Posts under ‘risks’

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 [...]

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?
Another friend waited  rather than phone back  when her cousin slammed [...]

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 [...]

Great news from GE leaders today,  according to WSJ’s Paul Glader.  Any organization willing to change and grow, after a fall,  also holds potential to create a prototype for global change and growth.  Both qualities urgently needed in the broader business community. Bravo!
Let’s get behind GE’s  initiative and begin to move in new directions as [...]

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 [...]

School prepared many of us for jobs that no longer exist, and now life prepares some of us for jobs we’ll invent.
Feel unqualified for work you hope to do in the coming year?  No reason to fret if you consider your choices. Why not factor in  the art of learning, for instance,  and transform your [...]

While some HR staff complain of too little respect at work, HR veteran, Bill Conaty  won the 2004 HR Executive of the Year for risks he took to promote talent and raise HR status at GM.  He reversed downturns into bubbles, more because of his vision for renewal possibilities, than any call for respect.
In fact [...]

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 [...]

New York burns while Albany fiddles. News of political infighting, stalemates, accusations and posturing flood us daily, while opportunities for greatness fade for NY. A closer look, though, shows bureaucracy working against ethical brainpower. How so? 
Neuro discoveries uncover organizational problems and possibilities.
1. Secondary schools and universities in crisis continue to downsize rather than reconfigure [...]

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 [...]

Each step to renew your workplace ethically and with the brain in mind – casts lights on mental barriers that prevent change in stagnant organizations. How so?
To rethink old approaches is also to take a stand against Hebbian hardwired thought that defaults back to ruts and routines.
To upgrade motivation and achievement at secondary or higher [...]

Surprisingly, human brains tend to outperform themselves in reverse, rather than in forward motion.  Comfortable  traditions or routines can cause your brain to default to ruts, that only reverse brainpower can surpass. How so?  
Let’s say you wake up out of sorts – discouraged about a hectic schedule or a disorganized workplace. Take an active [...]

Queen Rania told NPR that the world cannot afford to be cynical. Do you agree? Listen here to the Queen’s conversation with NPR to encourage opposing views to learn from different perspectives.
People often ask as one commenter questioned here How can a person survive cynics’ toxins at work, and maintain a sense of hope and [...]

Spot any gap where you live or work, regardless of how small, and you may well be staring into the eyeballs of your own destiny.  How so?
Even though I taught university classes and facilitated top leaders around the world for many years, it still surprises me how few people ever discuss the proven wonder of [...]

At a university debate on the brain’s role in education, the dean asked: Why bring the brain into learning, when higher education already has traditions and a proven history? How would you have responded?
Looking back, I likely should have told about my own dream that leaders and learners can  prosper more by tapping into extravagant [...]

Slavery works, cried dominant voices, while for centuries brilliant minority voices, with finer insights at times, could have led a richer way.  Had they been engaged, silenced voices could have broken chains that still bind most of us today. Did you know human brains build new neuron pathways with every jaded act, ruts for more [...]

Researchers suggest that social media can harm kids’ brains, and few would disagree. My question is, what impact do online networks play in adult minds? Increasingly, brain gurus such as Susan Greenfield weigh in on such topics as more evidence weekly to draw from.
We know from neurogenesis that you improve or worsen your situation by [...]

Are you unmoved or moved as media reports daily bombard your world with further fallout from financial fiascoes? I mean are you doing finances differently, and inspiring others to do the same? Perhaps it’s time to rethink our responses and create a better way forward. Daily you choose for growth or stagnation, based on what [...]

Check out this video to see granny lose her teeth in a daring parachute jump. Would you have taken the dive? Or did you know why not all risk is created equal?
Research shows how risk-taking relates to the brain’s dopamine levels and defies logic. Sadly, we too often stifle rather than support highly intelligent risk-takers.
Few [...]