David Rock

2011 NeuroLeadership Summit - Day 3 highlights

2011-12-05T22:06:00.001-08:00

Jessica Payne

Leaders becoming caught in ‘Leadership Lockdown Syndrome’

The neural needs and resources of successful senior leaders was the topic of the first session of day three at the summit. The brain needs three things to function optimally, explained neuroscientists Jessica Payne (Notre Dame) and Stephen Thomas (Southampton School of Management) - moderate stress, good sleep and positive affect (positive mood).

While this sounds simple, its contrary to the pressures most executives experience, leading to 'Leadership Lockdown Syndrome', a phrase first coined by Jessica & Stephen for this summit. Leadership lockdown syndrome is when a leader’s brain locks down (or locks up some might say) and cannot process incoming data efficiently, because of overly high allostatic load or ‘threat’ levels. The problem occurs partly because of interaction between three experiences: high stress makes sleep and positive affect worse.

Poor sleep makes stress and positive affect worse. And negative affect tends to make sleep and stress worse. So when people have high levels of all three experiences, the interaction can result in overly high stress experiences with significant cognitive impairment, impacting basic perception as well as judgement and decision-making. High levels of ongoing stress can also create permanent damage to the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for memory, with its high number of cortisol receptors.

Insufficient sleep also means we are not giving our brains time to integrate information in a meaningful way and are therefore operating at a sub optimal level, especially with regard to creativity. Sleep also plays a big role in regulating emotions, a crucial strength for any executive. Studies show that as little as a seven-minute nap allows regeneration of our creative brain circuits and improves mood.


Sara Mathew

Priming for organizational change

Across all organizations, leaders actions are watched closely; ‘everything is examined, becomes water cooler stories, and ultimately folklore’ says Sara Mathew, CEO of Dun and Bradstreet.

She suggests that ongoing learning, being open to feedback, being self-aware and then modifying behaviour maybe just the ticket to setting the right context and expectations across the whole organization.

Dean Mobbs, David Rock, Sara Mathew

Dean Mobbs (University of Cambridge) agrees that small priming activities make a big difference. Studies show the brain is primed by seemingly inconsequential cues, from carrying a heavy clipboard to being given a warm beverage. The brains social circuitry means that having an ‘in group’ including the entire organization can make for a motivated and rewarding success based culture. Different business units competing may lead to ‘out group’ categorisation and a sense of pleasure at the ‘out groups’ failure.

Other levers of change include office layout, organizational beliefs, language, and rituals that increase peoples feeling of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness, such as Google’s weekly town hall meeting where lots of information is shared across the business.

Summit participants discussing
biofeedback systems

Real time measurement of brain functioning in leaders

Al Ringleb (CIMBA) who runs the NeuroLeadership lab, is doing ground breaking work in the neuroscience of leadership space. At his business school in Northern Italy, Cimba, he sets up real time biofeedback systems, where future leaders get real time data about heart rate and skin conductance as they go through various leadership tasks. This data correlates to various brain functions such as overall threat or reward response. Students in an MBA program wear wireless heart rate monitors the size of small coins for long periods of time, getting to practice regulating their emotions under pressure. The fun part is that everyone in a class can see everyone else’s data.

The data collected has given a number of clues to what makes leaders succeed. One finding shows that the level of emotional regulation may be the key to highly successful leaders, as close knit groups and teams mirror the heart rate of those taking the lead. More data on the study can be found in the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice, published by Harvard Business Press.

Also presenting was Marian Ruderman and Carol Connolly (CCL), talking about the field of leadership development and its evolution, and the need to shift to neuroscience, positive psychology and contemplative traditions as core foundations for the field.

Differential leadership

This session was all about leadership from multiple angles, looking at leadership across different stages, ages, gender and culture, each presenter by a different researcher.

Paul MacDonald (Victoria Management School) looked at different stages of leadership. He outlined an initial stage of leadership, where individuals must become angry enough to stand up and act to change the status quo. Self-awareness is another stage, which is somewhat counter intuitive; we often consider leaders for their intellect or reasoning, however Paul proposed that it is emotional leadership that inspires us to follow someone. A third stage is a willingness to take risks. Paul suggests if you want to grow your leadership capability then the easiest way is to take more risks, ie go for a holiday in Kenya versus a safer version in Mexico. There will be more learning and growth to come from something more difficult then taking the safe route. Leaders need to step through these stages to be fully effective.

Jessica Payne (Notre Dame) spoke about leadership across different ages. Jessica noted that well managed stress is crucial to leadership at any age, and that without stress management our brains are far less effect not only in the moment, but in their ability to generate fresh neurons on an ongoing basis. Other influential ways to impact aging brain functions include exercising, sleeping well, having plentiful and/or meaningful social connections as well as a spiritual belief system.

Jacqui Grey spoke about leadership across genders. She noted that statistics on the gender gap are stark: of 190 world leaders currently only nine are women, in corporations between 15-18% of senior leaders are women, while the starting pipeline is 51% women, and only 3% of leadership positions in banking are held by women. Jacqui proposes that workplace systems are built by men for men, with the current rate of change unlikely to see equality before 40 years time. One of the culprits may be testosterone, giving men a false sense of confidence and an advantage over most women in the leadership domain.

Yiyuan Tang

Yiyuan Tang (Dalian) presented on leadership across cultures. He presented on how different cultures experience the world fundamentally differently, for example studies that show context may be more important then a central character from the Eastern perspective in a simple picture. These cultural differences impact how we think and interact with others and have implications in many areas including emotion, action, decision-making and social life.

Philip Zimbardo

Increasing workplace heroism

In the final session of the 2011 NeuroLeadership Summit, Philip Zimbardo, creator of the renowned ‘Stanford Prison Experiment,’ (www.prisonexp.org) suggested we all have the capacity for evil behaviour—that is far greater than is widely understood - and an equal or greater capacity to be heroes.

The session was facilitated by Tim Tobin, global head of talent for Marriott, who had some fascinating comments about the need for heroic actions in the hotel industry.

“Heroism is learned, taught and modelled, not inborn,” Zimbardo said. “It’s everyday people doing extraordinary actions that can have a ripple effect that influences many others.” He distinguishes between reactive, impulsive heroes—those given a sudden and unexpected opportunity for heroism—and proactive, reflective heroes, who have time to think about it before they become heroes. “Leaders need to be proactive heroes,” he said. This was an inspiring and energizing close to a mind-expanding three days.

2011 NeuroLeadership Summit - Day 2 highlights

2011-11-10T02:26:00.000-08:00

Rethinking Organizations with the Brain in Mind:
Part 2, Core Theory

How do we create better leaders?
How can bosses learn to manage better?

Day two of the 2011 NeuroLeadership Summit in San Francisco started with Matthew Lieberman (UCLA) presenting three fascinating pieces of research.

Firstly, studies are suggesting that for humans, ‘social is our basic operating system'.Secondly, Matt outlined that one of the reasons organizations and the workplace may not be as socially conscious is that most managers and leaders are promoted for utilizing their analytic and strategic thinking skills, which tends to switch off their social neural networks.

Over time, the less we use our social neural networks, the harder it is to switch them back on, and the less human awareness our, Matt talked about how we frequently guess incorrectly when detecting other's motivations and the implications for improvement of this one skill may be far reaching in an organizational context. Matt's lab is now researching how we can improve our ability to predict and understand another's motivation, as this is an integral skill in social awareness.

Language has the power to shape our experiences.

Lera Boroditsky (Stanford) presented next on the power of language and its ability to shape not only our thinking, but also our emotions. She noted language is a powerful tool in orientating ourselves in the world as well as within organizations.In western societies we think of the past as being behind us, and the future ahead. If we orientate ourselves differently, with the past in front of us and the future behind, and therefore more unknown, how might that change our thinking and planning?

The deeper neuroscience of SCARF

In the ‘Deeper Neuroscience of SCARF’, Savannah DeVarney and Phil Dixon from Brain Resource proposed that we can understand what goes on when the brain reacts to SCARF-social-threats by studying brains that are ‘stuck’ in danger mode, such is the case in clinical anxiety conditions.

By looking at data from the Brain Resource International Database, we can start to understand what goes on in real time when our brains experience a danger response resulting from Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness or Fairness being threatened.

It was proposed that employee brain training to improve brain health should complement leadership and change-management initiatives, since a healthy brain has the best chance at adapting and regulating when social threats arise.

Goal setting informed by neuroscience

Setting goals is an integral part of most organizations. How is it that we get people in a toward-state and committed to these goals in a workplace setting? Elliot Berkman (Oregon) broke down the elements of goal setting from a neuroscience and social psychological view point touching on motivation, planning, goal setting, social processes and self control. Throughout the session, Ruth Donde from the NeuroLeadership Group helped make meaning of the research and connect the ideas back to organizational practice.

Elliot suggests that languaging of goals is important to give people ownership and tap into individual motivation. Goals sit within a neural hierarchy stretching from the abstract to the concrete, from the why (more values based) to the how (granular actions). Having goals that fit well within your existing hierarchy means you can align and act in concert to achieve the goal.

Whoever leads the goal setting process must be able to mentalize, or have the ability to see another’s viewpoint, matching people’s approach and avoidance biases with appropriate language.

Using the brains natural social tendencies, we can provide opportunities for groups to form around goals. Naming a group, mixing skill sets, and allowing autonomy on how to achieve the goals can provide fertile ground. If tasks are implicitly allocated in the group based on strengths, and if there are initial wins, this can lead to a positive spiral, where mirror neurons add motivation and builds further commitment and commonality within the group.

Finally self-control is a limited resource, and working in concert with other aligned individuals can help preserve this resource for when it is most needed. Self-control is also something that can be strengthened using the brains natural plasticity.Overall this was a session rich with explanations of the underpinning neural process in successful goal setting.

What is the neurobiology of leadership assessments?

Ann Herman-Nehdi (Herrman Brain) and Mark Schar (Stanford) presented on the neurobiology of leadership assessments noting there is much open ground to cover. They suggested the first piece of the puzzle is to create a common definition of leadership, which doesn’t currently exist. If we are to study leadership assessments from a neurological standpoint we need to agree on what leadership is, what we wish to measure and how we hope to use the data.

At present there are four commonly gauged domains of leadership assessments: personality, behavior, talent/interest and cognition. When it comes to these assessments organizations are looking for statistical validity, reliability, perceived value from the user and observed insights. Neuroscience has a great deal to bring to this field but more research is urgently required.

Reappraisal and mindfulness maybe the keys to adaptive organizations.

James Gross (Stanford), YuYuan Tang (Dalian), Karen May (Google) discussed techniques for emotional regulation and mindfulness, and looked at how we can apply these within an organization.

Emotional regulation is used everyday in many situations, with varying success and strategies, some with implications for those around you.Suppression is cognitively expensive, raising not only your own blood pressure and heart rate but also for others in the room with you.

Reappraisal and mindfulness may be a more successful strategy. Taking the time to become more mindful through a meditation practice can have long-standing results across many aspects of life and allow you to be ‘in flow'.Facing difficult tasks, priming your brain to test your willpower, might be useful for avoiding distractions and keeping focused.

It is useful to know that emotions can be regulated, and how we go about it matters; we all have the ability to learn to manage emotional challenges.Other fascinating sessions across the day explored questions like the biological validity of leadership assessments, and the deeper neuroscience beneath how we successfully set goals.

2011 NeuroLeadership Summit - Day 1 highlights

2011-11-09T02:17:00.000-08:00

There's an emerging field of research tackling a big question: how can we develop better leaders, and create more successful organizations. Called NeuroLeadership, the field each year gathers for an annual summit to explore the big questions and share new research.

The 6th NeuroLeadership Summit began in San Francisco this week. Scheduled for three days, day one was all about big picture issues, including "Creating adaptive organizations", "The beliefs that organizations should hold", "The neuroscience of global talent management", "Brain fitness" and "Neuropolitics" amongst others.

Bringing the pieces together.

First up Dan Siegel (UCLA) and Christine Williams of NASA put forward the idea of integration being crucial to the success of not only an organization but also of an individual. Diverse intelligence and organizational divisions can come together with flexible and open thinking. Rigidity and chaos are two extremes that need to be avoided.

Praise leads to cheating?

A number of seemingly innocent organizational practices, like praising people for success, is likely to not only reduce performance and increase cheating but also make people less adaptive in the work environment.

A study by Carol Dweck, Professor of Psychology at Stanford discovered that individuals praised for intelligence were found to be three times more likely to lie than those praised for effort.

Values for success.

Janet Van Huysse, Vice President of HR at Twitter shared three of their ten core values she believes underlie its success: Seek diverse perspectives; recognize that passion and personality matter; and innovate through experimentation.

Adaptability and curiosity key in successful hires?

Most performance management problems are a result of hiring decisions. A panel of HR experts with Stuart Crabb (Facebook), George Rose (Sony Pictures), Anna Tavis (Brown Brothers Harriman) and Evan Wittenberg (HP) discussed how neuroscience can help with talent challenges.

Psychological tests alone aren't reliable in determining how adaptive a candidate is, as those tests tend to favor people who are good at discerning patterns. A more effective method is to create an environment that demands adaptability.

Training the brain for fitness

Dan Siegel (UCLA), Alvaro Fernandez (Sharp Brains), Savannah DeVarney (Brain Resources), and Mitch Wasden (Ochsner Health), each presented on the latest thinking, techniques and technologies around the idea of optimal brain fitness.

Until relatively recently we thought that the brain ceased to grow and develop in adults. We now know the brain remains plastic throughout our life. This discovery has begun a new industry. Like with physical fitness, we are starting to see the equivalent of gyms, personal trainer and coaches for our cognitive functions. Alvaro Fernandez talked about the development of this industry and its future, while Mitch Wasden talked about the application for organizations. Dan Siegel presented the Healthy Mind Platter he developed with David Rock, and talked about the cognitive benefits of 'time-in'.

Savannah DeVarney presented some technology solutions for brain training that exist now, that engage and build strength in self regulation, emotional recognition, management of feelings and cognitive speed. Studies are showing that these new technologies have good uptake by high stress individuals and are having an ongoing positive impact on a variety of areas. Simple mindful techniques also have significant benefits in overall neural conditioning, integration and effectiveness.

What neuroscience teaches us about power

Jake Dunagan (Institute for the Future) talked about where the growth in interest and research in neuroscience may be leading us. He suggests we are in an age where people are looking for credible information, and if studies come with reference to the brain than we are more likely to believe them.

Jake also spoke of research about power, isolation and implications. The more distance we have from our consituents the more ruthlessness, impulsivity and less empathy we have. ‘People in power act like severe brain damage cases’. This has important repurcussions for organisational leadership staying in touch with lower level workers.

Another element in this new found interest is we are now looking for other ways to enhance our cognitive abilities across the board. A study showed that 20% of scientists now use stimulants on a regualr basis. We may soon find ourselves in a world where cognitive stimulants aren’t just used to stay ahead, but to stay competitive.

How to imagine the future and why it is so hard to do.

Clarity, not certainty, is key to seeing into the future. In the final group session of day one, two experts, Robert Burton and Bob Johansen took us inside ‘knowing' and what it means for our ability to think ahead with any hope of accuracy.Trends are patterns of change from which we can extrapolate future events with consistency, according to Bob Johansen, and a 10 year forecast is a story from the future that provokes insight in the present, he added.

"Some of the best are those that annoy us, because they make us really think about the present," he said. An effective forecast is one that takes us from foresight to insight to action.

A key characteristic that will help leaders view the future more effectively is an ‘opposable mind,' which Bob described as the ability to hold opposites in mind and still function-for instance, seeing the future through a threat lens of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) while being able to focus on Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility.

In a VUCA world it is important to have an integrated mind and a growth mindset.

Begin with the end.

We wrapped up the day with a Gala dinner including a session with Kenny Moore, a former catholic monk and co-author of best seller The CEO and the Monk: One Company's Journey to Profit and Purpose.

Kenny shared his views on encouraging employees to embrace change by allowing them to mourn the loss of the company they know, and are losing through change, by holding a corporate ‘funeral'.

To find out more about the NeuroLeadership Summit click here.

Are you a born genius? Being a learner is smarter

2011-11-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

We all like to feel smart and talented. Turns out that whether we attribute it to natural ability or to hard work is a strong predictor of how successful we’ll be. In a session on the beliefs that help grow successful organizations, Carol Dweck, distinguished professor at Stanford and a leading expert on motivation, explored fixed versus growth mindsets with Janet Van Huysse, HR leader at Twitter. The distinction, said Dweck, is that those of us with a fixed mindset see talent as a static trait, and those a growth mindset see it as a potential that can be developed.

Organizations can have fixed mindsets, too—and in the war for talent, those that do are losing out on great people, said Huysse. As Dweck pointed out, trusting in the value of hard work and effort is not just a stronger predictor of success, but a much more powerful motivator.

“A fixed mindset doesn’t tell you what to do next,” said Dweck. “It provides no recipe for recovering from failures,” which makes it tough to take on new challenges where stumbling is possible or even likely.

Van Huysse shared three of Twitter’s ten core values she believes underlie its success: Seek diverse perspectives; recognize that passion and personality matter; and innovate through experimentation.

At the core of a growth mindset on talent is neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to reorganize itself with learning. It requires not just working at what you know, but pushing past into areas that stretch your knowledge and skills. A favorite quote of Dweck’s: “Anyone who’s never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Mindsets are transmitted in an organization through a shared understanding of what’s valued: being right or being open to learning. “We are very tuned in to messages about what will make people like and admire us. We’re wired to pick this up,” said Dweck. Praise for intelligence instead of praise for effort sends the wrong message. People who are praised for being smart “don’t want to risk their newly minted genius status,” and that fosters static, rigid organizations. Praise for effort keeps people engaged and willing to work hard.

Can organizations develop a growth mindset? Turns out the answer is yes. One research project did it by developing a workshop around mindset. It began with an article and video on how the brain grows with learning throughout life. Participants are then asked, “What’s an area where you once had low ability but now perform quite well? How were you able to make this change?” or “Who is someone in your life who has dramatically improved their performance? How did they do it?” Participants were then asked to draft an email to an employee who was doing well and then struggled.

After the workshop, these managers exhibited more openness to critical feedback, willingness to mentor—and a higher quality of mentoring—and openness to the possibility of employees’ changing.

People with growth mindset have greater awareness of mistakes and how to think them through. “You can’t hand people self-esteem on a silver platter,” said Dweck. “But you can equip them with mindsets that allow them to build self esteem themselves by taking on challenges and obstacles, by mastering things. That’s the gift.”

Carol Dweck, Ph.D, is a distinguished professor of psychology at Stanford University. Janet Van Huysse is Vice President of the HR team at Twitter.

To learn more about these presenters and their research, click here.

Welcome to the 2011 NeuroLeadership Summit

2011-11-08T10:30:00.000-08:00

The 2011 NeuroLeadership Summit opens today in San Francisco, with some of the world’s top experts on neuroscience and leadership exploring new ideas and paradigms for developing leaders. This year’s theme, ‘Adaptive Organizations,’ takes a look at how we can apply emerging insights about our brains to create more resilient, dynamic, adaptive organizations.

Some of the questions being explored include:
What determines what we and our employees pay attention to?
Can we really keep our brains more fit?
Why it’s so hard for our brains to make accurate predictions and a process for how to do it more effectively?
How can we get our brains on our side to achieve our goals?
Can leadership assessments really have biological validity?
Does teaching employees how to harness emotions drive performance?
Could turning leaders into heroes be the key to developing adaptive organizations?

Join the converstion:
Hashtags: #2011nls #neuroleadership
http://twitter.com/neuroleadership
http://twitter.com/search/2011nls

New writing for 2011

2011-06-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Here's a few links to some of my recent writing:

Psychology Today
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work

Harvard Business Review
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/05/the_conversation_is_over_long.html

Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-rock

Announcing the Healthy Mind Platter

2011-06-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

The healthy mind platter for optimal brain matter.

The US government has just revised the food pyramid - the diagram that's been with us for decades that is supposed to remind people how to eat well. The model needed a revision, and the new version, called ChooseMyPlate, is a big improvement.

However, there's a different epidemic happening out there that's getting less attention, perhaps because it is less obvious than the epidemic of obesity we're experiencing. We're entering an era of an epidemic of overwhelm. A time when too many people's mental well-being is being stretched through multi-tasking, fragmented attention and information overload.

The trouble is, we are short on simple, clear information about good mental habits. Few people know about what it takes to have optimum mental health, and the implications of being out of balance. It is not taught in schools, or discussed in business. The issue just isn't on the table. The result is that we stretch ourselves in ways that may have even bigger implications than an unhealthy physical diet.

Time for a new science of leadership?

2011-06-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

Want to be a leadership researcher? All you need are eyes and ears, and the ability to notice and describe patterns. Or if you want to test your theories, just set up some social science experiments.

This situation is good for the publishing industry - an Amazon search shows 60,352 books in the 'leadership' category - but there are still huge gaps in our understanding of leadership. We still don't know if it's more about traits, attributes and competencies, or about what followers need. Leadership development still involves a lot of guesswork. As a result, organizations don't have enough good leaders, and some of the leaders we have do some pretty unintelligent things (like betting the housing market will go up forever.)

Neuroscience research is helping fill in critical gaps. While we are nowhere near being able to scan a leader's brain while running a meeting (even if that was a good idea), we can study some of the building blocks of what leaders do - making decisions under pressure, solving complex problems, negotiating a transaction, or trying to persuade others. There are been some big surprises in the research.

Read the full story on Psychology Today

2010 Highlights

2010-12-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

It's been quite a year, one of the biggest professionally for me, here are some of the highlights.

Blogs in 2010

Leadership on the Brain

What's right (and wrong) with Obama's Brain

Is Free Will Real? Better Believe It--Even if it's Not

Why learning about the brain can be a positive addiction
We are on autopilot nearly half the time
How to have more insights
Misunderstanding the brain is bad for business
Pilots are tested for competence, why not leaders too
Why its good to believe in free will, whether it's real or not
The neuroscience of long haul travel
Should we be concerned about the impact of empty neural calories?

The best ever NeuroLeadership Summit
This year's summit was a big success, with many presenters from the big ivy-league universities involved this year.

You can read lots of blog summaries of the big sessions at this year's event here. The next Summit is 8-10 November in San Francisco, click here for more info.

Launching the Masters in the Neuroscience of Leadership
It's been exciting to get the Post Graduate program off the group, and now to be launching a Masters in the Neuroscience of Leadership means a whole new level of research and thinking is going to be driving this new field.

Learn more here

SCARF solutions comes alive
Throughout this year RCS have been working on a range of new products based on the SCARF model.

Click here for our SCARF solutions range or here to join one of our free webinars to learn more about using SCARF to assess your leaders or develop your organization's culture.

Opening up in Europe
This year I spent some time in Paris, Rome, Istanbul, Berlin and other parts of Germany.
It's been great collaborating with Marcia Smythe, who is running the European operation, to get RCS happening there. We have some great clients in Europe now with more on the horizon.

Connect with me in Paris January 29 for a one day workshop, click here for details

Building our US business
This year our US operation finally started to shift gears. We picked up some fantastic global clients based from the US, and now have a great new team including Phil Dixon and Robin Bowyer.

Looking ahead: Moving to NYC in 2011
The rumors are true. The Rock family are moving to NYC early 2011. We're keeping our home in Sydney for now to keep a foot in both, but we're trialing a 6 month stint to see how we go.

Where I am presenting in 2011
I will be giving keynotes or workshops at the following conferences in 2011:
Paris end of January
Executive Coaching Summit, New York City in March
HRPS global conference, Arizona in April
ASTD conference, Orlando in May
SHRM global conference, Las Vegas in June

Happy holidays!

Where I am Speaking This Year

2010-08-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

August
Mid august - many events in Johannesburg South Africa.
Contact MaryJoe for details:
maryjoe@resultsworkplacecoaching.co.za

September
7 September - creativity conference, Melbourne Australia.
http://www.ci2010.com.au/
20 September - Organizational Development Network, Silicon Valley
http://davidrock.eventbrite.com/
22 September - Best of Organizational Development conference, Chicago
http://www.linkageinc.com/offerings/summitsandinstitutes/organizationaldevelopment/Pages/Overview.aspx

October
18 October - OD Network annual conference, New Orleans
http://www.odnetwork.org/events/conferences/conf2010/keynotes.php
20 October - Conference Board Success Management Conference
http://www.conference-board.org/conferences/conferencedetail.cfm?conferenceid=2181
26 October - NeuroLeadership Summit 2010, Boston.
http://www.neuroleadership.org/summits/2010_Summit.shtml

November
17 November - Mind and it's potential, Sydney, Australia
http://www.terrapinn.com/conference/mind-and-its-potential/

How effective is your coaching skills program at actually improving coaching?

2010-08-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how to measure the effectiveness of coaching.

If you take a brain-based approach, then 'insight' and 'ideas for action' are at the heart of effective coaching.

In other words, coaching is effective when people see a situation in a different way, and commit to taking a new action that creates change.

In this way you can measure all sorts of things, including:

How effective any coaching strategy is

How effective individual coaches are

How effective a whole intervention is

We are now starting to measure all our coaching projects on this basis, with some surprising results.

You can find a complete study here:
http://www.resultscoaches.com/about/news/Citibank-Malaysia-Case-Study.shtml

There's also a short video online about one of these projects here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/resultscoaching#p/a/u/0/9dFpW-xyMBg

Watershed in coaching research

2010-08-11T18:43:00.000-07:00

One of the toughest things to do is show that coaching drives actual business results.

We are excited to have completed a robust study over two years with a financial services client.

With coaching as the only major intervention, a business unit saw a loss turned into a profit, and engagement up 50%.

You can read more about this here:
http://www.resultscoaches.com/about/news/Insurance-Company-Case-Study.shtml

Trandforming thinking and performance in organizations: Global Research Study

2010-08-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

Results Coaching Systems is launching a global study with large organizations in many countries, including the US, India, Africa and the Asia Pacific region.

If you work at a large organization and want to participate, email mattrule@resultscoaches.com and he will set this up for you.

Launching a Masters in the Neuroscience of Leadership

2010-08-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

The NeuroLeadership Institute post graduate program has been a big success, so much so the program is now turning into a full masters degree.

Contact Janelle Light to register your interest: janellelight@neuroleadership.org

Or click here to formally register your interest.

New trends in how large organizations are using coaching

2010-02-15T15:47:00.000-08:00

I recently completed a round of meetings with large organizations in Asia, Europe and the US over a 3-week period. It culminated in a visit to the Conference Board Executive Coaching Summit in NYC, where many companies presented their current strategy around coaching.

Many organizations canceled all outside consultants and coaches last year, slashed their budget to zero and removed the team in charge of coaching. Now these firms are starting to thinking about how to rebuild learning and development resources for their leadership teams, but on tighter budgets. Much tighter. One of the great things about times of deep change is you can start again, doing things properly, the way they should be done, rather than the way they have always been done. It is usually easier to start a new initiative than it is to change an initiative midstream, when all the stakeholders and the system itself pushes back. The combination of tight budgets, and the ability to create from scratch, seems to be driving three emerging trends in how organizations are thinking about coaching. These include more focus on internal coaching, thinking of coaching more broadly as a learning enabler, and thinking more strategically about coaching.

Trend one: the rise of internal coaching

One big trend happening is a shift toward internal coaching. Organizations are seeing that a large amount of coaching can be done in house, and are wondering how to do this. This is an area I have been excited about and studying formally since 2002. I published a white paper a couple of years ago that summarized a range of findings from helping around 100 firms build internal coaching capacity. I think these findings are even more relevant today. Here is a summary of some of the bigger insights in this paper. If you'd like a copy of the full white paper (which was also published in a peer-reviewed journal), email Kathy Meehan at kathymeehan@resultscoaches.com

A surprisingly large population can be coached internally.

It is true that senior executives at the C-suite level may demand external coaches. I also think that remedial coaching, where there are significant behavioral issues, is best done externally. However, this still leaves a huge body of people who can be coached inhouse. At EDS this was over 400 executives a year, most of whom would not have been given external coaching. Internal coaching is great for driving performance, improving innovation, increasing engagement, helping with on boarding new people, assisting with transitions and providing development for high potentials. That's plenty of coaching that can be done internally at a fraction of the cost of external coaching.

Coaching others is not just rewarding, it improves the coach's productivity and reduces stress.
This has been one of the big surprises. The splash back effect of coaching turns out to be quite significant. Coaches report getting as much or sometimes more benefits than the people they coach. So much so that it’s hard to take coaching off a leader once they have been coaching others, they get quite upset about losing what can be one of the most rewarding parts of their job. Richard Boyatiz explains the science of this phenomenon in a paper called Building Sustainable Leaders. This makes coaching others one of the best development programs for senior leaders themselves.

A lot of coaches each with just a few coachees may be the best model.

Our initial research points to a sweet spot where a leader gets great personal benefits from coaching about 2.5 people a year on average. This means they have one coachee at any time. Too many more and it can take over other work. Any less and they lose momentum in learning to coach. I think it is better to have more people do a bit of coaching, than it is to try to make a small number of people be better coaches. I believe there is so little out there in terms of positive, personalized support, that great benefits can be had from fairly good coaches being available widely.

Senior leaders are willing and able to coach well.
Make senior leaders the coaches, not just HR people, to support the credibility of an initiative. In reality a mix of about 50/50 works well, though I find that the more senior leaders are coaching, the better for everyone. I have found that, as long as the coaching approach is credible, senior leaders are willing to engage in learning new skills, and tend to be very effective coaches, in quite a short amount of time. You can not ask them to take a week out to be trained, but a short and intense training program can be effective, if it is well thought out. If you give people some good training and a process to follow, I have found a high percentage of leaders make good coaches, higher than I expected at the start of this.

There is strong demand for internal coaching from employees

We’ve never had a problem easily filling coaching places – employees tend to really appreciate being given a coach. One of my favorite quotes: This is the first time the company has given me something that really helped me do my job.

The ROI on internal coaching is fantastic

We have done two full studies on internal coaching, after just one round of coaching, showing 17:1 ROI and 39:1 ROI (see links below.) The best ROI I have seen on external coaching is around 7:1.

I will be running a webinar on April 21, at 12 noon US ET. It's free to register, click here to reserve a place. I will be sharing what I have been learning since 2002 about designing, positioning and rolling out internal coaching programs, with lots of opportunities for questions and interaction with participants.

There is a lot more to say about internal coaching, if you would like to set up a time to speak with me or one of my team further about this, email me at davidrock@workplacecoaching.com

More internal Coaching Resources

- Listen to an interview with an organization discuss how they found 17:1 ROI on internal coaching

- 17:1 ROI Study, Financial Services

- 39:1 ROI Study, Healthcare

- White paper on Internal Coaching

- What the Coachees say - research from people being coached inside organizations

Trend two: thinking of coaching as a broad learning-enabler

Another trend I am seeing is the idea of using coaching broadly to drive learning, instead of just using training. A few studies show that following up after a training can create half the behavior change. To run a learning and development framework using just training, without one to one support and follow up, may be missing half the value. A client like EDS saw this back in 2005 and decided to build internal coaching capacity into their global learning function, which until then only delivered training. Their vision was that every learning event would involve pre-work, an event, then follow-on coaching, all delivered with internal resources. Over a couple of years they trained 3,000 leaders in coaching skills (without anyone traveling at all), and developed over 100 internal coaches who coached over 400 executives a year. You can read more about this initiative in a white paper here.

The point here is to get maximum value out of learning interventions, without making them longer or more expensive. A 2005 paper by Jack Zenger in the ASTD 'Training and Development' journal called The promise of phase 3 put this issue as clearly as I have seen it expressed anywhere. Most companies don't invest in follow up, they invest in bells and whistles inside trainings, when the follow up appears to be the easiest place to improve the effectiveness of learning. How do you develop the ability to add follow-up to all learning programs? That involves some strategic planning and thinking, and finding an approach to coaching that sits well across many domains, which is the third trend I'm seeing.

Trend three: thinking strategically about coaching (not just 'letting it happen'.)

Another trend emerging involves companies thinking about how they might integrate coaching more strategically into their L&D framework. Instead of just using external coaching to develop senior leaders, organizations are beginning to think about how it can support many aspects of L&D, including on-boarding, performance management, transitions, high potential development and more. It is also been seen as a way to provide support to top people, to help the business builders close deals, or as a way to support important communities, such as high potential female executives.

I will say that unfortunately the majority of companies are not thinking strategically about coaching. They are more just letting it happen. I have met with dozens of organizations at various stages of the cycle of building a coaching culture, and have seen some real challenges with this approach. It's similar to installing software - if you let the business work it out as it goes along, sooner or later things get very messy. This is happening with coaching: many firms have multiple models, multiple definitions, no clear strategy and no way to measure impact. This makes it hard to get wide buy in and therefore it becomes hard to scale up coaching. Some big names companies in the end have decided to give up on coaching altogether. This is a big shame: to me, nothing is as effective at unlocking insights and increasing engagement as good coaching. The key is to find a good model that suits your organization, that is credible enough to be taken seriously.

Thinking strategically about coaching means having a 3-5 year vision for how you might use coaching, a robust theory base for coaching, clear definitions and a set of well-defined coaching models. You also need systems and approaches that sit well with an organization and can be used in multiple ways. It also helps to be clear on how you will measure and communicate your coaching programs. This is the kind of work I get to do with a few clients that really excites me. There is a one and a half hour audio presentation that one of my team gave on this whole issue that you may find helpful, download it for free here.

On a final note, I am working on a research project this year to explore how companies are building their coaching initiatives more broadly. Email me if you would like your organization to participate in this, at davidrock@workplacecoaching.com

First update for 2010

2010-02-01T03:21:00.000-08:00

After a good three week break in December (which my brain really enjoyed) I am back into the swing of creativity for the year. Here are some things I am involved in that may be of interest.

Learn about Brain-Based Coaching, or get certified as a coach
Once in a while my organization puts on a training program in NYC, for people who want to learn to coach based on the brain.
Next program starts 12 Feb in Manhattan.
It's an ICF- Accredited Program (ACPT) and good for new or already trained coaches. Speak to Kathy Meehan kathymeehan@resultscoaches.com or see the web.

There are also programs coming up in 25 cities in 14 other countries, including in Calgary, India, the Middle East, Africa, the UK, Prague, Helsinki, Sao Paolo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Auckland, and Sydney. See the web for details.

Next intake of NeuroLeadership Post Graduate Certificate program - March 2010
The first program has been a great success, with students really inspired by the learning and most going on to module 2. The next intake starts mid March 2010, with another in September. Places are limited each intake. Click here for details or to register.

Update on Your Brain at Work
I'm really pleased with the feedback on the book so far, with some great reviews on Amazon, in TIME Magazine and Reuters. It's soon out in languages including German, Chinese, Czech, Thai and Korean.
A talk at Google's headquarters based on the book is online and has been viewed by over 20,000 people now (which feels a bit weird...!) Watch it here:
I will be leading some online learning programs coming up for people anywhere in the US and Asia Pac. More info coming soon.

NeuroLeadership Journal edition two out now
The 2nd edition is out. Learn about the brain's braking system, the neuroscience of engagement, and more.
You can also access the introductory paper for the journal free, which outlines the important developments in 2009.

NeuroLeadership summit debrief
There's now a full debrief online about the recent summit, complete with pictures and lots of free audio. See the NeuroLeadership Blog.

Twittering away
Am still enjoying sharing research and brain insights on Twitter.
My profile is davidrock101.

2009 summary

2009-12-22T18:41:00.000-08:00

2009 has been the biggest year for me on a professional level, with so many highlights. Here are some of the bigger ones, focused on resources that may be of interest to readers.

The launch of Your Brain at Work
This was indeed the biggest event of my year, and the culmination of a 4 year project. It's amazing how hard it is to create something simple! Am really happy with the feedback on the book, and of course the reviews in TIME magazine, Reuters, Fortune Small Business and others. It was great to make it to the top 10 best selling business books in October, but the best feedback is hearing others get really excited discovering that understanding your brain opens up opportunities for improving the quality of life. There is a full debrief with photos about the launch itself in NYC here.

Launching a textbook, Coaching with the Brain in Mind.
It was strange launching two books in a year, but it just happened that way - I was working on this for 5 years, and Linda Page helped to complete it. At 600 pages, it's a big book, covering everything that a coach should know about neuroscience, plus systems theory, learning theory, change theory and more.

Blog at Psychology Today
This was my first go at mainstream blogging, and I've been enjoying the process. My most popular posts have included (from most popular at the top):
• The neuroscience of mindfulness (no religion needed)
• Why millions of brains love (and hate) Twitter
• Easily distracted: why it's hard to focus, and what to do about it
• Status: a more accurate way of understanding self-esteem
• The brain at Google
• Recipe for maintaining inspiration
I will continue to blog on this site once or twice a month going forward.

Blog at The Huffington Post
I recently started blogging on this high profile site, which has a political bent if you don't know it. My first post was 'Are our minds going the way of our waists' which explores the neurological impact of social media, which in some ways is similar to what's happening with empty calories. It certainty garnered a lot of comments! I will write here from time to time when I feel I have something to say.

Twittering
This year I dived into Twitter a little and have enjoyed posting new research and interacting with people in this unusual format. I also think there are some dangers with social media. It's good (but hard!) to limit the time spent on them, if you do then social media can be useful. My profile is DavidRock101 on Twitter.

Speaking at Google (and a first foray into YouTube)
I wrote about the overall experience of speaking at Google here, and the talk was filmed and put on Youtube. It was fascinating to see 15,000 people check it out in just two weeks. The power of the web at it's best.

Teaching at Oxford University Said Business School
I have enjoyed facilitating discussions about the neuroscience of leadership to global audiences each year, and this year I got to work with a great group from across the Middle East. Doing mindfulness exercises on the lawn at was one of the highlights.

The 'SCARF' model in strategy+business magazine
The paper 'Managing with the brain in mind' based on the SCARF model was my first 'cover story'. Lots of people have found the model really useful. Am grateful to Art Kleiner at s+b for his ongoing support.

TedXTokyo
In 2009 I started to connect a little with the TED community, and gave a talk at the first TEDx event in Tokyo. The event was opened by the princess of Japan, and run by Patrick Newell, who founded one of the best schools in the world, the Tokyo International School. There will be a video online soon of the sessions.

TedXBlue
In October I helped pull together a TEDx event in partnership with BlueSchool and the Blueman Group. The event was all about 'What's possible in education' and featured Chris Wink talking about 'six creative mindsets', a foundational idea that is central to how kids are taught at Blueschool. There were also great sessions from Dan Siegel on mindfulness, Jaimie Cloud on sustainability, Angela Duckworth on 'Grit' and others. My session focused on a missing subject in schools, creating future leaders, which you can now watch on Youtube.

Growth of Results Coaching Systems
My coaching and consulting firm grew substantially in 2009, with offices opening in Finland and Brazil and operations taking off in India. We also started to work with some exciting new clients, helping leaders across the globe be more effective. Our new purpose was clarified at a leadership retreat, which is now to transform thinking and performance. We've also been hiring regularly and growing as an organization, despite the downturn overall.

Launching the first ever academic degree in NeuroLeadership
the post-graduate certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership launched this year, thanks to the hard work of the team working behind the scenes at the NeuroLeadership Institute (a big thanks to Lee Hull especially!) The first program has been better received than I had expected, and the next intake is March 2010. There's more info on this here.

The 2009 NeuroLeadership Summit
The 4th Summit, this one at UCLA, was a big hit. We did a full debrief of this event with audio summaries and lots of photos, which you can check out at the institute blog.

The 2nd edition of the NeuroLeadership Journal
This was finished and shipped just before Christmas.
At 100 pages, the 2nd edition is bigger and better, with a range of important research and insights. Learn more here.

Just reading all that makes me feel the need for a good rest. Looking forward to a few weeks off to relax with my family.

Happy holidays to all.

Global launch of Your Brain at Work

2009-10-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

8am, Tuesday 13 October.

Perched high above midtown Manhattan overlooking Central Park, 130 guests came to celebrate the launch of Your Brain at Work. Guests included the media, senior executives from around the city, consultants, coaches, and some new and old friends.

We heard from Joe Versace, the host of the event. Then Art Kleiner (right), the editor of strategy+business magazine, introduced me and the book. (strategy+business is where a new paper on the SCARF model has just been published.) It was wonderful to see Brad Choyt, director of the BlueSchool along too (left).

After I presented the story of how the book came about and the book's big ideas, people began to ask some great questions. Like 'what is a great idea?', 'How exactly does it help to understand the brain', and 'Why is positive change so difficult'. Am going to post about a few of these questions on my new blog on Psychologytoday.com. (Speaking of which, my excerpt from the book about the Neuroscience of Mindfulness has been very popular).

It was wonderful to have my family with me, and one guest asked my daughter Trinity to also sign his book, which she was very pleased with indeed.

If you weren't there, you can also download and listen to a recorded telecall from one of the virtual launches last week held worldwide.

You can also join me at one of the new 'Your Brain at Work' workshops coming up in NYC (November 7), Singapore (November 21), Sydney, Australia (December 1) and Mumbai in India (December 15).

There's a complete list of talks I am giving around the world here, including events coming up in San Francisco and NYC.

There's more photos below. My favorite is on the right, which looks like my book is now the third child.

It's out! Your Brain at Work releases today.

2009-10-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Your Brain at Work is out today.
I am really excited and of course a bit nervous to see how it will go.
Really appreciate any support in spreading the word about the book.
Click here to see the book on Amazon.com

I worked harder on this book than any project before, and I am really proud of what it says and how it's come out. People have been saying it's having a profound impact on them, which is the very best thing.

Free telecalls with key insights from the book
There are free telecall events October 6 and 7, at times suitable worldwide.
Register here

Global Launch in NYC - Free book and other goodies.
If you're in NYC, come to my global launch on October 13 in midtown. Email me to get an invitation, davidrock@workplacecoaching.com

Upcoming launch events in NYC and around the world
Teleconference events: October 6 & 7
One day workshop with the Conference Board: October 19
In person workshop in NYC: November 7
NeuroLeadership Summit: October 27-29
Silicon Valley Launch: 12 November
Singapore one day workshop & launch: November 21
Sydney launch: Week of December 1
India launch: Week of December 7

Ambassador program
If you'd like to get a few copies for colleagues, I have an 'Ambassador' program.
Buy 12 copies at a discount and get lots of free goodies including free places at a new workshop about to be released.

Psychology today blog hits 15,000 readers in first 5 weeks
Am really enjoying writing this weekly. Here's my posts so far:
'Why should we care about neuroscience?'
'Why do all self-help books sound the same?'
Back from vacation? Don't waste a precious clear mind
Recipe for a positive burst of inspiration
Trick your brain into loving your workout
Why your brain loves (and hates) Twitter
Why you're so easily distracted, and what to do about it

Sharing links on Twitter
I am now sharing neuroscience, neuroleadership and leadership development resources daily on Twitter.
Connect with me here or go to davidrock101 on Twitter.

2009 NeuroLeadership Summit nearly full
The next summit, this one in Los Angeles at UCLA, is nearly full, with only 25 places left as of October 6. We have an amazing line up of presenters including neuroscientists Daniel Siegel, Marco Iacoboni, Matt Lieberman, Naomi Eisenberger Jonah Lehrer, along with leadership greats Warren Bennis and Werner Erhard.
Click here for full program details.

Job opening at RCS in North America
My coaching organization RCS is growing...in fact we grew 50% in the last 12 months, despite the global economy. We're hiring someone to focus on sales of public programs across the US and Canada. If you have a flair for sales and a little marketing, contact Lisa Rock for info, on lisarock@resultscoaches.com

Where I am presenting in 2009

2009-10-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

This list is accurate as of September 2009.
Corporate client and university events are not listed here.

Talks around the launch of 'Your Brain at Work':

October 6
Virtual launch - worldwide teleconferences, various times October 6 and 7

October 7
SHRM global webinar, for SHRM members - 2pm US ET
Maritz Learning webinar - 4pm US ET
Choice Magazine teleconference event - 8pm US ET

October 8
Coaching Commons Call - 12 noon US ET
ICF global telecall - 2pm US ET

October 13
Official launch in NYC, breakfast in midtown. Email me if you'd like an invitation at davidrock@workplacecoaching.com

October 15
Coaching community event in NYC

October 23
City of New York - keynote for managers

October 27-29
NeuroLeadership Summit, UCLA in Los Angeles

November 5
Organizational Development Network of NYC - The neuroscience of Mindfulness

November 7
Your Brain at Work: Fundamentals. A new one day workshop NYC

November 10
Keynote for leaders at Humana, Louisville

November 12
Breakfast launch of the book in Silicon Valley
Organizational Development Network, San Francisco chapter

November 19
Singapore senior leader breakfast event, contact angietoh@resultscoaches.com for an invitation

November 21
Your Brain at Work: Fundamentals. A new one day workshop in Singapore

December 1
Launch week in Australia
Your Brain at Work: Fundamentals. A new one day workshop in Sydney

December 7
Launch week in India, 3 city tour

Talks prior to June 2009

Conference Board Executive Coaching Summit, NYC in January

Conference Board Talent Management Conference, NYC in February

Conference Board Talent Management Conference, San Diego in March

Linkage Best of Organizational Development, Chicago in May

Happiness and it's Causes, Sydney in May

Tedx, the first TED outside the US, in Tokyo in May

Oxford University Said Business School, London in March and June

SHRM Global Conference, New Orleans in June

August 09 update

2009-08-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Am starting to get excited about the new book, as I prepare for the October launch in NYC. Also am looking forward to sharing the digital version of strategy+business magazine's piece on the SCARF model, which has become very popular in leadership circles. Coming soon. Meanwhile, there's lots of other news...

Ambassador program for Your Brain at Work
Your Brain at Work is out early October. It's having a powerful impact on people who've read it so far, based on the early reviews. I have created an Ambassador Program for people who want to share the book with others. Basically you order 12 books to give to colleagues or friends, and in return I will give you signed copies, a free place at a new workshop based on the book, access to an exclusive web event and more. (The price per book is below retail too.) To place an order, go to the Ambassador Program page.

New blog at Psychology Today
I was delighted to be invited to be a regular blogger on this mainstream website.
I have posted twice so far, and am finding it's a fascinating medium, and a great opportunity to regularly share insights about the brain. I have written so far on 'Why do all self-help books seem to sound the same?' and 'Why should we care about neuroscience?' I will keep blogging on this site, davidrock.net, about my whereabouts, projects, events etc and keep the psychology today site for neuroscience updates. Am also doing a lot of posting on Twitter about neuroscience.

New book by my friend Mark Goulston
Mark used to train hostage negotiators. He's one of the best listeners in the world, and one of the most generous people I've met too. His new book 'Just Listen' is going to do great! Check it out.

NeuroLeadership Graduate Certification officially approved,
The Neuroleadership Institute continues to grow. The 1st Graduate Certificate Program launches end of September, the program has now officially been approved as a Post Graduate Certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership. The next group starts mid March 2010. Click here to watch a short video on the Graduate Certificate, or here for general info on the program. There's also now a full syllabus online.

2009 NeuroLeadership Summit nearly full
The next summit, this one in Los Angeles at UCLA, is nearly full, with only 40 places left on Sept 1. We have an amazing line up of presenters including neuroscientists Daniel Siegel, Marco Iacoboni, Matt Lieberman, Naomi Eisenberger Jonah Lehrer, along with leaders greats Warren Bennis and someone no one has heard from in a long time, Werner Erhard.
Click here for full program details.

New textbook - Coaching with the Brain in Mind
I do indeed accidentally have two books coming out in the one year...My new texbook, co-written with Linda Page, has just started shipping. This book is for people studying HR, leadership, coaching or change, who want to understand the science behind how people grow and learn, specifically based on neuroscience. The book summarizes the important insights from systems theory, learning theory, psychotherapy, positive psychology, change theory and more. Neuroscience is the element that then bridges these together. This was a looong project and am pleased it's finally out! Watch a brief video below or buy it online now.

Recent online interviews
I did a series of audio recordings recently at SHRM, professionally podcast by Peter Clayton, on the NeuroLeadership field overall. Listen here.

Upcoming launch events for Your Brain at Work
Teleconference events: October 6 & 7
One day workshop with the Conference Board: October 19
In person workshop in NYC: November 7
NeuroLeadership Summit: October 27-29
Singapore one day workshop & launch: November 21
Sydney launch: Week of December 1
India launch: Week of December 7

Sharing links on Twitter
I am sharing neuroscience and neuroleadership links daily on Twitter now.
Connect with me here or go to davidrock101 on Twitter.

Job opening at RCS in North America
My coaching organization RCS is growing...in fact we grew 50% in the last 12 months, despite the global economy. We're hiring someone to focus on sales of public programs across the US and Canada. If you have a flair for sales and a little marketing, contact Kay Zurn for info, on kayzurn@resultscoaches.com

Ambassador program for Your Brain at Work

2009-08-12T04:08:00.000-07:00

Am very excited about my new book 'Your Brain at Work' - which is a strange thing to say, because normally I am very unexcited by this point with previous books. But there's something about this one...click here to watch a short video.

I have recently created an 'Ambassador Program' for people who want to share the book. It's simple. Pre-order box of books now, and I will give you two free tickets to a new workshop based on the book, redeemable anytime in the next 2 years after the launch. These events are happening worldwide. You'll also get the books well below retail price, and have signed copies. This offer is available worldwide.

There's other goodies for being an Ambassador too, including access to an exclusive teleconference event, and signed copies of the book.

To learn more about becoming an Ambassador click here.

Update for June 2009

2009-06-23T10:23:00.000-07:00

NEUROLEADERSHIP NEWS
The early bird for the Summit in LA in October closes June 30. Click here for a complete program. There is an amazing line up of speakers and topics, with salons recently added, including Neuroscience & Spirituality. We have Warren Bennis, Daniel Siegel, Werner Erhard and other fascinating minds together for two days. Learn more.

Also, there's a whole new website now up for the NeuroLeadership field,
check it out.

The first NeuroLeadership formal Graduate Certificate is going ahead as planned, we're planning to start the first program in September this year.

If you are thinking of writing a paper to put into the NeuroLeadership Journal, you have till end of July to submit. Find out more here.

BLUESCHOOL UPDATE
The first BlueSchool gala was amazing! We raised over $500,000 at a time when no one was raising any money, to help the school achieve it's mission. Already some very interesting projects are in the works that will involve the school being a 'vision of what's possible' in education. It's exciting to be involved in creating a new school from the ground up. Learn more about the school here.

There are three job opening at the school: we are looking for a Development Director (fund raising), as well as a business manager, and a part time teacher of two year olds with Music experience. Contact humanresources@blueman.com for more info on either role.

The video by BlueSchool board member Sir Ken Robinson is one of the most popular at the TED conference website, check it out, it's quite amazing. It's called 'how schools kill creativity'.

NEW BOOKS
Your Brain at Work and my text book with Linda Page Coaching with the Brain in Mind are now available for pre-order. Am working on some open public events in NYC to launch Your Brain at Work in October. Am very excited about the feedback about this book, see what Warren Bennis had to say about it...

RCS NEWS
I just had a wonderful weekend in Prague with people running RCS regions around the world. I was reminded of how important it is to regularly step out of everyday thinking and leave space for 'higher level' thoughts. It's much easier to do when you are in a new place, without work filling your mind. Subtle thoughts require a quiet mind. RCS continues to run Brain-Based Coach Certification programs worldwide, now in 15 countries, and deliver wide scale programs for large organizations. We recently opened in Finland and shortly in Brazil. RCS has a whole new website in the last few months too.

PERSONAL UPDATE
Have recently given talks in Tokyo (at the first TED in Tokyo), Singapore, Oxford University, in Prague with a senior Czech economist and the leadership team of a large bank, and at several large corporations across the US. It's wonderful being able to share insights about the brain and help people learn about themselves. I get very energized seeing people uncover important and unexpected findings, and am seeing the SCARF model have a big impact. Am working on a paper on this to come out in strategy+business magazine soon.

My favourite topic is teaching the neuroscience of mindfulness, both with theory and exercises. We did this in Oxford with people out on the lawn one afternoon.

Also we recently started a 'family blog' (actually Lisa Rock did all the work) for people who want to know where we are, what the kids are up to etc. Be warned, it's all a bit too cute!

Finally, I have decide to regularly use my Twitter account now to stay more in touch with people, you can find me at davidrock101 on twitter. I will post each week on research, events, ideas of interest.

That's plenty for now!

My new book - Your Brain at Work now available for Pre-Order

2009-05-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

My new book is now up on Barnes and Noble and Amazon for pre-order.

It's called Your Brain at Work.

It's the story of two people over one day at the office, and what's happening in their brains that makes work so hard. It's based on interviews with 30 neuroscientists that I did around the world over four years. The fun part is it's written as a story, and it shows you not just why things go wrong, but how to be more effective by understanding your brain.

There is now a short video about the book and more information on a dedicated website.
You can pre-order the book on Amazon or via any bookstore. It will be out this October.

April 09 update

2009-04-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Lots of people have been asking me about ways to further their learning about the brain, beyond just reading some books. There are a couple of options emerging now for this, a Graduate Certificate, and a short program.

Graduate Certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership
The rumors are true: A Graduate Certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership is launching this year. This program will be academically certified by a UK university (credits accepted worldwide). Download a program overview here. We are also looking for people to give feedback about their interest in this program, click here to fill in a quick form.

Theoretical Foundations of Coaching – starts May 12
If you'd like to study the theory behind coaching, especially focused on the links to the brain, but can't take a year to do this, another option is this Theoretical Foundations program. This is a short but intense training program for change agents and coaches who want to dive deeper into the brain basis of change. It's a 12 week, distance learning program for people in the US and other regions. It only runs once a year or so for any one country. Click for info.

An amazing new vision for education
I am just back from the BlueSchool Gala, which was one of the most inspiring and wonderous nights. We raised over $500,000 at a sold-out event with 400 people in Manhattan. Watch a brief video I did about the school, there is also a fantastic video from TIME magazine, with interviews with the founders.

NeuroLeadership Summit Update
The theme this year is 'Toward Integration', and us such this year we are including some leadership experts in the dialogue. Warren Bennis will be sharing his views on change, as will one of the greats of transformation, Werner Erhard. People from a dozen countries are already booked to attend. If you want to be there, it will be good to book early, numbers are limited to 200. Also if you’re planning to get along, I encourage you to purchase audio from earlier summits, to learn from previous year’s sessions. Each year builds on and adds to previous knowledge. There is more background about this year's event on the summit blog site.

New books on the brain
Jonah Lehrer has a new book, ‘How we decide’, which I think is great, and is doing very well. Jonah is another person who is translating neuroscience findings to make it accessible to more people. He participated briefly in the NeuroLeadership Summit last year in NYC, this year he will be featured in LA. I did a fun interview with him which you might enjoy, it’s free to download.

Personal highlights of the last three months
Fitting in some snowboarding recently was a real treat…it took a lot of work to make it happen but reminded me of the importance of switching off at times to let the brain recover. Being 10,000 ft up is great for thinking big thoughts, especially in a country where you can't speak a word of the language - seems to quiet the brain, allowing for new thoughts.

Teaching at Oxford University was fascinating. I had people from around 16 different countries for a day, diving into the brain and leadership. Definitely a highlight was getting to meet Jon Stewart in the flesh at the BlueSchool Gala.

I often get asked if I am ever home with my family. The answer is 'not much'. But the other part of the answer is that I bring my family along with me a lot. The kids actually love to travel and explore new cultures. When I am home, I get to appreciate the beauty of Sydney, and the ocean where I live. And the beauty of my two daughters - here is India, my younger daughter, now two, enjoying some chocolate at Easter.

Where I am speaking coming up
May - Best of OD Summit, Chicago
May - Happiness and it’s causes conference, Sydney
May - The first TED conference in Tokyo
June - Public event in Singapore
June - Oxford University, Said Business School
June - Public events in Prague
July - SHRM international conference, New Orleans

Also...
August - India
September - New Zealand
September - Italy
October and November - Many events launching my new book 'Your brain at work'

A big start to the year

2009-01-29T10:55:00.001-08:00

One thing I have learned about brains is how easily they focus on 'potential threats', and how debilitating this is. An increase in any type of uncertainty can do this. In light of this discovery, and despite knowing full well what is happening in the world, I am focusing on staying in a 'toward' state of mind, finding new connections, making new friends, finding ways of making a difference. I trust that many of you reading this are doing the same.

Here are some of the fun things I am involved in lately. I hope there are things in here that help you make new connections too.

2009 NeuroLeadership Summit open for registrations
In 2009 there will be one global summit, in Los Angeles at UCLA, where many great scientists are based. Please note that numbers are limited to 150, (the number in NYC last year.) We are expecting higher demand so book early if you are keen. Keynotes include Daniel Siegel, author of The Developing Mind, Matt Lieberman, one of the founders of Social Neuroscience, Marco Iacoboni, and other thought leaders in neuroscience. Click here for info or to register.

First Edition of the NeuroLeadership Journal out now
The first edition of the journal is now out, I am really excited by what it represents and the ideas presented. There are papers on insight, mindfulness, emotional regulation, testing the brain, collaboration and more. You can order a copy by becoming a member of the Institute. I have created PDF's of the introductory paper, and my paper on the SCARF model. Email info@neuroleadership.org if you'd like these sent to you.

BlueSchool in the media and Gala Fund Raiser with Jon Stewart in NYC
The innovative new school that I am on the board of, The BlueSchool, was recently featured in Time Magazine, on the BBC and on NPR.
On April 2nd, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart is hosting BlueSchool's Annual Gala in NYC. Tickets are on sale now and will sell out fast, at $1000 or $2,500 for special seats. Email Beth at bmcc_rep@blueman.com for info or to book. The school is also hiring a new first grade teacher, email bradc@blueman.com for more info.

Results Coaching Systems Update - brand new website
My 'day job', running Results Coaching Systems, has expanded with RCS opening in Brazil this year, taking us to 13 different global regions. We're also proud to launch a totally new website. We were recently selected as the sole partner for Ericsson worldwide for internal coaching programs, and are now working with the US Federal Reserve.

One day 'Building a Coaching Culture' event in NYC - March 3rd.
I am running a special one day event on March 3 in NYC, similar to the ones in Dallas, Boston and Las Vegas last year, for HR and OD professionals who want to understand how to build a wider coaching culture. This covers the brain-based approach, external coaching, internal coaching and leader as coach, with lots of research and case studies on each. The short video here describes what the event is about.

Dramatically cut costs of coaching, while increasing the impact you make
I recently presented a session at the Conference Board in NYC, at the Executive Coaching Summit. I showed how bringing coaching in house, by developing internal competencies in organizations, can cut costs to 10% of external coaching, while significantly increasing the impact from coaching initiatives. I am running a webinar on this topic at 3pm US ET on March 2nd. Click here for more and to register.

Free audio at my podcast site
There are lots of free audios at results.podbean.com There are several neat interviews, a discusion about neuroscience and global leaders, and other cool stuff here. This site was recently voted one of the top 5 business podcasts in 2008.

Update on new books
I have two books coming out this year, both of which are a little overdue. 'Coaching with the brain in mind' (see pic on the left) will be out in July. This is a textbook published by Wiley, for people studying coaching. I have worked on this for 4 years, and finally finished it with a lot of help from Dr. Linda Page. My other book, published by Harper Collins, comes out in October. It's called 'The Brain at Work' and it follows two people as they struggle for a day at office, showing the reader what's going on in their brain and how they could be more effective as a result. It's been my most challenging and exciting project ever.

That's plenty for now!
Enjoy the new connections.

North American NeuroLeadership Summit Debrief

2008-11-03T09:18:00.000-08:00

What happens when you get 150 change agents from 20 countries around the globe, together with the world's leading neuroscientists, to talk about the biology of decision making, managing emotions, collaborating with others and facilitating change? A tremendous number of new connections, between people, ideas and research, and new insights for developing leaders. As one participant said: 'This conference was truly historic'. (Okay, so we made up the picture on the right...)

While the first Summit was held on top of a mountain in northern Italy, this was in heart of Times Square amidst the bustle and chaos. The theme for this Summit was ‘making new connections’.

These connections were helped along by wonderful facilitation from Art Kleiner, editor of strategy+business magazine. Participants came from China, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Turkey, Romania, Slovakia, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, UK, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Canada, US, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Australia. About a third were from inside large organizations, a third were independent consultants or coaches and a third were educators. What they had in common was a desire to bring the science of the brain into the way they created positive change in the world.

A common quote from participants was 'I never normally go to conferences, and if I do, I don't go into sessions. Here I can't bear to miss a single talk.' This was a Summit for people doing challenging, complex change work, who wanted new tools, not the same old ideas, and wanted to learn from their peers.

Below are some of the highlights of the event. If you want to dive into this work and make your own connections, you can get the entire Summit on audio, with both slides and a recording of every session.

As well, you might want to join the NeuroLeadership Institute, or order the first edition of the NeuroLeadership Journal, on it’s way for release in the next few weeks. You can also order a DVD set of the entire 2007 first summit in Asolo, Italy.

There's some great podcasts up now, with interviews with several speakers, to hear more about the field at high-level.

Preconference – ‘Neuroscience 101’
Lila Devaci did a great job of outlining the brain overall for novices, providing a platform of knowledge for going into the summit. There was extra interest in the brain circuits for memory and emotional regulation.

Opening session – ‘How attention changes the brain’
Neuropsychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz and physicist Henry Stapp presented a 'double-act' rich with insight about the underlying physics of how attention changes the brain. The session was held in the magnificent Hudson Theatre and provided some deep insights about the processes involved in change in the brain.

‘Why thinking has limits’
Amy Arnsten, one of the leading neuroscientists working on the prefrontal cortex, presented her research that explains why mental processes are so tiring, and how to maximize mental performance. A key theme was the importance of a sense of control for the brain.

‘The neuroscience of decision making’
Facilitated by Katharine McLennan, with Bob Eckert and Amy Arnsten, this panel discussion explored in depth some of the issues around decision-making.

‘The anatomy of an aha’
We were fortunate to have Jonah Lehrer (left), author and science writer, facilitate this rich session exploring the neuroscience of insight. Panel included Mark Jung-Beeman (right), the leading figure in the study of insight in the brain, Chris Wink, one of the founders of the Blueman group, taking about the creative process itself, and myself David Rock talking about organizational applications of insight. A great quote from Chris (that's him with the red nose): ‘I can’t even imagine having writers block now, it’s such a strange concept to me’.
The big idea: while insight is still mysterious, we are learning plenty now from the brain about how to 'stack the deck' to significantly increase the likelihood of it occurring.

‘Know thyself – the latest science of mindfulness’
Yiyuan Tang, a leading global researcher based in China and the US, presented a range of insights and science explaining mindfulness. His recent study showed the difference between 5 days of mindfulness training for 20 minutes a day, versus 5 days of relaxation training (in summary: a big difference!) Yiyuan is an inspirational, deep thinker who had a big impact on the group. You can see two people reflecting as they listen to his session here. There is more on Yiyuan’s work in the forthcoming NeuroLeadership Journal.

‘The limits of memory’

Lila Devaci delivered a powerful session on how memories are created, and how we can do better at encoding memories by understanding the brain. She had a wonderful ability to synthesize and simplify complex science to make it easy to digest (and remember!)

‘Mindfulness panel discussion’
We had an eclectic mix of people discussing mindfulness in more depth, including Yiyuan Tang, Anna Tavis from AIG and two consultants, Millie Greenough who was running the morning attention-training sessions, and Suzanne Kryder, working with senior leaders on mindfulness.

Connecting sessions
Each day had an hour for meeting other participants during the day. This allowed time for the brain to rest and digest, and to discuss ideas with scientists and other participants. Given the caliber of participants there, this proved to be a much appreciated window each day.

‘Stay cool under pressure’
Kevin Ochsner, one of the two founding father of the social neuroscience field, presented a dynamic session illustrating the neuroscience of regulating our emotions. He explored topics such as how suppression is a terrible strategy for our emotions, and the impact of reappraisal on the brain.

‘The brain is a social animal’
Matthew Lieberman, the other founding father of social neuroscience, delivered a powerful session illustrating the neuroscience behind the pains and pleasures of social life. He presented many fascinating findings around the theme of how social pains and pleasures use the same general systems as physical pains and pleasures. (My favorite study: Tylenol was reducing social pain more than a placebo in people.) There is more on this in a paper Matt published in the forthcoming NeuroLeadership Journal.

‘Panel on the neuroscience of leadership’
This was a rich discussion with John Case, ex CEO of a division of Electrolux, along with consultant Cathy Greenberg, with Diane Coutu, a senior editor with the Harvard Business Review, and Kevin Ochsner weighing in. John Case's FAT system was a highlight. The other highlight was Diane presenting the counter-argument that business isn’t ready for neuroscience yet, which was then discussed in the group.

‘Panel on education and the brain’
We heard from Al Ringleb, director and founder of CIMBA, an international business school teaching MBA students about the brain. Also Renee Rolleri, co-founder of the BlueSchool in NYC, who are integrating brain research (and soon teaching about the brain) into the way they are designing curriculum for k-12. Matthew Lieberman also participated, and the session was facilitated by an Australian educational consultant, Andrew Mowat.

‘A quantum theory of trust’
Karen Stephenson, one of the leading lights in social networking theory, presented a powerful session on the nature of trust and it’s role in networks. The group loved her straight-to-the-point approach and her humor, but above all her crisp insights about what really drives organizations: trust networks.

‘The neuroscience of cultural change’
This session featured Karen Stephenson discussing the ideas of changing systems in more detail, with input from Brent Oberholtzer(right), an executive from the Treasury in the US, Janet Crawford, a consultant, and Eugene Baker (left), who is collaborating with scientists to build brain based assessment techniques. This holds the promise of evidence-based assessments for leadership interventions based on changes in brain functioning, an important development in the field.
Facilitated by Cheryl Doggett, an executive from Bank of America, the session was a rich discussion about how we can use what has been discussed at the Summit to drive change in complex systems.

‘Coaching with the brain in mind’

This session featured cases from NASA, presented by their head of leadership development Chris Williams (right), and American Express by their head of coaching Scott Wigley (also right). I presented more of the theoretical framework for brain-based coaching, and Linda Page (left), who facilitated the session, presented some of the deeper foundations of brain based coaching.

‘Drive change’
This was the closing keynote for the Summit, where the ideas from all the sessions were linked together. Of special interest to people was the definition of the field into four areas of interest (see left). Also the SCARF model which summarizes much of the science emerging about collaborating with and influencing others. See the Journal for more on both of these.

What to do next if you want to make more connections to these ideas?

Become a member of the NeuroLeadership Institute, and attend members-only events in Sydney and NYC coming up.

Order the Summit audio, including speaker slides, or DVD's from the first summit.

Order the first NeuroLeadership Journal

Join a general mailing list, be first to learn about 2009 Summit(s)

2008 media and articles

2008-11-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

2008 was a year of significantly increasing media interest in the neuroscience of leadership and my work generally, with feature stories including:

Cover story at SHRM magazine 'The brain at work'

The Sydney Morning Herald feature story 'How to mend a blocked brain'

BOSS Magazine feature on neuroleadership

Interview in the Australian Human Resources Institute magazine

2007 media
'All in the mind' at The Guardian Newspaper (UK)
SHRM 'Smoothing change management, it's all in the mind'
strategy + business magazine 'Why neuroscience matters to executives'
Vision.org 'Neuroscience enlightens leadership'

October 2008 Update

2008-10-05T02:55:00.000-07:00

Well it's been quite a few months.

The Sydney NeuroLeadership Summit was a big success. We had around 130 attendees in total, from across industry and academia. The program achieved it's intent of helping to build awareness of the field and educating those interested in these ideas. You can see a general overview of the event here, or a detailed report on the sessions here.

Also I recently did a 30 minute recorded summary of the event which can be listened to for free. I am delighted to know that the insights that were developed in Sydney can be shared more widely through audio recordings. These are available for order now, along with the DVD's from the first summit in 2007.

The NYC Summit is shaping up as a bigger event, with an amazing line up of presenters. Am very looking forward to connecting with old friends and making new ones as we explore together how to improve the quality of leadership in the world, through applying recent findings from neuroscience.

Straight after the Summit I went to the UK, where I experienced several highlights of my career to date. One was working for a day with the deans of the medical schools for the NHS, somewhere in the beautiful Cotswalds. More inspiring and surprising than the beautiful surrounds was learning that such senior leaders had been given so little development on the leadership front, outside of medical training. For most in their 50's and 60's, this was the first time they had been given development opportunities on the leadership side. To me this points to the urgency of developing a framework that is more accepted by scientific, engineering, medical, and generally analytically-focused people (read 'most executives'). It was humbling yet also very fulfilling to work with such smart people, and see an impact from explaining the functioning of the brain: especially relevant and of interest to this group were the social networks of the brain.

The second highlight for me was delivering a workshop at Oxford University, at the Said Business School for graduates of their masters in change management ('Consulting and Coaching for Change'). It was inspiring to see the impact of this new science on change consultants who knew the change literature and were involved in significant change projects. It seems the neuroscience helps fill an important gap.

The final highlight of my recent trip was a week in Asolo, Italy. Again despite the incredible beauty of the place (the Venetian nobility chose this as their summer playground centuries back), it was the people who moved me much more than the environment. I had the opportunity to spend time teaching MBA's and undergrads more about the brain. In my third year of doing this, it's so clear now how much students benefit from knowing about brain functioning, making them more able to deal with the stresses of learning, but also more effective at influencing others and driving change. One of the big benefits is that students learn to manage their own mental state far better, as well as better understand that of others.

Am now getting ready for a month or so in the US, to work on the NYC NeuroLeadership Summit, launch the new Journal and connect with some US clients. I hope to connect with readers of my blog at the NYC Summit.

Making New Connections in Sydney

2008-09-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

The theme for the Asia Pacific NeuroLeadership summit was ‘Making new connections’ and we certainly achieved that and a lot more.

Here’s how we know the event was a success:

•Attendance at the preconference on Neuroscience 101, over 80 people, which was very well received
• The number of senior business leaders who actually attended most sessions (a rarity nowadays)

• The very high number of books bought per person at the store – we had arranged just the right set of books selected for the 5 tracks emerging within this discipline
• Over one third of attendees registered for membership of the Institute, giving them an opportunity to stay connected
• Sales of DVD’s from the first summit, released in Sydney

• Strong participation in the self-organizing ‘connection sessions’.
• The fabulous comments from participants about the world class speakers

The new design of the event, based on feedback from the first summit, was more inclusive, and allowed for significant time for participants to digest the ideas, connect with each other and talk with the experts.

The format modeled how the brain likes to learn (intense bursts, then rest, with processes for integration such as informal and small group discussion time.)
And finally there was the great location (yes, the view in the picture was the view from the deck where we had every break) and the perfect weather, the first good weather of spring.

If you couldn’t make it to the Sydney Summit, you can order a digital summary of the event. This includes audio recordings of most sessions, as well as many of the slides and other resources. (This will be sent on a flash disk.) There is also a full audio summary of this event, and other audio resources here.

Highlights of the Asia-Pacific Summit 2008

2008-09-24T00:06:00.000-07:00

Preconference: Matthew Lieberman: Neuroscience 101

Matthew was brilliant for many of the neuroscience novices (and advanced students) in the audience in a pre-conference 3- hour “This is Your Brain” seminar. He took us through the essentials of what we needed to know around the brain’s structural dimensions, physiology, measurement techniques and how they work, circuits, pathways, divisions, types of memory, and an introduction to his field of social neuroscience. He was incredibly engaging for the people in the audience who could have stayed three more hours at least.

Jeffrey Schwartz - First Dinner Speaker– ‘Attention changes the brain’

‘We don’t have free will, but we do have free WONT.’ Jeff explains the mechanisms involved in self-directed neuroplasticity, the key driver of change in the brain. Below he is explaining “veto power,” the time it takes for our mind to determine how we are going to respond to the consciously registered desire to move – which is about 0.3 of seconds. He is reminding us of how much choice we truly do have.

We also enjoyed Art Kleiner’s great facilitation and weaving together of the ideas. That’s him presenting a gift to Jeffrey Schwartz after his session at the opening dinner.

Craig Hassad – ‘Know thyself’

Craig presented the neuroscience of mindfulness. He talked about the dramatic impact of mindfulness practice on stress and well being, and the impact on teaching mindfulness at a medical school, which he does for all Monash University’s medical school students, focusing on techniques for dealing with the extreme depression and stress that almost all of these students experience, particularly in their residency. Craig took us through the stress performance curve, turning it on its head, as well as the physiological stress response. He taught us about mindfulness, where you are just taught to allow your thoughts to be what they are, and contrasted this to cognitive behaviour training, where you are taught to reason about thoughts. He showed us how mindfulness leads to decreased stress, depression, a better focus, less self preoccupation, making better decision, generating empathy and protecting and enhancing our health by increasing our immunity and slowing cell loss. Most importantly, he got us all to experience a dose of mindful training in Craig’s very humble manner.

Matthew Lieberman and David Rock – ‘Cool under pressure’

This session involved presentations by both David Rock and Matthew Lieberman. Through a selection of video clips that David has made from all of his interviews, we heard from a founding father of emotional regulation, James Gross, a founding mother of working memory research Amy Arnsten, and a founding father of social neuroscience, Kevin Ochsner, all by pre-recorded video. Both Amy and Kevin will be presenting live in NYC.

Some of the big insights from this session included:

Mindful awareness being the opposite of our tendency towards autopilot – training our mind to switch between the narrative type of thinking we do and the directive type of thinking we do
Labeling emotions to decrease their power, however people predict the opposite
Why CEO’s freeze in their decision making when they are overloaded and facing uncertainty as well as the pressure to succeed
Reappraisal as an essential and learned skill at the heart of our ability to focus attention in the right ways. Most of us, however, tend to either express emotion or even more, we suppress emotion, which will cause memory loss and will also cause others to be uncomfortable around you despite the fact that you are not even outwardly showing the emotion.

Matthew Lieberman – ‘Getting on with others’

Matthew’s speech over our second dinner was, as he would continue to show us, incredibly entertaining and provocative. He covered how social pain really is very similar to physical pain. He then covered areas that included how reward works for us, and the work that he and his wife have collaborated on about what happens in our mind when we feel left out. He spoke to us about moral reasoning and the power of message propagation. Mostly, he impressed us with how adept he was in “speaking English” to non-neuroscientists – making it pragmatic and instantly applicable to the business world.

Evian Gordon

Evian took us through the unconscious processes in decision making, starting first with the description of the work he has been doing for the last 20 years, collecting research from all layers of the neuroscience community in order to integrate knowledge across molecular research, genetic research, neuron, physiology, morphology, functional neuroscience, social neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, neurotransmitter research, etc. He spoke about the significant shift we are seeing from getting caught up with spatial regions and specialized networks to the new work that is more akin to understanding the brain temporally through understanding how it adapts and affects the whole of the body by examining timing, interactions, and dynamics. The model he took us of decision making centred around linking the non-conscious processes with the conscious processes in order to self regulate. Look forward to seeing Evian present again in New York. The work he has done around integration is absolutely fantastic.

Norman Doidge

Norman took us through the basic tenets of his beautifully written book The Brain that Changes Itself, regaling us of the amazing sights he had seen in the patients he worked with, blind people who taught their brains to see again, deaf people who rewired their brains to allow hearing, etc. He elegantly took us through the proof that the brain is actually not a stagnant machine (“neurological nihilism”), which started with Socrates “I can train the organ of thought” right up to the research coming out of fMRI. We enjoyed his analogy of different networks in our brain being in constant competition for real estate, and he talked about how much there is to learn that we will be able to apply to learning disorders.

Educational panel

Leadership panel

In the Leadership Panel, Katharine McLennan facilitated the speakers of Evian Gordon (introduced above), Professor Bob Wood from the Accelerated Learning laboratory at University of New South Wales and Craig Hassed (introduced above). The panel talked quite a bit about what the definition of leadership was at first (with a great definition put forth as “the need to ascribe control to human events retrospectively”) and how important self-directed neuroplasticity (otherwise known as self-learning) was in leadership development. The notion of “presence” in leadership was covered as we began to talk about what is behind “charisma” and wondered if it could be explained neuroscientifically. We also talked about some of the trends in leadership development that begin to encroach upon “neuroleadership” – i.e. McKinsey’s “high performance mind training”—a fancy to say meditation for leadership. Bob also took us through his work in the working memory and the long term memory, likening them to a gate (very small) and a large paddock, respectively. One of the most important aspects of leadership and mind training was the ability to discern: the ability to determine what was important and what was not through mindfulness.

Cool under pressure panel

This panel, facilitated by Anne Riches, included several practitioners, and pain scientist Lorimer Mosely from Oxford University.

Culture panel

Hamish McMaster facilitated the panel on the brain/mind and culture, which was sponsored by Booz & Co and had Victoria Sherwood, Art Kleiner, Dani Fraillon from Mettle, Matt Lieberman, Sophie Crawford-Jones from PwC and Matt Ayres from AMP on it. The focus of this panel was about what it takes for collectives to effect behavioural change and there was much facilitated dialogue among the participants about interventions that result in long-term sustainable cultural change. Matt Lieberman’s learnings from social neuroscience certainly began to be applied here, especially around reward, inclusion, and status. It was fascinating also to hear from Matt Ayres about what AMP was doing to change culture around innovation and leadership and Sophie Crawford-Jones on how PwC was beginning to explore neuroleadership.

Coaching panel
Led by coaching researcher Linda Page from Canada, the panel included Lea Williams, who has a paper in the upcoming NeuroLeadership Journal, featuring a specific case study. Also Ruth Donde, Regional Manager for New Zealand for Results Coaching, talking about teaching leaders a brain based approach to coaching.

Nestor Braidot
Nestor presented the work he is doing to integrate neurosciences with business consulting across Argentina and Spain. He spoke to us about motivation and how it can be understood by understanding the brain through our expectation of reward, our mental fatigue, our perception of injustice, our frustration with reward omission, our status and our general tendency towards fear.

Carlos Raimundo
Carlos ran a session in his play of life' technology, which directly alters the limbic system response to situations, bypassing normal dialogue based frameworks. Interesting experiential application of the science.

More Resources:

With Thanks To:

Katharine McLennan
Keynote speakers
Panelists and facilitators
The sponsors
Summit team

September 08 Update

2008-08-31T22:49:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

The big news right now is a fantastic article in the New Yorker Magazine, that summarizes the science emerging within one of my favourite areas of study, insight. Written by Jonah Lehrer, with interviews with Mark Jung-Beeman, the article is a must-read for anyone interested in the brain and leadership, innovation, coaching and change. To me insight is at the heart of change, and real change has an insight at the core. Download the article here.

I also recently interviewed Jonah about his current book, and he is speaking in NYC at the NeuroLeadership Summit. He will be running a session with Mark Jung-Beeman, along with one of the founders of the Blueman Group, all about the science of insight. You can listen to the 30 minute interview here.

One of the most fun parts of what I do is getting to spend time with some incredibly smart people, and Jonah is one of these for sure. Jonah also runs the best blog in the world for people interested in the latest neuroscience research. It's called the Frontal Cortex, and it's well worth diving into.

There was a great article in the Sydney Morning Herald recently about the NeuroLeadership field, a full page story with photos.

I am about to dive into the first of the two Neuroleadership summits. The programs are all finalized, you can dowload them on the neuroleadership site. Am also excited to be editing the first neuroleadership journal, which will come out around the NYC Summit at the end of October. We have over a dozen papers rich in insights and ideas coming together. I am publishing a paper on Influencing Others, with a summary of some of the key social neuroscience research.

Between the two summits I will be visiting Oxford University to give a talk, and spending time at CIMBA in Asolo, Italy, where I am on faculty. I look forward to working with a new group of MBA students, introducing them to the key findings from neuroscience as they start their year long MBA. It's exciting to be part of the team at CIMBA building a brain-based MBA for future leaders.

On the commercial side, I am pleased to see my consulting firm Results Coaching Systems growing steadily, with operations now in Eastern Europe, and about to open in Latin America. We are thrilled to be working with some great organizations in over 10 countries now, helping to build coaching cultures using a brain-based approach to coaching. The project we ran with EDS, developing coaching skills in over 3,000 leaders, is continuing to deepen. If anyone is interested in a case study on this I will email it out on request.

One thing I know for sure is that knowing about the brain is proving to be tremendously useful for staying cool under pressure amongst the chaos that is life. The more I am learning, the easier it is to catch debilitating patterns before they take hold. As a paper I read this week said, (by Craig Hassed who is teaching mindfulness to medical students), there are lots of trains of thought your mind travels along. I believe that knowing about your brain gives you more ability to choose which train to get onto, and more importantly, which to stay off.

That's about it for now. Please feel free to email me, davidrock@workplacecoaching.com, with any feedback about what you find useful or meaningful in this blog.

End of June Updates

2008-06-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Am just back from two weeks of travel in the US. Was great to connect with two new scientists and create some more video footage to share with others. In San Francisco I met with the 'father' of emotional regulation research, Dr James Gross, who studies how we stay cool under pressure. I also met with the two people doing the most interesting work on insights, both in Chicago, Dr Mark Jung-Beeman, and Dr Stellan Ohlsson. Mark and I are thinking about a study we can collaborate on, which would seek to identify the 'active ingredients' in how insights can be facilitated: is it stopping thinking, vs widening thinking, or something else? I also spent half a day with Kirk Brown, who is one of the central researchers studying mindfulness, and invented the main scale used by mindfulness researchers now, the Mindful Awareness Attention Scale.

I also had the opportunity to interview Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust was neuroscientist and talk about his new book on making decisions and neuroscience generally. It's a great thirty minute discussion, download it here.

I am doing a bit more speaking coming up in Australia while the northern hemisphere is on summer holidays. On July 9 I will be in Sydney at the American Club. On July 28 I am giving a breakfast session for the Australian Institute of Management at the Four Seasons in the city, and that night for the Change Management Institute on why change is hard, followed by a talk in Brisbane on July 31.

On September 5 I am giving a keynote at the New Zealand Human Resources Institute annual conference. Later in September I have been invited to give a talk at Oxford University, as part of the Masters in Change program run at the business school, in partnership with HEC in Paris. Will be spending a week in Oxford connecting with some fascinating people, and doing a deep workshop to kick off a one year leadership program for heads of a large UK government department.

I am excited to have been accepted to do my professional doctorate, through Middlesex University in the UK. The doctorate will be on the neuroscience of leadership, and it will be a great opportunity to flesh out the ideas on how to shape up this emerging field.

Update on the NeuroLeadership Summits
Bookings for both the NYC and Sydney Summits are going well, we're expecting strong events in both cities. I recently did a brief video interview that gives a bit more background to these Summits, (for a webinar I did for the Conference Board in June. ) Click below to watch.

If you're still thinking about coming along and are not sure, here's the 'cliffnotes' on why you might want to attend: The NeuroLeadership Summits will -
• Give you cutting edge research into human performance, including looking at future trends
• Help you understand and manage your own brain better
• Explore how to use neuroscience inside leadership and learning programs
• Illustrate how to to improve leadership and learning programs

You will have access to the leading neuroscientists of our times, as well as networking with practitioners who are integrating neuroscience in many different ways.

The summits each have five main areas of focus, which are topics that both Neuroscience and Leadership development have in common:
1. How we know ourselves
2. How we make decisions and solve problems
3. How we stay cool under pressure
4. How we get on with others
5. How we drive change

Each topic has at least one keynote diving into the research side, and several breakout sessions to explore the application of the ideas.

There's a brief interview here with a participant from the first summit, talking about what he got out of the event, click here to download.

To register of for more information see www.neuroleadership.org

Update for March and April 08

2008-04-30T10:45:00.000-07:00

Highlights in this update include news on the NeuroLeadership Summits, update on my book Quiet Leadership, recent research and resources about the brain, and more about building coaching cultures including a short video clip. Enjoy the new connections.

NeuroLeadership Summits 2008

The NeuroLeadership Summits are a rare opportunity for senior executives, learning and change professionals to take the impact they have to a new level.

These events will help people:
• Improve the effectiveness of any change or learning initiative
• Understand how to engage leaders in learning about themselves, thus becoming better at the 'people side of things', by utilizing neuroscience research
• Develop a better understanding of human functioning to improve your own performance
• Be at the very cutting edge of research in human performance, learning directly from the leading scientists of our times

The basic plan for the Sydney and NYC Summits are now complete. We have gathered an amazing group of leading scientists, along with top leadership practioners. The Summits will cover five main areas of focus in common to both Neuroscience and Leadership development:
1. How we know ourselves
2. How we make decisions and solve problems
3. How we stay cool under pressure
4. How we get on with others
5. How we drive change

Some of the specific topics we are planning to cover include:

Neuroleadership as a discipline
Educating people about the brain
The neuroscience of mindfulness and self-awareness
The anatomy of innovation
Creating 101 change with the brain in mind
The brain-basis of leadership competencies
The neuroscience of corporate culture

You can view a bigger description of the program here.
There is also now an audio interview with me about the program and the objectives of the summit, listen to it here.

Quiet Leadership update
I was back in NYC recently and connected with my publisher. It’s exciting to know that people are reading Quiet Leadership in their native language so far in China, Korea, Brazil and Indonesia. The book is now in paperback which is helping more people get hold of it. Over 40,000 people have bought the book so far in it’s first 2 years.

Lately people have been writing to me from many corners of the world, moved by the impact the book had on them. Anyone from coaches, school principles, teachers and administrators, people working with marriage therapy, to ministers of various religions, educators, leadership consultants, and parents. The common theme is the book helped them put words on an issue that seems to be at the heart of being human: our need to come to our own answers and make our own connections, rather than being told what to do. As I work on my next book I am discovering just how fundamental this need is: scientists are discovering that the perception of choice and autonomy has a dramatic impact on one’s stress levels. Yet we are all attuned to automatically give others advice, and managers especially are prone to being directive. If you want to learn more about the new science emerging as I research my new book, take a listen to one of the free audio events here.

If the book has had an impact on you, please send me a note, I love to hear from people. And if you’re feeling extra generous, tell the world by making a comment on my page at amazon.com

Updates on brain research and related topics
I have had the honor to interview a wide range of scientists in the last few months while writing a new book about the brain at work. The two biggest 'aha!'s for me have come from research on mindfulness, and on emotional regulation. There is a whole set of ideas emerging around the neuroscience of mindfulness, with scientists including Jeffrey Schwartz, as well as Daniel Siegel, Kirk Brown, Mark Williams and others doing some exciting research. We're starting to see the underlying physiology behind why mindfulness has such an impact on health, and why it's a central thread across so many fields. There will be lots on this at the NeuroLeadership Summits.

It was exciting to see SHRM, the largest organization of human resource professionals in the world, start to take seriously the idea of integrating brain research at work. Their recent cover story 'The brain at work' is one of the best written pieces on how neuroscience can be applied in the workplace now.

I was recently featured on the Voice of America radio show talking about the NeuroLeadership Summit and the overall neuroleadership field.

There was an interesting conference on the brain in education recently in Boston, looks like a great event to learn more about.

Some breakthrough new research is just out on status and the brain.

Neuroscience in business schools
In March I was back in Italy at CIMBA, working again with MBA students. We spent a day diving into the neuroscience of mindfulness and emotional regulation. It was very rewarding to see the impact of these ideas on young students of these ideas, and how hungry young people are to learn about their brain overall.

In mid June I am giving a two-day workshop at George Washington University in Washington DC on the Neuroscience of Leadership. I am looking forward to having two whole days to take people deeper into the science. This program is open to the public.

I recently gave a lecture to alumni of the Oxford University - HEC Masters in Change Program, delivered live by video link from Sydney to the UK. Despite being on the other side of the world, the idea of framing their experiences around change in neuroscience terms impacted the group deeply.

Also in July I am giving a breakfast seminar for the Australian Institute of Management. It's on July 28, I will put the link up when it's online.

The Neuroscience of Innovation
In April I was in NYC to give a keynote to new leaders at American Express worldwide, on the neuroscience of innovation. Innovation to me is driven by the number of insights that individuals have each day, each week, each year. One way to increase the number of insights people have is to teach leaders about the brain, and about insight itself. It was exciting to witness future leaders discovering underlying science to something that otherwise can seem so mysterious. Mark Jung Beeman is one of the leading scientists in this area, and he recently released a new paper showing the specific impact that positive emotions have on increasing the number of insights that occur, called 'A brain mechanism for facilitation of insight by positive affect', which will be published shortly.

Building coaching cultures
I have been on the road in April - May for the Conference Board, presenting a series of one day events across the US about building coaching cultures, with a colleague Chris Coffey. There's a short video below of me talking about these events.

It has been fascinating to spend time across the country talking to different learning professionals at so many organizations and hearing the same issues. The research shows that everyone thinks everyone else should have access to good coaching, yet less than 1% of employees do. To give everyone an external coach is not possible - we need to develop internal resources in organizations. It's been exciting to explore strategies and share case studies of how organizations can internalize coaching, even across major organizations spread around the globe. One of the most interesting projects we heard about involves a technology firm where over 3,000 leaders from over 60 countries are learning to be better coaches, along with over 500 internal coaching engagements happening each year.

I have recently been working more in Asia, with a large bank and government department, on the building coaching cultures. Also my organization started working closely with the Australian Taxation Office, and the NHS in the UK, both very wide scale projects to change culture over time. These are organisations you might think are conservative, yet they are seeing the importance of building a coaching culture. It's great to see these ideas beginning to get wider acceptance.

Exploding minds, 39:1 ROI on internal coaching, Neuroleadership Summit Call for Papers, 3 city tour and more

2008-02-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

I have just returned from a busy few weeks in the US, with many wonderful highlights.

It's always a joy to spend time with my friend Jaimie Cloud, who runs the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education. Jaimie is working to teach children, around the world, about the ideas of sustainability.

Also a big congrats to my friend Mark Goulston who recently landed a regular gig as a syndicated columnist for a raft of big US newspapers, called 'Solve anything with Dr Mark.'

Minds exploding!
Another highlight recently was spending time with the original founders of the Blueman Group in NYC, delivering a workshop together for parents and educators. (That's Matt Goldman 'clowning around' on the right). These guys have started a school for kids, and are building a new approach to K-12 education, which I am (along with other experts) involved in. The event was a blast, a mix of art and science, which we called 'The Exploding Mind'. We'll be running more of these later in the year, make sure you sign up for my mailing list if you want to be informed of dates.

That's Chris Wink on the left presenting his work on the archetypes, the different roles we all play in life. Blueman's approach to art meets the neuroscience of learning around the idea of developing 'integrated brains': people able to play many roles, able to be mindful of their own state of mind, and alter it as needed.

NeuroLeadership Summit - call for papers out now
The NeuroLeadership Summits in NYC and Sydney are going well, with many people already booking their places for Sept and October. We have a full range of scientists now confirmed, including the addition of the renowned quantum physicist Henry Stapp. A full program will be available late March, but the basic schedule is now done.
If you are interested in speaking, there is a 'call for papers' now out, click here to receive your copy. Applications close 28 March 2008.
There is also a detailed update about the Summits here.

ROI study shows 39:1 return on investment in internal coaching
While in NYC I connected with around 40 people who had been coached internally at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a major cancer research hospital there. We were thrilled to complete a return on investment study on this project, finding that the hospital returned at least $39 for every $1 invested in the program, just based on the financial impact that could be measured. What was more exciting though was hearing from the people who had been coached, how their lives at work and at home had been impacted by having someone as a regular positive sounding board.

We presented this case, along with another study showing 17:1 ROI from a project with AIG, at the Conference Board annual Executive Coaching Conference in the US. This has become the leading conference about coaching in the workplace in the USA, the next in NYC in January 2009.

New case study covering work in 64 countries
My work with EDS, training thousands of leaders in 64 countries in a brain-based approach to coaching, was recently published in a professional journal.

Connect with my work in one of three US cities in April - May 08 The Conference Board are putting on a two day event in Las Vegas, Dallas and Boston coming up, called 'Building a Coaching Culture'. I am delivering the first day, and Chris Coffey, a great coach who works with Marshall Goldsmith, is doing the second. There is an introductory webinar for those interested, or go straight to these events for more information.

NeuroLeadership at the Boss Club in Sydney
I am delivering an evening for the 'Boss Club', an event for the Australian Financial Review's' Boss magazine, on March 11. Click here details.
Boss Magazine also recently published a good article on neuroleadership.

The Guardian Newspaper's article on NeuroLeadership.
Click here to see what is being said in the UK about this new field.

Quiet Leadership out in Paperback
My 2006 book is now in paperback, and is now also available in Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Portuguese, with other languages on the way. Learn more about the book here.

Learn about how and why coaching works, from a brain perspective
If you would like to join a program to learn all about the brain-basis of coaching, I am the main facilitator of a course called 'Theoretical Foundations of Coaching', which runs by teleconference starting Feb 27. Details here.

That's enough for one month.

Speaking plans 2008

2008-01-07T03:22:00.000-08:00

Below is where I am presenting this year, accurate as of July 2008.

January / February 2008 - NYC
• The Conference Board Executive Coaching Summit - presenting two case studies on the ROI of internal coaching
• The Exploding Mind - an event for parents and educators in partnership with the Blueman Creativity Center
Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center - keynote for MSKCC's leadership community
• Theoretical Foundations of Coaching - Training program for US and Asia Pacific

March - Sydney and Europe
• Australian Financial Review Boss Club, Sydney - The neuroscience of leadership
• Oxford University - HEC Guest at the Change Leadership Program alumni group

April - Europe and USA
• London - Opening keynote at the Ashridge coaching conference
• CIMBA - Presentations in Asolo, Italy at the business school where I am on faculty
• Las Vegas - one day workshop on Building a Coaching Culture
• Boston - one day workshop on Building a Coaching Culture

May - USA
• Keynote at American Express for new global leaders
• Conference board - presentation at the leadership development summit in NYC
• Dallas - one day workshop on Building a Coaching Culture

June - USA
• Conference board - presentation at the leadership development summit in San Diego
• ROI summit - presentation at the Conference Board ROI summit with Jack Phillips in Chicago
• Webinar for Conference Board on the Neuroscience of Leadership
• Webinar for Best Practice Institute on the Neuroscience of Leadership

July - Sydney
• American club in Sydney - breakfast keynote on the neuroscience of leadership
• Australian Institute of Management - breakfast series, the neuroscience of leadership
• Change Management Institute - evening event on why change is hard

July and August - Asia
• Coaching information events in Singapore - click here for details
• Coaching information events in Hong Kong - click here for details

September - Sydney
• Asia Pacific NeuroLeadership Summit
• Oxford University Said Business School, workshop within Masters in change program
• Events at CIMBA in Asolo, Italy for new MBA's

October - NYC
• Keynote for Adler Coaching in Toronto on coaching with the brain in mind
• North American NeuroLeadership Summit

End of year announcements including Summit dates and event for parents in NYC

2007-12-10T01:29:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

As we get to the end of each year, as ritual I like to look back and explore the highs and lows over the year. It helps my brain identify and cement any important high level patterns, which helps with noticing and cementing changes that are happening.

This year has been one of the biggest personally for me ever. There was the birth of my 2nd daughter India, who's now doing great at 11 months old. She's learned to say 'ta', 'dad', and do air-kisses. What more can a dad want.

Then there was the launch of the first NeuroLeadership Summit in Italy, which was a huge success. This event prompted a whole raft of feature stories about NeuroLeadership around the world. The next summits are now planned. Due to overwhelming demand, we have decided to hold the next global event in NYC, instead of Europe. It will be held on 28 and 29 October 2008. Another event for the Asia Pacific region will be held in Sydney on 10 and 11 September 2008. More details on both events re posted at neuroleadership.org.

This year was also a milestone personally, turning 40. Despite thinking the world might end, I made it through mostly unscathed. I am thankful to my new mentors this year, in particular one who showed me that even in your 70's one can be making a difference and be inspired, and inspiring, (and embarassingly faster than I am.)

This year I started work seriously on a new book, with my colleague Dr Jeffrey M. Schwartz, for Harper Collins USA. As part of this book I am interviewing dozens of top scientists, which is so much fun I could do it year round. The new book will be out early 2009. It's one of the most exciting projects I have worked on: we explain a whole series of challenges at work through the lens of neuroscience, showing people what is happening in the mind and brain as they try to do too much at once, and other challenges, and what they might do differently.

Another highlight this year has been working with some fantastic people at great companies. I have had the great opportunity to work with people from EDS, where thousands of leaders are learning about their brain through programs we have built. At AIG, I got to train 20 senior leaders as internal coaches, and we were able to show a 17:1 ROI. I continued working with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and am excited to be giving a keynote for their leadership team next year. This year I also got to work with NASA, Citibank, NOKIA and other great companies. A big highlight was running into people from many organizations and finding my book Quiet Leadership being well thumbed through...writing can be a lot of pain, it's great to see it being useful.

Globally, my organization this year opened up in India, which has been very exciting, and opened in the Middle East. Next year we're looking at Eastern Europe and Brazil. We started a major widescale project with the NHS in the UK, and big projects in Africa where we have people in Botswana and South Africa. Our US operation is now our largest business worldwide, and we're operating in 8 different global regions. All in all it's wonderful to be working in a positive industry, where the work we do is making a difference.

Contrary to popular opinion, I don't travel all year, in fact in 2007 a highlight for me has been having close to 4 months back to back of no travel at all. When I don't travel, I hardly leave my end of the street except to swim at the pool, a short walk across the bay. When I have traveled this year it's been to some wonderful places. This year I got to experience Helsinki for the first time, which I liked more than I'd expected. I got to spend time in Venice with my family, which was a real treat. I got to the UK several times, and am enjoying my connections there with some new friends. Between all that I did get to spend a few months in NYC, still my favourite city in the world, and get to Boston, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Zealand and Singapore. A quiet year really?

Finally, one of the biggest highlights of the year was in fact nothing to do with business development or great media, and is a not-for-profit activity. The highlight for me was finding some 'like minds' who Lisa Rock and I are now collaborating with, to introduce the work of NeuroLeadership and coaching to kids, in the form of a new school that's developing. We're also running workshops for parents and educators, with a pilot on 2nd February in NYC. It's wonderful to have the space and opportunity at last to do work like this.

Finally I am eternally grateful to my wife Lisa Rock, to my family, and to colleagues, who have believed in what I believed in long enough that the rest of the world started catching on. This year, the whole idea of Brain-Based coaching is going mainstream, it's wonderful to watch the process unfold.

Happy holidays to all, enjoy the connections with your family, watch out for expectations taking over experience, and may you manage to find a moment of reflection in it all.

David Rock

Where I'm speaking 2008

2007-12-10T01:24:00.000-08:00

Below is a list of places I am presenting or teaching, accurate as of December 2007.

January / February 2008 - NYC
• The Conference Board Executive Coaching Summit - presenting two case studies on the ROI of internal coaching
• The Exploding Mind - an event for parents and educators in partnership with the Blueman Creativity Center
Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center - keynote for MSKCC's leadership community
• Theoretical Foundations of Coaching - Training program for US and Asia Pacific

March - Sydney
• Boss Club, Sydney - The neuroscience of leadership

April - Europe and USA
• London - Opening keynote at the Ashridge coaching conference on brain based coaching
• CIMBA - Presentations in Asolo, Italy
• Las Vegas - one day workshop on Building a Coaching Culture
• Boston - one day workshop on Building a Coaching Culture

May - USA
• Conference board - presentation at the leadership development summit
• Dallas - one day workshop on Building a Coaching Culture
• Plano - workshop for EDS and their clients

September - Sydney
• Asia Pacific NeuroLeadership Summit

October - NYC
• Global NeuroLeadership Summit

Summary of NeuroLeadership Articles 2006 & 2007

2007-10-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Here are most of the big articles and media stories about NeuroLeadership over the last two years.

2007
'The business brain in close up' - BusinessWeek feature story
'All in the mind - Feature in the Guardian Newspaper, UK
'It's all in the mind' - Feature in Boss Magazine, Australia
'Why neuroscience matters to executives' - interview in strategy+business magazine
'Neuroscience enlightens leadership' - Interview on several major blogs
Leadership Now on NeuroLeadership - Article on a leading blog

2006
'The new science of change' - Cover story in CIO magazine
The Neuroscience of Leadership Webinar - Webinar with strategy+business magazine
'The Neuroscience of Leadership' - May 2006, first feature article on NeuroLeadership in strategy+business magazine, written by David Rock & Jeffrey Schwartz

Business Week story, Sept-Oct US Events, New Audio

2007-08-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

The July Business Week story was quite a rush. This two page article on the birth of the neuroleadership movement generated quite a bit of interest and web discussion. The article was slightly positive though the writer took a dig. Some people thought we didn't need the field, that leadership was fine without this kind of science, others thought it was long overdue. I wrote a full response to the article and to online comments via an interview at 'Leadership now' blog. There was also a good article about the overall field published recently in The Guardian, a newspaper in London.

The Business Week writer was of the view that because the field didn't show anything completely different to some things we already know, that it mustn't be important. It was 'only' a new language...There is a big surprise in the neuroleadership field though, and it's the huge impact it has on people when they reframe their mental functioning into neuroscience terms. It's like that metaphor of seeing parts of an animal then suddenly getting the whole elephant...it's hard to go back once you have. As Jeffrey Schwartz said to me recently, 'There is a machine inside of you, but you are not a machine. However the only way to not be a machine is by being very aware of how that machine works.'

I will be back in the the US and Europe after some quiet time in Sydney. Have started work on a new book on the brain, which I am writing with Dr Jeffrey Schwartz. (Click to view a great video interview with Jeff.) Jeff and I co-wrote the 'Neuroscience of Leadership' article for strategy+business magazine. You can listen to a free webinar of the two of us here.

I am really enjoying reading new books and papers, and interviewing scientists for the book. I am even more convinced than ever that we have all the science we need for a cohesive explanation of most of our challenging situations both personally and in the workplace. These explanations provide great tools for changing our own brains and better getting along with others. I have been learning a lot about the importance of choice, the impact of status, the nature of our automatic functioning, how fragile working memory really is, and how we have a limited capacity to inhibit impulses, amongst other very cool things. It's all starting to tie together.

If you are interested in exploring some recent insights from neuroscience with me in person, I am running a one day event in Los Angeles on November 15 and in Sydney on December 5.

There's also a range of new audio files online now that you can download free:
• A summary of the 2007 NeuroLeadership Summit
• An event called 'Coaching with the brain in mind'
• A summary of how AIG got a 17:1 return on investment on a coaching program, including
interviews with AIG executives.

If you haven't seen it yet, there's a new section on building a coaching culture that outlines some new case studies and research around bringing brain-based coaching into large organizations to change cultures.

Please enjoy any new connections that I might help generate through all this!

David

Building a Coaching Culture - overview of the field and new resources

2007-07-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

My work is centred around two main areas: understanding the science of performance, and looking at how to build high performance cultures. My work on understanding the science of performance involves bringing across recent insights from neuroscience into leadership. I was thrilled to have a write up about this work in Business Week July 2007, following on from the NeuroLeadership Summit.

The lense I look through around building high performance cultures is the concept of a 'coaching culture'. A coaching culture is a place where people have useful sounding boards to help them think and perform at their best, on call when they need them. New recruits are given great tools and support as they come into a business, and people in transition, whether to a new role or leaving the business, have the support they need as well.

Building coaching cultures
In May and June 2008 I delivered a series of one day events across the US about building coaching cultures, with a colleague Chris Coffey. There's a short video below of me talking about these events, that provides a few insights into these ideas.

Building a coaching culture involves integrating the ideas of coaching within an organization. It's a shift from just thinking about coaching as a tool for senior executives, provided by external coaching 'experts'.

Building a coaching culture requires the following:
• Having a clear definition of coaching
• Making direct links to how coaching fits into existing learning and development objectives
• Having a theory base for how and why coaching works
• Measurement and research activities to validate the impact of coaching
• Buy-in from senior leaders, which usually requires an educational program of some sort

With these in place, there tend to be two main tools organizations use to build coaching competencies: short skills programs for lots of managers, and intensive certification programs for smaller numbers of internal coaches. A combination of these two tends to be the best. My organization delivers these kinds of projects worldwide, and I also do personal research into the coaching field overall, to identify trends and gather data about the field.

Here is a list of some of the more recent resources that you might enjoy.

Resources on scaling up coaching

WEBINARS AND AUDIO EVENTS: Check out the one hour webinar I ran for the Conference Board in 2007, on building a coaching culture. It explores the ways that organizations can scale up coaching internally, going into the latest research. There is also a free teleconference event you can download and listen to, click here.

WHITE PAPER: I recently finished a comprehensive 50 page White Paper on internal coaching, which summarizes several key bodies of research on this field and draws on the experience of working on over 100 internal and widescale coaching interventions. Please email me to receive this directly, at davidrock@workplacecoaching.com

CASE STUDY SHOWING 17 to 1 ROI: If you would like a copy of a new case study showing how AIG achieved a return on investment of seventeen times, email me and I will send this to you.

CONFERENCES: The Conference Board (USA) and the CIPD (UK) run the two best events globally on coaching cultures.

If you are interested in learning more about this area please see my commercial website at www.workplacecoaching.com or contact me directly at davidrock@workplacecoaching.com

NeuroLeadership Summit Debrief

2007-06-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

It's three weeks later and I am still digesting a lot of the insights and new connections that came out of the NeuroLeadership Summit, and I expect I will take some time longer to do so. That's the director of CIMBA at left, the sponsoring university, trying to digest a handful of books on the brain. On the right we have the whole group of participants, on the morning of day three, digesting the insights of the first two days so far in an open forum.

I expect many other participants at the Summit will take months or years to assimilate all the insights that emerged: Insights like a new formula for change; a new understanding of the social brain; a new perspective on cultural difference; a new understanding of how expectations shape experience; a new take on engagement.

You will find the complete debrief website here, with photos and stories about each session, along with further resources. There is also a 40 minute interview with me as a podcast, which you will find here.

On a personal note, I was thrilled that my family could be with me in Italy as well: Thats my daughter Trinity on the left, 4 years old, becoming an afficionado of Canova's sculpture. My other daughter India on the right is sharing a moment with my neuroscience colleague from China, Dr Yiyuan Tang.

NeuroLeadership Summit Update

2007-03-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

With only 8 weeks to go, there's a lot of energy building for this ground-breaking event. We were thrilled with the response to the full page ad in strategy+business magazine, who are sponsoring the Summit. People are starting to see that this new field is gaining momentum, and at last count over a dozen blogs were talking about the event.

The Summit still has a few places open, though we expect to fill all 50 places in a few weeks. So far we have many senior OD and HR executives, some academics, and some interesting media people coming along, along with external change management and leadership development people working at a wide level. If you want to attend, I encourage you to put in an application as soon as you can.

We've decided to film the Summit with a professional documentary team. This has opened up the idea of filming several important neuroscientists who are important to the field but couldn't make it. Thus we will be including ideas from Matt Lieberman, Stellan Ohlsson and Kevin Ochsner, who I have been visiting and filming lately while in the US on a speaking tour. After the Summit we will put a lot of stuff on line including short videos, so people everywhere can connect with these ideas.

Speaking of connecting with the ideas from the Summit, here are two online audio resources you might enjoy:

If you haven't had a chance to listen to strategy+business' free webinar with Dr Jefffrey Schwartz and I, I encourage you to check it out. It's outline the ideas in this new field.

Here's an online audio interview with one of the Summit speakers, John Case, the CEO of Electrolux home products.

Some great new books have been released recently relating to this field. My research partner Dr Jeffrey Schwartz was thrilled to be covered in Time Magazine, in an article on a new book called 'Train your mind, change your brain', by another of Jeff's collaborators, Sharon Begley (who writes for the Wall St Journal.)

Daniel Golemans new book 'Social Intelligence' is also worth checking out. And I can't wait to read 'Made to Stick' which is becoming very successful. I am also building a complete list of suggested readings, articles and audio files here.

Enjoy these resources and the new connections they bring!
There will be another update 4 weeks out from the Summit.

Coaching industry resources

2007-02-27T18:44:00.000-08:00

These links are resources around coaching within organizations.

Coaching at work magazine - the best journal for OD practioners on the consulting side of workplace coaching.

International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations - networking, research and ideas on coaching in the workplace.

International Journal of Coaching in Organizations - an academic journal on workplace coaching.

CIPD Coaching and Mentoring Site - excellent research, industry data and whitepapers on coaching in the workplace.

Peer resources - a good cache of research and articles on the coaching field.

Coaching case studies and research

2007-02-27T17:22:00.000-08:00

For those interested in my work with large companies, below are some research and general feedback collected, in two categories. My favourite is 'feedback from direct reports' at the end of the list.

Developing formal internal coaches
Does internal coaching work - research on the impact of internal coaches
What the coachees say - feedback and data on internal coaching engagements
Training bank managers into coaches in Asia - Study of 18 branch managers trained as internal coaches

Short programs
Testimonials - feedback from a range of short training programs
Teleconference training - general research and feedback on using this medium

Announcing the birth of little Rock number 2

2007-02-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

It's ... a ... GIRL!

She slipped into the world at 4.21pm Sydney time January 30, with a healthy weight of 3.65kg (about 8 pound).

Despite all the racket she arrived sleeping peacefully.
After being lifted out of a warm bath, she gave a short cry of alarm and then was happy again.

Mother and daughter are doing very well,
little Rock number one is excited.

She doesn't have a name yet, we're waiting to see her character - so far she seems calm and peaceful.

Speaking plans 2007

2006-12-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

Here are all the places I am scheduled to speak so far in 2007.
Contact me directly for more information or if you would like to connect.

MARCH 2007
Chicago
March 14 - Conference Board Executive Coaching Summit
March 14 - Chicago chapter of the International Coach Federation

Singapore
March 22 - Singapapore Human Resources Institute, 'The Neuroscience of Leadership'

APRIL 07
London
April 18 - CIPD's HRD Conference, 'International Coaching'

MAY 07
Singapore
May 2 - Singapore HR Congress

Italy
May 14 to 16 - The First Global NeuroLeadership Summit

JUNE 07
Atlanta
June 5 - ASTD Global Conference, presenting 'So much to learn, so little time'

Helsinki
June 9 - International Coach Federation European Conference, 'Coaching with the brain in mind' keynote

San Diego
June 11 - Conference Board Executive Coaching Summit, 'Brain based approach to coaching'

Seattle
June 14 & 15 - International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations, summit on the neurosciences in coaching.

Boston
June 20 - Workshop at Smith College senior leadership event, 'The Neuroscience of Leadership'

JULY 07
Auckland
July 19 - New Zealand Post Keynote

SEPTEMBER 07
Singapore
September 15 - one day open workshop 'The Art of the Coach'

London
September 18 - CIPD Annual Conference, Harrogate, 'The new science of change'

Washington DC
September 24 - Booze Allen Hamilton - Science of Change event
September 25 - Evening workshop on coaching and the brain, open to the public

New York City
September 26 - Keynote for the Blue Man Group
September 27 - 'Art of the Quiet Leader' - open to the public
October 2 - Keynote at Conference Board Executive Coaching Council, 'Coaching with the brain in mind'.

OCTOBER 07
San Francisco
October 5 - Opening keynote at Professional Coaches and Mentors Association annual conference

Sydney
October 10 - Australian Graduate School of Management and Booze Allen Hamilton event, The Neuroscience of Leadership.

London
October 17 - Closing keynote at the CIPD's Annual Coaching in the Workplace Conference

NOVEMBER 07
Boston
November 5 - Keynote at the Biotech industry HR conference

Los Angeles
November 1 - Coaching with the brain in mind at International Coach Federation annual conference.

November 15 - The art of the coach, one day workshop with limited spaces. Details and bookings click here.

DECEMBER 2007
Sydney
December 5, open event on the Neuroscience of Leadership.
Details and bookings click here.
Or contact Matt Rule for details, mattrule@resultscoaches.com

Resources for Brain Based Coaching and NeuroLeadership

2006-12-27T18:09:00.000-08:00

Here is a listing of some of the latest resources for those interested in the links between the brain, leadership and coaching.

There are far too many (thousands) of resources to put everything here, so this list is meant more as a starting point. I will probably grow this into it's own website later in the year.

Training programs
There is a new 12 week training program on brain based coaching, run by teleconference for people in the US and Asia Pacific. Starts February 2008. Click for details. You can also do a complete coach certification program, ICF Certified, built on the brain based approach to coaching.

Conferences
There is currently only one conference devoted to the field of the brain in business as far as I can tell. The second Global NeuroLeadership Summit will be held sometime around May or June 08. Three days in a converted monastery on top of a mountain in northern Italy provides the right environment to rethink leadership development. Click here to view the 2007 Summit debrief or get info on the 2008 event.

Magazine articles
The Neuroscience of Leadership, strategy+business 2006
Cover story ‘The New Science of Change’, CIO magazine 206
Brain based approach to coaching - International Journal of Coaching in Organizations

Recommended reading - books for general readers
Quiet Leadership - or click here for the website about the book
The Mind and the Brain - Jeffrey Schwartz & Sharon Begley
The Human Mind - Robert Winston
The Users Guide to the Brain - John Ratey
Mind Wide Open - Steven Johnson
On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins
Social Intelligence - Daniel Goleman
Train your mind, change your brain - Sharon Begley

Scientific papers
Richard Boyatzis on building sustainable leaders
Jeffrey Schwartz and Henry Stapp Paper on the Quantum Mechanics of Attention
Jung Beeman on insight
Robert Coghill on expectations

Audio recordings
Strategy+business webinar with Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and David Rock
One hour recording with David Rock about coaching and the brain
Interview with David Rock at CEOReads
Interview with David Rock at Launch of Quiet Leadership
Interview with Electrolux CEO John Case

Scientific resources
Matt Leiberman - Social neuroscience research lab
Mark Jung-Beeman - Insight research
See the NeuroLeadership Summit website for more science resources

Magazines
Scientific American Mind - the best magazine on the mind and the brain

Conferences to check out in 2007

2006-12-17T21:38:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the better conferences in 2007 that I recommend for OD, HR and learning professionals interested in coaching.

January, March, June - Conference Board Executive Coaching Summits
These are high powered events, one of only two really good conferences worth checking out for good corporate coaching case studies and research.
I am presenting at these March (Chicago) and June (San Diego) and my team in January in NYC. Click for details.

May - The First Global NeuroLeadership Summit
This is a conference I am involved in, 14-16 May 07, combining neuroscientists and leadership experts. Three days in a converted monastery on top of a mountain in northern Italy provides the right environment to rethink leadership development. Click here

June - The International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations
This group is running small symposiums on coaching in organizations, I am involved in one in Seattle in June which is focused on neuroscience and coaching. Click here.

June - ASTD
This is worth checking out if you’ve never been...a ton of ideas and over 8,000 training people there from around the world. One of the best 'international' conferences in terms of having a global reach. I am presenting a paper called ‘So much to learn, so little time’, looking at applying findings from neuroscience into widescale learning programs. http://www.astd.org

September - CIPD Coaching in the Workplace Conference
This is the other very good event around coaching in the workplace. It’s in London in mid September. Date is around same time in 07. Click here

October - International Positive Psychology Summit
This is fascinating, though it’s very much for positive psychologists – quite a technical conference. The 2006 event details are here. it’s around the same time each year as well.

November - ICF International Conference
This is the biggest event for coaching worldwide, and while it's mostly focused on personal coaching, there are usually some good case studies of organizational work there. There is also a very good executive coaching summit and a research summit just before the event each year.
The conference is in Long Beach CA in October, see the ICF website. Call for papers goes up in Feb 07 if you are interested in speaking.

That should be about enough for one year!

Travel highlights 2006

2006-11-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

After 9 months of intense travel, launching my book in over 20 cities in 12 countries, I am pleased to finally be in one place for a whole 3 months. I am delighted to be grounded by the birth of little Rock number two in January 2007. I thought it would be nice to write up the highlights of the journey.

It all started with the launch of Quiet Leadership in Manhattan on April 11. The was followed quickly by a radio tour with interview at around 40 stations across the US.

Next was a talk in Boston at Staples world headquarters (that's me with Lew Stern in Boston), then events in Toronto and Conneticut. Then it was on to Dallas for the ASTD conference, presenting on internal coaching programs.

In May it was on to Brussels, presenting a paper on coaching in the workplace at the International Co ach Federation European conference.

I also took the opportunity to visit the house my father lived in during the war, which was quite strange...it hadn't really changed at all. (That's me there on the left).

This was followed by Singapore, delivering a workshop at the Global HR Summit, events at the Australian Chamber of Commerce, a keynote a Shell's regional headquarters, a launch at The Singapore Institute of Management, and a public workshop, plus some radio interviews.

In June one of the highlights was presenting a keynote at Mastercards' world headquarters, near NYC (priceless!) This was followed by a session on internal coaching programs at the biggest HR conference in the world, at SHRM in Washington DC, with over 15,000 HR people there (not all in my room fortunately). Quite an amazing experience to be surrounded by so many HR folks.

Also in June, presenting at NASA's world headquarters was a big thrill. I ran a half day workshop that was simultaneously delivered to 10 other locations, hooked in via a big two way screen system. It was one of the few times I was nervous as a speaker...the connection to wanting to be an astronaut as a young boy was too much.

July saw events in Australia in Sydney and Brisbane, followed by Hong Kong at the Institute of Management. Then a busy week of talks, TV appearances and meetings in South Africa, including a workshop at GIBS university, where I presented for the 2nd time.

In August it was off to New Zealand for a spot on the TV news and several talks, including a fun event to MBA alumni at Victoria University in Wellington. I managed to find time to take my little girl skiing, which she did despite the blizzard (okay it was only next to the car).

September it started to go a little crazy, with the northern hemisphere starting up again. After some more events in Singapore it was on to London to give a talk for the London Coaching Group, and participate in the CIPD coaching in the workplace conference. The UK are very much ahead in the research of coaching in organizations. A highlight for the year was an event at an international business school in Italy, Cimba. They had read the paper in strategy+business and were excited to learn more about leadership & neuroscience. It was a one day deep journey with MBA students, on a mountan top in a converted 800 year old monastery...quite an auspicious event. Next year we are planning a summit on the neuroscience of leadership.

October it went a little crazy. I went back to Sydney for 30 seconds, then on to Washington DC again, this time to give a talk at the IMF, and a coaching industry group. Also I went back to the positive psychology summit, the conference where a few hundred leading thinkers are working on the science of happiness, engagement and peak performance. I had presented there last year, and wanted to stay in touch with the work that was being done. Some great connections were made. I liked Barbara Frederickson's work showing how happiness was making people perform better in several areas.

The other highlight of the year was speaking in Japan. I gave a keynote, translated as I went (pictured left), to around 400 coaches and business people, and ran a workshop on brain-based coaching as well. The workshop was fascinating in that I got to try my ideas on in a totally different culture. I confirmed my suspicion that my thinking about coaching and the brain is universal - that the similarities between our brains across cultures are greater than the differences.

I also took the opportunity to take some quiet time to reflect while there, and enjoyed taking photos and just wandering through various gardens.

The light, the long deep history, and the culture of respect and community combined to make it a great experience, with lots of deep thoughts and ideas coming to mind.

Another big highlight was a half day workshop at MIT, at the Sloan School of business, at their annual 'innovation in leadership' event. Getting 4 days with Jeffrey Schwartz was highly productive, getting to present to 80 high intelligent MBA's was fantastic. We got some great feedback about what was useful, helping us focus a book proposal we are working on.

In the final days of October I was invited to deliver a keynote at a conference in Las Vegas for an interesting leadership development company, Rapport Leadership. The event was an opportunity to do an experiment with 70+ business leaders, and see how some ideas would work. Over 70% of them were able to solve a long term business challenge within 5 minutes of coaching...quite a result. It was also a good chance to connect with Dr Al Ringleb from Cimba, to plan out the NeuroLeadership summit for 2007. Here's a picture of us 'planning' in Las Vegas :)

Last stop on that trip was New York for two weeks, presenting at the Organizational Development Network of NYC event, and meeting with my US team of consultants to work on several projects.

The final leg before the holidays was a quick trip to China to work with a neuroscience lab on some projects involving attention, reflection and insight and the brain. Here is a photo of a pilot experiment we started, taking various readings before and after brief coaching sessions. Am excited to partner with my new friend and colleague Dr Yiyuan Tang, who is a leading neuroscientist in China, and very respected internationally.

Dr Tang wrote an important paper on the cultural differences in brain functioning due to neuroplasticity. That's us in the snow outside his institute in Dalian, in the north of China.

After all that I am looking forward to being in one place for a while. Be good to take time out to rest and be with my family. It's been great to connect with so many people and open my mind to new cultures, new ways of thinking and new insights. 2007 is less tightly packed, though I am looking forward to getting to India, Brazil and China for the first time.

Articles published in 2006

2006-11-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

2006 has been a big year for writing.

Check out the feature story co-written with Dr Jeffrey Schwartz, called 'The Neuroscience of Leadership'.

It was published in May 2006 in strategy+business magazine, and I hear it was one of their most popular articles of the year. Jeff and I also ran a webinar, with audio and some visuals, as a follow up to the article, which you can check out here.

Next I wrote an article, also with Jeff, called 'A brain-based approach to coaching', for The International Journal of Coaching in Organizations.

Finally, Jeff and I did some interviews which came out well, one became a cover story at CIO magazine, called 'The new science of change'. We also had some great press about the article in a bunch of places including the Boston Globe and BOSS magazine.

First posting: Quiet Leadership Launch, 11 April 2006

2006-05-01T15:12:00.001-07:00

AUSTRALIAN CONSULATE, MANHATTAN

Well it finally happened. After 10 years of thinking, 4 years of procrastinating, 1 year of planning and 1 year of writing, it's out: some of my best thinking about how to coach others, in 288 pages. A big thank you to my wife Lisa and Trinity, both for your patience, and for being there at the big event.

The launch in NYC was exciting and terrifying all at once.
With 120 people, there was nothing to do but stand still and allow people to share their excitement. Thanks to the Consul General John Olson (pictured) for a generous opening speech, and thanks to Harper Collins for publishing the book.