Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Recall many times you have waited to hear from talented people at work, only to see their dynamic insights squelched by poor tone practices of another employee. You vow to help diminished peers to take the stage at times. But somewhere between the negative tone and pressures that mount in any job, your resolution disappears and you accept the silence of some because of skills lacking in others.

Good news, the cognitive sciences are shedding light on the brain at work, and showing how tone skills can be learned.  

Because of the brain's amazing plasticity – which contains capability to develop good tone practices - people can hard wire improvements into workplace interactions.

Along with lessons from neuroscience, new tone approaches guide people to facilitate differences across  ages, cultures, backgrounds, education, and beliefs. Why does it matter?

Increasingly, people who see tone as adrenalin to healthier diversity, also see fresh opportunities to develop and grow workplace tone skills.

Do fellow workers use tone to unleash innovative solutions from many population groups?  Do you? To discover your own tone IQ, check your scores in the tone for diversity survey here.   

Does your firm mine more gems from cultural differences, by using parts of the brain rarely used in some organizations? How so?

Create high performing cultural merges through riveting tactics such as:

1. Tone tactics go a long way to engage diversity and jumpstart solutions.

2. Two-footed questions enable more people to address issues through  strengths.

3. Brain based targeting creates mental synergy to move from where you stand now to where you expect to progress.

4. Rubrics for shared expectation offer opportunities to spot and help achieve mind-bending results.

5. Multiple intelligences allow for solutions to problems from many intellectual angles often missed when too few people create business solutions.

6. Interactive reflections allow people to ask together … “Where to from here? … which offers step one toward profitability that comes from  differences.

Complete the brief Survey for Differences here to see how well your firm is capitalizing on brain based strengths often hidden or unused at work. How'd your workplace score?

I first grew interested in the Mid-Lakes Navigation charters when I caught canallers exploring the Erie Canal in their Lockmaster Canalboats during walks through Pittsford and Fairport.

So when my family, Tanya, Neal and I set out, I’d been looking forward to this family cruise for quite some time ahead of our trip.

Here are 10 top reasons I’d highly recommend Mid-lakes Navigation’s self-skippered charters to anybody out to explore the Erie Canal:

1. Staff offer information and service without pressure to buy.

2. Leaders go extra miles to ensure you enjoy the adventure.

3. Boats are impeccable and professionally cleaned - stern to bow.

4. Orientation is friendly, and packed with all-you-need information.

5. No mechanical problems arise – but numbers are given in case.

6. Owners appear always prepared to improve their fine service.

7. Everything you need for the trip is already stored onboard.

8. Leaders at every port hold highest esteem for boat owners.

9. Suggestions are offered to help you get most from your money.

10. Owners deeply respect their clients and also esteem the canal.

It’s not cheap to charter a boat with Mid-lakes Navigation, but it’s worth every dollar you’ll spend. Our boat, the Canadice, allowed us to navigate the expansive waterways at our own leisurely pace. The locks add adventure, canal villages provide perfect places to tie up at night, while each King Fisher, and Great Blue Heron, stands sentient-like as your canalboat passes its watch.

Over a memorable lunch today with Tom McDermott, I heard about Touching Hearts at Home a national care-giving company with innovative approaches to help adults remain fiercely independent as they age. If high levels of freedom would appeal to you long after you draw final curtains at work … you may wish to reconsider your options now. 

Who’s not interested in health and autonomy well past their golden years … but did you know that 92% of seniors long to stay in their own homes while far fewer actually make it happen? So what prevents self-sufficiency, for folks who deserve it most?

Unfortunately, solvable problems linked to everyday living, tend to barricade many seniors from enjoying independence within their own homes. You’ve likely seen these too - barriers that rob satisfaction from what should be people's finest years. I’m referring to  loss of ability:  to do laundry …  clean …  plan or prepare meals … travel … shop … keep medical appointments … or benefit from regular companionships.

Caregivers at Touching Hearts at Home here in Rochester, New York, offer solutions to common troubles that can accompany aging. I was impressed at how their well-trained staff open new doors that enable elderfolks to live life at home to the fullest. Have you seen it happen?

Especially inspiring, is Tom McDermott’s flexibility design for aging adults. His care options are highly individual, for instance,  and Tom has top professionals plan unique support alternatives that comfort and reassure a person's entire family.  

Tom’s proactive approaches especially appeal to older homeowners though. It's a winning venture. Seniors blossom alongside such supportive professionals - well suited to unique lifesyles and aware of elderly clients' needs. So families relax in response.

No wonder Tom radiates such mind-bending innovations where he works. His leadership enables Rochester professionals to touch one heart at home at a time - so that aging neighbors in my area can maintain much healthier and happier homes.

Do you know a senior who'd rather be at home?

Related articles on the aging brain:

Does Age Hold You Back – Watch a Brain’s MRI

Possible Cure for Alzheimer's Dusease

Defy Age by Using Multiple Intelligences

Memory’s Often a Choice

Memory Myths it Pays to Forget

Beat the Pathology of Aging Brains

Burning Out or Burning Strong?

Older Workers Sidelined Unfairly

Brain Survey Scores

What is Cortisol and Why Should You Care?

What is Serotonin and Why Should You Care?

Chemicals to Refuel When Life Loses its Grip

Tone to the Finish Line

Stick a Neuron in Your Head and Laugh

I Just Need to Vent

Leave problems at Home Unless There’s a Solution

Water Your Brain for Better Health

Getting Wrinkles?

Saving Minds of Seniors - Scary Consumer Reports

Take Your Brain With You into Retirement

He's Too Old - She's Too Young

Whoever thought of running ads on phone menus while clients wait?

Here’s a burning disconnect between business brains … and telephone service ads that could transform your answering system. Busy brains work against your ads while people wait. Why does it matter?

It could help you to ratchet up more brainpower at work, as well as more client power to pony up for your services, if you cut telephone ads from looping while callers wait for a living person on your phone lines. 

Think about this increasing practice from a brain based perspective and then ask:

How do ads on answering service menu work against your clients’ brains?

It’s important to note new research here, that affirms why the human brain cannot multitask well. Your brain comes equipped with a neural bottleneck that thwarts doing too many things at once, such as hearing your ads and trying to use their wait time efficiently.

Stated simply, clients kept waiting on phones, who get interrupted from their work feel more stress than satisfaction ... as ads loop through their ears.  Rob callers of valuable work time while they wait, and you'll likely face frustration rather than consumer benefits when you finally greet them. Drop the ads and let them work.

If you must keep callers waiting, music works best,  since rhythm creates synchrony with the human brain. How so?

Carefully chosen melodies allow a waiting client to work rather than waste precious time waiting for your receptionist to pick up.  Why make callers endure constant ads that distract and annoy while they wait? Sound like winning business to you?  

Sleep apnea can cause serious memory loss a new study suggests. According to the University of California, tissue loss is detected in areas of the brain that store memories, and relate to sleep apnea. Does it happen to you?

We're already aware that people who awaken multiple times nightly because of breathing difficulties, tend to suffer more from chronic workplace fatigue. But we had less research to affirm the strong connections between that sleep apnea and memory problems.

Interestingly, vitamin B1 or thiamine may be able to help restore memory loss from sleep difficulties.  It’s a commonly held belief that B1 helps dying brain cells to recover, and if that's the case, it's also true that brain cells for memory storage may be enabled again through large amounts of this vitamin.

B1 results are still being tested for its ability to move glucose into cells, preventing cell death through oxygen starvation. Researchers Rajesh Kumar and Ronald Harper hope to let us know more soon about the proven effects of B1 for memory restoration.

Have you taken B1 to increase memory or add brainpower?

When asked how he’s shaking things up at Ford Model’s, John Caplan said, "I’m more like the conductor of an orchestra, than an old-fashioned executive.” Does that describe your approach? 

Caplan's orchestra metaphor reminds us that wherever you spot insights or innovations at a deeper level you’ll also see a maestro conductor, or facilitator. So why does it rarely happen?

Instead of the fine interchanges found in peak-performance orchestras, you often find potentially good discussions truncated instead, because:

- one voice dominates
- strong demands for one-sided view
- a few people diminishing other voices
- anger rising whenever  topics heat up

While topnotch catalyst skills can be mastered by most … they rarely show up at firms, that lack facilitation’s finer points. Here are 5 mind-bending tactics championed at the MITA Brain Based Renewal Center:

1. Create a pace slow enough to challenge reluctant participants, while at the same time quick enough to motivate more vociferous staff.

2. Hear participants’ perspectives, so that each offering made is valued and woven into the wider discussion’s fabric.

3. Withhold personal views in favor of learning from and expanding new ideas from all opposing views expressed.

4. Ensure all speak and feel heard, by affirming the positive and downplaying disrespectful or negative comments.

5. Formulate an action plan  based on a culmination of  ideas presented on both sides in ways that bring mutually beneficial results to the group’s wider community.

What top facilitation skills enable deep dives into key issues where you work?

With the new surge in conservation of resources at the best business sites, I’d like to see mental power go green too. Recycled brainpower can keep business alive far longer than most firms realize. How so?

 Conserve these brain related riches and watch your company grow:

1. Curiosity is conserved by simply asking and wondering… “What if?”

2. Perspective is preserved through engaging more imagery into solutions.

3. Fitness is harnessed for mental energy through certain foods and exercise.

4. Opportunity is sustained by engaging working memory more.

5. Resources are prolonged through drawing on multiple intelligences.

What mental conservation takes place where you work?

Toss the word Rotary out in any business circle today … and dinosaur images loom back. Old … out of touch … less relevant to young upstarts …

Have you heard similar associations? It doesn’t have to be that way.

The most  successful Rotary clubs tend to stage linchpin activities,  such as the three listed below to enlist the young and the vibrant into their ranks:

1. Address current business problems with solutions in mind. Yesterday’s answers rarely resolve today’s business concerns … but seasoned leaders hold skills that could jettison business solutions to those still running along fast paced tracks.

Imagine a Rotary meeting where struggling members shared barriers that hold back their business … while others jumped in with winning resolutions. Have you seen it happen?

2. Rework "service above self" mantras to fit into hectic schedules of pressured professionals. Have you noticed how service opportunities for younger leaders hot in the field ... often differ dynamically from service activities championed by retired Rotarians?

How could your Rotary gatherings shift gears enough to inspire younger professionals at the center? Why not ask for ideas at your next meeting and watch winning suggestions emerge? Or start with a question to trigger your club’s genius. How about this starter … “How could revised service opportunities sponsored by this club draw on more talents from newer members?”

3. Ratchet up networking events to build deeper bonds across members  at Rotary meetings. Meaningful contacts are missing for many busy professionals out there. Expert Rotarian facilitators who bring together different ages, genders and careers … will likely also connect people and projects meaningfully for community service. It takes change though .

What could your Rotary club alter today in order to welcome young professionals tomorrow? Perhaps more importantly … if you are looking to interact with new members … “What would you suggest to draw more professionals into the service above self section at a weekly gathering?” Once you have your answer … implementation is an easy addition. 

What do you think?

Whenever we toss the now back into business – we equip the human mind for ringer success. I mean that moment of epiphany, and adventure that adds urgency to a day’s work. 

It’s related to the way human brains rewire for winning action. A highly focused person creates new neuron pathways to adventures that remain hidden to people stuck in their past or fast forwarding their minds to future concerns. How so?

In as much as the past holds all our regrets, our failures, and our disappointments … it also causes mental noise of sorts. Racket that drains current energy the brain needs for peak performances.

When caught like a deer in headlights of anxiety for the future, the mind loses brainpower for adventures at hand. Susceptible to stress the anxious brain tends to severely limit or shut down mental energy required to meet daily goals. Have you been there?

At times, in my younger years, I barely survived financially, because regrets of past failures as well as fears for future inadequacies drained any mental energy for solutions. That was before I discovered the brain’s capability to rewire itself daily to conquer the now with new zest.

What epiphany do you see today, that will inspire an adventure with zip?  As soon as you spot it … go for it … and watch your brain leap frog over speed bumps that slowed you down in past.