The nomadic leadership journey is one of adaptation,
adjustment & awareness of two worlds:
the internal world of our thinking and the external world where our
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 in this
case whether it was culturally or
personality based it occurred to me that behind both is a common
denominator...
…the brain
Reflecting on that meeting, I realized with greater clarity 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 therefore transform our
thinking as leaders. As you think, so
you behave.
We often limit ours and others’ ability to adapt because we
claim “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:
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, small streams begin to
form. Continual learning and experiences
add more streams on the open landscape of your brain. Confirmations & affirmations of your
learning serve to deepen those streams into rivers of thought. Patterns are formed. 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.
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 (called ‘confirmation bias’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias ) . Not
to excuse it, but this is actually related to brain physiology. It takes less physical energy to process
something that can be channelled into one of those existing rivers. Think of it this way – your brain is like a
computer with a hard drive and RAM. The
RAM, your frontal cortex, is where executive functioning, working memory and new
learning take place. While it is only
about 4-7% of your brain, it consumes the most physical energy. This part of the brain is fussy, limited and
energy intensive, so the brain prefers to ‘hardwire’ information as much as
possible. Therefore without intentional effort
when confronted with new information or situations, we will default to what we
already know. We go to where the pathway
takes less energy – the stored learning in the hard drive. That’s
why learning new skills or perspectives as we age get harder (but not
impossible).
Getting back to the rivers of thinking analogy, after a time
the rivers become deeper and form canyons.
They become opinions, prejudices, positions, perspectives, and
worldviews. Once deep enough and left unchallenged, 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.
This reality played out in my partnership meeting. A partner was fixed in their thinking and had
a hard time looking out and over the walls of the 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 interacting with and making sense of the world. 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.
Here are some self-coaching questions to use when you
encounter a very different perspective. Let them help you begin the process of
starting a new stream of thought & learning:
- What is the issue I am facing at this moment where my approach or thinking is not producing the outcome I want?
- How am I trying to solve this? How effective is my strategy?
- If I could get into the mind of the person on the ‘other side of the table/issue’, how might they be thinking about this? What questions can I ask them to gain this understanding?
- What perspective will I need to take to see this issue differently so that I can think in new ways about it?
- What simple strategies can I employ to get me thinking in a new way about this issue? Who can help me accomplish this?
Speaking from the cross cultural contexts I am part of,
ethnic culture needs to be both honored and challenged. While on the one hand it provides a person community,
security and a sense of ‘place’, it also bears limitations because it can
restrict the potential of discovering and implementing a new way.
There is a trans-cultural way of thinking, and I propose to
you it is 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
challenges humanity 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 or by great coaching. Only the presence and the power of the One
who crafted your brain can come alongside you and affect true transformation
that gets you ‘out of yourself’ and focused on the interests of others rather
than just your own.
I do coach people using a brain- based approach. My approach is to 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, renew a relationship. However
what I can never do is help you approach life and this world from a trans-cultural,
divine, other-centered perspective. Only by following the way of Jesus can you accomplish
that. He will 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
Visiontracks Facilitation and Coaching
harvey@visiontracks.ca
403 970 4148
