The science of thinking smarter

The Harvard Business Review has this excellent take on neuroscience and management by Dr John Medina in The science of thinking smarter. In the article some telling statements are made about the appropriateness of so-called brain based management:

"... there’s a lot of hype about the benefits that recent developments in brain science might bring—for example, the popular notion that executives can become better leaders by emulating the “management” secrets of the human brain. Unfortunately, if you truly emulated the management secrets of the brain, you would create an organization that ran something like the stock-market floor in the closing minutes of Black Friday."

and ...

"I would encourage businesspeople to be a little bit skeptical about what they read in the popular press. Occasionally, I’ll pick up an article in a magazine that says the new brain science can improve the practice of business, and I’ll say, “Really?” I speak several dialects of brain science and feel comfortable in behavioral, cellular, and molecular biology, and I know very little about how brain science can yet be applied to business. Obviously we all have brains and we use them all the time in business. But it’s just too early to tell how the revolution in neuroscience is going to affect the way executives run their organizations."

I believe that these statements are as true for school education as they are for management practices. Both education and management consultants have jumped on the brainwagon and are riding it for all they're worth - and through the gullibility of their clients, they're worth a lot (pun intended).

Dr Medina nevertheless has some established facts that he considers potentially useful for executives (teachers also take note!):

The effect of stress

He points out that the that the brain and the body are adapted to deal with acute stress, but not with chronic stress. The hippocampus is especially vulnerable to the effects of stress, which leads to decreases in cognitive performance in highly stressed people. This of course must impact on the performance of stressed managers. Dr Medina indicates that neuroscience cannot yet predict which people will be resilient to the effects of stress, but is starting to develope some idea of the genetic makeup of stress vulnerable people.

Is memory reliable?

According to Dr Medina, the brain is geared to survival and will therefore change the perception of reality to serve the purpose of survival. The brain does not record reality reliably, but both short and long term memory are easily modifiable. The way to "fix" long term memory is through repetition, specifically elaborative rehearsal.

Are our childhood experiences our destiny?

Education has many meaningless slogans, but Dr Medina shows that one at least is true: "We are lifelong learners". He points out the greater optimism currently about brain plasticity up to old age. Activity and stimulation rewires and expands the brain. The implication is that our childhood experiences do not determine our destiny. This is a very complex issue, however, and may need to be looked into in more detail in future posting.

Is exercise good for the brain?

Medina strongly supports exercise as beneficial for brain health, specifically because of the benefit to the vascular system. He indicates that the majority of Alzheimer's cases are probably not genetic, but rather the result of multiple minor infarcts.

Is there merit in psychological testing, such as the Myers-Briggs?

Here again a direct quote from Dr Medina seems appropriate:

"I have a very specific objection to how these tests are sometimes hyped. I’ve heard people claim that tests such as Myers-Briggs are based on “sound neurological principles”—that brain science proves their validity, or even that these tests were designed with brain science in mind. The fact is that most of these tests—including IQ tests—were developed long before we knew very much about how the brain processes anything."