Posts under ‘fear’

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 [...]

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 [...]

Ever notice how Thanksgiving and Christmas tend to bring out blues in some and blessings in others? Or how lonely people see vast spaces between themselves and others – even at festive  holiday tables?
First glances  show people blessed with close family and  friends feel blessed over holidays while those alone feel abandoned. Not so. Loneliness [...]

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 [...]

Consumer confidence is at an all time low. Few disagree, that the way we do money separates community and caring from real riches of mindfulness together.  It doesn’t have to be that way. Do you agree? 
The globe cries out for financial opportunities from people who engage multiple intelligences and value creative passion across differences.
It [...]

Daily you see snippets of courage from leaders you admire – through questions asked and stories shared. Courage to embrace mental confidence, and face danger bravely,  remains the last virtue on center stage after you sacrifice who you are now, to embrace who you can become. Have you seen it?
Special thanks for this [...]

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 [...]

On each new day your brain offers equipment to lose or win. The choice is yours, and brain activity can now be observed to show how winning or losing selections work, in spite of external conditions.
So why do some people pick winning equipment while others settle for the loser’s pick where the chips go down?
Here [...]

Have you every compared the differences between brains honed to disagree well, and those who generate cynicism when they differ. Contrast the difference between an olive branch offered to enemies, and a weapon poised for war? Cynicis criticized President Obama’s reach of peace to Chavez, while peacemakers saw an olive branch like a US charm’s [...]

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 [...]

It seems the brain blocks your own decision making intelligence, and tends to shut down when you hear an “expert’s” advice. Rather scary research, if you think of the financial gurus who make our decisions in the stock markers and banks.

Check out Dr. Greg Berns’ fascinating finds about the brain shutting down and you’ll see [...]

If you believe violent videos don’t create violent cultures, or constant terrorism talk doesn’t chill human brains, you’d likely also deny that fear creates frantic financial failures too. Fact is, it’s doing just that.
In reality, financial experts increasingly warn us that fear can drain an economy, and it makes sense if you consider the mental [...]

Only after you hit unethical walls raised by scorn from the cynic, do you value freedom flights toward its opposite – the curious mind. I’m speaking of that chronically negative person, who expresses disdain for innovative ideas, where stressed brains rely on habit and distrust reigns.
For Russel Lynes, cynicism’s the pseudo-intellectual’s substitute for intelligence. For [...]

Susan Boyle  shut down because of bullies in her youth.  New York Times tells us bullies and cynics are on the rise. Any stomped out innovation because of cynics or bullies where you work? Sometimes we tend to take cynicism, rage and intimidation of bullies in stride. Other times, we call on ethical practices to [...]

If you listened lately to the media’s constant streams of financial fears, you likely failed to shop much for loved ones over Christmas. Not that buying less detracts from the magic of Christmas. Yet, sadly, the gloomy news turned into poor proceeds for stores, just as fear blocked winning opportunities from your own brain. Why [...]

Fear feels like a natural response to bad news brandished about in unrelenting media flashes. A mental barrier to freedom, fear of failure’s understandable when you think about it. Salacious front-liners  about why you should fear the economy that threatens to rip you off, deceive you, destroy your property, drain your savings, withhold health care [...]