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Posts tagged ‘Organization Development’

Aug 10

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The value of mistakes

Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of living out of the ordinary. Today, I’m going to take the neuroscience a step further by applying it to learning environments. To review:

Neuroscience research demonstrates that when we break out of the routine and enjoy something new, our brains reward us with a dopamine flood.  We essentially give ourselves a pat – not on our head, but inside our head. If we continue to do the same thing over and over, the dopamine flood recedes and eventually dries up – the routine deadens the response.


The research shows that the same reward response – dopamine flood – is produced when we make mistakes and errors. Why? Because our brain is stimulated by surprise, by the unexpected. Our brains are built to detect errors; they really go nuts when something unpredictable occurs. We are immediately motivated by the dopamine surge to seek out new solutions and ways of understanding. As Stephen Hall says, “Success breeds habit and failure breeds learning.”

In a learning environment, this is an argument for the importance of actively engaging participants through a variety of methods – including learning from mistakes. The dopamine system fires in surprise not only at new information, but at any moment when information doesn’t fit our existing patterns of understanding. Our brains drive learning when we encounter the new and unexpected – and make mistakes.

In practice this demands that the facilitator or instructor be well-prepared. Pre-tests or pre-course surveys can stimulate participants brains with questions before the session begins. Dividing participants into small groups to brainstorm stories and ideas stimulates their thinking through encountering others’ patterns and solutions. Using a variety of media, activities, and props can make the experience memorable as brains sit up and take notice. When mistakes are made, use critical thinking questions and techniques to further stimulate the brain’s drive to make new connections.

What other ideas do you have about creating an environment that wires participants’ brains to learn?

Aug 9

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Out of the ordinary

About a week ago, I got up at 4:00 a.m. to go with Jon on a photo shoot at Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. The site of mist over the refuge, the Rocky Mountains glowing in the background, and the noise of hundreds of birds taking flight at dawn was awe-inspiring.

How important is it for us to have new experiences, to break out of the routine? Neuroscience research demonstrates that when we break out of the routine and enjoy something new, our brains reward us with a dopamine flood.  We essentially give ourselves a pat – not on our head, but inside our head. If we continue to do the same thing over and over, the dopamine flood recedes and eventually dries up – the routine deadens the response.

For me, this is a significant argument for the importance of life-long learning. If I am intentional about experiencing and learning new things each day, I will benefit consciously from the new knowledge, the memories of the experience, and from increased well-being.

Creatively breaking the routine in organizations can work to build innovation and organizational energy. For example, want to improve customer service? I can imagine individuals being asked to go out and observe at a variety of retail and restaurant locations, then coming back to discuss their experiences and how they could be applied internally. Or, want to build leaders? I can imagine having individuals interview each other about when they’ve experienced exceptional leadership, then sharing the stories and characteristics of great leaders, and together designing strategies for integrating those characteristics into their own leadership style.

What are you doing to escape the routine as individual? As an organization?

Aug 5

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Idea for reflection – 17

I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
  – Richard Feyman

Idea for reflection – 16

Aug 4

Keep your eye on the ball

More than a few summers ago, my Dad spent hours in the back yard with my brother and I teaching us how to hit a baseball. I can still hear his patient instruction, “Keep your eye on the ball. Watch it all the way in, until it connects with the bat. Keep your eye on the ball ….”

I thought of my Dad’s coaching when I was reading through folder after folder of the Mansfield papers. Several of the “top secret” folders contained minutes of the Democratic Caucus meetings. Usually 5 to 7 pages, the minutes begin with the usual date, list of attendees, and a short agenda. In the period I was reviewing, 1960-1963, they often included a request from President Kennedy to discuss the situation in Cambodia and Laos (Vietnam was a late arrival in the Southeast Asia discussion.) or the Bay of Pigs invasion or the Civil Rights bill.

But reading down through the notes, I discovered that often none of these issues of national and international importance made it into the discussion. More frequently, the topics discussed were who had what space in the Senate Cloakroom, which office would get the new IBM Selectric® typewriters, who was back in their district campaigning, or who had missed the most recent floor vote. It’s no wonder the minutes were classified, “Top Secret”.

This is a challenge that faces many organizations. Over the years, I’ve sat through more “Monday morning staff meetings” than I can count. Yet I can remember very little that was accomplished in those meetings. When I worked at a CPA firm, I used to look around the table and count of the thousands of dollars in billable time represented by persons who sat through those meetings.

So what does a productive meeting look like? Beyond the obvious need to make meetings serve their intended purpose and run on time, I have two other questions: Do we have the courage to invite only the people who need to be there? My assumption is that the meeting notes can be more widely circulated to those who have interest but don’t need to be “in” the meeting. And, do we have the courage to cancel meetings when we haven’t had adequate time to plan and prepare for the discussion?

What are your secrets for leading meetings that matter – that help everyone “keep their eye on the ball”?

Aug 3

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Top Secret

Last week I spent time doing archival research at the archives of Senator Mike Mansfield. I was searching for information on behalf of an author who is writing about the U.S. Congress and the C.I.A. Now this might seem like a sidetrack from my usual organization development posts, but I found the archive search engaging on many levels. Following this experience, one of the things I am considering is the question of what needs to be “top secret”. I scanned through many declassified documents that even after 50 years made me wonder why they were ever “classified” in the first place.

This is a question that most organizations struggle to decide, “What needs to be kept secret?” Today data is freely available from multiple sources. Even sitting in the local coffee shop finds us “located” by the GPS in our phone, the IP address in our computer, or our credit card swiped at the register. Transparency has become a business buzz word. Yet this is a complex issue, full of paradox. How do we protect intellectual property while encouraging growth and change? How do we retain our privacy when we can be “located” so easily?

While not ignoring the complexity, I would argue that much less needs to be kept secret than is currently under lock and key. Our organizations need truth and trust like our bodies need water and oxygen. We need to act with integrity and honesty. We should be willing to ask and answer questions – and not just the ones we wish others would ask. Our organizations are healthier when openness flourishes.

Research demonstrates that organizational openness is a competitive advantage as measured by employees retained and customer loyalty. Research in interpersonal neurobiology demonstrates that our brains function more effectively when we have certainty about how things function, knowing what to expect. What will each of us do to promote honesty, integrity, and openness? What will we “declassify” within our organizations?

Jul 31

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Orbiting thought – Over and out

You may agree or disagree with Gordon MacKenzie’s ideas from Orbiting the Giant Hairball that I’ve been posting. Personally, I find his stories cause me to consider what works and what doesn’t work in organizations as well as my own life. I’ve been asking myself what the unspoken rules and systems are which create the hairball cocoon where it is safe to measure and plan based only on the past. And asking myself just what is invisible leadership?

Jon and I had lunch with one of our Friesen Group advisors last week who told me, “If you’re not a little uncomfortable, you’re not going to grow and make progress.”  He is right. It is time to try something new, push the boundaries, and, just maybe, achieve Orbit.

… if you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living.
  – Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Orbiting thought – 7
Orbiting thought – 6
Orbiting thought – 5
Orbiting thought – 4
Orbiting thought – 3
Orbiting thought – 2
Orbiting thought – 1

Jul 30

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Orbiting thought – 7

The escape from habitual culture must always be temporary if you wish to be permitted back into that culture…”Yes, you may go out and play; but you must be home by dinner time.” However, temporary as these Orbits out of the Hairball may be they are expeditions that promise finding in the chaos beyond culture antidotes for the stagnation of status quo.
 – Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Orbiting thought – 6

Jul 29

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Orbiting thought – 6

How do we become so bogus? Well, our artificiality is caused, in part, by the many teachers and trainers who work so hard to instill a professionalism that prizes correctness over authenticity and originality. … Diamonds-in-the-rough enter business schools and come out the other end as so many polished clones addicted to the dehumanizing power of classification and systematization.
 – Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Orbiting thought – 5

Jul 28

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Orbiting thought – 5

Orbiting is responsible creativity: vigorously exploring and operating beyond the Hairball of the corporate mind set, beyond “accepted models, patterns, or standards” – all the while remaining connected to the spirit of the corporate mission.
  – Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Orbiting thought – 4

Jul 27

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Orbiting thought – 4

If you are in a position of power and want to lead well, remember:
  Allow those you lead…
    To lead… when they fell the need.
      All will benefit.
 – Gordon MacKenzie, Orbiting the Giant Hairball

Orbiting thought – 3

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