The nomadic leadership journey is one of adaptation,
adjustment & awareness of 2 worlds: the
internal world of our thinking and the external world where that thinking
interacts with people and the environment.
Here’s an example. I
am a part of a few cross-cultural partnerships.
In one recent meeting we had a great outcome, but our process revealed some
deeply-set thinking. This is typical of
most meetings and with all people, but as I tried to discern whether in this
case it was cultural or personality-based it occurred to me
that behind both is a common denominator...the BRAIN.
Reflecting on that
meeting, one realization I came to is that whether something we hold to is defined
as a cultural value or a personality characteristic, our behaviour towards
each other can change because our brains can change. We can transform our thinking as leaders.
We create limiting borders for ourselves and others when we make claims such as: "it’s
their culture”, or “that is how they are wired”. While there is truth underlying those
declarations, it is a limiting truth.
For clarity:
For clarity:
Culture is a shared pattern of thinking and behaviour, which is
developed and reinforced by a person’s ethnic group. Geert Hofstede refers to culture as the “collective
programming of the mind”
Personality has a genetic component but also is the unique software
of the brain developed and nurtured while interacting with the world around us. Bio-physical influences, social teachers,
environmental systems, experiences and more all contribute to defining and then
rooting our personality.
Both culture and personality are developed as our brain
interacts with our surroundings. Over
time we develop certain patterns which can then be hard to shake. Think of your brain development in this way: As an infant, your brains’ neural pathways
were like a wide sheet of water on a flat plain. As you developed & processed information, small streams began to
form. Continual learning and experiences
added more streams on the open landscape
of your brain. Confirmations &
affirmations consistent with your thinking then served to deepen those streams into
rivers. Ongoing learning and experience
is then framed by, or channeled into these existing rivers, because that’s
easier to do than creating new streams of thinking. That’s why learning new skills or perspectives
as we age gets harder (but not impossible).
Soon, however, those rivers become deeper and form
canyons. Once deep enough, it’s difficult to see out to a
new horizon. The multiple vistas that
were available to us when we were younger now take a lot more energy to see,
let alone process.
If you are honest you will notice in yourself that you tend to seek out learning, opinions and people that confirm or align with what you already know & perceive (confirmation bias). Not to excuse it, but this is actually related to a brain physiology issue; it takes less physical energy to process something that can be channeled into one of those existing rivers. Think of it this way – your brain is like a computer with a hard disk and RAM. Your RAM, the frontal cortex, is where new learning takes place. While it is only about 4-7% of your brain, it consumes the most physical energy. So, where will we default? Where the pathway takes less energy – the stored learning in the hard disk, not the new learning.
Soon, however, those rivers become deeper and form
canyons. Once deep enough, it’s difficult to see out to a
new horizon. The multiple vistas that
were available to us when we were younger now take a lot more energy to see,
let alone process.If you are honest you will notice in yourself that you tend to seek out learning, opinions and people that confirm or align with what you already know & perceive (confirmation bias). Not to excuse it, but this is actually related to a brain physiology issue; it takes less physical energy to process something that can be channeled into one of those existing rivers. Think of it this way – your brain is like a computer with a hard disk and RAM. Your RAM, the frontal cortex, is where new learning takes place. While it is only about 4-7% of your brain, it consumes the most physical energy. So, where will we default? Where the pathway takes less energy – the stored learning in the hard disk, not the new learning.
This 'hard wired' analogy played out in my partnership meeting. A partner was fixed in their thinking and had
a hard time looking out and over that canyon.
It was far easier for this person to bring everything into their canyon
to interpret it from that perspective. In my default mode, I do exactly the same
thing.
Our cultures, our personality and our training all give us a
framework for life. This is necessary because
we all need some lens through which to initially interpret life. But let’s acknowledge that much of our
thinking exists in a few canyons we have dug out over years and years of
processing life in a certain way.
Getting out and abandoning those ways entirely is not really
possible, BUT it is possible to start a new stream, a new neural pathway.
Speaking to the cross cultural contexts I am in, ethnic
culture needs to be both honored and challenged. While on one hand it provides a leader with community, security and a sense of ‘place’, it also bears limitations. There is a trans-cultural way of thinking,
found in the teachings and ways of Jesus.
Following His ways does not lead a person to abandon culture or
personality so much as it leads us to think & act above those ‘canyons’
we have created.
God calls us to be ‘transformed by the renewing of our minds’. Our Creator wired our brains and knows we can
get fixed in destructive or limiting thinking.
So, is the answer to think
your way into transformation? Afraid
not! We all need Divine help because
quite simply, our thinking is affected by a universally shared selfishness that
defines ‘me’ as the center of reality.
That can’t be fully overcome independently. Only the presence and the power of the One
who crafted your brain can come alongside you and affect true transformation.
I coach people using a brain- based approach. I help you to think about your thinking so
that you can create new neural pathways in order to move forward in some aspect
of your life. I have seen this help
people transform their thinking to take a significant new step in their
business, pursue a dream, make a career shift.
What I could never do is help you approach life and this world from a
trans-cultural, divine perspective.....only following the way of Jesus can
accomplish that. He can transform you by
the renewing of your mind.
For information on a brain-based coaching approach or on the
way Jesus can fully transform your mind & life, contact me at:
Harv Matchullis
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| harvey@visiontracks.ca - www.visiontracks.ca |
