Celebrating Story: Bringing People and Work to Life
My friends at Babelfish Group have once again organized a two-day conference this 7th-8th October in Melbourne to explore the use of story and narrative approaches to change across the areas of business, government and community.
Happening in Melbourne, 07-08 October 2010
At last year's inaugural conference I ran an interactive session called"Shifting the narrative in organizations - why change is NOT like riding a bike" that covered some the brain-based aspects of story, narrative and meaning-making - particularly the neuroscientific reasons why it's so challenging to shift people's narrative in organizations and why change programs often fall apart or fail to take hold as a result (see the full workshop write-up here).
I really enjoyed people's active participation and discussion, the other workshops I attended were interesting and engaging and of course it was great to meet - and talk! - with other participants.
The program for 2010 looks to be equally diverse and rich with potential insights, so I encourage you to check it out! In addition, this year's conference will once again feature the work of Melbourne Playback Theatre and you can get to know your fellow participants in advance join the Ning community.
For full details and to register, check out the Celebrating Story conference brochure and contact conference organizer Andrew Rixon directly at +61 400 352 809.
And tell him Todd sent ya to enjoy a special discount of about 15% off the going rate!
Summary - this post talks about ideas and research shared by social cognitive neuroscience Prof. Matthew Lieberman (UCLA) at the recent NeuroPower Symposium in Sydney. It explores some personal and organizational appliations of neuroscience findings, including what I call "The Battle inside your Brain". Finally as a practical example you'll find the case study I presented at the Symposium, describing how tmconsultancy helped develop a high performance internal communications team at Lloyds TSB bank (includes a link to the full text of the case study).
Matt Lieberman and I first met a year ago here in Sydney and it was great to see him in Australia again last week at the NeuroPower Symposium.
This time I was happy to have more time to discuss with him the possible organizational applications of his brain research...although it should be said that owing to a combined jetlag spanning much of the globe (he newly-arrived from LAX, me from LHR) two popular secondary themes were the relative merits of RedBull vs. Coke and how many cups of coffee one needed during the day before contemplating a few glasses of good Aussie red wine.
Session highlights
Matt and his wife Naomi Eisenberger (who did not attend the Symposium) are co-directors of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at UCLA. Their pioneering research into applied neuroscience and psychology includes topics such as self-control, self-awareness, emotional regulation, automaticity, social rejection and persuasion.
At day one of the Symposium Matt offered the crowd of 50 people a whirlwind tour of the anatomy and physiology of the brain, including the troubling fact that the exact same part of the brain is often called different things. As we waded through the different nomenclature a plaintive cry went up: "Why can't they just call the parts top/bottom, front/back??"
From there Matt explored the history and relative advantages of different types of brain imaging (TMS, EEG, PET, fMRI) and the different ways we process experiences to form different kinds of memories (explicit/implicit, procedural/working).
Some myths fell by the wayside during this several presentations, including:
Left brain/Right brain - there aren't nearly as many differences as people may think and most processes combine the two hemispheres in a number of ways
Male/Female brain - there are virtually no physiological differences between the two, which means that (undeniable) sex differences arise due to other factors
Mirror neurons don't necessarily work the way that some people think they do
To speak of "Mind-Body" or "Mind-Brain" connections as if they were two separate things is nonsensical; they are different levels of description for talking about the same thing
Personal and Organizational Applications: the Battle inside your Brain
For me the key takeaway came on day two, as 70 of us learned the brain science behind emotional regulation and the implications for individuals and teams. Matt outlined in great detail the research he's been doing that describes what I call the Battle inside your Brain.
For brevity's sake, and because you'll be reading more about this in future posts, the key point you need to know is this: the self-control centre of the brain is the RVLPFC, or right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, the bit of your brain just inside your right temple. This bit plays a key role in emotional self-regulation, particularly offsetting the emotional intensity associated with limbic pain caused by distress - whether insult, social pain or physical pain.
One of the most effective ways to engage in this emotional regulation is by putting emotions into words. Doing so (somewhat counterintuitively) actually lessens their intensity and makes them more manageable. The thorny bit: it's really hard to do this for ourselves, hence the popularity and effectiveness of various kinds of talk therapy, narrative processes and, I would argue, effective coaching dialogue.
Why does emotional regulation matter? As it happens, there's a lot of truth in the saying, "Control your emotions, or they'll control you!" In this instance, however, "control" is not about denying emotions, pushing them underground or immediately and vehemently expressing them (to the potential distress of those around you).
Rather, it's about striking the right balance.
You've probably heard that anxiety is actually a necessary part of life. Too little and you won't bother to get out of bed in the morning; too much and you simply cannot function effectively - you shut down, freak out or run away.
Neuroscience helps explain this as follows: when we respond to perceived threats, the adrenal system kicks in and heightens brain activity in both the limbic system (emotional: fast, reactive, habitual) and prefrontal cortex or cortical system (cognitive: reasoning, reflective, considerate).
For a time, this heightened activity in both systems will produce the increased mental sharpness that we've all experienced when confronted with a crisis. At a certain point, however, excessive stimulation keeps the limbic system wired while the prefrontal cortex becomes less responsive, literally tightening up and making us less adaptive, worse at creating memories, distracted, detached and prone to tunnel vision. In other words, we are left in raw survival mode and about as sophisticated as a five year-old.
In sum, the Battle inside your Brain is the one in which the cortical system (aided in large part by the RVLPFC) governs and controls the limbic system in order to channel the energy that emotions produce toward getting useful things done.
This is highly encouraging news! Armed with the hard science behind the "soft skills" that help people to manage their own emotional responses (as well as that of others) we can more effectively practice the self-awareness and self-control techniques that ensure maximum productive input with minimum emotional reactivity.
Case Study: tmconsultancy works with Lloyds TSB Bank As a practical example of the above theory, I also presented a case study at the Symposium, entitled "Developing a thoroughbred team at the Black Horse - Internal Comms at Lloyds TSB Bank"
(Session blurb): Todd will present a consulting and coaching case study on how he applied the NeuroPower framework to help put the new Head of Internal Communications and her team at Lloyds TSB Bank on the road to success. Working with the newly-reorganized team from its inception established a resilient team culture of increased personal accountability and better interpersonal effectiveness. The result: consistently high team productivity and zero team turnover despite a period of dramatic change within the bank and the financial services industry. The case study details the methods and outcomes of tmconsultancy's 18-month engagement with this team at a big-5 UK retail bank in a consulting project delivered through effective face-to-face training and facilitation, combined with a distance coaching program.
You can download the full Lloyds TSB case study here. (As a "live update" to the study, I'm happy to report that at present discussions continue with members of the RBIC team who have sought further consulting support from tmconsultancy for similar projects in the post-merger organization, Lloyds Group.) .
It turns out that managing "Millennials" (a.k.a. Generation Y) isn't so different from managing everybody else...they're just more forthright in asking for - and in some cases expecting - well-balanced and people-centred management practice.
A 6-step process will help you to manage Gen Y - and everyone else in your team - to get the results you want.
At the risk of generalizing (and with a hat-tip to this useful Fast Company blog post) here are a few popular perceptions about Gen Y attitudes towards the world of work:
Strong parental links (some would say: being fawned and doted upon by Boomer parents) means this cohort is accustomed to having a strong sense of place, origin and position.
They have also been pumped up by their folks to believe they're "special" and can achieve anything. This ego-inflation has been compounded by the "you get a trophy just for participating" ethic in schools and sports, implemented for fear of stigmatizing underachievers. As a result: they expect that same kind of approval from bosses, preferably on a daily basis.
Facility with all sorts of technology that connects people means they have widespread social networks and an ability and willingness to engage in self-expression in any number of online forums (facebook, MySpace, twitter, blogs, You Tube, et al.).
Riding the wave of a boom economy and sheltered from the harsh realities of the world by their over-protective parents, young adults expect, even demand, that their jobs be fun and fulfilling.
Now before this generational portrait starts to look too much like a mob of clueless spoiled-brats and self-esteem junkies who won't deign to set foot in the workplace on anything but their own terms - let's take a step back and look at the long view.
Historically, every new generation has reaped the benefits of what's come before - better tools, improved nutrition and health and (particularly over the past century or so) techniques for developing greater self-knowledge and insight into human behaviour.
Could it be that Gen X and the Boomers are simply envious - both of the ready availability of these advantages and of Gen Y's unwillingness to settle for outdated management practice that's not much advanced from 19th-century Taylorism?
A better way of management
For years now the argument in favour of "soft skills" has been: if you treat people well, they will perform better. Command-and-control management style (a.k.a. scaring the crap out of people) admittedly gets results in the short-term...and over time produces disengagement, dissatisfaction, health problems and burnout - with all the attendant negative effects on performance and results. And forget about using C&C with Gen Y, who will simply walk.
Today the insights of neuroscience and brain research provide the hard science to back up the "soft skills" message. Below is a six-step* management process, one that will meet Gen Y demands for a more engaging management style and that will work equally well with the Gen X-ers and Boomers in your workplace.
In this brief overview I'll simply describe the function of each step. In future posts I'll offer more details on practical application to manage individuals and teams.
STEP 1- ROLE Role starts things off on the right foot by A) establishing a sense of community (with shared values, a code of conduct, and understanding of how the group adds value in a wider context), and B) letting people know how and where each individual fits into the larger group.
Clarify the roles, goals and expectations so that each person's individual efforts are contributing to the group objectives and goals. Build a solid, agreed-upon foundation at the outset to provide an underlying source of enduring continuity in the face of transition, change and even crisis periods to come.
STEP 2 - VOICE Voice is about expression and creativity. People are going to have thoughts and feelings about the content discussed in the previous step. It's therefore vital to now acknowledge the emotional component with dialogue and an environment that promotes the free expression of thoughts and emotional reactions. Something need not be done about every comment that is made, but people must have the chance to say what they think and feel.
Free expression like this may well cause conflict. That's normal and necessary. What is required is an agreed way to deal constructively with such conflict. This step can be quite confronting (Gen Y is not shy about self-expression!) but skip it at your peril: unexpressed emotional reactions do not go away but instead go underground to fester and bubble up in unproductive ways at inopportune moments.
When team members feel secure in freely expressing themselves, emotional reactivity is minimized and the emotional energy can be productively channeled into creative output. The advantage to doing this step well is that expression results in better understanding, clarity, enhanced creativity and group collaboration.
STEP 3 - REWARD Reward is about motivation, action and reward - the drive to achievement that comes from the healthy expression of ego. With the emotional energy released in the previous step now ready to be put to practical use, this step answers the question "what's in it for me?" to tap into the passion and drive of each team member. It is results-focused and promotes action over words, performance over process.
"Fortune favours the bold" could be the motto...which can also mean that people "leap without looking". Therefore when describing goals make clear both the consequences of non-achievement and the benefits of achievement. Frame the task in terms of each person's self-interest - but also how achievement will benefit the team collectively. To keep people on track and productive, phrase performance measures in positive language that motivates, rather than coercive language that triggers emotional reactivity and fearful anxiety. This step is about getting things done, the achievement of aspirations.
STEP 4 - HEART Heart is about empathy, inclusion and relationships. The previous step unleashed each person's self-interested passion and drive for results. Now is the time to ensure there is a personal connection so that internal competition does not tear the team apart.
Being smart about connecting with your people will help foster a sense of belonging for each team member. Active listening helps managers to be aware of both the explicit and implicit messages in what team members are saying, to know when something just doesn't feel right and take action to head off potential trouble before it becomes disruptive. People don't work for companies or money - they work for people. Offering a sense of personal commitment will build authentic relationships between team members, who gladly go the extra mile for you...and for each other.
STEP 5 - HEAD Head is about data, tasks and learning. There's an old saying: "People don't care what you know, until they know that you care." In the previous step you got people to care, now you can apply the strength of those relationships to a strong task-focus.
Get clear on the step-by-step actions, make resources available, allocate them efficiently and leverage them to move forward. Ensure good information flow, analyze data for patterns to apply and exploit. Learn from experience and apply that learning to make necessary changes to strategy on-the-fly. Develop skillsets and expertise through training and encourage curiosity about how things work - and could work even better.
STEP 6 - VISION Vision is about conceptualization, the big-picture and long-term, seeing things as they could be rather than how they are. The previous step's task-focus went right down into the weeds of details and data; now it's time to zoom back up to the 30,000-ft. perspective. Reconnect the purpose and actions of the team to the wider vision of organization and, wider still, to the trends of the industry, economy, regulatory bodies, and marketplace to consider future plans.
This final step has two important components: A) it pulls together and aligns all the previous ones by focusing on a positive future state toward which everyone can strive, and B) by celebrating what's been achieved so far, it sets the stage for reinvention, for a new foundation and the renewal of the 6-step process.
All 6 steps, every time
Regardless of our generational cohort, each of us has a preference for some of the 6 steps over others, whether Role or Reward, Voice or Vision,Heart or Head. This preference means we favour some steps and want to skip over or quickly rush through the others. As a manager, the advantage of following the 6-step format is that it ensures you address the areas that are of greatest interest to each different team member. The result: much higher levels of understanding, quality communication and better team engagement.
To find out more about how tmc works with leaders and their teams to get results by applying the 6-step process just described, send an email today!
September this year will be a busy month for Todd, who will present at three conferences in Europe and Australia.
Imagine - EBTA 2009
At this year's annual conference of the European Brief Therapy Association in Helsinki on 04-06 September, Todd will present a 90-minute workshop entitled Making Integral Theory practical, or, Wilber in the real world
Abstract: Integral Theory is a powerful explanatory theory (it is, after all, based on Ken Wilber's ambitious book "A Theory of Everything") but how can we practically apply it for people and organizations? And what is the link to Solutions Focus practice in particular?
In this session you will: a) learn how to apply this theory to coaching, consulting and communications in real-world settings b) experience the benefit these insights can bring as you share your ideas and thoughts with fellow participants c) discover how to apply the knowledge to your own practice. No previous knowledge of Integral Theory required.
The 2009 conference of the International Association of Facilitators Europe in Oxford, UK runs from 18-20 September. Todd is presenting two interactive 90-minute sessions: The facilitator as coach and Identify and deliver on your personal brand.
A symposium to be held in Sydney on 24-25 September will explore the practical management, leadership and organizational applications of what the latest neuroscience insights and brain research are telling us about human behaviour and social interaction.
The event features Peter Burow (Australian consultant and developer of the NeuroPower system) and Professor Matthew Lieberman, an expert in the field of Social Cognitive Neuroscience who co-directs the SCN Lab at the UCLA Department of Psychology.
At the symposium Todd will present a case study of his work over a two-year period with a management team at Lloyds TSB Bank in London. .
In a previous post about Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, I wrote that I find it a useful tool to identify one's own preferred "intelligence" as well as one's blindspots. I further suggested that the model was of value in identifying and working with people's existing abilities, to help them get the most out of what comes naturally to them and to make the most of the diversity that results from natural differences of perspective. Thus equipped, team members will be better able to respect each perspective and engage in a collaborative and productive discussion.
Is intelligence multiple?
Gardner's theory has provoked controversy. Only a few weeks ago an article appeared that typifies the contrary position. On my reading of Not Every Child is Secretly a Genius, Ferguson seeks to reassert that there really is only one measure of intelligence - defined as "the ability to learn" - and all people have it to varying degrees based on their "raw biological machinery of intelligence" (added emphasis mine).
I find his phrase telling, as it suggests to me a determined effort to reduce the concept of intelligence to something mechanical in order to apply just one tool of measurement rather than admitting of multiple possibilties.
I'm not saying that "every child is a genius in his/her own special way" and everyone should get a trophy just for playing the game.
What I think is that something as complex as intelligence ought to be subject to a broader treatment than that rendered by reductionist science employed to describe "what is true" in the area of intelligence (with the attendant dire warnings against alternative views that risk leading us "down the path to intellectual relativism").
Rather than treating people as learning machines, I'm in favour of a more flexible approach.
Learning takes many forms
Today any number of neuroscience and brain books tell the stories of how people's brains have literally rewired themselves to regain key functionality that had been lost to catastrophic illness or disease.
A less traumatic - yet no less astounding - accomplishment is described in a recent review of the book Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions. The book tells the inspiring story of a Susan Barry, who overcame the effects of being born cross-eyed and gained (I would say, "learned") stereoscopic vision in adulthood.
The reviewer's closing statement I find uplifting enough to quote at length:
With the added evidence it offers of the brain’s perennial plasticity, this book will encourage us all because it suggests that if people can reconstruct pathways of vision, there are other things they might succeed in doing. It is a pleasant and optimistic thought indeed, that at any point in life we might, if determined enough, be able to fix things, improve, mend, and grow in positive ways: even to see more clearly, and not just with our eyes.
So to paraphrase Shakespeare's Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your reductionist scientific view. Clearly the brain is capable of many things beyond the strict confines of IQ tests. But is this talk of brain plasticity and capacity to relearn all just new-fangled neurospeak...or has it always been so?
Complex adaptive beings, not caveman-machines
A Newsweek article from last week gives a very readable summary of recent debate over evolutionary psychology (or evo-psych), a field which essentially suggests that we humans in the 21st century still operate with Stone Age minds.
That is, traits that evolved thousands of years ago to adapt to the challenges of the day have been passed down in the genes of successful survivors - reinforcing those behaviours.
Clearly humans have an ability to adapt to the environment and survive; we need only look at how our ancestors applied superior intellect and adaptive skills to successfully inhabit every corner of the globe no matter how inhospitable.
Where the evo psych argument falls over, however, is that it assumes that our ability to adapt somehow ossified early on, rendering modern humans little more than cavemen in business suits. In sum, there is a single human nature and it was set a very long time ago.
In stark contrast, more and more research now supports a field called behavioural ecology, which "starts from the premise that social and environmental forces select for various behaviours that optimize people's fitness in a given environment. Different environment, different behaviours—and different human 'natures.'" In other words, yes humans evolved according to Darwin's theories...AND natural selection chose in favour of "general intelligence and flexibility, not mental modules preprogrammed with preferences and behaviours."
And, arguably, in favour of multiple intelligences distributed across the human population.
Complex adaptivity is therefore a hallmark of the human condition and always has been. Despite the Western impulse to reduce everything in our world to the strictly measurable, there is great merit in considering the multiple as well as the singular...lest the quest for a single "truth" devolve into the kind of arguments over right/wrong that already cripple so many human interactions, in the workplace and in society at large.
Credits: "Caveman" illustration by Peter Oumanski for Newsweek.
What you can expect as a tmconsultancy follower on twitter are posts with:
links to practical and interesting articles and blog posts on (among others) the following topics:
Positive Change
human behaviour and interaction
neuroscience & brain research
limbic responses
emotional reactivity
psychology, philosophy, anthropology
employee engagement
negotiation, mediation, facilitation
persuasion & influence
creativity & innovation
coaching
strategy development & execution
cross-cultural business
marketing
communications
adult learning principles
personal status/location updates – esp. while travelling to neat new places
my own occasional musings, observations, insights or outbursts
info about worthwhile causes – esp. animal welfare/rehabilitation, habitat protection and educational programs
retweets, kudos and thanks – to show the love
and, of course, questions to tap the collective knowledge/wisdom of the twitterverse
Who's Todd anyway?
I’m a Canadian living in Manly, Australia (part of Sydney’s “Northern Beaches”) and I divide my time among Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and Canada.
Ich spreche sehr gerne Deutsch, je parle pas mal le français, ik spreek wel Nederlands, estoy aprendiendo lentamente español, och jag förstår lite svensk - so I enjoy connecting with people all over the world.
My non-work interests include surfing, scuba diving, sailing, wildlife, travel, photography, design, film, cooking and learning about wine (especially big Aussie reds...the "hard" way, glass by glass).
What I do
I consult, write and speak about the many aspects of human behaviour and interaction that can help (or hinder) organizations seeking practical business results. For my professional bio check out my LinkedIn profile and, if we share interests, send me an invitation to connect.
On my flight this weekend from Melbourne to Hong Kong I enjoyed the unaccustomed comfort of a First class berth on Qantas, along with the unexpected overnight company of Britain's fashion gurus, authors and TV presenters, Trinny and Susannah.
Now before Qantas has a Ralph-related meltdown, allow me to assure them and you that when I say "slept with" I mean nothing more salacious than a trio of unconscious travellers just trying to make the best of a 9-hour plane trip.
So with apologies for the tabloid-like headline of this post, there is a serious point to be made and it has to do with celebrity.
Celebrities - people like you and me?
Today it's possible to get information - however dubious - about the doings and private concerns of any number of celebrities in the world. This week, I noted in passing, "Brad walked out" and Madonna's quest for a matching set of black babies was thwarted.
It's an open question whether this information enriches my life, but there you have it - every newsstand screams out lurid titillation with the dramas of people I don't even know and (barring future coincidental meetings in First class Qantas cabins) will never meet.
So-called "reality TV" shows have increased in number - if not in good taste and quality. We need only look at the famous (and too brief) life of English media personality Jade Goody to understand that for some, "being famous" is a more viable career option than going to university or pursuing vocational training.
Certainly this is the conclusion drawn by a surprising number of young people: a British survey reported in 2007 that the number one career ambition of one in seven 16- to 21-year olds was to become a celebrity or "socialite" like Paris Hilton.
What IS "celebrity" then? Are celebrities people just like you and me? Certainly in my admittedly brief experience of them, Trinny and Susannah seemed nice enough people, not at all the tyrants and bullies some famous folks are reported to be.
Susannah even chose the same breakfast as me, though I have to say Trinny looks a hell of a lot better in the morning than I do.
Our tribal origins
In the quest to unravel the strangeness of "celebrity" it's helpful to remember our origins. Humans are not well designed to live alone and so we form social groups to ensure our survival. Having done this for so long, and for such a compelling reason, our brains have evolved accordingly.
Dunbar's number (named for British anthropologist Robin Dunbar) suggests that humans are ideally suited to exist in a group of between 20 to at most 150 people in our "tribe".
What that means is in a tribe setting of up to 150 people we are pretty well suited to getting along with each other without resorting to hierarchies, stereotypes or other means of simplifying the complexity of social relations/interactions. Beyond that it starts to get a bit dodgy.
In such a tightly-knit tribal group, if you knew someone else pretty well and they didn't view you as essentially competition or food, chances are you counted him or her as a "friend". I think this is where our fascination with, and confusion about, celebrities comes into play.
Our basic neural wiring tells us that if we know personal stuff about people then they must be our friends. Technology, meanwhile, delivers truckloads of personal information about celebrities and, thanks to social media, loads of people who may be seeking celebrity on a more or less limited scale. What these celebrities and would-be celebrities have in common is that they are not only outside our optimum tribe of 150, we don't actually really know them at all.
The result is a "does not compute!" disconnect between what technology enables us to do and what our brains can handle. We are essentially glorified chimps suffering from information overload. This is where Brad and Madonna (and some people's hundreds of Facebook "friends") confound us: the presence of personal information says friend while our brain's capacity to keep track of it all says not part of my tribe.
This is not to say that we should limit our interactions to a select 150 people - hardly practical in a connected world. Rather my brush with celebrity has encouraged me to think more closely about fostering a quality and degree of connection to others that is a) manageable given the limits of my own brain and therefore b) helpful if I'm to engage fully and effectively with other people.
Circles within circles
Accepting the fact that we'll all have an inner circle and varied degrees connection to others whom we get to know, here's a first pass at some relational boundary-setting (NB: membership in multiple categories is possible):
friends - potential tribe member (per the loose description offered above)
acquaintances - those with whom I share interests and memberships (as part of the constellation of people in my extended network) and between whom I may occasionally make connections on the basis of their common interests
colleagues/clients - relationships of a commercial nature, transacted in an adult, professional and pleasant manner
strangers - I'll not be so naff as to say "a friend I haven't met yet" since that in itself is a violation of the tribal friends distinction - but offering a smile and a friendly comment certainly isn't amiss in this realm
celebrities - those whose career involves raising their image and profile into the public domain; I think the useful distinction here is to always bear in mind that, "hey I recognize that celebrity" does not automatically imply a relationship, least of all one of "hey I know that person".
Some food for thought - leave me a comment to let me know what you think!
Last week's Inauguration address by President Obama once again showcased his extraordinary speaking talents. My impression is that the delivery of his speech deftly weaved together the threads of Presidents Kennedy and Clinton, of Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., and reaffirmed the role we have come to see as a cornerstone of his identity: statesman and orator.
Yet this time, there was something more. It was his moment to offer a first glimpse of the course he intends to set for the world's most powerful nation over the next four years. He's given us the agenda that will drive his behaviour as President and that will guide the staff of his administration.
NeuroPower Leadership: the Compassionate Leader
I've written previously that Obama is frequently able to embody what within the NeuroPower framework (as developed by author and strategist Peter Burow) is called a NeuroPower Leader.
Specifically, he is able to manifest the characteristics of what is termed the Compassionate Leader, which is the result of integrating the two NeuroPower archetypes of Chancellor and Navigator. Before we go on, I'll give you some detail on how NeuroPower suggests these archetypes are formed.
Archetypes and the 6 Intelligence Centres
Each of our individual personalities comprises two archetypes. An archetype is formed through the combination of three of the six thinking functions that NeuroPower suggests make up the majority of our brain's activity.
These six thinking functions (also called Intelligence Centres, or ICs for short) may be grouped in their three respective pairs under the following headings:
Innovation and Vision Logic and Passion Data and Empathy
Note that there isn't a stark divide between each pair, so it's not "Data versus Empathy," rather (following the Jungian conception of behaviour) they are the respective endpoints along a continuum of possible behaviours.
Master/Mirror Archetype and Integration
As we each tend more toward one or the other end of these three continua, we'll each come to prefer or rely on one set of three thinking functions as our "default" mode of operating. The combination of these three preferred modes of thinking results in our Master archetype. Meanwhile the other three thinking functions that represent our less-preferred ways of operating combine to form our Mirror archetype.
To take President Obama as an example, I would argue that his default mode - that is, the three ICs that he tends to favours in the first instance - are the Innovation, Passion and Empathy ICs. The archetype that results when these three are combined is the Chancellorarchetype and, since these are his preferred three ICs, the Chancellor is his Master archetype profile. The corresponding three ICs (Vision, Logic and Data respectively) therefore combine to form the Navigator archetype and this is his Mirror archetype profile.
The two key concepts to grasp here are that:
We all have access to all six of these thinking functions or Intelligence Centres. Reintegrating your Master profile (made up of your "preferred" three ICs) and your Mirror profile (made up of the other three ICs) is the central developmental challenge each of us faces in our efforts to express our fullest capacity as people - hence that's also the primary developmental focus of the NeuroPower framework.
The Master profile tells us what we want out of life, the Mirror profile reminds us of what we need. How this plays out is that our Master archetype forms our self-identity (i.e. where we place our focus and how we communicate with others; to that degree it also determines how others view and value us as individuals) while the Mirror archetype influences our behaviour.*
Up to the Inauguration we've seen a good deal of Obama's Master archetype, the Chancellor, and this has determined our sense of his identity. In this speech we begin to see the integration of his Mirror archetype, the Navigator, and get a sense of how that is likely to guide his behaviour.
Here is the video of his speech and below that are two short descriptions of the Chancellor and Navigator archetypes. I invite you to use these archetypes as a lens through which to view the content and delivery of his message, to see how seamlessly he has integrated the best aspects of each and how he brings them to the service of his purposes.
Chancellors are charming, enthusiastic, energetic and ambitious. They like competition, negotiation, promoting ideas and people and rising to the top. Chancellors are found among some of the most senior leaders and officials in society. They live to work and rise to challenges, particularly those complex people issues that others cannot seem to sort out.
Chancellors are passionate about projects with which they are involved; they are highly adept at getting team members to achieve their respective objectives, each for their own reasons. Indeed they are the ultimate diplomats: they strive to build bridges both externally, between groups and people and internally, within the sometimes conflicted breast of an individual with whom they may be interacting. They are altruistic at heart and dedicated to authenticity and bringing out the best in others.
At their best, Chancellors are genuinely charming, excellent negotiators, diplomatic, strive for esprit de corps to foster high-performing team environments, and have a warmth and kindness about them, even a sort of venerability as they put us in touch with our own better natures.
The Navigator***
A Navigator’s mind is structured and visionary. These traits combine to produce a person with a clear vision and the discipline and structure to achieve it. They are super-dependable and like to be a respected contributor to the community and a pillar of society.
Very emotionally detached, Navigators are inflexible when discussing plans, directions, approaches and logistics. If they are given no advance warning, however, they can cope with flexibility and ambiguity and perform brilliantly ‘on the hop’.
Navigators are very focused when there is a clear vision, executing enormous mind over matter, suppressing unwanted emotions and disciplining themselves and the people around them.
At their best, Navigators are the embodiment of faith, exhibiting complete confidence in the achievement of their goals and never, ever giving up hope. They are protective, almost patriarchal figures. They excel at visionary planning, holding responsibly to the agreed course of action, reaffirming the guiding principles that underlay their plans, and encouraging role excellence in themselves and others. They love to explore and conquer new realms, leading themselves or a group into uncharted territory or experiences - and to do so with honour and respect for others.
Reaffirming the principles of hope
For me, Obama's message was an inspirational reaffirmation of American ideals, principles and the responsibility that comes with power and leadership.
Looking outward to the world and (re)building bridges, he has set his stake in the ground to say clearly and confidently:
...we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more. [my emphasis]
Welcome back, America. The world has missed your leadership and your culture's deep, abiding belief in the power that ideas can have in shaping the world. As anthropologist Margaret Mead reminds us:
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
TM
*adapted from the NeuroPower handbook, edition 1.0.5 (2008), p 746 **adapted from the NeuroPower handbook, edition 1.0.5 (2008), pp 270-271 ***adapted from the NeuroPower handbook, edition 1.0.5 (2008), pp 364-65, 375, 562
A friend recently quipped: "What's the definition of optimism for an investment banker?"His answer: Ironing five shirts on a Sunday night.
While the times around us are changing, as they ever will, one thing remains the same: your power of choice. You can see any situation as a crisis or as an opportunity. As an ending or a new beginning.
This may sound trite and Pollyanna-ish to you, but rest assured there is good reason for you to cultivate an awareness of what choices you make during your each waking moment. Where you place your attention will determine your level of happiness...both now and later in your life.
We become what we think about all day long.
These words, attributed to the early 19th century American essayist, philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, neatly present the commonsensical insight of something that has now been confirmed by neuroscience.
So like anything, practice makes better. Unsurprisingly, the way to become good at something is to do it often and to learn from your efforts.
In this way wisdom is not so different from playing a sport or a musical instrument - over time you build up memories of how to do something, which can be readily accessed later on by the fast, memory-building part of your brain (based in the limbic system).
So here's the lesson: if you practice playing the piano badly through your years of life, then you're only ever going to be a bad piano player (though you'll have very ready access to the skill of playing it badly!).
Similarly, if you continually cultivate a mindset focused on crisis, negativity, the downside, and being fearful, then later in life those are exactly the memories you'll most readily access and - hey presto - you're stuck in the same rut of continually thinking everything is rubbish.
Like giving up any vice or bad habit, however, it's never too late to quit and the positive effects can begin to add up immediately. If you begin to manifest positive aspects of your character, some of the noble qualities of what you're like when you are at your absolute best, then those are the attributes to which your brain will make the strongest connections. They will become habits, taking you upwards in a positive spiral towards greater happiness and a more hopeful outlook on life.
Even if you're doubtful of the science behind the matter, I think you'd agree that manifesting a character-filled approach to life by learning to focus on the possibilities rather than the negatives has relatively few down-sides. (Of course, if you're immediately prone to pointing out what the downsides might be, that in itself could be a useful piece of insight for you...!)
I'm reminded of a story about an executive who, no matter what news was presented to him, responded by saying "That's great!" Staff members bearing really negative messages were, to say the least, disconcerted by this reaction, until they learned to see the philosophy behind it - that nothing is unequivocably positive or negative in itself - it all has to do with the meaning we choose to attach to it. Like Hamlet says, "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so".
What are you thinking about, all day long? And is that the way you want to think your whole life long...? TM
Melcrum Australia has asked me to Chair their Change Communication conference to be held on April 1st & 2nd, 2009 in Melbourne.
Billed as an opportunity to "tap into the experience of your peers to learn how to create great change initiatives," the speakers will represent a diverse mix of industries and organizations, including: McDonalds, Microsoft, Qantas Group, Energex, St George Bank, Toyota, and Suncorp, to name just a few.
Some of the benefits of attending include learning how to:
Understand the psychology of change
Use innovative techniques to drive change in your organization
Evaluate the most effective channels for communicating change
Minimize employee uncertainty and resistance to change
Encourage employees to use new processes and support new business objectives
Communicate and deliver a sustained cultural change program
I'm happy to say that this opportunity represents the latest instance of a continued and growing association between Melcrum and tm. Over the past year, this association has included acting as Chair of their Employee Engagement conference in Sydney last May and presenting a workshop at theirStrategic Communications Management Summit held in Sydney in September.
We are also in talks to produce case studies based on communication-related tm client work using the NeuroPowerframework (as developed by author and strategist Peter Burow) and an article or series of articles on the useful connections to be made between neuroscience, brain research, culture change, communications and employee engagement, to potentially appear in Melcrum's bimonthly publication Strategic Communication Management magazine. TM
Depending on your global orientation that may mean snuggling up by the fire as the snow falls outside or, as here in Australia where it's Christmas in summertime, heading down to the beach.
Either way, odds are that you face that annual dilemma: "what presents should I get everyone...?!"
If you're reading this blog, you're doing pretty well. No, I don't mean you have impeccable taste in your consumption of online content (clearly that's a given). What I mean is you're literate in both words and technology, you've got yourself in front of a computer and chances are you may even be sipping a tasty beverage as you ponder my musings.
Give the gift of change
So really, most of us have it really good. But in this season of giving, rather than sending people more stuff they don't need, why not give a gift that'll make a change for the better? The fantastic Oxfam Unwrapped online giftshops make it easy to give gifts that make a difference. A regional online shop isavailable in each of over a dozen countries worldwide including Australia, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong and Germany.
A couple of other worthwhile causes are can be found at the Support UNICEF worldwide site and of course for our furry friends there's the RSPCA (or the local version in your country).
So what's the brain angle on all this? Two things: studies show that the more people participate in meaningful activities, the happier they are and the more purposeful their lives feel, while pure pleasure-seeking behaviours (like stuffing yourself with food at the Xmas dinner table) actually do not contribute to overall lasting happiness. And when Buddhist monks meditate with a focus on compassionate and postive feelings toward others, the same centres of the brain light up as do when people experience happiness.
Bottom line: you feel good, doing good.
This year do some good for the yourself and the world...and give Santa the day off - you know he'd love it down the beach!
Some people can understandably find all this "brain stuff" that I'm on about a bit serious and complicated, so...to lighten your mood and edify your brain as the week draws to a close, I present the following short video tutorial on the brain, presented by none other than those cartoon mice bent on world domination, Pinky and the Brain.
(Und, fast kaum zu glauben aber wahr...wenn Sie es auf Deutsch sehen moechten!) Who says learning can't be fun?! TM
Traditional Western psychology suggests that the cause of people’s psychological problems lies in what happened to them in the past. According to this view, at some point early in each person’s childhood something “bad” happens (a trauma or an unfulfilled need). As a result, that person will spend the rest of his or her life repressing, compensating, avoiding or exhibiting any number of other problematic behaviour patterns based on reaction to that initial “bad” thing.
And so we get the simplistic and linear equation:
difficult childhood = problems as an adult
and the corollary:
adult with problems = adult must have had a difficult childhood.
Yet there are countless examples all over the world of people who have had terrible experiences as children – including those displaced by war, famine, poverty and other extreme situations – and yet they have managed to develop into well-adjusted and even happy people. Meanwhile, sadly, there are people who struggle with serious problems as adults who had relatively happy childhoods.
So the linear equation does not hold true – there seems to be something else at work here.
Resilience and meaning-making
Resilience describes the human being’s ability to survive, recover and persevere against various obstacles and threats.
Some people are made stronger rather than weaker by their past life experiences – how does this happen? Interestingly, much of it has to do with the story that you tell yourself about what happened.
Our brains are meaning-making machines. It’s a process that happens automatically and continually. What this means is that we constantly create narratives to make sense of our lives and the world.
The good news is that since we each write our own narrative or story about the world, it is entirely within our ability to change that narrative to create one that serves us better as we grow and develop through life.
You can create a narrative that promotes self-respect and hope without distorting the facts. This is a more comforting and optimistic view than the problem-focused approach most often used in traditional psychology – but is this just being a Pollyanna slapping a happy face on tragic situations?
In his excellent book It’s Never too late to have a Happy Childhood, Ben Furman cites research on how people recover from catastrophe and crisis which suggests the key factor in recovery is how people choose to make meaning of what happened.
After a bank robbery, for example, it is important that the staff has a chance to talk about what happened immediately and that everyone present during the robbery receives positive feedback. Everyone should be able to think that their reactions were meaningful, or at least understanding and normal in the circumstances. They should realize that each of them acted the best they could in that situation. [p52]
Taking this example to the wider context of how people make sense of childhood traumas and past problems in life, Furman continues:
The past is a story we can tell ourselves in many different ways. By paying attention to the methods that have helped us survive, we can start respecting ourselves and reminiscing about our difficult past with feelings of pride rather than regret. [p56]
You’re not “broken”
Admittedly, “bad” things do happen to people. The view offered in traditional Western psychology is that people are somehow “broken” or “defective” as a result and their life’s task is therefore to overcome past traumas.
What if it’s the case that people are capable of all things, but circumstances and “bad” events cause them to play to certain of their talents and abilities more than others? This is quite a different view, which suggests: people are not broken, they’re just not accessing everything that they were born capable of doing. So faced with life’s challenges, people develop “strong suits,” their default, habitual mode of behaviour - but there is absolutely nothing to suggest that they cannot develop their full potential and diversify across the full range of human abilities.
Viewed in this way, our past difficulties become a rich source of evidence for our own coping abilities and resilience in the face of adversity. We can rewrite our narrative to describe how the things that did not destroy us have in fact made us stronger and better able to withstand adversity. Furthermore, we can explore the full range of our talents and how they can help us to grow into well-adjusted and fully-functioning human beings.
We can come to view our past hardships as something of a gift. I heard a proverb once that is, I think, of Chinese origin:
One disease, long life; no disease, short life.
I take this to mean: if you never face adversity, you will be more likely to succumb to the first major problem you encounter; whereas, if you have been strengthened by the things that have challenged but not destroyed you, your resilience is much greater.
The thought I like best from Furman’s book is that everyone is due a certain amount of happiness in life. If you didn’t have that happiness in your childhood and early life, imagine how much more you can expect to find later in your life!
Wishing the world were other than it is gives you nothing more than a potent recipe for unhappiness...acting to make it what you want is a step toward happiness and satisfaction. So – get started on rewriting your narrative today! TM
. The book tells the inspiring story of a Susan Barry, who overcame the effects of being born cross-eyed and gained (I would say, "learned") stereoscopic vision in adulthood.
by neuropsychologist 
