Mar/120
Expand Your Problem-Solving Toolset
We’ve all heard the axiom, “Work smarter, not harder.”
It’s instantly quotable and memorable, but are we really following the advice?
Consider how you typically go about solving a problem: Whether you’re a “numbers gal” who prefers to gather and analyze the data to form a logical theory, or you’re a “big picture guy” who prefers to listen to your gut and come up with innovative ideas, the tendency is to work at leveraging our preferred approach to the fullest to get to a solution. We put our energy and effort behind the skills and approaches we’re most comfortable with.
But is that really the “smarter” way to go?
On the surface, it seems to make a lot of sense: Why not take what you do well, the methods that come naturally to you, and really put those to work to get to the solution?
The problem lies in the problem.
Depending on what kind of problem you’re dealing with, your preferred approach may not be best suited to solving it. The way we approach problem solving is often rooted in our thinking preferences — if you prefer analytical thinking, for example, then you might decide to gather the facts, analyze the issues, form a theory and come up with the most logical answer. But that may not be the fastest way to solve the particular problem (Is there a riskier but more innovative solution?). And it may ignore critical elements (How will people react to the solution? Are there hidden flaws?) that could eventually crop back up and cause new problems.
In a recent article about the Wharton program Building Relationships at Work, one of the participants, Chris Alexander, spoke about why he decided to take the course, and his comments are particularly relevant to this problem-solving challenge: “Most people rely on their strengths, and continue to use the same approaches even when they don’t work well.”
It’s important to remember, though, that thinking preferences are just that — preferences. You’re not restricted to them. You have access to all kinds of thinking, so even if you’re a “numbers gal” you can learn how to listen to your intuition, too. And you can also learn to deliberately seek out the people who have thinking preferences that are different from yours. Ultimately, the goal should be to put the best brainpower to work for the issue at hand.
In fact, all styles of thinking play a role in the problem-solving process. We’ve found that using a Whole Brain® process — one that encompasses analytical, organized, interpersonal and innovative thinking approaches at various phases — provides the best chance for solving a problem thoroughly and permanently.
This is a mindset that can extend to virtually any situation, both at work and in personal life. In explaining how the Wharton program (which teaches business leaders Whole Brain® Thinking tools and techniques) made a difference in his communication and leadership abilities, Alexander said it helped him “reframe mental models. It’s not about fine-tuning some of the skills you already have, but about changing the way you think and act to get better results.”
So rather than continuing to approach every problem with the same, very narrow set of tools, try stepping outside your mental defaults to become more efficient and effective in the way you use all the brainpower that’s available to you. That’s working smarter.
Feb/120
Teaching Culture: The Onboarding Connection
Most of us have stories of being a new hire or new to the team and having to figure out what the norms are, what the lingo means, and in general, what the culture is really all about. It’s often a process of discovery, and sometimes it can be an eye-opening one at that.
While it’s not unusual for the organizational culture to be revealed in this gradual, informal way, a recent blog post from Talent Management Magazine makes the case for taking the time upfront to teach new hires about the culture.
Citing the book, Successful Onboarding: A Strategy to Unlock Hidden Value Within Your Organization, by Mark A. Stein and Lilith Christiansen, the post explains that teaching culture during onboarding reduces the learning curve and helps people acclimate faster.
We have heard many interesting examples of how companies are using the Whole Brain® framework to develop and ground their culture, and how they’re also using it to create and communicate the vision and values to new and long-time employees alike.
It also gives people a common language to talk about who they are and how they approach work. As the CEO of one IT firm told us, “It’s quite amazing how a lot of people in the organization have got their HBDI® Profile mounted on their desk. And people are saying ‘I’m yellow, I like to work in a yellow environment.’”
But do new hires know what “I’m yellow” means?
When they come on board, between the hectic pace of ramping up and previously set course schedules, the timing may not be right for new hires to attend a class in Whole Brain® Thinking. That’s one of the reasons Stein and Christiansen point to interactive technology as a good option for communicating culture quickly and consistently.
With Whole Brain® concepts, many companies use the Thinking Accelerator™ featuring HBDIinteractive™ simulation to quickly bring people up to speed on the language of Whole Brain® Thinking and their own preferred styles of thinking.
What are some of the methods and tools you’re using to teach culture to new employees? Have you used the Whole Brain® Model to organize your onboarding process? We’d love to hear your experiences with onboarding and corporate culture. Share them below in the comments!
Nov/110
The Four Things You Need to Know about The Neurobiology of Leadership Assessments
For more learning and insights on thinking, mindsets and brain science, check out my full video report from the 2011 Neuroleadership Summit.
In our presentation on the Neurobiology of Leadership Assessments at the Neuroleadership Summit last week, Mark Schar from Stanford and I concluded that in this early stage of this field of research, there are four points we have to pay attention to.
We need to define leadership: The clarity of the research on this is cloudy at best. It seems obvious that if we want to assess leadership, we need to have some clear definition of what it is and what we are trying to measure.
Two differing perspectives can be found in the business and academic worlds. Business tends to look at leadership as a vital key to organization success, often citing guru CEOs like Jack Welch: “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
Academia however, is much more skeptical, perceiving leadership as poorly defined, difficult to measure and situational, better represented by a Casey Stengel quote: “The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.”
Defining what it is and what we intend to measure is critical the evaluation of a leadership assessment. In a pilot study we conducted for the session, it was clear the assessments known and most used by business were not the same as those known and used by the academic community. Their reasons for using assessments are also different: Business uses them to make better decisions; academia is typically looking to make a discovery.
We learn about leadership from assessments: Be clear on what YOU want to learn. The hundreds of thousands of assessments processed each year would seem to indicate that we are learning something. Our pilot study showed that those in business had a range of application arenas, as shown below.
Whatever the application, one helpful way to differentiate between assessments is to look at the construct each instrument is based on. The 16 assessments in our pilot study were equally divided between these four construct clusters:
Personality: Individual, intrinsic motivation
Behavioral: Individual behaviors as perceived by others
Talent/Interest: Individual skills and interests
Cognitive: Individual preferences in processing and problem solving
We focused on the cognitive construct to address our next question.
Neuroscience might measure leadership: What do your learners need to know and why? Did I mention this was a huge topic? Assuming we can all agree on the definition of what we are measuring as leadership, our initial scan of the research uncovered two assessments where there is a neurological research connection.
The research on the Neo Five Factor showed a relationship between brain volume and several of the factors. The research on the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument’s (HBDI®) revealed neurological data that related to each of the four factors of the Whole Brain® Model. The real question then emerges: What does this tell us? How do we decide what constitutes “validity?”
We asked the audience to select what was most important for them in the selection of an assessment:
A. Statistical validity, research basis and pedigree.
B. Reliability, administration, practicality, longitudinal studies and references.
C. User’s perceived value and experience, ease of applicability and face validity.
D. Observed insights, visual appeal, discovery/aha’s and conceptual framework validity.
Our audience then split into four groups based on their answer to the above question and discussed what was most important to measure—and how that differed for business and academia. Members of each group* vehemently defended their point of view.
What is yours? How about your learners? What do they need to know and why? How does that impact your selection process?
Academia and business should converge to advance research on the neurobiology of leadership assessments. There is a great opportunity to further pursue research in this domain. We need more research! If the worlds (you might even call them tribes) of business and academia came together we could take this research to the next level.
A special interest group emerged at the conference on this topic. Let me know if you are interested in the conversation or if would to learn more about our findings. Email me at ann@hbdi.com, and post your thoughts in the comments below.
*discreetly sorted based on the four quadrants of the Whole Brain® Model
Nov/110
Sales Leadership White Paper Provides Framework for Better Results
Last year the McKinsey article Getting More From Your Training Programs made an interesting point about sales training and how organizations are investing their time and resources to optimize their sales organizations:
The content of the training itself is not the biggest issue…The most significant improvements lie in rethinking the mindsets that employees and their leaders bring to training, as well as the environment they come back to afterward.
Why are thinking and mindsets so important, particularly in the sales arena?
- Thinking is at the core of everything we do. We can’t change behavior and make it stick without first addressing the thinking that drives behavior (and results).
- Sales leaders today are faced with a near constant stream of diverse mental tasks. If they can’t nimbly and effectively adjust their thinking to the situation, they won’t be able to get ahead of the “fire drills” and start planning and creating the future.
- Speed matters now more than ever. Whether the issue is performance improvement through coaching, time to job mastery, or process efficiency, speed has never been more important to filling the pipeline, gaining a competitive foothold and maintaining customer loyalty. To grease the wheels, you have to align mindsets.
Our newest white paper explores how sales leaders can develop their Whole Brain® Thinking skills and organize current processes and people development strategies around a common set of tools and methods derived from what we know about thinking preferences and performance.
It lays out an easy-to-apply framework that will save sales leaders time, money and energy while delivering the increased speed, skills and productivity necessary to close deals faster and generate more revenue.
Download the free white paper, The Mind of Successful Sales Leadership.
Oct/110
Be Inspired to Celebrate YOUR Thinking
WWSD? (What would Steve do?)
He would change!
Since the passing two weeks ago of one of the world’s greatest thinkers, we have had a media deluge of information about Steve Jobs, his life, his words and his brilliance. As a student of great thinkers and a lover of quotes, I have compiled in this post many of my favorites and some food for thought as you contemplate what we can learn from Steve.
Most of all, it is not about trying to imitate his thinking! The irony, I believe, is that what is happening—in a way, making him a thinking “God,” as we strive to push our own innovation and thinking by studying him to replicate what he did— is the last thing Steve would have wanted. As he said in the Stanford commencement address:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma–which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
As a thinker, Jobs was a leader who could “see around corners”—a trait I hear many are working to develop in this increasingly complex and rapidly changing world.
“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” (Inc. Magazine)
His thinking epitomized the future-oriented, conceptual, design-focused thinking preference (Yellow D-quadrant thinking in our Whole Brain® parlance.) Yet his ability to serve all needs of the business while still honoring his core tenants, great design, usability and user friendly technical innovation showed how his thinking actually served a Whole Brain® outcome.
I believe this contributed to what made him the truly remarkable business person he was: his ability to drive the top and bottom line, create a culture of extreme change and project the needs of the customer before the customer knows what they are. In addition, his obsession with quality and execution rounded out his thinking approach:
“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”
Most of all, like most great leaders I have observed, Steve understood what he was good at and where he struggled:
“My model for business is the Beatles: They were four guys that kept each other’s negative tendencies in check. They believed in each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts.” (60 Minutes interview, 2008)
One of the most important lessons we can learn from Steve is this: The secret is leveraging the thinking of others who complement your thinking. Steve’s “islands of brilliance” were more oriented to those traits we often associate with the right brain. COO Tim Cook complemented him as more of the traditional left. The 2009 Harvard Business Review article Innovation in Turbulent Times noted:
Apple may have the best-known both-brain partnership. CEO Steve Jobs has always acted as the creative director and has helped to shape everything from product design and user interfaces to the customer experience at Apple’s stores. COO Tim Cook has long handled the day-to-day running of the business.
Ironically, I understand that much of Steve’s net worth was actually in Disney assets. Steve was acutely aware of what happened after Walt Disney passed. If people would ask, “What would Walt have done?” Steve knew the answer: Walt would have changed! The last thing Steve would have wanted is for people try to think like he did to solve problems we will face in the future.
Those who knew him personally as a friend are grieving a great father and family man. May he rest in peace.
And for us, instead of trying to figure out what Steve would have done, we should follow one of his key messages: Celebrate your own thinking. Be inspired. Take action. Live!
What can you learn from Steve Jobs that will help you celebrate your thinking? Which of his quotes that follow are your favorites, or are there others that inspire your thinking? Share them with us in the comments.
Sep/110
Q & A on Whole Brain® Thinking
The Whole Brain® Model (shown above), based on 30 years of research, is a validated metaphor for how we think, providing a useful framework to diagnose and describe the different types of thinking involved in any organization. It divides thinking into four quadrants, two on the “left brain” side and two on the “right brain” side. All four of the different thinking modes are in use and available to all of us, but we tend to prefer certain types over others.
In what kinds of situations can Whole Brain® Thinking be used?
Any situation that requires thinking that goes beyond a given quadrant’s specialized mode can benefit from Whole Brain® Thinking. To insure that each quadrant has been explored in a given process, an approach called a Walk-Around™ is used. (The Walk-Around™ pad is a great tool for facilitating this.)
Here are four examples of frequently used applications of Whole Brain® Thinking:
Decision Making
Most decisions benefit from a thought process that includes the review of multiple options and perspectives. A typical example is the purchase of a car. Quadrant A thinkers look at information on the actual performance of the vehicle. Quadrant B thinkers read a consumer report to gather research on the reliability and practical features (trunk size, safety records, etc.) of the vehicle. Quadrant C thinkers test drive the car to see if it “feels” right. And Quadrant D focuses on the aesthetics, color, styling and innovations of each model.
Using Whole Brain® Thinking—the thinking of all quadrants—contributes to a better choice and avoids unpleasant surprises. Overlooking even one quadrant can result in a less than ideal outcome.
Problem Solving
Every problem situation can benefit from a Quadrant A review of the data and facts, as well as an analysis of the real problem at hand; the Quadrant D “big-picture” context and possible creative ideas; Quadrant C viewpoint of the “customer” of the problem and how the problem affects others; and Quadrant B step-by-step process to solve the problem and implement the solution.
Improving team interactions and performance
Most teams are formed to make the most of the differences among team members. But very often those differences stand in the way of the team living up to its potential. Whole Brain® Thinking can help a team to acknowledge the differences among team members and then use those differences to make the most of the ideas of each team member. In addition, once a team knows its preferences it can use that knowledge to enhance its communication with other teams and work groups which may have thinking preferences that are quite different.
Communication
The objective of most communication is to convey an idea, transfer information or persuade someone. How many times have you experienced the frustration of delivering a message only to realize that the other person “just didn’t get it.” In order to communicate effectively, it’s important to understand the “language” and mindset of the person(s) you are communicating with. A diagnosis of the thinking preferences of the audience can provide the critical planning information you need to tailor your language and presentation to the audience. When the audience’s preferences are in doubt, taking a Whole Brain® approach to communication ensures that you’ve covered all the “languages.” This reduces the possibility of miscommunication and improves the chance that your message will be successfully received by the audience.
This guest post was contributed by Herrmann International Asia.
In addition to the thinking preferences of people, we can also use the Whole Brain® Model to diagnose processes, organizational cultures, vision and value statements, and a host of other systems we engage with on a daily basis. How are you applying Whole Brain® Thinking to get better results?
Sep/110
Sales Growth: The Thought That Counts
When it comes to sales effectiveness, are you paying attention to what really matters?
If you’re not focusing on the thinking that drives sales growth, you won’t get the best from your people and processes. It’s that simple.
How we think impacts everything we do—and the results we get. Our newest white paper will be filled with proven tips and tools based on what we know about thinking and performance to help you sell more, waste less and set your team up for success:
“We don’t have to throw out everything we’ve been doing in our sales organizations. Instead, we need to take a closer look at the engine that drives our sales results: the brains of those who make it happen and the systems they engage to achieve those results. Too many of us are wasting time, energy and effort and risking revenue because we’ve haven’t paid attention to the core—the thinking that produces results.”
You can get your copy by attending our upcoming free webinar, Optimizing Your Sales Organization for Long-Term Growth.
Join us on September 28th for an exploration of how to apply agile thinking and a Whole Brain® approach to drive sales results, and get priority access to this new paper.
Aug/110
Outsourcing your Cognitive Overload
Like many others, I recently took off on vacation for a week. In the process I validated something learned earlier this year, that the most productive day of the year is universally the same day across the world: The day before you leave on vacation.
In order for me to mentally disconnect, I found myself in a very focused way, reviewing all of the short- and long-term projects and goals I have on my plate.
We are all carrying around a much greater “cognitive load” these days, and vacation time, even if it is just a long weekend, provides an opportunity to give ourselves a necessary breather. Our brains need the break to function optimally.
Most people consider their cognitive load in a traditional and linear format—like a to-do list. The challenge is this format does not lend itself to the complex and interdependent work we live in today.
Today’s world creates a lot of cognitive load, where our work and personal lives overlap and create even more complexities. We’re checking e-mails in the evening and on weekends, and making phone calls to resolve personal issues during the day.
One colleague from IBM said it this way: The issue is no longer work-life balance; effective work-life integration is the challenge!
So how can you lighten your load? One solution is to draw out a map of your cognitive load.
1. Take out a blank sheet of paper (or use a Walk-Around Pad), and map your cognitive load against the different thinking styles as depicted in th four quadrants of the Whole Brain® Model:
A Quadrant: Financial, technical issues
B Quadrant: Unfinished projects, plans, organizational issues
C Quadrant: People and interpersonal issues
D Quadrant: Long-term concerns, “big picture” issues
2. “Unload” by writing down the key areas that represent cognitive load for you, those areas that weigh heaviest in your mind, for both work and personal.
3. Now look at the list. Is there anything you can outsource or delegate?
Leaving for a business trip or vacation is the perfect time to do this review since we will be doing it anyway. I went through this process and realized that in some areas, I was holding on to items I could easily outsource to others. Some call this delegation. I do plenty of that, too. However, the concept of outsourcing clearly implies the ownership is actually with the other entity.
On my list I had several items that I could just drop or defer to later in the year. Those were unloaded from the list.
In addition, I had “worrying about the stock market and our position in it” in the A quadrant. We are all struggling with the volatility of the market, overload of information and the worries that can create. My husband usually manages our stocks in our household, yet I was still hanging onto the “worrying.” I realized that by officially outsourcing this to him, I could let go of the worry with it.
What cognitive overload could you drop, outsource or delegate?
Jul/110
High-Performing Employees Are Leaving
Are Your Managers Part of the Problem or Part of the Solution?
The latest survey from Right Management reveals that three out of four organizations lost high-performing employees they did not want to lose during the past year.
Good people will find good opportunities, even in a slow job market. The question is, what’s making them leave?
While many factors can come into play, study after study shows that one of the main reasons people leave a job is their boss. If your managers aren’t able to communicate effectively and build connections with employees, they’re helping push those top performers out the door.
A few questions to consider:
- What are you doing to avoid being part of the 75% of companies that have lost top talent in the past year?
- How are you taking care of your top people?
- Do your managers communicate effectively with each of their direct reports? Do they have the tools and skills to engage employees in a meaningful way?
- How are you equipping people to be better leaders and managers?
A number of leading organizations are using the Whole Brain® system to give managers an easy-to-apply, practical framework for understanding what different employees pay attention to and how they prefer to think and approach their work. Whole Brain® Thinking skills not only help managers better communicate with their employees, but they also ensure the organization is fully capitalizing on the potential of high performers.
And when top talent is engaged and able to contribute, they’re more likely to stick around than take up the next offer from the competition.
Check out our case studies to see how organizations like Cirque du Soleil, IBM, Integ and Cookie Time are making it work for them.
Jul/110
Is Information Overload Hindering Today’s Thinkers?
In today’s always-connected world, it seems as if we’re all constantly being bombarded with information. It’s one of the reasons clients have been telling us that their leaders need to build their nimble thinking skills. Living in an age of smartphones, social media and overflowing email inboxes means that having the ability to manage our thinking so we can focus with intention, even if only for a few minutes at a time, is critical.
We know that more and more of us are engaging in “hyper-thinking.” And we know that multi-tasking doesn’t work. New research and discussions pop up every day (naturally!) showing how our brains are being affected by this data deluge.
A recent article by Tim Harford of the Financial Times makes a compelling point that this proliferation of knowledge is getting in the way of our thinking to such a degree that we may never see another Leonardo da Vinci. According to Harford, today’s thinkers have the brainpower but not the bandwidth to process so much information and see the big picture.
As this post on the MarketingProfs website explains:
With so much knowledge available, and more produced every day, Harford questions whether there will ever be another person with the ability to learn, understand, and then forge the necessary connections to produce new insights. In short, he claims there will never be another Leonardo, not because the individuals alive today are sans the requisite brainpower, but instead because there just aren’t enough hours in the day to acquire the knowledge necessary to make significant—i.e. non-incremental—contributions.
What’s your take? Is Harford overreacting? Can we take steps to refocus our thinking to avoid this?
And how is information overload affecting you? Are you using the Whole Brain® Model to help manage the data deluge? Share your comments below.
In the meantime, here are some Whole Brain® Tips for helping your brain become more time literate and a few suggestions for taking control of your thinking.
If social networking is taking too much of your attention, check out the post Managing Your Attention Makes Social Networking More Manageable for a free downloadable article that discusses how you can put what we know about the brain and thinking styles to work to better manage your attention.
