor tone, and mentally divert brainpower away from progressive pathfinding.  While secondary schools fight for control, like Rochester NY currently  fights for mayoral power, brain renewal cannot improve learning. Why not? Learning transformation, with the brain in mind, is more about facilitating rewired minds – where adults and teens collaborate  mental benefits for all. Brain based workplaces reconfigure to favor facilitation of multiple intelligences in all, rather than demand more power for one man.

Fear of failure opens the door for bullies and cynics to lock out innovation and tromp all over  renewal initiatives. It takes courage and curiosity in action – to open spigots of dopamine that fuels adjustments at work.   High octane fuel for brain based risks.  In contrast,  fear forces brainpower into decline, like it did to the head of a university department who recently wrote  about an onset of sinking numbers on campus, and dwindling morale among staff. I want to introduce brain based strategies, and a new innovative program, he said, but added, I cannot do so for another year. When I asked why, he shot back,  because we’re up for accreditation this year! You could hear fear echo through anxiety in his words. No wonder his leadership provoked failure, and forfeited freedom. That’s fear’s mental role, and he played it well.

Imagine the level of worry that prevents genuine renewal, and dwindles an organization down to merely meet bureaucratic certification demands.  Is there nothing more to modify, create or extend for the high performance minds at work? Brow beaten leaders  complain about nosediving dividends, as fear shifts their focus away from an urgent need for systemic change. We’ll likely get more calls from similar leaders, whenever some new speedbump detracts their focus away from transforming visions and detracts from life-changing destinies they once held for renewal. Have you seen it?

What holds your organization back from leading innovation with the brain in mind, for a post-recession era? Perhaps a better question is:  What mentally charged traits have you seen work best for innovation and against workplace toxins?

Where does a workplace begin to renew? Why not try on a few brain based solutions that diminish toxins and promote innovation.

The other day Gail Goodwin and I tossed around brain insights here on WebTalk Radio and Gail’s curiosity inspired innovative insights from every angle. Current brain applications  flew back and forth as Gail’s unique brand of curiosity unfolded brainpower like magic spawns a sense of wonder.

It’s not surprising that Gail’s known as an Ambassador of Inspiration in that she facilitates new ideas by skillfully prying beneath everyday assumptions to unleash the stuff of innovation.

She inspired me to reflect on innovative marks of the kind of curious brain she cultivates and lives:

• Curiosity that leads to innovation differs from IQ, in that it’s  stirred by gifted facilitators and sparks serotonin chemicals for creativity.

• Curiosity is more evident in Gail’s kind of genius persistence that overrides ruts and optimizes opportunities for innovative solutions.

• Curiosity engages more of the brain’s plasticity because those who change and create based on new insights,  rewire faster for renewal.

• Curiosity draws from a wider sense of intelligences to engage dynamic and diverse pathways toward innovative adventures.

• Curious leaders prefer and prosper from a position of guide to the side, rather than grasp the standard sage on the stage.

• Curiosity is the antithesis of cynicism and the handmaiden of innovative  neuron pathways that shape a brilliant brain.

• Curiosity runs from lectures that deliver facts from a speaker’s mind without touching the innovative listener’s mind.

• Curiosity seeks  patterns that show how frogs develop from eggs to tadpoles, to create solutions for life’s changing faces in other areas.

• Curiosity reflects frequently to take innovative risks, grow multiple intelligences, and avoid stagnation at every turn.

When was the last time you asked somebody, “What’s most exciting about your work? Are you curious about what separates innovators from those who simply play it safe? Thoughts?

If you’ve seen on this TED video how education had clobbered creativity – you’ll likely be ready to rewire for another go at innovation.

25 words to reboot  brainpower and zap your 2010 with innovative facts from brain sciences: 

1. Invent and share a refreshing solution to a stubborn work problem – solve a  difficulty that leaves you bored or in a rut at work. Brain fact: Boredom is more a habit formed in brains, and shaped by daily choices,  then stored in brain as a reality.

2. Uplift your work area with natural lighting.  Brain fact: Environments influence brainpower, and a healthy workplace inspires people to transform problems into solutions.

3. Thank a fellow worker for a personal accomplishment.  Brain fact: Well being comes partially from and is fueled and extended by serotonin chemical hormones.

4. Give somebody the gift of forgiveness, and let go of a grudge. Brain fact: Anger, fear, and frustration  are fueled and extended by cortisol chemical hormones.

5.  Propose alternatives to an observed annoying habit.  Brain fact: Venting is bad for the brain and creates new neuron pathways to much more of the same.

6. Act the person you want others to see in you, and that you’ll become. Brain fact: Dendrite brain cells use the outside world and  take shape, or grow based on what you do.

7. Vary your background sounds and add music for more motivation. Brain fact: Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter productivity.

8. Stir curiosity and engage others.  Brain fact: Lectures and talks work against listener brains and benefit speaker intelligence while neglecting  listener insights.

9. Shift routines up daily. Brain fact: Hebbian workers rewire their brains to kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink their brains with sameness.

10. Include differences as assets.  Brain fact: Diversity training commonly fails people  mentally  because it shows inclusion as a deficit model – rather than as assets.

11. Sleep well in order to perform well. Brain fact: Brain waves can bring either sleep or peak performance, based on how you activate and manage them.

12. Research and open mentally to new and different ideas daily.  Brain fact: Hook even difficult facts onto one thing you know and learning increases in less time.

13. Change on regular basis.  Brain fact: Your brain’s basal ganglia stores old facts and creates ruts, while working memory holds few new facts and leads change.

14. Survey and engage more strengths. Brain fact: Multiple intelligences are common to all, used by few, and can be cultivated daily with regular use as mental tools.

15. Create rather than criticize. Brain fact: Cynical or critical mindsets literally block creativity, limit talent in you or others, and stomp out innovation.

16. List key facts as guides and reminders.  Brain fact: Memory can be outsourced to help you remember more, and to free your mind for  focus on the moment.

17. Inspire novel young ideas. Brain fact: Plasticity enables people of all ages and backgrounds to rewire the human brain in ways that keep it younger and more agile.

19. Encourage you and others often.  Brain fact: Encouragement changes the chemistry of a brain through raised serotonin, and ratchets up tone for profitability.

19. Communicate with care, openness and honesty. Brain fact: Meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from message spoken.

20. Integrate from ideas and people across many fields.  Brain fact: It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to solve problems with the brain in mind.

21. Relax and practice letting worries go.  Brain fact:  Stress literally shrinks the brain, and tone in communication acts as a silent killer.

22. Seek genuine and lasting relationships. Brain fact: Greet  colleagues through speaking people’s names, to offer spike in well being or awareness in person’s brain.

23. Risk innovation one step at a time.  Brain fact: Inspire creativity and invention through teaching others at the same time you also learn and create yourself.

24. Collaborate to propose solutions. Brain fact: Create new neuron pathways collectively and add  solutions to workplace  problems  encountered.

25. Celebrate those who differ mentally. Brain fact: Women’s and men’s brain differ biologically and intellectually, for instance,  in ways that few optimize.

How could these few applications from facts about your brain increase workplace brainpower and toss more innovation into 2010?

The human brain comes with unique equipment to build and sustain innovative cultures, where design leads to profitability. How so?

1.  Kindle and design an idea. Just as the iPod started with an innovative  idea,  Steve Jobs and others continue to design Apple products that revolutionize communication. Fast Company celebrated the last decade’s 14 biggest such design moments, all of which unveil the original ideas that rolled into products with possibilities. How does it happen? Your brain’s hippocampus releases a shot of dopamine in  response to novelty. Anthony Grace at the University of Pittsburgh describes a feedback loop that involves a chemical and electrical interactions between dopamine and novel or unexpected events. This lively process appears to lock in memory, as it also engages the amygdala where the brain processes emotional information that feeds innovation.

2. Mimic creative people. Believe it or not, you can literally adopt another person’s innovative talents by observing them. It’s also true that while innovation may be more vital than ever at your workplace, individuals  who think act and build differently often remain at a premium.  That’s where the brain can help out, so that more people learn innovative tactics that generate profitable designs.  How so? Mirror neurons show how innovative cultures come from imitation – and this video on mirror neurons illustrates how we watch and mirror the culture others live. Deep inside your brain cells are neurons that will fire in reaction to another’s beliefs as they roll into activity. See any new opportunities for innovation where you work,  as they play out in mimicking an innovator’s actions?

3. Link opposites together and build from both sides. Need a breakthrough to top up the creativity on a project? Then build an innovative culture of connecting opposites in ways that few non-innovators think to connect. If you’ve ever benefited from unique insights, you’ve likely also seen opposing viewpoints from high-performance minds,  that beg to differ. So why then, do disagreements about opposing views so often break up relations, terminate innovative projects, shut down brilliant people, promote racism, and even ignite wars? Tone is the brain’s best approach to tame an amygdala in ways that harness innovative energy. Rather than take potshots at people, consider disagreements as tools to build goodwill across differences, and diversity becomes the hottest neuron pathway to innovative solutions. Designs that come from engaging genius thinkers, are the same offerings that prosper a wider community.

4. Create a round table to brainstorm a process. The other day I facilitated a round table of leaders from many fields, and after many unexpected angles tossed into the mix, we came up with a renewal project that none of us could have masterminded alone. Have you experienced ideas piggybacked onto others from alternative positions?  Innovation, whether from arts or science, embodies mysteries to ponder. It’s that place that bubbles over in a circle where no brain is left behind. It’s where brilliant solutions tend to flow from pools just outside of prevailing thought, where people build beyond limitations. It’s where a culture of innovative thought hooks difficult facts onto ordinary experiences people live – so that learning increases in less time, with innovative designs as visible results.

5. Collaborate with a person who differs. Innovation rarely waits for situations to improve but shapes dendrite brain cells by outside worlds that spark mental growth based more on what you do than what’s done to you. The opposite of toxic workplaces is a climate of creative collaboration where innovative leaders engage opposing views to discover another design built from different angles. To work together is to listen to new ideas and to engage another’s talents. Innovative partnerships tend to work better when different players share in a common vision, and when the outcomes and expectations are clearly defined.

6. Reward talent. In too many workplaces problems go unsolved while some of the finest minds are left outside of the innovative process. In order to bridge the gap between the multiple intelligences people bring to work, and the problems that need solutions, organizations reward people for refreshing new ideas. As part of that process why not survey your unique intelligences to see which talents you have up and running innovatively. As people at work awaken new intelligences for innovative designs, offer a reward for teams who use most diverse perspectives on a refreshing and profitable innovation.

7. Pose two-footed questions. The best way to integrate innovation into your firm’s existing practices is to question ways that lead away from creative solutions. Start with stubborn problems, and toss in a two-footed question that probes the solution from angles of fact and interest. I am presenting an MBA course on innovation to several senior faculty at a university business school  in New York next week, and I plan to challenge leaders there with the question: What will  innovation look like in the 21st Century, and how can your business school promote creative intelligence through top facilitation of business brainpower? What two-footed question would launch your next innovative offering?

8. Capitalize on tone tools for tough times. Innovation gets lost in climates where toxins such as bullying or intimidation exist. It can happen faster than lightening strikes an iron rod in an electric storm. When stress or negativity shoot down the best ideas, and innovators wonder whether it’s a lot less stressful to hang up their cleats in favor of doing bare routines, tone tactics act like a vehicle to tug innovation back into play. It helps to invite an example of good tone from a gentle, and effective leader, and discuss how to offer olive branches back and forth at work. Or why not ask other innovators at work what tone they hear in your words and compare their responses to what your words meant to convey.

9. Start social network discussions. Recently I started a back-and-forth on Twitter to toss around insights and brain facts about multi-tasking as it affects innovation. Research shows that multi-tasking works against innovation because it bottle necks the brain’s ability to focus or innovate. Just as all brains wire differently though, I wanted to see how people view multi-tasking as it relates to their own innovation.  Social networks add new colors and textures to innovative brainpower because people hold up lived experiences to the rainbow for another look.

10. Run from cynics. Have you noticed how stocks rise when people speak hope? Or have you seen financial markets nosedive when naysayers spout doom? Luckily pools of innovative brainpower lie beyond the sea of cynicism. This trend hinges on the fact that hope adds serotonin to spark curiosity and fuel the brain. Cortisol, on the other hand, shuts down originality, and increases fear of failure. Make sense? When cynics spread fear, brainpower shuts down before innovation stands a chance.  When creators spark curiosity imagination kicks in genius.

Bravo! This article, Innovation, Design and the Human Brain,  was selected as a top leadership blog at Wally Bock’s Three Star Leadership Blog.

Transform Workplace Tone

Transformation comes to circles where tone is valued and good tone ensures transformation. Sound like a winning duo for those who enjoy change and go for growth?

When respect is evident and differences welcomed,  tone simply ensures that possibilities get more communicated than problems presented. Transformation hinges on rolling out different insights, from people whose common agenda connects to an outcome that benefits the wider community.

Peter Block, author of Community, the Structure of Belonging, suggests that restoration comes first to small groups where people seek to create something together. Have you found that?

In contrast to creativity sparked in small groups, self interest tends to wield a toxic tone, that insists on one-sided answers. It’s often a straightforward choice at work – intolerance and one up-ship of those who differ, or  good tone that welcomes and includes all.   Relegate peripheral places to those not chosen to belong, and you have already ushered in toxic tone. Luckily choice works both ways when it relates to tone at work.

Create the kinds of conversation which tends to question more than offer water-tight answers, and good tone tends to follow. Enlist people’s curiosity more than merely deliver advice, and tone will spark new insights that can change and improve a group’s direction forward.

Have you  surveyed your organizational tone lately?

It’s Christmas — a time for giving! It’s also recession – a time for surviving!

Few would deny that when people give freely from the heart, everybody wins. And yet the very thought of Christmas  this year touches people’s hearts in a new way.  Because of lost jobs or growing  debts, even the most generous givers feel unable to offer  gifts to show that they care.

Leaders tell their employees they cannot value personal efforts with gifts, and people tell families to expect far less. Have you seen it too?

Here at the MITA International Brain Center we suggest  giving from the brain in ways that reflect heartfelt intelligences. Gifts need not cost money when giving draws from personal resources, banked within your brain. How so?

Gifts flow from each intelligence so that those strong in:

Verbal intelligence may inspire and send a note of cheer or thanks to a person often passed over.

Musical intelligence may help you organize a Carol sing-along for shut-ins.

Mathematical intelligence may suggest and help to build a budget for a struggling client, or organize a get together for employees to ring in the season.

Spatial intelligence may create a brilliant Christmas or holiday card – based on another’s most successful 2110 design idea – giving credit of coarse.

Kinesthetic intelligence may help to build a train station or doll’s house  with needy kids to donate to a children’s hospital.

Interpersonal intelligence may match up  mentors  with teens for a look at the best career options for the coming year.

Intrapersonal intelligence may offer a poem or personal reflection to inspire holiday memories to help  folks through tough times.

Naturalistic intelligence may take another family on an adventure to secure a tree and then replant another tree as a sustainable opportunity.

How will you explore possibilities for meaningful gifts, within multiple intelligences, in spite of the current recession?

Blessings to all!

It happens faster than you can wrap your head around replies, much less pause for peaceful solutions. Tonic or toxin? Poor tone shoots poison at others, and often wings back in the same form it was sent. Politicians, like Senator Bayh, quit Congress over tone toxins.  Have you seen it escalate lately?

Like 8 ounces of Vodka mixed into 2  ounces of orange juice, toxic  communication zaps your amygdala before you can blurt out a decent defense. How so?

He tells you he’s a listener – even advertises it as his tag line on a blog – and then interrupts you constantly on a busy day. You retaliate by ignoring him when he asks a reasonable request.

She insists she’s happy to buy lunch, only to report  later to friends that you’re as cheap as a counterfeit two dollar bill. You retaliate by dropping her her off the list for your holiday extravaganza.

Even the most even-keeled communicator will admit that there are more than a few days when they wonder whether it might be a lot less stressful to hang up their cleats in favor of  more passive roles.

Some 2 million American workers are victims of workplace violence yearly. Like the Vodka hidden in a whisk of orange juice, cruelty often starts with poison tone, and escalates pollutants such as racism – sip by sip. It doesn’t have to be that way.

In most relationships, not every interaction is filled with peaches and cream.  There are many days when you  wonder whether your words or actions can accomplish anything, and others when you will sense that you just took a bullfrog leap in the wrong direction. 

Consider These Less Than Tonic Times:

• A top performer where you work supports one way only and marginalizes  intelligent peers who differ.

• You call a meeting to identify tone skills at work and the aggressive team stays away to avoid the topic.

• In spite of knowing how to target agreement in disagreeable settings, you lose it it and blast a novice for a minor mistake.

• You avoid emails from a partner who worked hard to negotiate a financial risk because you fear more financial failure.

• A workplace cynic took a swipe at your top project idea just when the  firm was about to buy in.

• Your annual feedback showed more than a handful of work situations where tough times found you sniping back at peers.

• Your best efforts to improve a situation peacefully are shouted down by a colleague who claims to disagree with respect, and calls for tougher measures.

• Your hottest competitor announced unprecedented growth through inventions that require cooperation across differences, a trait lacking where you work.

A Few  Suggestions for Surviving Tough Tone Days:

• Start a social network to offer opportunities for networking with good tone, and offer sessions to discuss benefits of online tone.

• Watch for tone problems around holidays, from people who struggle with intimate or healthy relationships. Set up a contest and offer a reward for the team with top tone skills.

• Reinvent even a small part of the workplace that is no longer profitable, by suggesting a practice that offers benefits from tone growth.

• Praise a leader who models the courage to use tone that others admire.

• Brainstorm ways to tame an amygdala before it snipes back, and gather examples from fellow workers to illustrate how tone adds tonic or toxins.

• Invite an example of good tone from a gentle, and effective leader, and discuss how to offer olive branches at work.

• Ask others at work what tone they hear in your words and compare their responses to what your words meant to convey.

• Speak out when local or national leaders misuse tone for selfish gain or corrupt outcomes.

A Bottom–Line from Poor Tone  to Genius:

Not that silver bullets exist for bad tone days, yet the best thing that builds tone is to find solutions that leave no brains behind.  On bad days remind yourself that no human is invincible, and yet all make choices that balance the brain’s angel or devil parts of tone in ways that require evidence in practice.

Rather than mistakenly believe that you can do no wrong, learn and teach tools for tone.  Exchange that sea of cynicism for renewed brainpower that engages voices on the other side of even the most controversial issues.  That’s the tone that fueled Einstein’s brainpower to persist and invent.

After being told to avoid fatty foods and simply wait for stomach problems to heal, a close friend of mine failed to pursue vital tests for cancer, and died prematurely as a result. Have you seen a person linger only to meet peril in return?

Brain waiting

Another friend waited  rather than phone back  when her cousin slammed down the receiver, after disagreeing about family problems. After  reflection, no action seemed a better option than possibly triggering further confrontation. The result? The following month, her cousin paid for a weekend family holiday where old wounds were exchanged for refurbished family friendships.

When to act and when to wait? Do you tend to hang back or do you act on the spot when troubles mount? Ever wonder about your brain’s role in each??

Why not share your stories of waiting or acting. Would love to hear them. I’ll respond with a few brain benefits from waiting and a few benefits from acting in each situation. Your turn ….