There’s a lot of exciting exploration going on these days in space and under the sea, but some of the most exciting is the ongoing exploration of the human brain.

Most people recognize a certain validity in the old maxim ‘clothes make the person’, but would you believe that clothes can actually improve cognitive ability?

If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to pay attention increases sharply. But if you wear the same white coat believing it belongs to a painter, you will show no such improvement.

Oh, goody; once again corporate America is hijacking brain research to sell more (just what we all need) stuff.

…neuromarketing…helped researchers decode secrets such as why people love artificially colored snack food and how to predict whether a pop song will be a hit or a flop.

This next essay looks at how love affects your brain and you might wonder about its business application, but the information on how relationships change brain chemistry is as applicable to you and your boss and business colleagues as it is to you and your romantic partner—more so, perhaps, considering the hours spent in work-related relationships exceeds those spent on personal ones.

A RELATIVELY new field, called interpersonal neurobiology, draws its vigor from one of the great discoveries of our era: that the brain is constantly rewiring itself based on daily life.

Have you ever wondered why you acted/reacted a certain way? Could it be because of a cat you have, had or visited at some point?

Jaroslav Flegr believes a “latent” parasite may be quietly tweaking the connections between our neurons, changing our response to frightening situations, our trust in others, how outgoing we are, and even our preference for certain scents.

And before you start laughing, consider the words of Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky, “My guess is that there are scads more examples of this going on in mammals, with parasites we’ve never even heard of.”

Finally, an all natural, fully organic, multi-useful way to improve brain function—and it’s free! Additional benefits include potentially improved business functions and a myriad of benefits to your social life from more ways to meet chicks/guys to choosing restaurants and enjoying vacations.

Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter. It can have a profound effect on your brain, improving cognitive skills not related to language and even shielding against dementia in old age.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

Thanksgiving, better known as Stressgiving, marks the official start of the holiday season, so I thought it appropriate to offer up my version of inspirational reading in an effort to mitigate the negative effects.

A lot of actions this time of year seem focused on tasks instead of people. As folks gear up to get everything on their holiday list done on schedule and in budget, they tend to mow down anybody they perceive to be in their way. It turns out that there is a biologically-based reason that this happens and it isn’t limited to people in leadership positions. I find knowledge like this useful; it makes me more tolerant of others when they are acting like twits and lessons the likelihood that I’ll do the same.

The other challenge is that the circuitry for thinking analytically, such as thinking about the future or about concepts, switches off the circuitry for thinking about others. People spending a lot of time being analytical, conceptual or goal focused may have diminished circuitry for thinking about the minds of others, simply through lack of use.

With the holidays upon us anything that keeps saving, as opposed to spending, front and center is worthy of your attention. Startup SaveUp does just that and makes it cool enough to interest kids and teens.

The dollars-to-points ratio translates to one dollar per point.  Thus, for every dollar you put in your savings account or use to pay down your debt, you earn one point, and once you’ve accumulated 10 points, you can enter any prize play of your choice.  All prize plays cost 10 credits—which means you can use those 10 credits to enter a drawing for an iPad 2 or you can use them to enter a drawing to get $10,000 of your debt paid off.

Finally, if you’re looking to store some of your stuff and happen to live in New York City then you can do it in style for a modest $300 a month.

Behind the mute facade of a largely windowless neo-Gothic tower lies an ingenious system of steel vaults traveling on rails. Within those armored containers, which have been in continuous use since the Jazz Age… Day & Meyer, Murray & Young warehouse, and since it opened in 1928 it has been the storage building of choice for many of New York’s wealthiest families, most prestigious art dealers and grandest museums.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

Halloween has always been a favorite happening of mine, long before it became one of the top five retailing holidays (actually, I think I read that it is number two). I’ve always looked forward to trick or treating—when I was a kid it meant candy, but these days it has a

First for the tricks.

Trick 1 – I’m sure it will come as no surprise that the rich are getting richer, unlike the rest of us and now it’s been well-quantified.

The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades…

Trick 2 – I take this trick very personally, in spite of the fact that I’ve been guilty of doing it on occasion. The problem is that, like many tricks, it can backfire in ways you’d never think.

“From his perspective [iPhone user] they look like a view of, er, splayed lady parts: ({}). He then ran around his lab showing colleagues excitedly what I had just sent him. Half (mostly men) concurred with his interpretation, and the others (mostly women) didn’t and probably thought he was kind of a desperate perv.” –Lisa M. Bates, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia (Blackberry user)

Now come the treats.

Treat 1 – Just in time for Halloween, comes scientific information that may help alleviate any guilt you feel for indulging in some of those bit-size candy bars your kids will collect.

Most people, he said, will be more satisfied by eating a 50-calorie cupcake than a dozen carrot sticks with just as many calories, because the sense of deprivation is less and the craving for “bad” food is calmed, if not entirely extinguished. “Smaller treats give people license to eat it all, which is a very powerful thing,” he said. “Psychologically, it’s exciting and comforting.” –Brian Wansink, Cornell professor and the author of “Mindless Eating”

Treat 2 – In my humble opinion I saved the best for last. May I present you with a link to (sound of trumpets, roll of drums) the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize winners and they are truly superb this year—as they are every year. It makes you wonder how they can keep improving. For those of you unfamiliar with the Ig Nobels, here is a sampling to whet your appetite.

CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami of JAPAN, for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm.

REFERENCE: US patent application 2010/0308995 A1. Filing date: Feb 5, 2009.

LITERATURE PRIZE: John Perry of Stanford University, USA, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that’s even more important.

REFERENCE: “How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done,” John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996. Later republished elsewhere under the title “Structured Procrastination.”

Enjoy!

Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho

This article on decision fatigue should be mandatory reading for every manager and worker looking to boost group performance or their own.

It provides scientific explanations why

• interviews are more difficult if you struggled that morning with decisions about what to wear and the best route to the company;
• the wrong candidate is hired and the real catch gets away;
• getting married often lowers productivity (not the reasons you might expect);
• skipping lunch is as bad as skipping breakfast (which is just plain stupid);
• having snacks available and buying dinner when working late is required and
• timing meetings and other critical tasks can make a significant difference.

Decision fatigue is the price every human pays for the multitude of choices we face daily; not just the obvious big ones, but every tiny fork in the road.

“No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price.”

Moreover, decision fatigue is a major contributor to ego depletion.

“…ego-depleted humans become more likely to get into needless fights over turf. In making decisions, they take illogical shortcuts and tend to favor short-term gains and delayed costs.”

Not exactly the actions you want in yourself or your people.

The focus on food is obvious once you think about it. Most people know you can’t exercise without providing fuel for their muscles, but seem to think their mind runs on air and desire.

“…psychologists neglected one mundane but essential part of the machine: the power supply. The brain, like the rest of the body, derived energy from glucose…”

Decision fatigue also impacts self-control, AKA willpower, and self-control has a large role in keeping us focused.

Read the article; it provides a scientific basis for creating a culture that helps people deal with decision fatigue and all its ramifications.

“When there were fewer decisions, there was less decision fatigue.”

The solutions lie in an open exploration of the subject with your people and a conscious effort to provide an environment that minimizes the effects of decision fatigue.

“The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.” – Lead researcher Roy F. Baumeister, social psychologist

Flickr image credit: ZedBee | Zoë Power

My post today has only three links, but the subject matter requires a good deal of thought and (uncomfortable) self-analysis if you are to take advantage of it, so I didn’t want to add anything else.

McKinsey is well-known for its consulting and studies; its newsletters are an amazing resource. Registration is free; I mention this because you will have to register to access information that will be of use whether you are running a Fortune 50 corporation, dealing with teenagers or anything in-between.

Have you heard of cognitive bias? It refers to the set way our brains work, whether we are aware of it or not—mostly not unless you make an effort. Keep in mind that although McKinsey is talking about corporate situations you can tweak the information for use under any circumstances.

• Behavioral strategy: Yet very few corporate strategists making important decisions consciously take into account the cognitive biases—systematic tendencies to deviate from rational calculations—revealed by behavioral economics. It’s easy to see why: unlike in fields such as finance and marketing, where executives can use psychology to make the most of the biases residing in others, in strategic decision making leaders need to recognize their own biases.

• Countering biases: Addressing cognitive challenges like these is hard because executives can’t change how their brains work. What they can do is put in place processes for challenging entrenched beliefs and approaches.

• Visual wrap: A quick, simple summary of the various types of bias.

I am familiar with many of my own biases and have found ways to either avoid or short-circuit them, so I know it is possible. And I encourage you to identify your own—just don’t waste your time trying to change them, because it’s not going to happen.

Image credit:  MykReeve on flickr

There has been much written about implementing change in an organization. I’ve written several articles on change focusing on the need to change yourself before you can expect those around you to change and I stand by those. (Two of them are here and here.)

And as you know I often link to articles and offer my take on them. The trouble with that is that many of my time-pressed readers read what I wrote and promise themselves that they will read the link later, but never do. They either forget or the reminder gets buried under a never-ending avalanche of new stuff to read.

I think today’s link is important, so I’m not going to comment or offer a few quotes.

Since this post is only 188 words, you’ll have time to click and read That’s the Way We (Used to) Do Things Around Here: With a little knowledge of neuroscience, reframing behavior can be the essence of organizational change.

You also might want to consider signing up for strategy+business; you may not always agree with them, I don’t, but I believe you will find them useful.

stock.xchng image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/880737

Several of the links yesterday related to intelligence, smarts and wisdom, so I thought that would be a good topic today, too.

Einstein is considered a genius, but it seems that he had a different view, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson being intelligent or smart isn’t everything, “Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.”

Alan Alda adds a dimension to that with his observation regarding being smart, “Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.”

Voltaire said,”Common sense is not so common;” actually, I think it’s rarer than intelligence.

Some people equate intelligence to education and believe that filling one’s mind with book learning is a valid goal, but I tend to align with Plutarch words, “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.”

Perhaps it’s the fire that leads E. B. White to believe that “Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.”

Throughout history there has been much debate and varying opinions regarding intelligence in the different races, but John Fowles thinking seems to offer the final word, “There are only two races on this planet – the intelligent and the stupid.”

Stock.xchng image credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1254880

I have some eclectic offerings to start your Labor Day weekend right; a bit of this and that, with no unifying theme.

First up is a gift for my women readers.

Goldman Sachs and Knowledge@Wharton have teamed up to create a portal for women entrepreneurs in emerging economies as part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative. The portal will feature articles, case studies, podcasts and videocasts highlighting 10,000 Women scholars’ businesses in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In addition, the portal will provide women entrepreneurs around the world with business insights that can help them grow and lead their enterprises.

Next, two new articles in the Your Brain on Computers series running in the NY Times. The first looks at five neuroscientists who spent a week in late May in a remote area of southern Utah completely unwired—no cell phones (except one for emergencies), no internet, no watches. The second looks at the polar opposite—constant stimulation.

Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university, where he specializes in learning and memory. He said he believed that when the brain was constantly stimulated, “you prevent this learning process.”

Since we’re on the subject of social media, I’m sure you heard about Mike Wise, a sports columnist at The Washington Post, who was suspended for tweeting made up information about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ quarterback to see how fast misinformation would spread online. Wise thinks the suspension is fair, not an overreaction.

“I’m paying the price I should for careless, dumb behavior in the multiplatform media world.”

Finally, a comment in response to ways to help Social Security survive really grabbed me.

Charles Jaecksch, a 65-year-old retired IRS agent in Millersville, would tax all income, including stock options and executive golden parachutes.

“Imagine, for instance, if the outgoing executive of Hewlett-Packard was required to pay Social Security withholding and Medicare on his [$40 million plus] buy-out,” Jaecksch says. “Multiply this by all executives and employees earning millions of dollars per year, and it would go a long way to boosting the Social Security trust fund.”

I wasn’t aware of the exemptions Jaecksch mentions, but now that I know I am really pissed—sorry, that is the technical term for my reaction.

What do you think?

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of the amount of pure stupid going around.

Now it’s Mark Hurd, but he is just the latest in an epidemic of stupid.

I expect stupid from teens, after all, brain science has proved that teen brains are in a process of change and during that time the frontal cortex isn’t functioning.

Dr. Paul Thompson, UCLA School of Medicine: “As you get older, you don’t necessarily get more brain. The outer layer of the brain is actually thinning.”

Dr. Judy Rapaport, NIH: “You end up with a sort of leaner, meaner thinking machine by the time you’re an adult.”

But it seems that many aren’t thinking.

Call it Extreme Makeover: Career Edition and Ty Pennington just screamed, “Let’s do some demo!”

I think the brain research needs to be redone to account for regression after 40.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michiel/4348942883/

It’s a holiday weekend, so I thought I’d offer you a variety from which to pick and choose.

First up is a good overview of the business and political crises that are either ignored or denied by the leading players.

Polls show that our business, political and financial systems, and the people who lead them, are seen as lacking in ethics, competence and respect. … We have a crisis of ethical culture in both the public and private sectors.

Chris O’Brien offers a thoughtful look at money, motivation and Silicon Valley, although what he says applies universally.

That money motivates us to do our best is the ultimate expression of faith in the free market. Challenging this orthodoxy is heresy.

Yet research overwhelmingly indicates not only that money is not an effective incentive for creativity and innovation — it actually may make performance worse.

Next is an interesting commentary by Donna Flagg that looks below the typical views of managing Gen X and Y.

But really, I fail to see how this is different from any other good, old-fashioned generation gap where the underlying issue is simply about a need to understand differences.

Next is more insight about your brain and the subject of daydreaming; if you don’t daydream you may find it surprising.

But now that researchers have been analyzing those stray thoughts, they’ve found daydreaming to be remarkably common — and often quite useful. A wandering mind can protect you from immediate perils and keep you on course toward long-term goals.

Finally, the comments are in on Harvard’s Jim Heskett’s most recent online discussion considering whether strategy, execution or culture had the greatest impact on a company’s success. It’s definitely worth reading, both the initial article and the comments.

Respondents who ventured to place weights on the determinants of success gave the nod to culture by a wide margin.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/