Posts under ‘communication’

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 [...]

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 18th 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 [...]

When colleges cultivate entrepreneur brainpower they reinstate American leaders into competitive global markets.  Yet  university faculty who continue to deliver facts for past eras,  in lock-step lectures,  tend to engage fewer gifted entrepreneurs.  New horizons continue to pound home the message — Innovate or Die! Yet who would’t agree with Rocco Tarasi’s conclusion that:
No industry [...]

Government Funds Promote Failing Secondary Schools
People say stimulus money simply creates new layers of bureaucracy that prolong broken secondary school programs. My question is: How will the White House Campaign to Promote Science and Math Education support teens to climb new mental  peaks?  Will successful schools proliferate through fast growing charters?
President [...]

Brain based skills transform online communities in much the same way an afternoon sun shores up  outdoor adventures.
What wonderful strengths enrich any circle with communication and a sense of well being at its center. While many people admit that it’s electric to belong to such an online  group, far fewer spot the brain’s ability to [...]

Peter Block creates a brilliant case for brain-based-community-building through conversations that transform.
Conversations that create community transformation  for Block, include invitation, possibility, ownership, dissent, commitment and gifts. Do you agree?
Interestingly, each of Block’s  entry points to transformation, also offer  segues into brain based communication.
Invitational conversation welcomes diversity with an emphasis on leaving no brain behind.
Possibility – [...]

Have you noticed that when innovative insights predominate, peaceful resolutions seem more attainable? Creative ideas  flit through  brains  like broadband connects internet to computers, then sadly tend to flee as fast. Why so?
The human brain craves action to convert  innovation into realities that work. Take all the recent talk on civil discourse. You hear urgent [...]

Written By Ellen Weber, PhD and Robyn McMaster, PhD
Higher Education and Brain Based Benefits

Challenges of Change
Renewal is to the university community today what Renaissance was to the Middle Ages. Both encompass a resurgence of learning. Both tap into more potential from the human brain. To reconfigure university teaching for a rebirth [...]

Two days ago, while in Jamaica to speak about MITA brain based renewal, I spotted revival alive and well from a car radio. In a vehicle that transported Dr. Robyn McMaster and I to the University of West Indies, radio guests discussed broken systems in general, and Jamaican policies that got  implemented without discussion [...]

Facilitators with brains in mind, blast open 10 entry points that inspire innovation:

At meetings – facilitators add zip to roundtables because people speak and feel heard.
Across professions – facilitators inspire shared language that leaves behind jargon to favor communication.
In learning circles facilitators draw on multiple literacies to engage voices on the other side and [...]

When government tosses out money as renewal incentives, in hope that dollars buy benefits, bureaucracies respond with inferiority.  Rewards and pay-for-performance practices work against renewal, according to Alfie Kohn who draws from hundreds of studies. Do you agree?
Have leaders of educational institutes removed themselves from the heart of problems ordinary people face? Sadly,  many leaders [...]

When you rev up mental equipment daily to either sink or swim, you discover how creativity and curiosity will trump criticism and intimidation. How then can you experience mental power in settings where no brain is left behind?
One friend and fellow leader Dave Caiazza, put it this way:

Work against the dangerous twins of jealousy and [...]

Yesterday,  on a walk in the woods with a gifted young leader, I once again saw his ethics, openness and willingness to become vulnerable in order to learn new skills. Without notice a mountain biker appeared on our winding path and startled my friend’s dog Jack, who in return snapped at the bikers feet. The [...]

When Gandhi taught, In a gentle way you can shake the world, he highlighted tone missing today in communications across cultures. Do your tone skills show gentle as a strength to shake a world? 
Scholar Kent Nerbum’s words, “Remember to be gentle with yourself and others,”  highlight  intelligences that cultivate tools to live calmly under [...]

You’ve likely seen it happen during this economic downturn. He brought her down without any awareness that he undermined her career. She dismissed his good ideas without realizing she excluded her colleague.
Have you seen people damage good relationships, or stomp out mind-bending opportunities, and then appear surprised?

Or have you heard people ask for help in [...]

Have you experienced mental power that bubbles over in circles where no brain is left behind? Interactive sessions where creativity trumps criticism, and diversity’s the handmaiden of dignity and innovative virtue?
If so, would you agree that brilliant solutions tend to flow from pools just outside of the prevailing thought – where:

1. No Brain Left [...]

In Rochester, New York, where I work – we’re ripe for a new run at old runways, the kind that Captain Sully grew ready for before a crisis changed his flight. Been there?
That touchdown where carriers cruise into place,  brimming over in lessons learned from former mistakes  – and refueled by sheer curiosity. That landing [...]

Conflict grows perilous for those who lack brainpowered tools, yet disagreement’s add linchpins of growth for those equipped with sharp mental tactics. 
Watch warfare where you work and you’ll likely see 1 of 10 instigators:
1. Angry folks show few skills to tame their amygdala.
2. Stubborn people often lack mental ability to let it go.
3. Fearful [...]

When entire systems such as finances, health care or higher education, break down, corrupt and confound intelligent people, it’s time to power up the brain and reboot ethical practices to simplify. How so?
Beyond the clutter of financial policies, written to confuse honest tax payers, lies opportunity for a simply stated and ethical economy. Who will [...]

Ever shifted locations, and noticed new solutions to problems as a result?  Or have new ethical insights added zest to a project after a redesigned workspace? If so, you’ll be interested in research about buildings as mental stimulants for creativity and productivity. Have you seen it?
It makes sense since IQ comes from your gene pool [...]