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Flint Hills - Storm at Sunset
I like “clicking” with people in conversations – where it’s almost as if our brains are playing leap-frog. It’s fun being in sync. Now, new research from Uri Hasson of Princeton, highlighted in this month’s Harvard Business Review, demonstrates that successful communication results in a biological “meeting of the minds.”
With speaker and listener connected to functional MRI (fMRI) machines, the researchers demonstrated that the speaker’s brain and listener’s brain scans displayed widespread overlap or mirroring. Using follow-up comprehension assessments, they showed that neural mirroring increased as comprehension increased. When listener’s comprehension was highest, the listener’s brain activity appeared slightly before the speaker’s activity – meaning active listeners were able to anticipate what would be communicated next.
While this study was done without face-to-face communication (the subjects were inside of scanners), the researchers propose that face-to-face communication would create even stronger neural coupling. This due to the fact that mirror neurons discharge both when performing an action and when observing an action. Interestingly, neural coupling does not occur when hearing foreign languages spoken.
Speaking and listening are a shared function of two brains. Since reading these articles, I’ve been reconsidering effective communication. How do we work to intentionally use language patterns and words that are most likely to create neural mirroring and increase comprehension? In an organization or educational setting, how important is an agenda or pre-work for laying a common foundation for enhancing communication?
How does this impact your ideas about communication? What are the practical things that help you to be “in sync” in a conversation?
The long weekend has brought Thanksgiving meals with family and friends along with opportunities for walks in the woods.
In life, we constantly experience interactions with people and environment. Whether at home or in our organizations, we take in what is happening around us. It’s easy to let encounters, emotions, and memories accumulate. We hold on to our experiences – good, bad, joyful, and difficult.
When we eat food, our bodies process it, taking what is needed for life and energy, eliminating the rest. We do not struggle to digest food; it’s a natural process. What if we digest experience the same way? Observing and reflecting on what happens with the intention of embracing what is life-giving. Choosing to let go of what is not needed or energy draining.
What would we learn and embrace? What would we let go of? How would we and our organizations change?
Fetzer Institute – Tools for Changing Everything
Like this:
… can take the lowly hedge apple
Fall Hedge Apple
… and create a work of art:
Hedge Apple Smiley Face
Thanks to the neighborhood kids and their creativity!
Where is your imagination taking you?
All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
–Pablo Picasso
How do you experience individual moments throughout the day? Do you see what is around you? Do you incorporate what you see into your ideas and opinions? Do you let it move you? Is it fun!? Here are some things I’ve seen in the last three days:
When you improve a little bit each day, eventually big things occur. Don’t look for big, quick improvement. Instead, seek small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens–and when it happens, it lasts.
– John Wooden
– John Wooden
The wind-driven rain poured down the windows on yesterday’s rainy, November afternoon.
On a break, I looked out the window and saw the last rose of fall. With a snip of the shears …
it was inside, filling the room with its color and fragrance.
In the mist of work and life, I’m contemplating a variety of ideas that have crossed my path in the last few days. I’m still integrating them into my mental map. So for now, I’m going to point the way to them:
Writing about leadership roles in emerging systems, Peggy Holman has updated her proposed list. Read about system roles including Bridge, Artist, and Disturber. I’m considering what roles I play and have played as well as asking her question, “What roles would you add or change?”
Petsy Fink writes about her encounters at a senior citizens home in Germany. One of my questions in reflection, “How do our organizations not only honor our elders, but actively engage their wisdom in creating our future?”
Another interesting thread comes from the Interpersonal Neurobiology world. David Rock wrote about a new study that shows we human beings are on auto-pilot about half of the time. We live in the stories we tell in our brains – which is useful for “goal setting and strategizing” – and live in the experience of the moment. Being focused on the here and now makes us more flexible in our responses. The question is, “How do I increase my awareness of which mode I’m functioning in at any given time in order to be most effective?”
What is on your list of unfinished threads that you’re integrating into your map of the world?
From standing in the break room exchanging stories to the new electronic “break room,” I appreciate staying connected with colleagues. Here is a story from today’s break room experience:
“Guess what happened last night …” said Marty
“Just tell me!” replied Mary
“One of my friends posted a Facebook update during class. He wrote, ‘Unbelievable! Death by Power Point. It’s one created by the textbook publisher. And, the prof is reading the slides to us. Just print the slides and hand them out. I can read!’”
In unison, “Ugh!”
While a classroom isn’t a TED presentation, it’s difficult for me to imagine that learning happened – not even getting close to integration of information.
The Japanese word, kaizen, is often translated as continuous improvement. A more literal translation is change (kai) better (zen). Continuous change happens while taking one step at a time into the future. Continuous – meaning that we never arrive at perfection, but steadily work to improve. Matt May describes the kaizen steps using the acronym IDEA: “Investigate, Design, Experiment, Adjust.”
I’ve been reflecting on the power of combining kaizen with Appreciative Inquiry. Together they create a unique process for organization development. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) asks us to investigate, inquire, and discover what is working well. It asks us to imagine and design next steps. Then, without conclusion, AI cycles to delivering results and back to renewed inquiry. Adding the “Experiment” from IDEA into the process, improves and strengthens the design by asking us to innovate using design thinking.
AI opens a conversation with every level of an organization. It builds on existing resources and strengths, creating possibilities. I’ve seen managers surprised by the energy and ideas coming from within their team. I’ve seen departments shift their focus, creating entirely new opportunities and practices. I’ve seen large systems discover ways of engaging across formerly impermeable boundaries. I’ve seen individuals take steps toward personal goals. Appreciative Inquiry is an effective framework for kaizen and organization development.
When and how have you experienced kaizen? What processes do you use to support “change better?”
Like this:
Napping Jayhawk
This photo was taken yesterday afternoon at an event where people of all ages engaged in creativity, play, and community building: a soup challenge fundraiser. This Jayhawk puppet belonged to a 5-year-old who thought that the Jayhawk needed a nap before the event kicked off. We had fun from beginning to end!
Garr Reynold’s has an interesting post on play. Here’s an excerpt:
As very young children, we were naturally authentic communicators and conversationalists. But then somewhere down the line we began to be guided away from that natural, human talent as a shift occurred in our education that emphasized “the correct answer” and demanded careful, formal speech—speech that did not encourage engagement and dissuaded our true personalities from coming out, lest we run the risk of ridicule. But you are an adult now and you can change your destiny. You can find again that naturalness, creativity, and energy you had as a child and combine it with your knowledge, skills, and passion to make real human-to-human connections that lead to remarkable change.
I’m considering how authentic action leads to genuine connections and on to “remarkable change.” As an organization development practitioner, I work with many organizations and individuals in transition – another word for change. How do I bring meaningful play into my work with clients? How do I combine the freedom and energy of play with my skills? How do I build, and lead others to build, relationships that are life-giving?
May we all discover relationship and creativity, finding the “napping Jayhawk” right next to us, leading to “remarkable change.”
In recent job interviews, a just-turned-30 acquaintance has been rejected for lack of experience. Additionally he is often told that older persons already in the hiring organization wouldn’t be comfortable with a younger leader. And yet, he has kept a sense of humor, sending me an e-mail with this subject line: “How to sound younger in an interview.”
Having worked with this person on multiple projects in a variety of settings, I have come to appreciate his creative ideas and insights. I have seen him work successfully with people of all ages. On more than one project, his leadership led to changes that could not have been imagined by someone embedded in the system for the past 10 or 20 years.
I have worked with and supervised persons younger than me, and in turn, been supervised by younger persons. In all of these relationships, I have benefited from younger persons’ thoughtful leadership and management abilities. I have learned to see the world and organizations in different ways, to see my role and my self in new ways.
I value the contributions of all persons, no matter their age, in the organizations where I participate. If your organization is tied to a particular map of how the world works – i.e. older persons always supervise younger persons, I challenge you to adventure to the map edge and discover the power and opportunity of experiencing the extra-ordinary.
