The Leading Brain: Neuroscience Hacks to Work Smarter, Better, Happier by Neuropsychologist Friederike Fabritius and leadership expert Dr. Hans Hagemann.
They collaborate combining expertise in both neuropsychology and management consulting to present a series of powerful brain strategies for organizations and individuals to gain peak performance.
I was very impressed with this book. There is much to learn about recent neuroscience technology revolutionizing our understanding of the human brain. There are certainly a lot of business books addressing peak performance. Most seemingly appear to be based upon well intentioned goal setting and had limited access to scientific data to support their theories how organizations can thrive.
However this book reveals how science and recent technology advances can now enhance the following brain abilities: Sharpening focus, Achieving the highest performance, Learning and retaining information more efficiently, Improving complex decision-making, Cultivating trust and building strong teams.
Light touch of science
Everyone will certainly discover a unique introduction to dopamine, acetylcholine, and noradrenaline. But worry not there is no test, only learning about how technology advancements in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines can now identify specific brain conditions due to understanding of quantum physics that impact performance. Seemingly legacy approaches were simply well intentioned wild guessing.
With this new understanding of how the brain behaves during various workplace scenarios and stress levels we see examples. The first chapter story of how US Astronaut Gordon Cooper handled stress (gentle reminder he fell asleep in the capsule) of the Mercury Atlas 9 during several delays prior to launch.
At the same time the life of Louis Pasteur’s nervous pacing outside his office is analyzed for comparison. As you may recall Pasteur’s study of micro organisms dramatically altered operating room procedures.
Yes, regulate your emotions
For organizations and leaders this is certainly interesting to understand how your direct reports may spend a lot of time attempting to hold back negative emotions. Above all, consider the impact on your service/project delivery, and the bottom line.
The book’s insights to cognitive jujitsu (via the prefrontal cortex) is certainly powerful. Yet not just discovering an understanding of this type of jujitsu but learning how you can course correct yourself to accurately regulate your emotions:
The principle of jujitsu originally pertained to two human opponents, but it could just as easily have been describing two rival regions of the brain. Emotional regulation is a contest between your powerful limbic system and your weaker but wilier prefrontal cortex. If you attempt to counteract stress by fighting it directly, you will fail. That hasn’t stopped many of us from attempting to battle stress by suppressing it, a technique psychologists call inhibition.
p. 79
Friederike shows how scientific data proves legacy methods proven to be false. Likewise, discovering how cognitive jujitsu can help your organization avoid pitfalls. There are hands-on strategies to make this successful.
A few of the last books that I have read that bring this research forward include Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change by Leonard Mlodinow, Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert and also Think Like a Rocket Scientist by Ozan Varol.
In conclusion this is a rather amazing book. I would certainly recommend this book to any leader who strives to change their teams and organizations. The pandemic is reason enough to re-approach your team in a time of great change. Simply wonderful read with very impactful insights to success.
Talks at Google | Fun, Fear, Focus: Peak Performance Recipe
TEDx Talks | The Neurochemistry Of Peak Performance
The Innovation Show | The Leading Brain
Friederike Fabritius | The Leading Brain