Innovative Brain Food from New & Improved

Body Bags, Innovation and Open Mindedness

At N&I we get frustrated with the lack of openness to newness that we see so "everywhere." We are unimpressed with the commonality of polarized, stuck thinking in our general culture. So, a few of us have established what we are calling "The Year of Truth" We've invited our friends (that's you) - conservatives, middle of the roaders and liberals alike - to not accept things as "true, factual or correct" just because that information, or the slant on it, conforms with the opinions and world view that they/you/ we hold as generally true. We could call it "Red Teaming" our own (current) thinking.

Read here how "Red Team Thinking" practiced in the military, where the motivation for innovative thinking and creative problem solving are absolutely powerful. As one Naval Base Commander once told us: "We're motivated to be great creative problem solvers because our failures have names, they are our friends, and they come in body bags." We could all learn useful skills from this military training document. Click on the image to download it:

Many of the concepts in this booklet conform to those taught by our founders Bob Eckert and Jonathan Vehar, in their book "More Lightning, Less Thunder: How to Energize Innovation Teams." now in its 4th edition.

The year of truth! Join us on an ever fluctuating Red Team, challenging the orthodoxy of "what has to be" and creating the positive future of what can be.

Are You Curious About How You Can Grow a Better Brain?

One of Einstein’s most commonly quoted statements is “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” Could this be true?

Most folks think Einstein simply had a better brain than most. Perhaps this is also true, and maybe, just maybe, the reason he had that better brain was because of his curiosity. What if his intense curiosity actually built that better brain?

We think there is every likelihood that this is the case. Our new & improved ability to visualize what is happening in the brain in real time through fMRI, along with our understanding of neuroplasticity (the ability to grow new neurons and new connections) energizes an interesting hypothesis. We know that when the mind’s curious nature is sparked, the basal ganglia (part of the brain’s reward centers) becomes active. We also know we tend to reseek rewarding experiences. In other words, once some positive reward comes from piqued curiosity, we’re likely to seek other things that might pique our curiosity. As an example, many of New & Improved's partners read Popular Science and Popular Mechanics when flying. They do so, because there are always interesting stories about human inventiveness in each. These magazines are great aggregators of “cool stuff”. Most of us have also been rewarded for subscribing to DailyGood.org receiving interesting stories about unusual, positive things that our fellow humans have been doing for their communities and for the world. Curiosity is fun - and optimism-producing!

**Bonus**: Curiosity helps us grow better brains, make more connections, and be more effectively helpful to those around us as needs arise. To ponder for a moment, your reading this blog is a symptom of your own curiosity. Good for you. You’re building a better brain.

How might you help others to do the same? Share! Take the “hey, this is cool” moment and share with your colleagues and social networks. Avoid the “hey this sucks” sharing that creates stronger pessimism. Pessimists are not terribly inventive. Instead, feed the optimist. Feed your curiosity and that of others. Feed a positive future. Find and share something interesting today.

Here are a few links to get you going:

 

One wheeled motorcycle from Ryno Motors

 

 

 

 

World’s biggest tree-house 

 

     Luminaid, a solar-powered, inflatable light

 

Your very own thermal imaging camera

Stay curious!

Managing Your Mental Clutter to Bring Back Your Creative Mojo

One of the most powerful determiners of creative thinking, creativity, and innovation is optimism. We know, it's a lot more fun to complain and not actually do anything to make things better but, the reality is, it’s hard to be inventive and pessimistic at the same time.

Since you’re reading this blog, some part of you wants to maintain - or increase - your ability to think creatively. That's a great thing!  But if you're like most of us, you have down days; times you don’t feel creative at all; periods of stressful life events. Everyone gets “pulled down” from time to time and sometimes even enjoy wallowing in their state of funk. What's interesting to observe is the difference between the folks who:

• get pulled down and stay there,
• bounce back in average time, and
• bounce back so rapidly it’s hard to believe they even have bad days.

Of course, the latter is what creative-brain-seekers aspire to.  This doesn't mean they are unrealistic Pollyannas, it simply means they have built up their resiliency.

So how do you move more rapidly from the pessimist to the optimist? -- From the gator brain to the inventive brain? --  From the "bummer-to-be-around" to the "person-to-hang-with"?

It mostly boils down to how skilled you are at managing your mental self-talk. We humans have this interesting thing called “will” which is our ability to choose our thoughts; the ability to notice what we are thinking and exercise our will to choose a different thought pattern. The fancy term is "metacognition". With practice, our ability to bounce back from pessimisim to optimism gets stronger but, it will also atrophy if not used regularly. The way to coach people to notice and shift their thinking is by asking them to, “Pay attention to where you point your mental lens. You can make things better or worse depending on where your lens is pointed”.  

As students of mastering our own mental clutter, we've found value in DailyGood’s nice piece on metacognition. It's a worthy read: The Art of Revising Your Inner Storytelling. 

If you need to vent on occasion, go ahead, and get it off of your chest, but then quickly refocuses your mental lens.  You'll feel less stressed, more hopeful and yes, more optimistic as a result.