How can we understand something as complex as the human brain?

Somebody once said: “if the brain was so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t!”

Your brain contains about 100 billion brain cells or neurons.  Each neuron is potentially linked to many thousands of other neurons.  The more frequently neurons communicate with each other, the stronger the connections become – in the same way that the more frequently people walk across a patch of grass, the more definite the path becomes.

Learning involves the creation and strengthening of connections between neurons.  One way of looking at it is to imagine that the stronger the connection, the more permanent the learning, although this is an over simplified definition of what is going on!  There is still so much to learn about how the brain learns – particularly with regard to the way the brain stores unconscious knowledge, and the role of emotions.  

This is why repetition generally helps with many kinds of learning.

1. Keep it real – Making sure that there are real personal and business benefits that follow the learning event.
    
2. Facilitate creation not consumption – Make the materials experience based, not materials based.  The menu is not the meal, the course manual is not the experience.
    
3. Honour uniqueness – There are many ways of finding an answer to a problem; the way you choose to tackle it is the way you like to process information.  There are many different ways and methods people process information, our participants are unique individuals – we need to honour that.
    
4. Make it rich and multi sensory – The brain does not work the same way as a computer, when you input data into a computer; you only need to do it once.  When you input data into the human brain, it will not necessarily be recorded accurately the first time.  If you give computer information with gaps, it just remains ignorant of the information you failed to supply.  If you give human brain information with gaps, it tends to fill in the gaps, make things up.  We need to cross check the levels of accuracy provided to the gaps of our human participants.
    
5. State is everything – All learning is state dependant. Emotions cause the brain to release neurotransmitters that aid memory retention.  The content of the ‘memory’ will become neurologically associated with the ‘feeling’. Being in the right state of mind – positive towards the learning experience is essential.

Why is That?

We understand that happier staff make a more profitable business, but creating a happier culture often is left to the HR professionals, and others that don’t weld the influence that leaving the direct line manager at times disconnected from this responsibility.

The Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Teaching analysed high performing workplaces and trended what they called ‘Simply the Best’ Australian Workplaces to have the following conditions.   

The top five conditions were:

1. Good Quality working relationships
    
2. Have a say
    
3. Workplace Leadership
    
4. Clear values
    
5. Being safe

Other notable conditions included:

• Recruitment to get the right people
   
• Reasonable pay and conditions
   
• Get feedback
   
• A sense of ownership and identity
   
• Be able to learn
   
• A sense of passion
   
• Fun 

The Australian Quality of Work Life survey identified the following as what dissatisfies our workforce.

• Stress in the job 29%
   
• Lack of work/life balance 24%
   
• Distrust of management 23%
   
• Lack of interesting work 22%

All of that is very interesting but the so what factor is that most of those dissatisfies are manageable and able to be addressed by managers and lots of the ‘Simply the Best’ findings cost nothing to implement in your businesses.

There is really nothing too complex about the decision to make your workplaces Inspirational places to be – after all it makes good business sense. It improves the bottom line and puts smiles back on the faces – is there any other choice?

As James Kouzes and Barry Posner noted in their book ‘The Leadership Challenge’ as leaders we need to:

• Model the way
   
• Inspire a shared vision
   
• Challenge the process
   
• Enable others to act
   
• Encourage the heart

We have five generations working together for the first time in history, and intergenerational warfare in the workplace is going to be a real issue

Simply thinking about the generations, what are the traits and behaviour differences between dogs, cats and rats?

• Dogs are easy to train, more compliant, loyal and obedient.
   
• Cats are more fussy, will consider whether the environment suits them, are quite picky about food and what is provided for them, and will let you know when they are not happy.
   
• Rats are important, they are required for the food chain, and their traits could be described as fast moving, checking out what’s to be had in the environment, when they have got everything they need from the environment they pick up and leave, leaving the dogs to recruit more rats.

Generational changes in workplace expectations are only one aspect we need to consider there are many more.

Today’s leaders and managers are working in a rapidly changing environment where they need to be able to create, design and implement strategy.

They need to establish a healthy functional workplace culture built on universal values such as trust, respect and integrity.

What are Inspired Workforces and how to build an Inspired Workforce.

• Are you responsible for the performance of others in your workforce, or have you previously been responsible for this role?
   
• Would you agree that leading and managing people is at times a difficult and complex activity?

We are faced with some pretty tricky issues such as the aging population of the workforce. 

Currently the Australian workforce increases by 170,000 per annum whereas projections predict that the workforce will increase by only 125,000 for the whole decade 2010–2020. (Access Economics)

How many of you know what generational label you have been tagged with?

How many boomers are quite frankly tired of hearing how we make life difficult for the Gen X and Y’s in the workforce?  

In our consulting business we hear this all the time from younger groups we work with.

Comments such as:

• “The boomers still try and manage us through fear and compliance and play the boss” 
   
• “They think we should be lucky to have our jobs; frankly there are other jobs out there to have where we don’t have to put up with the grief” 

The sad thing is they are right.

Gender perceptions – The Stereotyped Female Leader

Women who succeed in male dominated professions frequently elicit hostile responses. 

What the research suggests:

In an experiment illustrating this phenomenon, women described as succeeding in the masculine careers of electrical engineer or electrician were perceived as less likable, attractive, happy, and socially desirable than women described as succeeding in the feminine careers of day-care provider or nurse.

Source: ”Penalties for Success: Reactions to Women Who Succeed in Male Gender – Typed Tasks,” Journal of applied Psychology 89 (2004)416 – 427; Madeline E.Heilman, Caryn J. Block, and Richard F.Martell.

In a result from a 2001 Gallup Poll on gender specific stereotypes the results were that “People considered men to posses traits such as ambition, confidence, self sufficiency, dominance and assertiveness” 
 
they described the traits of women as communal, kindness, helpfulness, concern for others, warmth and gentleness.

Stereotypes about leaders match quite well to stereotypes about men. 

Because of the similarity between peoples mental association about men and leaders, men can seem natural or usual in most leadership roles. Therefore they do not need to be concerned about tailoring their leadership role to be accepted as legitimate.  Men do not need to worry as much about appearing to be to masculine or too feminine and are freer than women to execute leadership as they see fit.  In contrast women leaders are at a disadvantage because association about women are typically inconsistent about those with leaders.  Although this incongruity appears to be decreasing over time, it has not disappeared.

Thus more people more easily credit men with leadership ability and more readily accept men as leaders.

Source: “Role congruity theory of prejudice towards female leaders” Psychological Review 109 (2002) Alice H. Eagly and Steven J. Karau.

In experiments where people were presented with descriptions of successful female or male managers, the women were seen as pushier, selfish, abrasive, and manipulative compared to their male counterparts.

So perhaps the question may be posed:

“is it counterintuitive at a subconscious level to have women in leadership roles?” 

Women’s Prowess is being our authentic self

Authenticity refers to the degree of congruence between internal values and external expressions.

• It is sometimes referred to as the moral slang of our day
   
• Authenticity is simply self-knowledge and moral integrity
   
• Authenticity can develop relationships
   
• You can share experiences, feelings and values and differing backgrounds

If we could encourage industry to encourage great leadership in this 21st century taking on the best traits and attributes of both sexes we would be a powerful force.

Hormones have a massive neurological affect at different stages of a women’s life:

• The teenage girl brain
   
• The dating years brain
   
• The new mum brain
   
• The don’t touch me I am peri menopause brain
   
• The mature woman’s brain

The neurology of a Women’s brain can alter as much as 25% over the course of a month.

Quote from Dr Louaane Brizendine author of the New York Time Best Seller – “The Female Brain”.

“The female brain has tremendous unique aptitudes- outstanding verbal agility, the ability to connect deeply in friendship, a nearly psychic capacity to read faces and tone of voice for emotions and states of mind, and the ability to defuse conflict. all of this is hardwired into the brains of women. These are the talents women are born with that frankly, men are not, men are born with other talents shaped by their own hormonal reality”

The Physical Differences

For a long time scientists thought that women were smaller versions of men with different reproductive systems.

Given that women and men’s brain sizes are different it was assumed that because the male brain was larger it was more intelligent.

Wrong – men and women have the same number of neurons – women’s are more tightly packed into a smaller place like being in a control garment – corset/ girdle!

Female and Male Brain Differences

Men and Women use different brain circuits for:

• Problem Solving
   
• Processing of Language
   
• Storage of past experiences

German study findings

Everything we do is about communication.

Communication is about the transfer and understanding of meaning.

For any communication to be successful, the meaning that you wanted to convey must be understood.

The impact of poor communication to business

• Reduction in staff morale leading to staff disengagement

• Potential to lose good people

• Dissatisfied consumers of our services

• Loss of market share

• Overall risk to both efficiencies and effectiveness of business practices

Benefits of great business communication

• Effective communications help individuals to understand and pursue organisational objectives.

• Organisational communications cover every management function.

• Organisational culture depends on communications.

• Communications improve both organisational and individual performance.