NeuroLeadership Summits Blog

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2010-04-13T15:49:00.001-07:00

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THE 2010 NEUROLEADERSHIP SUMMIT PROGRAM IS HERE

2010-04-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

This years theme is 'Rethinking Leadership.'

Presenters include researchers from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, NYU, Cambridge University, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame and more.

New features of the Summit include:
Better integration of neuroscience and leadership research
More leadership thought leaders
Greater practitioner focus
Free audio of breakout sessions so you don't miss a thing
New lunchtime 'Meet the scientist' sessions
Full 3 day program (for the price of 2.5 days previously)
More time for fun and informal networking

Click here to read more about presenters:

Click here to see full Summit program:

Click here to register with early-bird pricing for a limited time:

Detailed updates on 2010 SUMMIT AGENDA

2010-03-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings NeuroLeadership Community!

You will now find updated information on speakers, venue and accommodation for the 3-day 2010 NeuroLeadership Summit in Boston, USA Oct 26-28th.

The theme for the 2010 Summit is 'Rethinking Leadership'. This follows on from earlier Summit themes of "Witness the Birth of a New Discipline", "Making New Connections" & "Toward Integration". This year's Summit is tightly focused on how to proactively create effective leaders at all levels in organizations.

This Summit will gather top neuroscientists and leadership experts over a full three-day program to explore new paradigms for developing leaders. Registration for the three-day program is the same price as the 2009 two-and-a-half day program. Click here for more details on registration types and pricing.

Earlybird registrations are now open. Register & pay by 30 June 2010 to save 10% on registration fees. Alternatively secure your place with a Save Your Place deposit for US$350.

Current taking applications for the March start date!

2010-02-16T19:41:00.001-08:00

We are currently taking application for the March 2010 cohort of the Post Graduate Certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership. Classes begin end of March, beginning of April, running in two time zones concurrently due to the high demand for the program. Please contact Janelle at janellelight@neuroleadership.org for more details and how apply.

2010-02-16T19:36:00.001-08:00

A Growing Institute!
2009 was a year of amazing growth for the NeuroLeadership Institute and there don't seem to be signs of slowing in 2010. In response to this growth we have added two new fantastic team members, Gemma Brown & Janelle Light.

Gemma was added to the team in September 2009 and is based in Sydney, Australia. Gemma provides logistics and support for the Institute and Institute members and can be contacted at support@neuroleadership with all member and resource order enquiries. Some may have met Gemma at the Summit in 2009.

Janelle commenced her role as Sales & Marketing Coordinator this week and is based in New York, USA. Janelle can answer all your Post Graduate Certificate & Summit enquiries at janellelight@neuroleadership.org

NeuroLeadership Summit 2009 - Final Wrap Up

2009-12-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here's what happened at the final day of the Summit...

The day begun with a guided attention session, led by the UCLA's Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC) and breakfast for all Summit attendees.

Emotional Regulation

Matt Lieberman, Ph.D. presented the opening session of the day, titled 'The Brain's Braking System'. Matt talked about the ways the brain regulates emotions, both the positive and negative and talked about strategies for managing emotions more effectively.

You can listen to the first few minutes of his presentation here:

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This session was followed by a panel session on the same topic, featuring Matt, Mark Goulston M.D. and Joan Fiore Ph.D.

Engagement

David Rock, co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute co-presented with Dr Yi-Yuan Tang, a session on the neuroscience of engagement. The session covered how to be more effective at collaborating with and influencing others for improved employee engagement, flow and motivation.

Social Pain and Pleasure

Following lunch, Naomi Eisenberger Ph.D. presented the latest findings from social cognitive neuroscience in relation to social pain and pleasure. Naomi identified some of the similarities between social and physical pain (from the physiological perspective), which identifies the importance of social connection for optimum performance.

You can listen to the first few minutes of Naomi's presentation here:

Making Change Stick

The Summit concluded with a panel discussion on what neuroscience can tell us about creating change and making it stick. Al Ringleb Ph.D., Dan Siegel, M.D. and Evian Gordon Ph.D. featured on the panel that was facilitated by David Rock.

Final Wrap Up

130 people from more than 17 countries converged on Los Angeles to take part in the 4th NeuroLeadership Summit. The event was a great success with outstanding feedback from participants. Here are a few of their highlights:

"This was truly an important event and is a long conversation which as barely begun"

"Compared with most conferences, access to speakers and researchers is fantastic at the Summit"

"Fantastic organization and food, great venue"

"The opportunities built into the conference to network and connect is outstanding"

"Thank you, what a wonderful gathering and opportunity to learn and grow!"

"Excellent conference I will definitely make it a priority to attend next year"

Audio recording from the Summit available now

If you missed the Summit and would like to catch up on what was covered, the entire conference was recorded and is now available for purchase.

2010 NeuroLeadership Summit - Hold the dates

Hold the dates for next year's Summit, which will be held in Boston from October 25 - 28. If you're interested in attending, then we invite you to complete the Expression of Interest Form. We look forward to seeing you next year!

NeuroLeadership Summit 2009 - Day Two Update

2009-10-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

Here's what happened on Day Two at the Summit...

Leadership Greats

Warren Bennis and Werner Erhard, two of the greats of leadership development opened day two with two very energetic and inspiring keynote addresses.

Warren spoke about stories of great

leadership and the importance of respect. Werner spoke about how language creates our world.

Listen to Warren speak about the importance of respect as leaders (4.07 min.):

Decision Making

Jonah Lehrer, a leading neuroscientist and best selling author of 'How We Decide' spoke about decision making and the cognitive struggle between the rational and other functions of the brain.

Listen to the first few minutes of his presentation here (5.

49 min.):

Creating Change

The breakout sessions after lunch focused on creating change. Art Kleiner and Cynthia Scott Ph.D. spoke about how organizational change happens. Evian Gordon Ph.D. took us through the emerging technologies for measuring and improving brain functioning at work and John Joseph and Dr Al Ringleb talked about change in schools.

Listen to Art Kleiner talk about what neuroscience brings to organizational change (2.27 min.):

Listen to Cynthia Scott talk about creating sustainability at Walmart using neuroscience (2.07 min.):

Getting Along with Others

Our final keynote of the day was with Marco Iacoboni Ph.D. a leading neuroscientist and neurologist and Professor at UCLA. Marco talked about how we know each other - social neuroscience and how the 'smart' cells in our brain allow us to understand others.

Listen to Marco talk about why knowing about social neuroscience and mirror neurons is important for leaders (0.54 min.):

Big ideas after dinner

There were two salons after dinner for those eager to learn even more. Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Art Kleiner ran a discussion on neuroscience and spirituality and Lone Frank Ph.D. explored the influence of the brain research on our understanding of self, ethics and other big issues.

Listen to Jeffery and Art talk about neuroscience and spirituality (2.24 min.): <

To hear all the presentations at this year's Summit, pre-order the audio recordings

If you couldn't make it, but would like to hear from some of the world's thought leaders in neuroscience and leadership, then pre-order your copy of the Summit recording now for only US$195. Available December.

NeuroLeadership Summit 2009 - Day One Update

2009-10-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here's what happened on day one at the Summit...

Planning future directions for the Institute

The day started at 10am with around 50 people joining Institute Directors David Rock and Dr Al Ringleb to discuss the future direction of the Institute. There were lots of great

ideas about refining the mission, vision and 2 year goals of the Institute, focusing on being the bridge between scientists and practitioners for breakthroughs in brain research that will further the field.

Great pre-Summit sessions

A suprisingly large amount of people joined Dr Naomi Eisenberger, Dr Al Ringleb, Dr Dan Radecki and David Rock, to discuss doing research in the NeuroLeadership field.

The people attended had the chance to plan and get feedback on new research projects and there was lots of energy around the idea of adding to existing studies rather than starting from scratch.

Dr Matt Lieberman presented some key neuroscience principles relating to leadership in his pre-conference session, Neuroscience 101 and John Joseph, Director of Focus Education shared his inspiring program for 'taking the brain to schools'.

Opening Dinner - Developing Mindful Leaders

Dr Daniel Siegel presented our opening keynote at dinner and spoke about the importance of mindfulness as a leader. In a very entertaining presentation Dan spoke about rigidity and chaos being the two main symptoms of almost all of today's problems in the workplace, as demonstrated by a vocal performance from a bunch of very brave Summit attendees!

Dan also spoke about the importance of leaders understanding the brain and leaders being integrators.

Listen to Dan speak about why it's important for leaders and organizations to know about the brain and what 'Leaders as Integrators' is all about:

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Pre-order the audio recordings from Summit 09

If you couldn't make it to the Summit, but would like to hear from some of the world's thought leaders in neuroscience and leadership, then pre-order your copy of the Summit recording now. Available December.

August 09 update

2009-07-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

The early bird for the summit has now closed, and already people from 17 different countries are planning to attend. We're delighted to see so many people from last year coming back again. If you're planning to attend we recommend booking early as the event is likely to sell out in September. Have created a brief video explaining this year's event, or read below.

The participants at these events are as fascinating as the speakers. The participants are people involved in fascinating and important projects, across organizational development, learning, education, leadership development, change management and coaching. If you are coming, we recommend clearing your calendar to be fully present, as it's a rare chance to meet so many fascinating people and immerse yourself in big ideas.

The theme for this year is 'Toward Integration'. This means linking the science closer to practice, and connecting the fields of neuroscience and leadership development in deeper ways. It's also about creating integration within an individual brain and amongst many brains.

This year the presenters are some of the most important thinkers from neuroscience, change and leadership development, including Daniel J Siegel, Warren Bennis and Werner Erhard.

We have also made some changes to make the event even more interactive and rich, including:
- Starting and finishing the summit focused on the theme of change.
- A session on brain assessments and brain training
- A poster session for anyone to present a case study, research or research plans
- A focus on educational tools for practitioners
- A time for practitioners to share with each other
- Two salon sessions in the evening for more philosophical discussion time

We have also ensured that there are only 4 sessions each day (plus the evening salons), with even more time for connecting with others within the sessions.

For more information see the summit website, or download the full program here.

Update on the 2009 summit in Los Angeles

2009-04-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to have some of the most brilliant minds of our time involved in this year's event, including these three:

Warren Bennis, One of the greats of leadership development

Werner Erhard, Founding father of the transformational leadership field

Daniel Siegel, Author of the best seller "The Developing Mind", co-director of UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Centre.

The theme this year is 'toward integration', and the sessions will be even more integrative than the highly acclaimed summits in 08. The topics this year also build on the previous year's insights, to provide an ongoing educational forum for senior change-agents from around the globe.

This is an event for people who are already making an impact in the world, and don't find that normal conferences provide new insights or the right level of networking. Many participants are involved in a broad range of wide scale and global change initiatives, inside or outside large organizations.

(Or to put it bluntly: I go to 30 conferences a year and rarely attend a session: this summit is specifically the topics I want to learn about now...) Few people out of 150 in NYC last year missed a single session.

Early bird registrations are open, til June 30 only. There are only 200 places at this event, so if you're keen we suggest you register early to reserve your place. We have people registered from 9 countries so far, including USA, UK, Canada, Peru, Australia, Netherlands, Brazil, Liechtenstein and Belgium.

The Summit 2009 brochure outlining a larger list of presenters and topics will be available in early May.

David Rock

2008 North American NeuroLeadership Summit Debrief

2008-11-08T11:09:00.001-08:00

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)

Making New Connections in Sydney

2008-09-27T22:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Asia Pacific/Sydney Summit Underway

2008-09-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

The NeuroLeadership Summit being held in Sydney, Australia is in full swing and we are wrapping it up today. The Keynotes and breakout sessions have held captive audiences as they learn more about how the brain works and how they can use this information to be better coaches, facilitators and managers of people.

View the Sydney program.

NY Summit Program Confirmed

2008-09-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

The program for the North American Summit being held in New York City is confirmed and Keynotes include:

Attention changes the brain

Know thyself: the latest science of mindfulness

Stay cool under pressure

The brain is a social animal

Drive change

Feel free to follow this link to download the NeuroLeadership NY Summit Program.

September 08 Update

2008-09-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

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.

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.

July 2008 update

2008-06-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

As of July 2008, the Summits in Sydney and NYC are taking shape nicely, with an amazing line-up of some of the world's leading researchers.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Jonah Lehrer, author of "Proust Was a Neuroscientist" and talk about his new book on making decisions and neuroscience generally. Jonah will be speaking at the NYC summit in October. It's a great thirty minute discussion, download it here.

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.

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.

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

To register of for more information see http://www.neuroleadership.org/

Update about 08 Summits - at February 2008

2008-02-22T01:30:00.004-08:00

Below is an update about the Sydney and NYC Summits, along with links to recent media about the field.

The 2008 Summits, in Sydney and New York City, are coming along well.
We opened for registration just before the end of the year and already a steady flow of people are booking a place.

A strong advisory board for the Summits is now place, which includes executives from American Express, AIG, Metlife, several neuroscentists, educators and consultants.
The editor of strategy+business, Art Kleiner, is confirmed as the facilitator for both Summits.

Most of the scientists needed for the event are now confirmed, and we are thrilled to have some of the top neuroscientists in the world attending both events, including the two people who are central in the Social Neuroscience world.

We have just confirmed that Henry Stapp will speak in NYC. Henry is one of the most important quantum physicists alive today. He studied with Wolfgang Pauli and has some big insights about attention and the brain.

We have also decided to have a pre-conference event the day before each Summit, which will focus on providing basic neuroscience information to the lay person.

You can see who is speaking, and follow the links to more information abut each speaker, and register, at the Summit website.

Note that the early bird price now closes June 30 for both Summits.

We are now finalizing sessions by leadership educators and others, and a call for papers has been opened.

We are looking for presenters who be part of the dialogue in either Sydney or NYC and help establish this new field. The call for papers is available for download here.
Please follow the instructions carefully if you wish to be involved, there will be selection panel etc. The call for papers closes March 28.

A full program for both events will be available online late March or early April.

There's been some good media about this emerging field, with an article in the Guardian in London.

And another in a leadership journal in Australia, Boss Magazine.

Another announcement will come out with the full program and as other information comes to hand throughout the year.

Announcement about the 2008 Summits

2007-10-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

The Summits have finally been confirmed

There will be two events:
Sydney will host a Summit on 10th and 11th September 2008.
New York City will host a Summit on 29th and 30th October.

See www.neuroleadership.org for details.

2007 Summit Debrief

2007-05-30T12:46:00.001-07:00

The Setting

Picture an ancient town atop a small mountain at the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy, in the midst of a warm spring. At the top of the hill is a 500 year old church and monastery, now coverted into an international graduate school of business. Now imagine 55 open-minded, high-powered thinkers from many corners of the globe, coming together to build a better science for leadership by integrating relevant neuroscientific research.

Day One
The Summit began with Arie De Geus, author of the Living Company. Arie explored how people think about the future, focusing on the role of language in giving us the ability to make decisions. While a senior executive at Royal Dutch Shell, Arie had built one of the first widescale scenario planning processes which became sought after by government and big business the world over.

Despite big investments in process and technology, decisions about the future seemed to be made simply through people talking to each other. This raised an important thread that ran throughout the Summit, of how conversation, or in neuroscience terms, focusing attention, creates real physical change.

Next was one of the world’s leading Quantum Physicists, Dr Henry Stapp, who studied under both Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli. Henry has been working with Dr Jeffrey Schwartz for nearly ten years to explain the impact of attention on the brain. (That's Henry with an 'uncertain hand' on the right.) In 2005, Henry and Jeff published one of the first scientific papers to explain the physical impact of attention on the brain

Dr Stapp explained how Newtonian Mechanics was the science of objects, whereas Quantum Mechanics is the 'science of ideas'. As the science of ideas, Quantum Mechanics is ideal for understanding how ideas interact, in the physical world. Henry laid the foundation for one of the central session of the Summit, on how attention changes the brain.

After lunch in the warm sun in the courtyard of CIMBA, the sponsoring university, we heard from Jeffrey Schwartz M.D. Jeff spoke about how attention changes the brain, through the act of the ‘impartial spectator’, a term first coined by Adam Smith. Jeff introduced an important formula for change in the brain, which operates at an individual through to system level. This formula came out of years of discussion with Henry Stapp and more recently through discussions with leadership consultant David Rock. This new formula for change is based on the interaction between attention density, expectations and our ability to ‘veto’ specific mental processes.

Finally on day one we heard from Dr Robert 'this wont hurt a bit' Coghill, a world expert on pain research. Dr Coghill showed us how pain is an excellent model for exploring differences in experience, the so called ‘Qualia’ problem. Coghill illustrated experiments where the same pain stimuli were rated at between 1.8 to 8.9 on a scale of 1-10, showing how individual even the simplest experiences can be. He illustrated conclusively through a series of experiments how a ‘dose’ of expectations can literally have the same impact on pain as a common dosage of morphine. He explored how we might set expectations more effectively based on his findings. This is an important area for further study.

Day Two
Day two began with a session by Dr Yiyuan Tang, one of the most respected scientists in China, and the government representative on the human brain project. Dr Tang presented neuroscientific research showing how Eastern and Western brains process even the simplest events differently: Eastern brains focusing more on context and Western on detail. He illustrated several other important findings, finishing with a piece on how our cognitive functions decrease when we experience emotional stress.

Next we heard from Dr Mark Jung-Beeman, a world expert in the study of insight. Mark explained the specific brain anatomy and processes involved in the insight experience. He illustrated how we need significant cognitive control to have insight, especially to help suppress accidental connections that might be inhibiting new solutions.

Mark explained how the quiet brain is more likely to have insight, and how people who were happier were having significantly more insights. He said he could tell even before a person began an exercise whether they were likely to have an insight or not, based on their brain patterns.

Another feature of the Summit in the afternoon of day two was the session on the 'social brain’ presented jointly by David Rock (left) and Jeffrey Schwartz, with interviews recorded for the event with two of the most eminent social neuroscientists Dr Matt Lieberman (UCLA) and Dr Kevin Ochsner (Columbia). David and Jeff showed how the brain is a 'social animal', and how many of our responses to the world are driven by social factors. They explored the way our cognitive capacities decrease during amygdala over-arousal, and how social pain was activating similar brain areas as physical pain.

The final session on day two was David Rock's interactive session on the 'neuroscience of influence'. David began to weave the insights of the first two days into a more cohesive whole. He explained that having a physical theory to explain intuitive approaches to leadership was not a small matter, but a major leap in our ability to improve leadership.

David said that using a neuroscience theory base for leadership programs was contributing significantly to getting organizational leaders to focus their attention on human issues, and opening up new ways of thinking about driving change and learning. David then used the neuroscience presented to explain why our capacity to influence others is so low and how we can increase it significantly by better understanding the brain.

Day Three
Day three began with an open session in the courtyard, with the group being warmed by the morning sun rising from behind the mountain. Everyone got to share what they were experiencing and their thoughts about the ideas being presented.

The focus of day three was 'application', starting with young people, moving to university education and then to leadership in organizations.

We first heard from Jaimie Cloud, an expert in K-12 education. Jaimie is teaching kids in hundreds of schools across the globe to think in new ways, to think about complete systems and sustainability, and is working in partnership with Peter Senge. Jaimie presented a provocative session about the need to give children new mental models for understanding the world.

Next Al Ringleb, the director of CIMBA the sponsoring university, along with several key CIMBA faculty, presented their approach to using neuroscience across their year-long MBA and undergraduate programs. CIMBA is the first university in the world to use neuroscience to develop future leaders.

Over lunch, Nicolas Gorjestani from the World Bank shared some inspiring stories of change within the bank, and Siobhan McHale shared the ANZ Bank's journey to transform culture across thousands of employees in their 'Breakout' program.

Next we heard from Cheryl Doggett, the director of learning and development at EDS, a Fortune 100 technology firm. EDS has been training thousands of leaders in coaching skills in the last few years, using a coaching model that is directly based on an understanding of the brain.

The final session of day three was by John Case, the CEO of Electrolux Home Products, North America. John introduced his approach to leadership, showing how an understanding of the brain explains the success of his 'Focus, Accountability, Teamwork' model.

We finished day three by exploring the future of these ideas, how we will set up an institute and journal, and discussing next year’s event, which will be around the same time early May, again in Asolo, (by a significant majority vote!)

Acknowledgments
Big thanks go to:
• The CIMBA team for a fabulous three days of entertainment.
• Art Kleiner, editor of strategy+business magazine (right) for his masterful facilitation and weaving together of the ideas.
• Summit sponsors CIMBA, strategy+business magazine, Results Coaching Systems, Thinking Dimensions and Rapport Leadership.

A final acknowledgment goes to all the Summit participants (left), whose passion and intellect made the event an amazing journey for everyone involved. (Rumor has it that exactly 40% of Summit participants were still together at 2am on the last night of the event.)

Doing further study
There is a new audio summary of the event as a podcast which may be of interest. Then there are many resources listed within this website, including suggested books, articles, and scientific papers. A set of DVD's will be available later in the year of the key sessions from the event, email info@neuroleadership,org to be notified of when these are available. A Journal is being planned for release at the 2008 Summit.

If you would like to be on a general mailing list about news and events relating to this field, email info@neuroleadership.org with the subject line as 'mailing list'.

NeuroLeadership Summit 2008
If you'd like to feel as deeply satisfied as the people in the picture on the right relaxing on the day after the Summit, then email info@neuroleadership.org with the subject line as '2008 Summit' to get an early notice about registration for the next Summit. Places will be limited to 50 participants in 2008, and the dates will be roughly the same time, early to mid May.

NeuroLeadership Institute - Research focuses

2007-05-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

The NeuroLeadership Institute is being formed to coordinate research that connects neuroscience and leadership development. The Institute is being housed initially at CIMBA, in Italy, though other universities are invited to participate as well.

The expected areas of research include (an incomplete list) the following domains:
• Attention research: exploring how attention itself creates change in one and many brains
• Innovation: Understanding the physiology of insight and how to better solve complex challenges
• Critical thinking: understanding the physiology of problem solving and decision making
• Expectation research: how our expectations impact perception
• The social brain: the science of how we influence each other
• Cultural issues
• Systemic application of all the above areas
• The neuroscience of engagement and employee retention
• The neuroscience of career development

A Journal will be published which will with the first edition released at the 2008 NeuroLeadership Summit.

Speaker web links

2007-05-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Schwartz, Summit Co-Director
David Rock, Summit Co-Director
Art Kleiner, Summit Facilitator
Al Ringleb, Director of Sponsoring University
Arie De Geus
Henry Stapp
Dr Yiyuan Tang
Robert Coghill
Mark Jung Beeman
John Case
Cheryl Doggett
Jaimie Cloud
Dr Matt Lieberman (On video)
Dr Kevin Ochsner (On video)

2008 NeuroLeadership Summit

2007-05-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

The 2008 NeuroLeadership Summits have been announced!
See neuroleadership.org for details.

Scientific papers

2007-05-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

Scientific papers

Here are some of the main scientific papers, or web links to papers, that were discussed at the Summit. This list will be updated considerable during June as the Summit wrap-up is completed.

Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Henry Stapp on the Quantum Mechanics of Attention
Dr. Mark Jung Beeman on insight
Dr. Robert Coghill on expectations
Dr. Yiyuan Tang on cultural differences
Matt Leiberman's - Social neuroscience lab
Kevin Ochsner's social neuroscience lab

Video, books, magazines and audio

2007-05-22T05:51:00.000-07:00

Here are general resources to further explore ideas from the Summit.

Video of the event
The main sessions at the Summit have been professionally recorded, for release in the 2nd half of 2007 either online or as a DVD set. If you are interested in finding out about these when they are available please email info@neuroleadership.org with the subject line 'DVD Set'. You will then get a note when pricing and ordering details are finalized.

Books by Summit Presenters
The Living Company - Arie De Geus
The Mind and the Brain - Jeffrey Schwartz
The Mindful Universe - Henry Stapp
Quiet Leadership - David Rock
Who Really Matters - Art Kleiner

Some of the better general books on the brain
The Human Mind - Robert Winston
The Users Guide to the Brain - John Ratey
Mind Wide Open - Steven Johnson
On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins

Magazine articles
The Neuroscience of Leadership, strategy+business, Summer 2006
Why Neuroscience matters to executives, strategy+business, April 2007
The New Science of Change, cover story in CIO magazine 206
A Brain Based Approach to Coaching - International Journal of Coaching in Organizations

Audio recordings
strategy+business webinar with Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and David Rock
Interview with David Rock at the NYC launch of Quiet Leadership
John Case on his FAT leadership system
David Rock on a 'Brain based Approach to Coaching'
David Rock on NeuroLeadership and the Global 2008 Summits