Back from a great trip in the US immersing myself at Stanford and the Dschool as well as attending the NeuroLeadership summit in San Francisco.

The Stanford experience was fantastic and stimulating.  I was accompanied by 56 incredibly bright and intelligent people from a diverse range of companies (Google, The Gates Foundation, Nokia, CITRIX, Facebook and many others) exploring and learning more about organisations that need to respond to the emerging environment.  We particularly learnt about the notion of disruption, foresight, strategy and creating the right culture for rapidly evolving organisations.  We got our hands dirty at the DSchool working with rapid prototyping, ideation and customer focused innovation.  It was also good to affirm the work we are presently doing in neuroscience, particularly in the area of decision making and collaboration, is at the forefront of current thinking in the workplace.

The NeuroLeadership Summit followed the same theme of adaptable and resilient organisations and how the brain can be regulated in order to adapt rapidly.  Some neuroscientists put forward the notion that integration of the mind, brain and relationship is an incredibly important aspect of an individual as well as the organisation.  The questions arose:  How does an organisation create a healthy mind?  Much was discussed about the notion of stress, sleep and memory and its impact on the brain, either being effective or ineffective for performance.  We also immersed ourselves in understanding the neuroscience behind intuition and its importance in good decision making.

Not only did we have some of the top neuroscientists and academics talking about the brain, but we also had the opportunity to meet executives and CEOs from organisations such as Facebook, Dun and Bradstreet, Google, Twitter and NASA.  It was interesting to hear about the strategies and thinking behind these companies and how they thrive in seemingly difficult times.

From both of these learning programs, it was certainly clear that social networking technologies is not only on the agenda but activated at very high levels in those organisations that are excelling.  Interesting to know from the latest stats, that in companies worldwide 60-90% of our communication is digital.

I really look forward to sharing new knowledge from my experience, and its possible application to your organisation, in the near future.

Gretel

While the rest of the PF team are currently away, I thought I would move away from behind my desk to get my creative juices flowing. I had been thinking about creating some artistic images for our power point slides to align with our arts based learning concept.

I enjoy working with ink because of its unpredictable nature when mixed with water. In my own personal work, I like to use ink in an organic way juxtaposed with rigid shapes and lines. This started my thinking process in regards to the brain; (two sides) the organic creative side and the rigid ordered side and both connected with each other.

Below are a some  pictures of what I hope I can continue to explore further.

Speaking of both sides of the brain, I came across this video on the TED website by renowned psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist. It explains how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society. Click the link below to watch.

The Divided Brain

On Friday the 28th of October 2011, Performance Frontiers held a four degrees of separation event at La Boite Theatre showcasing the award winning play Ruben Guthrie. We encouraged our guests to bring along existing clients, or guests that they would like to further develop a relationship with. The event has a huge success, followed by an outstanding performance from the cast of Ruben Guthrie.