Posts under ‘tone’

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

It’s now believed that you have both angel and devil brain parts and these two forces stay in consistent battle for your actions. Do you agree? Researchers looked at activity in the brain for healthy and unhealthy food choices and what they found may surprise you.
Angel brain parts help people to consider abstract decisions such [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]