Let’s boost teacher brainpower, past tests and tribulations – so that students and schools can win on the other side of distracting disputes!
Secrets of a Communication Curmudgeon
Conflicts and clashes are as common at most workplaces as black coffee on Monday morning. If you’re looking to axe communication completely though, try ramping up curmudgeonese and then watch its magic spin.
Bickering is usually where curmudgeons nail their hottest acts. Get to water coolers early to …
1. Fire your best missiles – but then dodge surefire bullets back!
First, spray conflicts with tone toxins. Let’s say you catch complaints about a policy that sucks in your department. Agree with loudest dissidents – then take cover quick behind the nearest bully.
Or say you overhear workers nitpicking about feeling undervalued. Jump onto a winning side, dodge bullets coming from other curmudgeons, and fire back accusations to anyone who dares to challenge your importance.
Curmudgeon rule #1 – Stay safe by simply spewing opposites of what you really mean. Curmudgeons project their best lethal darts by dosing them with bogus gratitude about having a job at all in these tough times. Continue reading →
Your Brain on Innovation
Ever wonder why some run with passion at work, while others stick like Velcro to problems? When innovation opportunities stir, why do some dash forward with new talents, while others dash for cover?
It could be as small as reorganizing work shifts for flexibility. Or it could be bold new acquisitions that link diverse cultures. Check out a recent Webinar on this topic hosted by Australian leaders at Macro.com.
Good news is, the human brain comes equipped to build and sustain innovative cultures. The kind of community people crave and productivity feeds on.
Yet passion’s at an all time low in today’s workplaces? Why?
Continue reading →
You Cannot Learn to Create if …
You cannot learn to create if you …
1. Say you can’t. The brain creates when you tell it to do something original. Ford was right when he said: “If you say you can or you say you can’t you are right.”
2. Focus on perfect. A brain needs wiggle room to build stepping stones forward on mistakes. The Wright Brothers remind us that these steps may even become successful flights.
3. Whine over problems. To create is to look past a problem and see a possibility. It’s much the way Edison failed dozens of times and before the light bulb lit up his determination for possibilities. Continue reading →
Do Feelings Hijack Your Relationships?
Ever notice how much easier it is to share feelings in a safe setting?
Compare that to reluctance you feel if expected to “show inner thoughts,” when you’re misunderstood or feel criticized… Continue reading →
STOP Giving Before Holiday Stress …
Have you seen stress flee when gifts come without expectations?
Imagine freedom and sheer festivity flying out of every parcel under your tree.
Relationships may have sunken from tone toxins since your last holiday celebration. Or perhaps gloom got highly contagious. But have you considered how gifts – can kill or kindle moods?
Given freely, gifts create serotonin strategies for festive memories that keep on giving … Continue reading →
Is your IQ Stuck in Neutral?
Choose it and Use it!
Intelligence could have been what Ford had in mind when he said:
“If you say you can or say you can’t – it’s true.”
See your IQ as fluid or fixed and it will become just that. Daily choices literally fuel or fail your unique multiple intelligences. How so?
Choose to ramp up personal or social intelligences and you’ll use intuition to make decisions that advance your opportunities. Opt for common sense and you’ll use keen insights to share opportunities with friends. The opposite is also true, when you choose discontentment in your own company. Or when you laugh at others yet take yourself too seriously. It starts with a choice for a heaping dose of personal fun that only adds to a more clever you. Just as Ford implied – the brain comes equipped to grow IQ for those who choose it and then use it… Continue reading →
Simple Questions Lead from Fear to Freedom
Fear feels like a natural response to facts brandished about without any ability to respond. If you ask a simple – What if ... question though, fear moves into freedom that innovative change-agents enjoy!
A mental barrier to freedom, fear of failure’s understandable when you think about it. Salacious front-liners about why you should fear the current economy threaten to rip off your future career hopes. No wonder a brain’s ethical values become crippled by fearful responses. 
A simple question such as What if I did something different today to impact where I can move tomorrow - can chase fear away. Questions set the stage for brain based tactics that reboot brainpower and add innovation.
Fear comes with peril that shuts down learning like a tsunami takes out entire towns. Harvard Director of Risk Communication, David Ropeik, showed how brains are hard-wired to fear first, and reflect second. Have you experienced a question that offered new directions?
One simple question can move you away from anger over problems into a new tone that leads toward possibilities. Fortunately the brain comes with capabilities such as tone tactics for tough times, that help to create freedom from fearful events. You can learn to look fear in the eye, and when you do so, you often face it’s toothless bite. Your amygdala offers you tools to react to fear with freedom.
The key is to act, rather than settle for fear … Continue reading →
Power of a Brain on Play
Most people would rather be anywhere but at work. The US consistently falls behind other developed nations in innovative advances. Play is rarely an option for workplace progress.
See any relationship between these three realities?
Or have you considered the power of a brain on play?
We put in more hours with more demands and accept more stressors, in ways that limit or flat out halt productivity. We grind talent to a halt, learn to live with corruption in our leaders, and often lack skills to move much of anything beyond gridlock or personal gains.
I like to think of play as a castle
Each tower represents talent, potential and capabilities. When they sit empty your abilities idle. The opposite is also true. Continue reading →
Will it be Gridlock or Greatness? Answers May Surprise!
How does the brain move from gridlock to greatness?
What do you think? …
Deeply indebted to innovative leaders like Ted Coine , Shawn Murphy and all, over at Switch and Shift League of Extraordinary Thinkers.
To leaders everywhere – the pressing question remains …
Will it be Gridlock or Greatness? The Brain Decides …
Prepare Leaders for Mind Drivers Past Gridlock
What if you engaged opposing views as if you supported these before you address an opinionated view?
Why Follow Directions with Whole Brain?
Read directions with left brain tasks. Follow through with right brain actions! Expect winning results!
It’s as simple as reading it with an idea to roll it out!
Multiple Mental Lookouts
Have you seen our financial crisis through a different lens? Or do you dare to dream when others damn a thing? Can you see another side?
Do you look at war or peace from many angles? I ran into a government run outfit that sells guns and ammunition to US Troops. Sales go down when military members go home.
Do you support war because you see “doing nothing” as the only alternative? Or do you favor robust peace plans when conflict erupts?
We may have built cultures around one way of seeing war as a best approach. We may have labeled peace as a dangerous do-nothing default.
But the brain comes with equipment for a wider view – and finer options.
Ready to see new panoramic possibilities with a wider lens from hidden or unused intelligences?
Get Your FREE Intelligence Survey Here!
Even a Fake Smile Boosts Moods
Laughter ~
1. Can stoke Aha moments when needed most.
2. Lowers stress – even through a fake smile
3. Adds new zest for life!
4. Heals anxieties and reduces fears.
5. Boosts moods!
6. Adds alertness.
7. Improves health and resilience
8. Helps you to conquer grief or trauma and to overcome loss.
Teach Thanks as a Mental Tool!
Teach Thanks!
Use thankfulness as a mental tool to build cool new pathways, by monitoring your inner voice. Include a small dose of thanks, then get ready to alter challenges for a finer step into your day. Check out the power of human-brains-on-thanks – and gratitude follows.
GK Chesterton taught thanks as the highest form of thought, and gratitude as happiness doubled by wonder. You? Continue reading →
Best 50 Blogs in 2013 – with Thanks!
Honored to rank in the 50 Best Leadership Blogs of 2013.
Thanks to the generous research by Dr. Jon Warner – we are supported, encouraged and blessed by this kind recognition.
Many good friends and colleagues here in this list, remind us daily to keep on creating and to join together in ways that lead innovation toward a fine place for all.
For me – that always comes back to leading innovation with the brain in mind. You?
So excited my family is here soon — and hope you are all especially enjoying the summer sun!
Teacher Talk and Test Fallacy
At any age – ACT as you learn for progress that sticks! Your brain’s *plasticity will do the rest!
* Plasticity is the brain’s amazing ability to create change by building new neuron pathways to dynamic innovations. It’s all based on our actions as we learn!
Mutual Mentoring – Where all Lead and All Learn
Imagine mentor tasks where all learn, all teach and all lead. It’s called mindguiding – and it uses new neuro discoveries.
Mentors learn to lead – by working with their brain’s amazing equipment to learn, grow and collaborate with another person in symbiotic activities.
In contrast to traditional mentors who mostly teach, mindguides work together in a vibrant set of tasks that help them to learn, lead and inspire change mutually – as they grow personally. Continue reading →
#25 of 25 Writer Brain Boosters
25. Imagine We-They Circles
Female and male brains differ biologically and intellectually in ways that few optimize. Cultural preferences differ and you can capitalize of people’s unique strengths. Change filters to write from new views.
Change filters to insert new view. Write from different filters, from another person’s vantage point. Ask readers to do the same.
What benefits could come to your day from brain related details on gender learning differences?
#24 of 25 Writer Brain Boosters
24. Propose Plausible Solutions
The brain creates new neuron pathways toward possibilities you propose to problems encountered. Design innovative solutions!
Create T-Chart – and on left side – list 3 problems.
On the right ride of T-Chart list plausible solutions.
Write possibilities from T-Chat list and discuss doable solutions to address any problems raised.
It’s really about moving from STUCK to UNSTUCK! (Can you identify with this video?)
How will you design your best solutions this week?
