The Mita Way leads change by harnessing talents, and linking differences for novel upshots. Innovation and IQ heists go hand-in-hand. Reach from where you stand to a higher IQ, for instance, and you’ll likely ride the bus while pushing it at the same time.
Mita shifts IQ from fixed to fluid in ways that advance an entire workplace.
5-Way Test to Genius
The 5 – way Mita test equips you to transform tired routines with the zest of a curious child. Open new doors to genius by sparking workplace adventures that yield legacy-level rewards. How so?
Mental makeovers transform stress into triumphs through What if … kinds of questions, and brain-powered improvements.
1. What can be improved?
Name one thing that holds you back from becoming the trend setter you’d like others to see in you. Not that change comes easily at first – especially if you work with naysayers or cynics. Or maybe the purse strings tighten so that funding disappears as fast as donuts in a Monday morning staff meeting.
First, identify the culprit that cripples your talent, and the mind begins to blaze trails typically reserved for the curious.
2. How will you target visible results?
Envision new outcomes rather than criticize past performances. That simple act of setting a goal for solutions extends its magic by unleashing serotonin into any workplace. And wherever this molecule-of well-being thrives, people find cause to celebrate the wonder of workplace wins.
See innovation as more than a distant dream and you’re at Mita’s third step to genius – where you visualize novel outcomes.
3. What exactly do you expect?
Do you expect to inspire a new client, sketch a progressive idea, rebuild a broken prototype, or support a newbie’s new technology? Act on sketched specifics to literally reshape your brain chemically and electrically for higher intelligence.
Even simple competitions, can alter brainwaves up or down when you sketch what to expect.
Seize opportunities beyond that stuck-in-the-mire cortisol world – by planning mind-bending ventures others can visualize. Check out TED expert, Patti Dobrowski who guides people to draw their vision into reality.
Sketch parts exactly as you expect them to materialize, and invite others to help select colors, shapes, textures, and tools embedded in your innovative initiative. What the brain visualizes – it begins to create.
4. What intelligences will move you forward?
Engage multiple intelligences to unleash creative brainpower that thrives on and sustains workplace novelty. Each intelligence used in any day raises its effectiveness for use on the following day. Not a bad return when you think about it.
5. Where to from here?
Capitalize on the brain’s ability to change itself wherever you stand at the moment. Few disagree that wherever worker engagement rises, costs, absenteeism, turnover, theft, accidents, and defects fall.
Why not launch a neuroscience of celebration to propel your workplace from last year’s challenges into brainpowered solutions?
For further tips on the wonders of mental makeovers at work check out the Mita Manifesto for Workplace Renewal. How will you revolutionize your work to look more like adventures most people only dream of launching? How will you lead innovation with the brain in mind?
Check out the TED — Mapping the Human Brain
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Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset
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I sure have! I feel a lot less stress because I’m not worried about forgetting anything, so my mind is relaxed and open to “playing around”.
Also, I have more time.
Therefore, having a bit more time, being more relaxed and well organized makes a really good environment for me to be creative.
…or, simply, more satisfied 🙂
Thanks Donna, you build a good case here for planning ahead for almost anything on any day. It’s how the brain works best!
Have you also noticed that to plan ahead is to allow much more wiggle room for those creative and innovative touchdowns? Thoughts?
I also find scheduling Mondays a great way of avoiding the Monday depression and bad mood.
I have it all planned out so that I don’t slack, and I treat myself every Monday. Treats are usually little things, but they really work.
I especially love your excitement about the upcoming week. I read an idea in this book http://amzn.to/zyvXOl that I’ve put into practice: celebrating Mondays. I’ve been doing it by waking up crazy early on Monday mornings and writing my big blog post for the week – all in one sitting of absorption and flow.
I love it now that a substantial piece of writing emerges from every Monday morning. I also love having that task scheduled for a particular time – I protect that time slot now and don’t schedule anything else for then.
It’s a great way to start the week get ready for “unexpected melodies.” 🙂
Thanks for your insights Susan, the Mita Way came out of the workplace culture you described here, and is now proven to get results in several countries. It will take leaders like you to help move work into innovative initiatives that will rock this nation back onto its creative feet!
Enjoyed your notion of: “ … keeping growth alive … through doing, incremental learning and the feeling of mastery that comes with it.
Like you I am also a fan of Czikszentmihalyi’s work. The key is to live the flow – so that others see its wonders and that calls for persistence and for seeing the results that spark us to the next level. I’ve been at this work of renewal for 30 years and have learned from cultures all over the world. Yet each day is another wonderful opportunity to live and lead the “keeping growth alive … you illustrated so well. Thanks for the inspiration!
What a delight that we have another week ahead of us soon to bring these ideas back to work and watch them fly toward once distant dreams! Hope we continue to encounter many unexpected melodies along the way!
Dr Weber:
I hope the kind of workplace you write about already exists in some places, and will become the norm at some point. It’s completely different from what I experienced, from the early 1980s through the late ’90s. The general message, in the places I worked, was essentially the same: “we’re paying you a lot of money for your education and skills, so high performance is expected, and we’re not here to nurture you along.”
Frightening, I know. Brain circuitry, had anyone brought it up, would have been laughed about. Yet that’s what human beings run on. The fixed mindset that Carol Dweck writes about sees intelligence and skill as static. You either have them or you don’t.
The trouble with this mindset is that it doesn’t reflect reality. But the growth mindset does. It really is true that we grow and develop incrementally. So doesn’t it make sense for employers to adopt a paradigm consistent with that?
Of course it does. I suppose many will have to be shown that there’s an huge economic benefit to doing so, and a huge economic downside to the status quo.
To your question, about keeping growth alive. I think it happens through doing, incremental learning and the feeling of mastery that comes with it. The process of doing and learning and mastering actually feels good. It’s the very thing that brings happiness into our lives. This is the essence of Czikszentmihalyi’s work. Here are two posts that flesh this out: http://bit.ly/uBzAZK + http://bit.ly/vnuvfF
I don’t think many people recognize the power of being in a loop of doing, learning, and mastery. That’s why I’ve created a memorable model for change that’s based on exactly that. See http://bit.ly/lQrOLf. I see it as my contribution to the mix of what’s known and becoming known about growth and change.
As always, would love to know your thoughts.
Susan
Susan you build a good case here for the doing of anything – in ways that change the structure of our brains to ensure more of that growth happens. Great example and thanks for sharing it – we really need leaders like you at the helm
I also agree with Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset – that some folks “feel that they’ve been over-showcased in their lives, i.e. that the “gifted” label is something they’ve long felt that they had to live up to, and they’ve come to not like it, or how they’re perceived.”
Loved your notion here of the “doing of change…” in http://bit.ly/nLhQK3 and see that that simple step forward is the beginning of changes in the brain’s circuitry. Imagine a workplace that supported diverse talents in ways that allow people to grow and change incrementally as they embrace what that looks like in dividends personally and organizationally.
We still have a way to go, and yet the human brain is yielding new triggers to help us each choose to do the change you described so well. What will fuel your own choices to keep growth alive after initial decisions are made?
Thanks so much, Dr. Weber. The thing I noticed was how easy it was for me to just start speaking up more. Easy, easy. I just did it. And soon, I liked it. Wow. Wish I’d started a lot a lot earlier. Could have avoided some things that eventually became difficult to sort out (because I hadn’t spoken up early enough).
To your question. I suppose we’d have to look to why the person feels reluctant. I’m thinking about Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset. She explains that some people feel that they’ve been over-showcased in their lives, i.e. that the “gifted” label is something they’ve long felt that they had to live up to, and they’ve come to not like it, or how they’re perceived.
It could be that or a lot of other things. One general principle I truly believe in is what I call Motion, which I blogged about here: http://bit.ly/nLhQK3 It aligns with what I’ve written about my not wanting to speak up. When there’s something we don’t want to do, for whatever reason, a good way to overcome our hesitation is to do just a little part of it – something on a very small scale. And then a little more, and a little more, until a second principle kicks in, i.e. Mastery http://bit.ly/sRC3Pj – which comes on a micro level. It’s that feeling we get when we try something that doesn’t feel good to us at first, but after a while, we start getting the hang of it. Something goes right with it, and we think, “I can do it!”
Sometimes, that’s really all it takes. Some Motion and Mastery, to set in motion a new course for us. I really believe this, because it’s happened so many times in my own life, and I’ve seen it happen countless times to others.
Does that help? I’d love to know your thoughts.
Susan
Thanks Susan – what an inspiration for all of us to find boldness within ourselves to act! Thanks!
Thanks also for sharing your keen results based on the steps you took to move ideas forward.
Yes, I agree with Gary Marcus’s new book, Guitar Zero.
Loved your notion that “How good it is to get into the habit of trying things out, whenever we hear ourselves saying or thinking, “that’s something I’m not very good at.”
What would you advise for a gifted person who feels reluctant to share inspiration to the wider group? Ellen
Dr. Weber:
Love this post. One thing I know that’s been holding me back is speaking up. Recently, I had one too many experiences where not doing enough of that lead to a bad experience. It made me realize that it’s just not worth it to preserve what I suppose is a long-standing trait.
Instead of telling myself “this is just how I am,” I decided to start speaking up a lot more. Just to see what would happen. And guess what? A LOT of good things have happened. And I’ve found out that I actually like it. It feels good. Shows you what can happen when you just try something out you think you’re not good at.
On that general note, see Gary Marcus’s new book, Guitar Zero.
How good it is to get into the habit of trying things out, whenever we hear ourselves saying or thinking, “that’s something I’m not very good at.”
Great post. Thanks!
Susan