Signs of broken business model

Does innovative brainpower fuel your business model?  Is your organization moving forward with the fast shifting economy of the 21st Century, or is it mired in broken practices?

Check out 25 areas that reinvigorate broken business models, and you’ll also agree that tired systems can be mended to grow mindful again.

1. Workers show disdain or apathy for their work,  and express lack of concern for others’ efforts.   Brain Fact: Boredom is more a habit formed in brains, and shaped by your choices, than a reality.
2. Dark, uncomfortable work areas abound.  Brain Fact: Environment counts, and a healthy setting helps people transform problems into solutions.
3. Communication appears cold, inconsistent and cynical. Brain Fact: Well being comes partially from and is fueled and extended by serotonin chemical hormones.
4. Conflicts predominates over calm. Brain Fact: Anger, fear, and frustration are fueled and extended by cortisol chemical hormones.
5. More  problems than solutions appear evident. Brain Fact: Venting is bad for the brain and creates new neuron pathways to much more of the same.
6. Change is short-lived and unexpected and valued. Brain Fact: Dendrite brain cells use the outside world and take shape, or grow based on what you do.
7. Music selections work against focus and innovation and growth. Brain Fact: Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter productivity.
8. Knowledge comes with unreasonable demands, and is  delivered. Brain Fact: Lectures and talks work against listeners’ brains and benefit speakers’ intelligence mostly.
9. Tenure is used as an excuse to stop learning and or stomp on growth. Brain Fact: Hebbian workers rewire their brains to kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink their brains.
10. People are excluded because of backgrounds and beliefs at all leadership levels. Brain Fact: Diversity training commonly works mentally against benefits because of its deficit model.
11. Little or no variety exists between exercise and quiet reflection.  Brain Fact: Brain waves can bring either sleep or peak performance, based on how you activate them.
12. Knowledge appears irrelevant to many. Brain Fact: Hook even difficult facts onto one thing a person already knows and learning increases in less time.
13. Ruts appear constant – while  invention appears rarely. Brain Fact: Basal ganglias store facts and create ruts, working memory holds few facts and leads change.
14. Multiple approaches are discouraged while people must reach prescribed standards from one required approach. Brain Fact: Multiple intelligences are common to all, used by few, and can be more developed daily.
15. Peer pressure diminishes creativity,  innovation is limited while cynicism is rampant. Brain Fact: Cynical mindsets literally block creativity, impact talent, and stomp out innovation.
16. Learning approaches are top down and easily dropped or forgotten. Brain Fact: Memory can be outsourced to help people remember, and to free the mind for focus.
17. Senior workers teach all yet rarely learn from others. Brain Fact: Plasticity enables people to rewire the human brain in ways that keep it younger, smarter, and alive through interactive learning.
18. A spirit of discouragement supersedes consensus and team building for profitability.  Brain Fact: Encouragement  changes the chemistry of a brain through raised serotonin, criticism tears down all through spreading cortisol chemicals.
19. Distrust is evident through lack of transparency in communications. Brain Fact: Meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from what is said.
20. Self-serving exchanges build traditional silos and departments refuse to pull together for the greater good. Brain Fact: It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to solve problems with the brain in mind.
21. Negative tone predominates so that few people tend to take risks to achieve new heights. Brain Fact: Stress literally shrinks the brain, and tone in communication acts as a silent killer.
22. Leaders know few people by name, or address others by name. Brain Fact: Greet a person through speaking that person’s name, for a spike in personal awareness.
23. Creativity and invention get stomped out rather than shared, through lack of teaching others at the same time people learn. Brain Fact: People retain 90% more through teaching others at the same time they learn a thing. So wisdom and invention spreads and grows in this way.
24. Curiosity is rarely cultivated by the entire workplace community. Brain Fact: Create new neuron pathways each time you add a solution to any problem you encounter. The opposite is also true – as a focus on problems leads to more of the same.
25. Little value appears evident for both women and men at all leadership levels.  Brain Fact: Women’s and men’s brain differ biologically and intellectually in ways that few optimize, but ways that jettison innovations forward.

What brain based strategy would begin to turn your broken organizational model in a new direction to become an innovative learning model as GE and others became. Take a risk to launch that one strategy and your innovation could spark sustainable growth and profitability. What do you think?

You likely know that  links between what people crave and what you can offer, requires you to connect the dots between your current position and creative prosperity. But have you ever considered how vital connections also boost innovative brainpower?

5 Vital Connections to Innovative Brainpower

The opposite is also true. Cut out your connections and by default you diminish brainpower to invent.

Rather than pack your brain with links that go nowhere, why not jettison your life and leadership forward with 5 essential connections.

Jumpstart  brainpower found  in highly innovative minds only, when you:

1. Join what you already know to what you wish to know in order to invent something new. Human brains come equipped to latch onto new facts faster if they hook to what you already know and do. How could that open  new opportunities for you to start with your current talents and learn what it takes to fill an innovative  niche you see  – yes, even in an economic downturn.
2. Connect skills you are learning to insights others offer, by linking your facts to their interests. While delivering information works against the human brain, teaching others as we learn ourselves pays back 90% more in retention. Intelligent people also build prosperous alliances in this way.
3. Link solution possibilities to every problem encountered. Einstein constantly cultivated curiosity, for example,  by linking suggested solutions to problems.  While others passed over, complained about, and whined about what could be – he connected himself to the problem of relativity by imagining he rode the curve of the arc. When you look at problems with solutions in mind, the human brain builds neuron pathways to create  answers you seek.
4. Draw together diverse people and welcome opposing views. I’ve learned during a lifetime in renewal work that to connect opposing views is to spot nuances that others miss on both sides of issues. It requires being less opinionated about most everything, and pays wonderful dividends to those who stay open-minded. For instance tradition insists on the separation of hard and soft skills, and then places these in silly hierarchies. Here at MITA we combine the best of both into what we term smart skills with the brain in mind for 21^st Century leadership strategies that work for a new era.
5. Join science to art and use imagination as innovative glue to intergrate. You have two well equipped sides to the human brain, and both play a keen role in highly sustainable innovation. To kindle and design ideas such as these  top creative moments that hit new heights in the last decade, takes connecting  the art and science from your left and right brain.

Pair  these essentials together and you’ll increase neuron connections come with  brainpower for new innovative heights.  Make fewer connections, on the other hand, and you’ll  limit your mental ability to create.  Simply put, your daily connections determine your IQ growth, since increased neural connections equal higher intelligence.

Did you know that babies are born with 20 times more neural connections than adults? Why so? Experiences you have in a day  - either create or diminish neural connections for creativity.  Schools tend to teach by delivery and that kills connections that come from doing as people learn. Luckily it’s not all bad news.

Thanks to plasticity however, the human brain rewires new neural connections daily – based on what you do. Or you can lose connections by ruts, routines, and passivity. Does that challenge you to step outside of comfort zones, connect what has yet to fit together in your world, and spark the innovation ability in your brain and organization?

What if you took one risk to lead a change that would improve a core practice where you work? Could that move set innovation in motion across an entire organization?

On Saturday at an RIT annual event, I spotted 5 questions about innovation that could transform indifference and lead organizational growth. At the Innovation Festival, novelty appeared to spring up at several junctures, and  I captured a few snapshots while moving among young innovators.

Interestingly, I’d just read Seth Godin’s popular post on why higher education organizations meet with inevitable melt downs. Over a lifetime working with brain based change, I’ve grown convinced that innovative higher education can still lead us into the next era. But if Seth’s right, and I fear he is correct, what would it take to move more entrepreneurial minds and increase genius opportunities, on a university campus?

Often we hear people speak of innovative possibilities – and the word innovation appears  – in some form or other – daily in social media commentaries.  Sadly though,  on  a few  occasions only,  do we encounter glimpses of intellectual novelty operating within successful organizations.

RIT’s festival pinpointed organizational innovation in 5 missed linchpins:

1). How do successful innovators reach across differences to invent together? Organizations that look to land a fast fix or play politics, rarely bridge isolated silos of discipline, culture, gender or beliefs. It takes involvement from an institute’s top leadership, a willingness to invest time, and talent within teams that come from many sectors of society. Wonderfully creative ventures at RIT could have melded ideas from many departments had the networks been available for more mental cross-pollination. People possess multiple intelligences in different mixes that contribute to collaboration.

2). How do organizations move past lethargy to cultivate curiosity? While tenure or seniority tend toward inertia in some workplaces, innovative leaders sometimes stir interest out of organizational apathy. Using this same format, what if all organizations, in ways that  RIT campus engaged in an innovation festival, celebrate innovation annually? At the MITA International Brain Center – participants create an innovative design from lessons learned, and then engage others in a Knowledge Celebration which somewhat resembles the RIT festival.

3). What kind of roadmap does innovation across an organization require? In settings where I see leaders running on treadmills, and many employees gaining no ground, pieces of the organization’s overarching plan appear to be missing or disjointed. The opposite is also true. Wherever you spot people linking new ideas successfully across departments,  or producing innovative ventures that draw from differences, you also see an overarching network. Interconnected highways and bridges, clearly marked to welcome new people, and structured to accommodate diverse ideas.

4). How do innovative organizations reboot creativity rather than default to cynicism? Leaders who risk movement forward, also risk criticism that gravitates to most change agents, like iron filings to a magnet. Innovative organizations simply prize risk-taking more than reward people for routine rituals. When innovative plans are created collaboratively and presented as an incremental pathway forward, people tend to jump on board for proven results.  That creative leap tends to launch a track record for sustainable innovation. Nothing stops toxins within cynicism from stomping out new ideas, like innovations that spark a finer way forward.

5). Where does innovation fit into sacrosanct organizational structures? The opposite of renewal is to regress, and regression creeps into daily rituals like chaff  clings to wheat. In contrast, people find passion to create when they are part of the innovative process of a robust organization. Creative minds rarely toss more talent into the mix by accident though. First, leaders and their reports determine what sacred cows must go, in order to open new segues for an entirely different outcome.  Then, a cutting edge vision,  transforms new neuron pathways forward for all those involved. Where does  such potent innovation start?

Simply risk to change  one organizational problem that found you venting recently. Could that movement forward set mind-bending  innovation in motion across an entire organization? Or could it trigger an ingenious renewal move across our nation?

The RIT’ Innovation Festival showed brilliantly how aha moments ignite innovative change, as you’ll hear in live interviews below.

1). Listen to Dr.  Jon Schull tell how arts and science came together at RIT’s Innovation Festival -  on Studio 86.

2). Hear Imagine RIT Festival as RIT President, Dr. William Destler tells his side of the Innovation story, and especially note his strong support for right brain and left brain collaboration.

3). Catch Dr. Barry Culhane,  share news about the 35,000 people who stopped by, and the 2000 students and faculty who ran the event.  Hear how RIT journalism students caught live news during the event.

Recent Posts for Learning Renewal at Secondary and University:

1. No Brain Left Behind

2. MITA Brain Manifesto for Renewal

3. Death of Education – Dawn of Learning

4. Secondary and University with Brains in Mind

5. Parents’ Brains Belong at Secondary School

6. Renew with the Brain in Mind

7. Move Brainpower into Reconfigured Learning

8. Retention Lost in Lectures

9. Call for Simplicity that Adds Intelligence

10. 2 Footed Questions Lead Change

11. A Brain Based Dream

12. Talker or Brain Based Mentor at University?

13. Secondary Schools for Higher Achievement (1)

14. Myths that Shape Secondary Schools (2)

15. Math and Science Can Leak Brainpower

16. Higher Education Reinvention

17. Brainpower Response to Universities in Crisis

18. MITA Brain Renewal for Leading and Learning

19. Could Neuro-Discoveries Transform University?

20. Less Art for More Science

21. Renewal Runs Deeper than Dollars

22. Question Broken Systems with Solutions in Mind

23. Hidden Traps Undo Brainpower

24. Brain Related Renewal – Experts to Teens

25. Values for Brain Powered Climate

26. Renewal Races Teens to the Top

27. Reclaim High School Brainpower

28. Albany Blocks Brainpower while NY Burns

29. Tenure, Brainpower, and Pillars of …?

30. Reinvigorate Brain for Learning Dividends

31. Expect Neuron Pathways to Dynamic Solutions

32. Brain Related Renewal – Experts to Teens

33. A Brain’s Proclivity to Integrate

34. Steven Wiltshire’s Spatial Intelligence & Yours

35. Marks of Brainpowered Workspaces

36. Why Brain Based Approaches?

37. Move with More Intelligence

38. Mix Music and Movement

39. Reflect Change with Smart Skills

40. Reflect for Brainier Online Results

41. Reflect – Then Bolt from Meetings!

42. Reflect on Life-Changing Brain Facts

43. Reflect – then Leap like Lauren

44. Move Intelligence Up a Notch Today

45. Move to Replace Broken Systems

46. Move Tone Tools to Open Opportunities

47. Expect Value Added with Name Calling

48. Expect Active Participation by Facilitating

49. Expect Calm Under Pressure?

50. Urgent Call for Innovative Interactions

51. Higher Education Reinvention (Describes MITA)

52. Their Way or the Brain’s Way?

Democracy or Demolition

If you agree that democracy as we deem it – can make a mockery of human engagement – you likely also see value in facilitation that communicates across differences.

Few disagree that a well run democracy adds immense brainpower by raising worker engagement. Yet  Gallop Management Journal surveyed annual worker engagement and reported 73% of  US workforce as disengaged. The cost?

Disengagement costs the US economy $300 billion a year. Lately I’ve observed tone as a key tool to build or demolish workplace equity. Have you noticed how  democracy engages more workers at the top with tone at its center, and yet disengages top talents when tone’s  misplaced?

Tone tosses ten communication tools into a democratic mix.

Tools that failed democracies, and poor communications tend to abandon – for gridlock or greed.

How so?

1. Tone affirms others’ ideas to show you value people, even when you disagree.
2. Tone thanks people often for ideas offered, and shows gratitude for differences.
3. Tone shares personal stories respectfully and in ways that create curiosity.
4. Tone asks 2-footed questions that draw others’ contributions into consensus.
5. Tone resists meta-messages which state meanings other than intended.
6. Tone avoids swearing in favor of remarks that add no offense or cynicism.
7. Tone inspires others by suggesting doable solutions for any problem raised.
8. Tone acknowledges others who progress, and celebrates people’s success.
9. Tone models body language and gestures that value others, and laughs at self easily.
10. Tone refuses to take offense yet comes with courage to speak up for ethics.

Check yes to any of these ten elements in your tone approaches – and you’re ready to lead innovation in an era that begs for a finer way forward.

The difference between democracy building, and demolition flattening is brainpower that facilitates innovation with good tone in mind. What do you think?

Gridlock feeds ego and shuts out brainpower
while transparency
fosters innovation and increases trust.

The more gridlock we see, the more open exchanges get lost. Have you seen bullies and cynics keep ego alive by banishing transparency through backdoor deals?

Flawed leadership, whether called democracy or dictatorship generates  gridlocks that block creative brainpower.

Never before in history have we needed more successful innovators who rev up mental equipment for innovation.

It’s true that Barak Obama, Bill Gates, Ursula Burns, and Hillary Clinton communicate see-through stories to leave  no brain is left behind.  Still, leadership openness is rare. Why so?

One friend and fellow leader Dave Caiazza, put it this way:

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.

Transparency takes brainpower to tackle toxins from cynics who broker backdoor deals. How so?

1. Awaken more intrapersonal intelligence so that others will be led to respond openly to ethics that tend to follow.

2. Respond to confrontations by snipping your amygdala and peers often repeal demands spoken.

3. Spot opportunities within broken systems – and others tend to  join with like minded willingness to risk riding transparency’s surf.

4. Relate neuro discoveries that resolve conflicts and reasonable parts of your brain win supremacy.

5. Offer mental  olive branches to people who disagree and they tend to collaborate without forcing their views on one side.

6. Hone brainpower tools for peace rather than promote war where gridlock battles begin.

7. Suggest simplicity that adds intelligence to replace mental clutter with clear ethical practices that hold dividends for all.

8. Avoid hidden traps of cynicism by building transparent tone to open segues for all to speak and feel heard.

9. Brainstorm solutions with innovative peers rather than join in with naysayers who toss toxins into the mental mix.

10. Activate, encourage and open communication that sparks innovation,  rarely found in tragic traits of a cynic.

Step into any gridlock situation and you’ll spot far more routines, ruts and rituals, than innovative designs can survive. Have you seen it?

Luckily, newly discovered mental equipment offers tools such as new neuron pathways to dynamic innovation. See why transparency’s not possible when ego generates gridlock?