Neuroscience for learning

It has been reported today on the tesconnect website (think, educate, share) that teachers are demanding neuroscience training so that they can improve their classroom practice and effectiveness to deliver personal growth to individual student types. Their union called for guidance on how this vastly emerging and powerful subject could be turned from theory to application for its members and their students. The ability to move from left brain to left and right brain teaching experience.

It was decided that the teachers wished to understand the mental processes involved in learning and how advances in technology could assist the processes. The membership understands that the need for changes in classroom learning, retention and engagement needs to change and to change now as the education of subjects is fast moving and the teacher needs to keep up.

To be aware of the nature of these changes will help mould how the profession could develop in the future. Julie Neal went on to stress that the emerging world of neuroscience will present opportunities and challenges to its members as the profession tries to bridge the gulf between educators, psychologists and neuroscientists. She feels that lessons could be tweaked to include the right cerebral hemisphere thinkers who often tend to struggle with conventional lessons but often have more advanced entrepreneurial skills. To develop right sided frontal cortex curriculums for the future will encourage empathy, social and creative traits through a process of questioning and discovery.

The government backed Education Endowment Foundation and the Wellcome Trust have launched a £6m neuroscience study into learning through student attainment and we await the outcome of that study.

Following on from this, it is certainly an area that is changing many of the things that we have always known and done and could be a welcome introduction into employee training, management development, talent management, succession planning, recruitment and performance enhancement. The results of which are generally low and need impetus from fresh thinking, understanding and execution for a brighter future. Although many areas of neuroscience are still in its infancy and still we discover that the brain is essentially a source of interactions, networks and connections that nobody fully understands, perhaps now is the time to incorporate what we have discovered and run with that to ensure that we are not too late trying to perfect the non-perfectable. Business Training Performance Workshops

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Brain Mapping Using Online Neuroscience for Staff Training & Management Development

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Positive Business Coaching

A new study published in Social Neuroscience has discovered the better of two approaches towards team coaching. It finds that the great coaches do not identify and then focus entirely upon the weakness until they are fixed but actually focus upon possibilities and positives. This highlighted approach is probably contrary to any of you out there that have played sport or been involved in performance at any time. Memories of picky, grumpy coaches still reside in most of us. The inner critic reinforced with the external one leads you down a negative spiral of pressure, stress, anxiety, low self esteem, falling self-efficacy and ultimate meltdown. The last thing that is ever going to happen is being in the ideal performance state.

The study in question scanned the brains (fMRI) of a group of undergraduates who were to receive coaching:

Approach 1: Mirroring the traditional approach to coaching by asking students to identify the areas if any in which they might be struggling at school and to think about ways to improve it. The usual coaching questions such as how is the course going? what challenges are you facing and expect to face? are you delivering at an optimal level? and such like.

Approach 2: The second study group were subjected from their coaches to focus purely upon positives and possibilities. They were asked about their purpose, aspirations and passion and where the journey was taking them and if they could take time to visualise their future goals, in terms of what it would look and feel like once achieved.

The scientists found that the images and visuals from the 2 approaches lit up different areas of the brain amongst the 2 groups. The positive approach stimulated areas in the brain involved in:

• Visual Processing: Becomes active when imagining future events.
• Global processing: Or the ability to see the big picture and not the immediate clutter.
• Feelings of empathy and emotional safety
• The motivation to proactively pursue big goals rather than simply react to fear or loss.

This indicates a shift from frontal cortex left hemisphere using detailed analysis and judgement towards the posterior and sensory cortex in the right cerebral hemisphere which brings into play, empathy, vision and engagement.

The researchers concluded that positive coaching effectively activates important neural circuits and stress reduction systems in the body just purely by seeing a desired future for themselves. Although more research is needed it may point managers and businesses towards a positive style of coaching and to incorporate into performance appraisal events. The emphasis being towards allowing the employee to see forward rather than being stuck in the moment just having the weakness discussed.

Geoff Greenwood: Performance Science For Business Profits

Freelance MBA Business Consultant

Amazing advances are being made within neuroscience that can identify more information about how the brain works and more surprisingly how it can change in a reasonably short amount of time. Without stacking huge amounts of science and data here, it is worth considering the following. All behaviour is created from brain science and all behaviour is performance. If we wish better performance from our staff and management then we need to start becoming aware of the science around behaviour.

Brain neurotransmitters, hormones and synaptic gaps all form to create neural pathways that facilitate skill acquisition, memory, learning, development and behaviour. So instead of having difficult conversations and appraisals about behaviour, which is what we see of the person, it may be better to understand what processes are occurring and what parts of the brain are involved. This is where brain mapping can play an essential role in many areas of Human Potential such as recruitment, selection, training, learning, development, management, talent, leadership and succession to name a few.

If we take recruitment and selection for example, it is obviously clear from data that common processes are not fully effective. 80% of all decisions will be wrong and this equates into an enormous amount of money, time and effort and this is not acceptable in current economic conditions. So if there was a tool that would facilitate the process and make it more accurate then should we not look for help from it. Imaging adding the brain science and behaviour to the pre-assessment procedure to facilitate the decision. There would be evidence of the decision that would sit nicely upon the cv, the interview and possible technical skills test and achieve greater accuracy rates.

However, this tool would need to be different from psychometric testing over the last 70 years, because we all know that testing for personality is only a very small part of the equation and is only a snapshot of the individual in that setting that can be easily manipulated for rapport, likeability and gut feeling selection. We need more and behaviour profiling can identify underlying behaviour, adaptive behaviour in the workplace and a combination of the two in the form of consistency mapping. We can then go on to matching with the role benchmark, work aptitudes needed and work environment preferences. These type of detailed reports have been rigorously tested over a number of years for testability, re-test and validity and show evidence of significance at over 90% accuracy; much higher than any other form of psychometric testing instruments as demonstrated by applying Cronbach Alpha, a coefficient of internal consistency used extensively in psychometric instrument testing.

So if we can get a high statistical match on behaviour preferences than we are going to get better recruitment results because evidence shows that using the right behaviour preferences for you at work is the perfect performance match. Add to this profile a match with the benchmark, work aptitude, work environment, emotional intelligence, mental toughness and the big 5 Personality traits and you have a very well structured understanding of the cognitions, emotions, behaviour and performance potential of the candidate.

Geoff Greenwood MBA MSc is a Licensed Practitioner for Prism Brain Mapping and can assist with your recruitment and selection profiling, job benchmarking and full analysis and reporting on candidates from the shoulders up.

A humorous look at what is going on inside your head when you are on a date. Although very funny it shows the two brain hemispheres in conflict with each other and how each affects your behaviour and ultimate performance. The way we make decisions, solve problems and appear to others is always a fine balance between the systemised left hand side of the brain and the emphasising right side of the brain. They need to be in harmony and not skewed too much to one predominant side to appear in control, calm and confident in all your actions.

Prism Brain Mapping is the number 1 behavioural mapping profile that has been rigorously tested, proven and validated. We use it for pre-assessment of recruitment and selection; training and talent development; management and leadership; job benchmarking and performance enhancement and much more. Download your copy of the brochure instantly.

Geoff Greenwood MBA MSc

Neuro-Performance

Turning science into profits

Interesting to read in the Wall Street Journal that the latest cutting edge research in neuroscience was centred on the Super Bowl in the USA. It was not to explore the latest positions, strategy or game plays but to investigate the inner workings of the minds of the viewers. The focus was upon the Super Bowl ads that reinforced the power of emotion and compelling storytelling that can bring the hardest executive to his knees when confronted with the centre of the limbic system and all things emotional.

Using different biometric appliances and functional magnetic resonance imaging scanners to combine physiological and psychological measures it monitored how consumers and viewers responded to the different ads. The study findings showed that the brands that took the consumer on a emotional journey actually delivered the highest rates of consumer engagement and we all know what that means in terms of pounds, shillings and pence?

The study highlights the benefits of actually taking a tour through the consumer’s brain and identifying what and where triggers the response. It also goes on to identify that future advertising and marketing can be specifically targeted towards the emotional needs of its target market. The top performing ads took the consumer on a journey that featured relatable characters within slowly developing stories covering such emotional areas as daughter and puppy; father and son; puppy and horse and a sprinkling of the muppets.

This style of research is different from the traditional approach to what consumers think (cognitions) and delves into images and such like that break through the brain noise into those areas (amygdala) of intense feelings that 95% of the time trigger our actions subconsciously. Combine this with the memory formation in the hippocampus and the strategic planning and decision making area of the frontal cortex and you are wired for success. The really top performers managed to activate the valuation and reward centre of the brain at the same time doubling the impact.

Although the report goes on to mention that neuro-consumerism has its’ opponents, this surely is starting to map out patterns, preferences and biology in consumers that is driving their decisions about purchases and marketers need to start taking notice on the quest to maintain competitive advantage. The report was listed to Time Warner, Innerscope Research and Temple University Center.

Geoff Greenwood

Problem Solving For Profit

Consider all the theories, models and templates for problem solving that is in the business world and they all have one thing in common: the need to place the problem into your executive part of your brain (frontal cortex) allow it to reside there whilst following the 1 to 5 steps needed within the template. The understanding is that whilst focusing upon it a solution will arrive because of your full and undivided attention. How often does this produce the optimal solution? A report today from Dr Blaylock writing in Newsmax states the opposite that if we really want to solve a problem in the most effective way then we shouldn’t even think about it.

It looks for the scientific evidence in neuroscience which dispels the earlier thought that our brains function on a very low level when we are sleeping or in fact daydreaming. New studies show the opposite that when we are asleep or daydreaming, special parts of our brain are working overtime on a number of thoughts and this evolves into our most creative periods. This dark energy in the brain is burning at a higher rate than for conscious thought or just resting. The demands for glucose is at its peak, driving activation.

Many creative thinkers identify that the best solutions just come to then without any thought during other activities, within dreams or upon waking. These types of findings re-enforce the calls for relaxation, power napping, mindfulness and meditation that shuts down the activity in the frontal lobes and allows the mind to be totally present just in the moment, removing rumination of the past and worries about the future. Simple evidence is that lying in bed quietly before rising allowing your mind to just wander, will ensure greater mental clarity and acuity throughout the day. In fact a way for your staff to remove stress and pressure and come into work with a clear and calm mind, all for no cost and ready to achieve the ideal performance state.

Dr Marcus Raichle a neurologist has identified that the frontal and sensory cortices is silently communicating with each other and that one area here namely the precuneus plays a major role in organising the daily information that the brain accumulates and translates it into complex thoughts that we understand like a chain or piece parts together to form creativity.

The conclusion of the latest findings is that pre, during or post working hours we should be encouraged to enter a state of semi awareness that is proven to be conducive to learning encoding, storage and recall, problem solving, creativity, wellbeing and performance enhancement. This may be in form of focused breathing, muscle relaxation, daydreaming, meditation, hypnosis or in fact other non related activities to the task in hand. Short Neuro-Performance Video & Brochure.

Geoff Greenwood

www.geoffgreenwood.com

Neuroscience & Performance Psychology

As business looks for more profits, longevity and continued competitive advantage it can look over its shoulder back towards the lab where many great innovations start. At a clinical level neuroscience blended with psychology is addressing and discovering what parts of the brain do what, why and for how long. However, the transition from the lab to the working environment is often a leap of faith as research is centred not on business profits but on clinical findings. It is this leap of faith that produces first mover advantage in many ways for the organisation and its people. Often discovering that many of the knowledge led conglomerates from across the ocean are not only using brain science but thriving with it is often anecdotal enough to look into it more deeply.

So neuro psychology is a unique blend of neuroscience and performance psychology that combines to help create staff and managers who understand and deliver the concept of human performance at work and not just the focus upon performance measurement. We have to remember that all behaviour is really performance and that all behaviour is triggered by the brain structure, chemicals and connections. You cannot escape from the electro-chemical system that is driving us. However, and this is the uniqueness of Neuro-Performance, that we also need an element to start understanding the behaviour that we show and to work on applied solutions to change the behaviours not wanted in the work place and this is where performance psychology comes in as it looks to improve cognitions, emotions, actions and behaviours. Much of our work in elite sport highlights that training of the mind is the edge that produces winners and the successful over the number 2 who is never remembered.

Some of the benefits that have been proven using this approach are highlighted below both for the organisation and the individual.

Benefits to the Organisation:

1. Increased revenue from sales and marketing using adaptive techniques.

2. Lower costs because of efficiency and effectiveness of true L & D.

3. Longevity of the organisation because of commitment to excellence.

4. Competitive advantage through innovation & creativity.

5. Fully motivated and engaged workforce because of organisational inspiration.

6. Stable workforce due to the right person in the right role at the right time.

7. Better talent management for ongoing performance and succession.

8. Exceptional team performances and development.

Benefits to the Individual:

1. Better feelings of security, certainty & engagement.

2. Enhanced levels of mental toughness for performance and change.

3. Clearer focus, resilience and wellbeing.

4. Improved decision making, problem solving and creativity.

5. An improved attitude, purpose, mindset & behaviour.

6. Total emotional control with the working environment.

7. Full team dynamics and cohesion.

8. The ability to thrive under pressure.

These are a list of benefits that are not to be ignored lightly and almost certainly to be investigated by your competition. It is a question of your organisation philosophy and culture. Is it one of small change small success or one of arming your workforce and managers with the tools to make a paradigm shift in attitudes towards mind training for corporate success.

If you wish to find out a little more about the way that Neuro-Performance can help your organisation then click this link  Neuro_Brochure

Neuro-Performance For Business Success Brochure Download

New Approach to Success

Keep doing what you have always done will see you out of business in no time as micro competition attacks you from every angle possible through social media engagement, online digital strategies and the advent of true niche marketing. The business manager, owner, executive and leader needs help and this help is available through the development of the true business coach. This type of coach is not a life coach turned corporate but an individual who has experienced the business environment and the pressures that it brings and has the ability to bring new tools, mindsets, behaviours and strategies to the executive without ever trying to tell them that they know their business better than they do. What follows is a model of movement from existing to excellence in business profits and environmental engagement that a true business coach can help you with.

1.  Executive Function: Let a business coach challenge your thinking and attitude towards your business and customers by viewing the whole market place in a different way than you may be considering. Analyse the structure, systems, processes and human potential of your organisation for today and the near future and view changes, u-turns and operations as a constantly evolving process.

2.  Management Function: A business coach will view the management theory and technique demonstrated by the layers of management as conducive or detrimental to the processes evolving above. The old style theory of scientific management is being disbanded by the knowledge organisations of the future. The time, effort and money spent at this level for the control, coercion and manipulation of your human element would be better spent by demonstrating spirited leadership by example and by design.

3:  Employee Function: The emphasis needs to be away from warm bodies that turn up to fill a place; serve a burger or stamp a card to a collection of untapped potential that hold riches for your organisation in their very hands. Scientific proof highlights the rewards from engaging individuals through purpose, autonomy, mastery and social connectedness in the workplace to deliver exceptional human performance in the workplace. This meets with the change of management style above.

4.  Customer Function: Your executive coach can help you change your thinking towards customers for longevity and success. Often these thinking patterns are engrained within the 95% automatic actions, feelings and behaviours that we demonstrate everyday. This true change in mindset will help you respond to and manage client issues in new ways as we are discovering within the findings from Neuroscience and other behavioural sciences.

5.  Supply Chain: A good business coach will not only view the supply chain and continuity of supply but also the availability of new offerings on the market and try and break established patterns of thinking and behaving with the suppliers. New ways of approaching old problems are being discovered on a continual basis and brain science can be used to understand the differences between shopping brains and buying brains.

6.  Environment: A new working environment can be conducive to peak performance or it can be obstructive. Modern thinking has discovered the advent of the importance of the social brain and what this means to productivity and talent management. A very good business coach can help you think about the barriers to language, social connectedness and team dynamics and cohesion.

7.  Business Coach: The selection of the right person for your corporate coaching is vital. Yes the obvious idea is that there must be rapport but add to that challenge, change, commitment and the importance of the model(s) that they use in helping you achieve all your outcomes. Many will use a successful goal model but there needs to be more than this to change thinking, emotions, actions, behaviours and ultimate performances.

8:  Culture: The culture in many organisations that have kept them above the waterline in the past may just be the one area that drags you down. As mentioned earlier markets, clients, supply and humans are changing at a faster pace than ever in history. Add areas such as regulation, technology, media and legislation and there is an unenviable job of just maintaining position. The change in culture needs to start at the very top and must be sold to all the workforce as science proves that for employees to sign up they must be aware of and have full attention towards the organisations goals and objectives.

9.   Competition: Exceptional business coaching also scans the competitive environment for changes, enhancements, improvements and learning issues from other organisations. Often data and information is available almost instantaneously and can be worth a fortune to you even down to the extent of finding new webpages and keywords that can highlight maybe a new niche or service that your competitor is pursuing.

10. Learning & development: The time has come to stop wasting money and effort on traditional forms of training and development and succession planning. The stats are frightening as to the results of talent management and the poor outcomes of management training programmes. The costs of labour turnover, talent management and L&D are escalating and not showing any tangible results. Many of the poor labour results are traced back to the recruitment process and the poor matching of individual with role. Neuroscience is identifying how people’s behaviour can be mapped to role, career and performance. A business coach can introduce these findings to assist the hR, Training & Recruitment sections of your organisation.

So in summary the point is, that there are business coaches and there are business coaches and it is approach, manner and skills of that coach that will bring out the true potential of you and your human resources. It is not about spreadsheets, nor is it about appraisals but it is about PERFORMANCE. The performance of your organisation through your people. If they are the right people keep them on the bus and if not, time to let them get off at the next stop.

Geoff Greenwood MBA MSc is a Business Coach who approaches all work from a performance science basis all proven to work and underpinned by the latest scientific findings in Business, Sport, performing Arts, Military and the High Pressure Professions.

Executive Coach: Business Coach: Corporate Coach:

The New future of Sales

The brain of your buyer is vital and the more time that you take to understand it the better the results. Your buyer is not a category but an individual who is a mix of genes and experiences that generate thoughts, emotions, actions and behaviours. It is this combined outcome that will determine how he     feels about salesmen, information overload and his buying preferences. We understand that they are unique because their view of the world will be totally different to yours and this view will be entrenched within their 95% of automatic reactions and beliefs, and with an old style sales approach, you will not change that person’s subconscious but fall at the first automatic hurdle.

Behaviour mapping within neuroscience is identifying what buyers find attractive; what gives them pain and what rewards them. It highlights that you need to solve a problem or make them feel good about themselves. Adaptive selling is the process of getting to a relationship status with the individual and to understand their behavioural preferences in the workplace which are different from when they are not at work. You need to understand their buying process and where they are in it and this is the start of the path of turning a shopping brain into a buying brain. As some researchers put it…it is making sales the scenic route but the results are proven to be exceptionally better following this procedure.

Initially organisations will find this approach more challenging due to getting their sales teams to start understanding how it is the brain that fires off all behaviour and that buyers are unique and separate approach is needed which can be more demanding and time consuming. They will need to be more aware of cues, listening, questioning, buying process, avoidance, approach and much more. Business will be better served to introduce the concept to their executives and management as part of their training and development initiatives.

Geoff Greenwood MBA MSc

This has been deduced after a couple of extensive researches that changing your own behaviour is harder, and it becomes even harder when you talk about changing other’s behaviour. Changing organisation’s behaviour is also a challenging and complex task. If you are able to understand your customer’s mind, you can specify strategic business rules for your organisation and management training. Recently, a new phenomenon emerges to make all above things easier which is called ‘neuroscience’ or ‘studying one’s mind or brain that is now the subject of study of many researchers from all over the world. A number of conferences are happening where many people are contributing their outcomes related to neuroscience.

Applications of Neuroscience in the Business World

Neuroscience has many applications in business in general and other areas in specific. This phenomenon can be applied in marketing, sales, staff development, and can also be used for improving returns of investment in an organisation.

Neuroscience can be infused for development purposes and management training. This training includes sales, marketing, and customer relationship that will have a drastic effect on the organisation’s profit if they are trained to read clients’ minds. Large organisations have their specific ‘training and development department’ for this purpose, where staff is trained by arranging seminars and conferences. Renowned psychologist and famous neuroscientist and trainers are invited to talk. One of the studies is learning how to build strategic and market oriented capabilities. There have been conclusions that, after thorough trainings for the development, profits of public firms in United States have improved and soared to record level.

Neuroscience and Marketing

Neuroscience can be useful from marketing perspectives. Suppose a customer is looking at a product for a longer time, this may because of his/ her interest or desire for that specific product. Therefore, just by looking at the activities of a customer, his/ her mind can also be read instantaneously. Also, if you able to understand customer’s interest, you can tailor and deliver those products. For this to happen, the company staff should be trained to observe all these things and act accordingly.

Neuroscience and Sales

By applying the power of the human brain and getting inside into customers’ mind and understanding their thought process and specific needs, organisational sales can be doubled, new customers can be made, customer’s satisfaction can be achieved, and so one can improve profits from current clients . This is one example of neuroscience in buying and selling. If you have properly trained staff for buying, products and shares can be bought very easily.

Neuroscience has its implications on sales, marketing, management training, and staff development. By infusing it in business processes, an organisation’s investment returns can be improved to a substantial level that can lead to more satisfied customers and bigger profits.