Neuroscience: How breakthroughs can help OD/L&D/HR

1. Neuroscience: How breakthroughs can help OD/L&D/HR North West Staff Developers Group Annual CPD Retreat: 9/10 January 2014

2. Disclaimer! Personal fascination Amateur enthusiast No journal article anytime soon After lunch session - OMG Good luck to all of us!

3. Current Environment Incredible, transformative, continuous & accelerated change world of work in a dynamic state old ways of working & doing business reliable management dictums & theories no longer work – they all feel tired need new ways of looking at the world, to motivate & engage people, create highly successful teams & to quickly embrace & implement change

4. Legacy Thinking of 20th Century • Left the Information Age • Entered the Shift Age • Transformation Decade for 2010-2020 • Structure, shape, character & form will shift • Humanities institutions & ways of thinking will change • Those that don’t will fall behind and may not even exist in 2020

5. So how to create this change? utilising new information about how our mind works how we can integrate this knowledge brain science can be daunting! brain most complex device in the universe billions of neurons creating a tangle of neural traffic uses 1/5th of calories consumed ¼ of the oxygen we breathe

6. Bridging the gap Transform understanding of the way people work Revolution in training & development, change management & OD Science-savvy HR & L&D professionals Decisions based on insight & ‘pre-sight’

7. Neuroscience around for decades incredible breakthroughs this century better understanding now - think, process information, wired flies in face of received wisdom of psychology fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging research proving traditional theories are not necessarily accurate

8. How our minds work …

12. Lifting the lid on the brain to rethink how you develop, motivate & engage staff

13. 5 Neuroscience Concepts Robert Jeffery, Occ. Psychologist Editor, People Management Neurons & the Environment Bias & Empathy Being a Mentalist Avoiding Brain Struggle Power of Thinking without Thinking

14. Neurons & the Environment view was brain fully formed by early 20’s several studies now to prove otherwise, inc University College London - London cabbies, Violinists, Lawyers University of Oxford - Jugglers learning changes brain pathways & become stronger brain remains ‘plastic’, mobile & adaptable beyond childhood

15. Gary Luffman, OccPsy & Assoc Consultant CIPD neurons updating to deal with environment neuroplasticity has huge implications for coaching old dogs new tricks need to find right mechanism older employees rate of synaptogenesis slower than millenials, but never switches off

16. Bias & Empathy think we know better than other people 94% belief of above-average IQ 80% convinced they are better drivers egocentricity bias implications for training, coaching & managing attention paid to those who agree or are similar to us

17. Gary Luffman, Cognitive NeuroscientistKing’s College London Overstate degree to which people are the same Seeking common ground and feeding bias Using less of our conscious mind when making assumptions Easy to ignore dissenters or people who are hard to reach Egocentricity bias enemy of genuine empathy

18. Stepping into someone else’s ‘mindset’ Developed through ‘social biofeedback’ Parents mirroring our emotions Suprmarginalgyrus stimulated when taking on a new perspective Alexithymia (not recognising own emotions) Egocentricity bias can be avoided Doing opposite of someone else over time

19. Being a Mentalist Mentalising system - processing of signals from others Different from formal learning systems & facts and figures Active from birth, even in dreams Brain sees the world socially Not linked to conventional intelligence With it - persuasive, inspiring & motivating, open & respond well to social learning Without tend - rely on aggressive dominance to succeed, poorer learners as don’t process info picked up from others, poor at calculating value of it

20. Avoiding Brain Struggle role-modelling for new learning - mirror neurons are activated embeds practical lessons in our mind important in decoding body language consolidates neural connections by doing it condition of training & condition of testing context for learning - visual demonstrations of concepts & how they can be applied effective to mix up locations & times of day for training or coaching learning becomes less context-dependent

21. Power of Thinking without Thinking rational mind good at analytical & convergent thinking less good at creative stuff can’t innovate while being watched & judged intuitive mind processes data behind scenes ‘thinking without thinking’ unconscious thought theory – Eureka moment - when stuff put on ‘back-burner’

22. E Eugene Sadler-Smith, Prof. Organisational BehaviourUniversity of Surrey when neural activation levels reach a threshold, ‘light bulb’ moments occur anterior superior temporal gyrus works double-time processing data reaches conclusions - connects disparate concepts unrelated things help: puzzle, positive mood, plenty of sleep, chocolate

23. creativity is about joining dots need to have jots to join equally relevant for HR & L&D equip ourselves with latest knowledge & best emerging breakthroughs stay ahead without your own MRI scanner!

24. sally.wilson@gmx.co.ukuk.linkedin.com/pub/sally-wilson/1/b04/708Twitter.com@sallywilsonSWAhttp://about.me/sallywilsonsally.wilson@gmx.co.ukuk.linkedin.com/pub/sally-wilson/1/b04/708Twitter.com@sallywilsonSWAhttp://about.me/sallywilson