It could be anything from a boss ignoring your ideas, to a peer who respects you in public – only to destroy  you behind your back. Has it happened to you?

It’s easier to teach brain-compatible tone skills to others, than to model them in tough situations we all face daily. When research and  brain compatible communication skills come together, though, the day moves out of the trenches with amazing agility.

If  you’ve suffered unfair financial loss in the past 2 years, you’ll agree there’s plenty to gripe about if political discussions emerge.

Communicate Under Attack

Nevertheless, disagreement becomes an art that draws together differences when you help people to face tough or controversial issues. Whenever you apply tone to disagree you can brace your brain from subtle barbs a few folks toss into the ring when you least expect attacks. Some call it a lack of  civility.

Whatever you name it, most would agree, that tone takes different shapes in different settings. Fewer people however, spot how  basic tone skills can spark brainpower as armor when they’re  under attack. It’s also fuel to lead hot topics well before attacks stoke angry responses back.

With social media growth,  online tone is more critical than ever, and yet you often see people throw barbs at others – however subtle -  in the name of critical thinking. Yikes – it’s more like kill-the-diversity thinking!  Survey your tone skills to see where your communication strength and weaknesses lie.

Tone skills impact innovation

In successful exchanges, learning comes from disagreements that showcase opposite angles of an issue. The result? Innovative solutions that create wins for the wider community. Here are a few tips for disagreeing in ways that build goodwill. It’s a daily choice though to use tone for tonic or toxins in tough times.

Have you seen a person who lacks tone skills jump into the fray demanding that one side only exists? Believe it or not – that one person, because of harmful chemicals such as cortisol, can trigger toxic reactions that store these in the amygdala. It’s why toxic workplaces destroy any hope of innovative solutions for an entire group. The opposite is also true.

An organization that disagrees well, is often one that prospers and you can trace tone strengths to the root of many organizational advances. Einstein reminded us how this occurrence remains rare, because, “Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.”

It doesn’t need to be that way.

5 Basic Tools to tackle tone problems

If you tend to spark toxic  disagreements or run from conflicts – start with these basics:

1. Affirm another person’s thoughts before sharing your views on the other side – to show that you really heard, sorted, and valued them. (notice I did not say agree with them)

2. Thank people for different ideas presented and show how you’ve tried or considered them further. Toss your own ideas into the ring to show and explain differences you see.

3. Share personal experiences respectfully as another angle to think about together – rather than as a need to replace the original ideas that were presented. Remember you are looking to stir and learn from diverse sides of the issue.

4. Ask two footed questions, rather than offer your own opinion too quickly.  For instance, you might ask: Have you thought about…?;  What if…?;  Could another possibility be …?.

5. Toss unique ideas into the mix – to inspire with confidence – more as part of a good discussion opportunity – than a need to top the original points. Make sure you support your best ideas with concrete examples to help people see possibilities presented.

In any talented circle, differences  can segue each participant into a broader vision for an innovative workplace.  Good tone draws in and welcomes multiple talents for solutions across differences in tough times.

Why allow poor tone to  shut down voices when a few communication tactics will jump-start brainpower we so desperately need to rebuild  broken systems we all face daily?

Once tone takes a group discussion down – let it go

Check out this hilarious video to show how men and women let go of stuff differently  A close friend and colleague of mine cleverly uses the term, “Let it go!” to address life’s tougher and more hard-hitting conflict issues.

When one discusses with the brain in mind, it usually works well over time to drop things and move on. That’s because to replay it, makes it worse and stores negative results for future negative replays. We’ve all made mistakes – and each time we open keen opportunities to use strategies that allow for genuine growth from those mistakes.

For example:

• When people diminish your life’s beliefs – do you let it go?
• When people take you for granted or criticize – do you let it go?
• When younger peers get celebrated for less than you do – do you let it go?

The brain holds on and can even create a meltdown for several reasons. Stored mental barriers within the brain’s amygdala make it harder for some people to let go. You’ve likely noticed others  rewire their brains’ plasticity to adjust and move on quickly – in refreshing ways, and with far greater ease. Like any newly acquired skill, it’s difficult at first and grows with use.

Tone skills at the MITA Brain Center

Politics and religion discussions highlight good or poor tone skills faster than less controversial topics. Yet, observe the difference, when every push forward holds people as the highest capital.  Or watch the wonder of communication tactics that serve as tools to build goodwill across differences. In both cases, mind-bending ideas emerge in ways that surprise a group with innovative adventures forward together.

It’s why brain based tone skills are central to  MITA’s Manifesto, and it’s how innovative leaders work with rather than against human brainpower. Can you see how ideas reach deeper and wider in a safe, integrity filled and challenging community? What do you think?

25 Ways to Boost Workplace Brainpower in a Recession

If yours was one of those lost jobs, or if your retirement plan shrunk, severe recession may be too mild a term to describe the chaos you face. Based on newly discovered facts about the human brain’s ability to reorganize itself, however, intelligent individuals are repositioning themselves for a predicted coming upturn of events.

Brain experts would say – they are also developing intrapersonal intelligence as tools to tackle workplace challenges and win.

Consider  brainpowered responses to win during the toughest ride of recession, by rebooting your brain to  join the ranks of high-performance minds:

1. Slap somebody on the back. Notice new ideas, support the smaller parts of innovations. Boredom is more a habit formed in brains, and shaped by choices often made in tough times. Stressed or bored minds, default back to broken routines.

2. Lighten up. Increased light lowers melatonin and increases focus, as healthy settings help people to transform problems and broken pieces into creative designs that work.

3. Trust the differences. People engage one another’s best ideas through generating trust so that differences emerge as dividends.  Pelle Ahlerup, U of Gothenburg showed that countries where people have greater trust in others perform better in a number of areas and have higher growth.

4. Tame the tiger within. When anger, fear, and frustration are fueled by disappointments or disagreements,  innovation is stomped out by cortisol – chemical hormones for fury. To tame your brain’s amygdala is to rewire moods in your favor, freeing you to lead calm solutions under pressure.

5. Affirm speedily but blame sparingly. Venting or blaming derails brainpower needed for solutions. Affirm what’s working and you’ll create new neuron pathways to much more of the same.

6. Do something different – learn something new. Innovation comes from those who shift things up, and test-drive better approaches at work. Dendrite brain cells use the outside world and take shape, or they grow IQ-  based on what you do.

7. Whistle while you work. Research shows growth in people’s focus and attention to excellence through melodies in baroque, for instance.  Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter productivity.

8. Walk the talk! Implementation is central to success. Lectures and talks that deliver facts, work against listeners’ brains and benefit speakers’ intelligence mostly. Apply it to learn it

9. Stretch but don’t shrink your brain. In contrast to innovators, Hebbian workers rewire their brains to kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink their brains. Recent research described in Dawna Markova’s book, The Open Mind, shows we can become creatures of new habits at work if we are open minded and willing to stretch for new possibilities.

10.  Profit from differences. Too often diversity training works mentally against benefits because of its deficit model approach. Inclusion, on the other hand, leads to innovative differences with mutual benefits and mental prosperity.

11.  Check your speed. Brain waves can bring either sleep or move into peak performance, based on how they activate at work. All four brain wave levels (beta, alpha, theta and delta) serve value to innovative stages.

12.  Hook to the brain. Tie even difficult facts onto one thing you already know and learning increases in less time. Innovative workers engage new knowledge with ease. The frontal region switches the state of the brain between “learn” and “remember modes in a brief period of time (ScienceDaily 2009).

13.  Live outside the box. Multiple approaches abound as people exceed prescribed standards from many unique approaches.  Multiple intelligences are common to all innovators, used by few staunch traditionalists, and develop IQ daily in innovative settings.

14.  Raise IQ daily. Multiple intelligences are common to all innovators, used by few staunch traditionalists, and develop IQ daily in innovative settings. When activated, each intelligence can be located in specific regions of the human brain, (1999) as described by Gardner in Intelligence Reframed. Each intelligence develops with use.

15.  Run from cynicism. While encouragement motivates innovative brainpower, the opposite is also true. Cynical mindsets block creativity, impact talent, and stomp out innovation.

16.  Remember working memory fast forgets. Memory can be outsourced – through creating lists for example –  to help you  remember, and yet free the mind for focus on more collaborative initiatives.

17.  Burn strong, don’t burn out. Plasticity enables people of all ages to rewire the human brain for innovation that keeps brainpower younger, smarter, and alive through interactive learning.

18.  Thank somebody. Encouragement changes chemistry of brain through raised serotonin, criticism tears down through spreading cortisol.

19.  Mean what you mutter. Just as meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from what is said, transparency opens segues to creative contributions at work. People who are openly transparent and vulnerable build trust in both employees and customers.  Trust is a part of the intrapersonal intelligence, and is developed as we build healthy relationships that shape character.

20.  Toss new talents into work. It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to solve problems innovatively with the brain in mind. How might being social and being smart go together? “As people engage socially and mentally with others,” finds Oscar Ybarra (2008) “they receive relatively immediate cognitive boosts.”

21.  Adopt tone tools for tough times. Poor tone acts as innovation’s silent killer, and shrinks the brain through stress, good tone cultivates brainpower when you need it most.

22.  Use  names more. Greet a person warmly through speaking that person’s name, for a spike in personal awareness, within the human brain. See ties to innovation in tough times at work? PET scans show a strong cerebral flow change when you hear your name spoken and it plays a positive role as you process “self.”

23.  Teach at same time you learn. You retain 90% more through teaching others at the same time they learn a thing. So wisdom and invention spreads and grows in this way. To learn, apply  and teach a new task, the brain ‘sculpts’ new connections (2010).

24.  Solve something! People create new neuron pathways each time they add an innovative solution to any problem encountered. The opposite is also true, focus on problems leads to more of the same. Your ability to infer and apply new solutions leading to an “aha” relies on the brain’s frontal lobes (2010).

25.  Prize women and men’s differences. Women’s and men’s brains differ biologically and intellectually in ways that few optimize, but ways that jettison innovations forward when valued. Though women have more white matter and men more gray matter, they produce equivalent intellectual performances, a UCI study shows (2005).  Unlike gray matter, which peaks in development in a person’s twenties, the white matter continues to develop, and peaks in middle age (Sowell et al., 2003)

The human brain takes new directions in times of recession, through innovative approaches that boost brainpower for an upturn of events. Ever notice how when predictions of well being swoop – so also do the markets sink? The opposite is also true. Ready for an upturn of events?

Brainpower for the Worst of Times!

Paul Bach-y-Rita, famous for his work in neuroplasticity,   tells of his father’s crippling stoke in New York. After a month’s therapy and little progress, medical experts assured the family that no more could be done, and suggested Bach-y-Rita be sent to an institution. Brains cannot repair themselves every medical leader argued and nothing else could help their 65 year old father to walk or talk again.

The scholar went from well respected professor at City College in NY to complete dependency on others for his basic needs.

One son George brought his Papa back to Mexico and began to teach him to crawl again. Using the wall to support his limp shoulder, Bach-y-Rita, inched along clumsily for months, as he and his sons created marble games to play on the floor that required a reach and movement. Cynics in medical schools warned that this was wasted time, and neighbors criticized the Bach-y-Rita family when their papa crawled outside, saying, “They are treating this old man like a dog.”

With every spark of progress, the boys persisted more to help their papa do acts on the opposite side of his weakness and loss.

Then progress began to show, as the brain reorganized itself to take over where damaged parts destroyed abilities. After many more months of crawling and learning to talk again, and through the same painful building of new neuron pathways for language to take over where damaged brain cells failed, Bach-y-Rita returned to teach at City College in New York, at 68, and three years after his stroke.

We can improve our lives in difficult areas, and reshape prosperity, when we recognize the brain’s proclivities to progress. When we simply act and persist on the other side of loss.

Younger son, Paul’s life was shaped by what he described as seeing with our brains and not our eyes, as his papa’s brain reorganized itself for new directions. He went on to explain a great deal of the foundations that move research forward today in areas of plasticity – or the brain’s ability to rewire and find solutions when cynics and naysayers shout words of doom and disaster.

What areas are weakest for you in this tough climate of loss and change? How could your brain’s plasticity help to reorganize itself to become the solution you seek today? How might you find inspiration to move forward, as one Mexican family did in their worst of times?

Handy to know? Perhaps for those who’ll  snipe at change-agents this week,  before they lead others forward. How so?

Surefire Torpedoes for Innovative Brainpower

Here are 5 surefire torpedoes for downing innovative brainpower where you work:

1. Pop new innovations to sink them before they float. Toss darts much like people burst circus balloons. Or just snipe that the new idea stinks, before any competition runs with it.  Either way you’ll extend cortisol chemicals into team circles, like storm clouds cover a  summer sun.
2. Run with cynics and support naysayers. Shove your way into every innovative circle you spot. Tell people you’re there as a critical thinker for a cover,  then arm yourself with killer tone to take out peers who differ from you on any topic raised. Affirm no innovation you hear, and remember to shoot from the hip whenever a soft spot’s in sight.
3. Argue fast, foul, and often. Hurl a deluge of hard core research facts to support your one sided-views. Talk constantly –  don’t  listen ever, and ignore people who disagree. Be sure to avoid any questions at all costs. Rely on dopamine to survive your boredom when others suggest strategies for change.
4. Push rock-solid opinions about pretty much everything that pops into mind. Don’t try to tame your brain’s amygdala, so when it overheats – people will know you’re angry as hell, and then few will tangle with your sacred cows.
5. Back the bullies – so they don’t go after your back when you least expect it. Remember to disagree with nothing a bully spouts, regardless of how you feel.  In fact you’ll want to vent when they vent, and defend nobody they shut down or crinkle.

Continue to fire these torpedoes,  at least once a week, to ensure  you preempt all innovations that sprout at your workplace.

Don’t try to take advantage of novel improvements that  do slip past your poor tone though –it may already be too late to change.

Marks of Innovative Brainpower at Work

Any marks for invention potential where you work?

Check scores for innovative brainpower in your organization,  and tell us what it would it take to nudge people to new peaks:

1. Workers show enthusiasm for new ideas, and express support when others propose quality innovations. Brain Fact: Boredom is more a habit formed in brains, and shaped by choices, than a reality. The stressed mind, lacks innovation and defaults back to boring routines. ___ √ ___ x
2. Work areas come well lit, and welcoming.  Brain Fact: Environment plays a part in innovation, as healthy settings help people to transform problems and broken pieces into creative designs that work.___ √ ___ x
3. Communication rocks. People engage one another’s best ideas through generating trust so that differences emerge as dividends. Brain Fact: Well being comes partially from and is fueled and extended by serotonin chemical hormones for well-being. ___ √ ___ x
4. Conflicts yield to calm. Brain Fact: When anger, fear, and frustration are fueled by disagreements,  innovation is stomped out by cortisol – chemical hormones for fury.
5. More  solutions than problems win in a day. Brain Fact: If venting is bad for the brain, proposed solutions lead to innovation. Both create  new neuron pathways to much more of the same. ___ √ ___ x
6. Change is on-going and expected. Innovation is highly valued, and renewal constantly transforms the culture at work. Brain Fact: Dendrite brain cells use the outside world and take shape, or grow based on what you do. ___ √ ___ x
7. Music selections sustain focus for innovative results. Research shows growth in people’s focus and attention to excellence through melodies in baroque, for instance. Brain Fact: Music changes brain wave speeds in ways that impact moods and alter productivity. ___ √ ___ x
8. Implementation is central to learning. Experiments with data predominate over delivery of facts . Brain Fact: Lectures and talks work against listeners’ brains and benefit speakers’ intelligence mostly. ___ √ ___ x
9. Seniority comes with innovative offerings rather than years of service. Regardless of age, innovative brainpower grows with daily use.  To stop learning and or stomp on growth is to kill a brain’s plasticity. Brain Fact: In contrast to innovators, Hebbian workers rewire their brains to kill incentives, limit focus or even shrink their brains. ___ √ ___ x
10. People contribute to renewal from highly diverse backgrounds and beliefs at all leadership levels. Brain Fact: Just as diversity training commonly works mentally against benefits because of its deficit model, inclusion leads innovative differences. ___ √ ___ x
11. Wide variety exists so that exercise and quiet reflection gain import.  Brain Fact: Brain waves can bring either sleep or move into peak performance, based on how they activate at work. All four brain wave levels serve value to innovative stages. ___ √ ___ x
12. Learning remains highly relevant to many. Brain Fact: Hook even difficult facts onto one thing a person already knows and learning increases in less time, and innovative workplaces engage new knowledge with ease. ___ √ ___ x
13. Ruts appear rare – while  invention frequently finds a marketplace of new ideas. Brain Fact: Basal ganglias store facts and create ruts, working memory holds few facts and leads innovative change. ___ √ ___ x
14. Multiple approaches abound as people exceed prescribed standards from many unique approaches. Brain Fact: Multiple intelligences are common to all innovators, used by few staunch traditionalists, and develop IQ daily in innovative settings. ___ √ ___ x
15. Peer pressure boosts creativity,  innovation is launched where cynicism is blatantly absent. Brain Fact: While encouragement motivates innovative brainpower , the opposite is also true. Cynical mindsets literally block creativity, impact talent, and stomp out innovation. ___ √ ___ x
16. Learning approaches are mutually shared and memorized facts give way to meaningful connections at work. Brain Fact: Memory can be outsourced to help people remember, and to free the mind for focus on a more collaborative innovative process. ___ √ ___ x
17. Senior workers learn from upstarts in symbiotic teaching-sharing settings. Brain Fact: Plasticity enables people of all ages to rewire the human brain for innovation that keeps brainpower younger, smarter, and alive through interactive learning. ___ √ ___ x
18. A spirit of encouragement supersedes distrust. Consensus and active team building lead to innovation for raised profitability.  Brain Fact: Encouragement  changes the chemistry of a brain through raised serotonin, criticism tears down all through spreading cortisol chemicals. ___ √ ___ x
19. Trust is evident through transparency in innovative communications. Brain Fact: Just as meta messages destroy relationships through implications different from what is said, transparency opens segues to creative contributions at work. ___ √ ___ x
20. Team building acumen builds innovation across traditional silos and departments.  People pull together creatively for the greater good, rather than self-serving ends. Brain Fact: It often takes an integration of  hard and soft skills to solve problems innovatively with the brain in mind. ___ √ ___ x
21. Affirmative tone predominates so that many innovative people tend to take risks to achieve new heights. Brain Fact: Just as stress literally shrinks the brain, and poor tone acts as innovation’s silent killer, affirmation compels creative thinkers. ___ √ ___ x
22. Leaders know most people by name, and names are valued throughout the work environment. Brain Fact: Greet a person warmly through speaking that person’s name, for a spike in personal awareness, within the human brain. See ties to innovation at work? ___ √ ___ x
23. Creativity and invention get fired rather than stomped on, through teaching others at the same time as people learn new innovative approaches. 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. ___ √ ___ x
24. Curiosity is highly cultivated by the entire workplace community, through rewards. Brain Fact: People create new neuron pathways each time they add an innovative solution to any problem encountered. The opposite is also true – as a focus on problems leads to more of the same. ___ √ ___ x
25. High value is commonly attributed to 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 when valued. ___ √ ___ x

What innovation strategy would raise your organization’s score? Why not take a survey to gauge the innovative IQ potential – and you’ll discover where to suggest change for growth.