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How Seven Habits Boost Brain Function and Lower Depression Risk

How Seven Habits Boost Brain Function and Lower Depression Risk

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

We’re back to the debate on diversity in teams and whether this is beneficial or not?

Yes, indeed.

There are two sides to the argument: one is that lower diversity increases efficiency. Similar people may react in similar ways and understand each other better and have less conflict. The second is that diversity brings a broader set of skills, attitudes, and personalities to the table – but may cause friction and lack of agreement.

So what is it?

Well, as you know we have developed team cohesion assessments and our data shows that there seems to be a sweet spot of diversity – so maybe we should talk about optimal diversity. Note I’m talking of personality diversity here.

And is this what these researchers found?

This recently published study looked at environments that business were founded in and found that the environment defined whether diverse teams were successful or not. So it seems like the question is not whether diversity is good, but under what conditions diversity is good, or better.

Pray, explain more.

This group of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Stanford University, and INSEAD looked at alumni from Stanford and found 140’000 that had started their own business and then reviewed 1’060 new ventures.

That’s a lot!

Yes, that is correct: this is a massive dataset and ranged from 1960!

Oh wow, and what did they find?

Well, they looked at “functional diversity”, not personality diversity that we measure, which is the range of roles and specialities people have. But it wasn’t a clear cut answer as to whether diverse teams were more successful.

Oh!

That is until you take the environmental conditions into account. Startups that were founded in more dynamic and chaotic times, recessions, changes in market dynamic such as the tech revolution, and had more diversity were much more likely to succeed. In contrast, in stable times team diversity was less important.

Also specifically if dynamism increased over lifetime the diverse teams were more likely to be successful. However, if dynamism decreased over lifetime then diverse teams were actually less likely to be successful.

Ummm, that kind of makes sense

Yes, when times are dynamic, the different perspectives and expertise help teams to be effective, manage the challenging times together, and even thrive. The same applies if the markets are becoming increasingly dynamic. But this diversity can be a hinderance in stable or less dynamic times.

So environments are crucial?

Yes, something that is underestimated in much business rhetoric. Functional diversity it seems, according to this research at least, is best in dynamic times only. In more stable times not so.

And how do we predict that?

Well, if I could predict that I would be a rich man – diversity may therefore be a good hedge but sometimes boring and uniform may be best also!

But what about other forms of diversity?

Gender, age, race, and others, weren’t measured here but there is plenty of evidence to show that diverse companies outperform less diverse companies. You may want to read this longer read on various forms of team performance and underrated contributions to this.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Yujie Zhao, Liu Yang, Barbara J. Sahakian, et al.
The brain structure, immunometabolic and genetic mechanisms underlying the association between lifestyle and depression.
Nature Mental Health, 2023
DOI: 10.1038/s44220-023-00120-1

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How Emotional Satisfaction (not “Happiness”) Improves Students’ Grades

How Emotional Satisfaction (not “Happiness”) Improves Students’ Grades

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

 

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

Reference

Tania Clarke, Ros McLellan, Gordon Harold.
Beyond Life Satisfaction: Wellbeing Correlates of Adolescents’ Academic Attainment.
School Psychology Review, 2023; 1
DOI: 10.1080/2372966X.2023.2217980

SCOAP model

Take part in German scientific validation of the SCOAP-Profile (you will spend about 30 mins answering questions but will get a free detailed report of your emotional needs)

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“Forgetting is Learning” and More Interesting Research on Memory, Learning, and Social Media Algorithms

“Forgetting is Learning” and More Interesting Research on Memory, Learning, and Social Media Algorithms

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leadership brain magazine

Newly Discovered Ebb and Flow of Brain Chemicals that Drive Learning – Continuously

Newly Discovered Ebb and Flow of Brain Chemicals that Drive Learning – Continuously

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

brain wave consciousness

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

References

Anne C. Krok, Marta Maltese, Pratik Mistry, Xiaolei Miao, Yulong Li, Nicolas X. Tritsch.
Intrinsic dopamine and acetylcholine dynamics in the striatum of mice.
Nature, 2023
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-05995-9

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Brain Scans Show How to Coach and Inspire More Effectively

Brain Scans Show How to Coach and Inspire More Effectively

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

brain coaching leadership inspire motivation

It’s not often that there is a study that directly connects coaching and brain scanning – unfortunately. Enter Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA and their coaching research lab who got 47 undergraduates into a brain scanner after a coaching session and while watching clips of messages to themselves – the results were interesting.

The results are not just important in coaching scenarios but also in an behavioural change situations such as many found in businesses and in education. So what did they find?

The protocol explored the relationship between the real self, the person you are at the moment with all your weaknesses, and the ideal self, the person you would like to be. These are common themes in coaching and a key question is should you focus on what your real self is not doing well or motivate with an idealistic image of yourself in the future, or, as is common, a mix of both?

So which wins out. Well the 47 graduates first had a 30-minute coaching session that focused on the real self and then where put in a brain scanner and while in the scanner were fed (by video) 96 messages that were focused on hope, compassion, mindfulness and playfulness in the ideal self. They then stated whether they agreed or disagreed with the statements.

What the researchers were trying to see is if these two states would conflictwith each other or could operate in tandem – after all in the real world we often have two states in our heads – short-term and long-term planning, for example. To do this they used a visual attention task using Navon Figures that are incongruent or incongruent (for example a letter T made from letter Es). These conflict the visual system where as others such as viewing a landscape do not.

And indeed the researchers saw that there was evidence of conflicting ressource allocation in the brain – this can be seen when the brain uses overlapping areas rather than separate areas. When individuals are stimulated with the real self this can therefore conflict with the ideal self – causing an inherent incongruence and conflict in the brain.

This gives strong biological evidence that focusing and the real self can conflict and therefore limit resources when working towards the ideal self – and therefore cause friction and blocks. This is good evidence that focusing more on the ideal self puts you in a state that is more able to scan the broad environment and identify salient themes.

This in addition to experiencing more positive emotions, being open to new ideas, and having more intrinsic motivation. With the one caveat that different brains may respond differently which I explored in a popular article here: Whose Brains Respond to Carrots and Whose to Sticks?

So the key takeaway is that focusing more on the ideal self enables greater engagement, higher motivation, less friction, a more open perspective, and better feelings. This applies to coaching scenarios but just as much to educational contexts and business where often the focus is on what needs to change – focus on the ideal instead.

Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

References

Jack, A. I., et al. (2023)
When fixing problems kills personal development: fMRI reveals conflict between Real and Ideal selves.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1128209.

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