Whole Brain New Year Resolutions

Ever played with styrofoam gliders when you were young? I remember that when I was 10, I had a Stuka dive-bomber, a Brewster Buffalo and a P-51 Mustang (my favourite!). Assembling them was simple enough, and once the plastic nose with the propeller blade was attached, the glider is airborne. Slicing through the air, the glider cuts a sleek silhouette, and as it encounters mounting resistance, it loses speed and momentum, and quickly it hits the ground in less than 4 seconds flat after take-off.

Sound like what happens to New Year Resolutions? New Year's eve and THE LIST is out:

• No more showing up late for work
  
• No more smoking
• No more snacking in between meals
  
• No more procrastination
  
• No more delays in taking out the trash etc

By the 3rd or 4th day of the New Year, the list finds its way into the litter bin in the study. 2007 perhaps....Familiar right? Been there, done that too from over here. Over here, we are human too.

Keeping resolutions is problematic because of the approach we take. Knowing WHY we need to break a bad habit is NOT sufficient enough. Consider the fact that anyone with half an education recognises the hazards of smoking:

• Smoking is a primary cause of lung cancer
• Passive smoking affects non-smokers' health
• Smoking is an expensive habit; smokers generally pay higher insurance premiums

Yet, one only needs to look around to see that smokers are still around.

Over here at Trailblazer Trainers, we use the Whole Brain Thinking approach, pioneered by Ned Herrmann. Creator of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Ned recognised 4 different thinking styles or what he called 'brain dominance', in the wake of neuroscientific research in the 1960s. These styles are:

• Rational thinking (What Ned called the L1 -Left1 style)
  
• Organised thinking (the L2- Left 2 style)
  
• Emotional/Interpersonal thinking (the R2-the Right 2 style)
  
• Holistic/Imaginative thinking (the R1- the Right 1 style)
  

The HBDI(and the other thinking preference instruments which we use: the Emergenetics and the Neethling Brain Instruments suite) measures the degree in which individuals prefer to use these styles. One result of using these instruments is that people begin to utilise their less-preferred thinking styles, so that they can better analyse situations and create solutions to these situations with a Whole Brain approach.

Rational thinking allows us to know WHY we need to keep a New Year resolution. However, we have a higher chance of success, if we use the other Thinking Styles to help us. Using the Holistic/Imaginative thinking style, we can VISUALISE the desired goal, when we finally achieve the New Year resolution. Essentially, this thinking style offers us the 'WHAT IF' (Athletes use visualisation techniques as part of their psychological preparations for competitions)

So in the case of our smoker friend, he can visualise several possibilities: that he finds that he is generally healthier, that more of his non-smoking friends connect with him more often, that he is able to afford that hi-fi set he has his eye on finally because of the savings from not smoking. Using Holistic/Imaginative thinking style, he can also brainstorm various ways he can take to get to his desired goal eg. to check himself into an addiction clinic or to go 'cold-turkey' himself.

Our smoker friend can then use Organised thinking style to help chart out HOW he wants to get there. This style helps him map out the structure of his habit-kicking venture. If he is checking himself into a clinic, then he will first have to find out the cost, duration etc, and then work out things at work.

Finally, he can use the Emotional/Interpersonal thinking style to think about WHO will benefit from his success and also WHOM he can call on to help him remain focused on keeping the New Year resolution. Even Roger Bannister called on 2 pacers: Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway to help him in running the mile in under 4-minutes, back in 1954. By sharing with them our New Year resolutions, people around us are a powerful force to help us succeed in keeping our New Year resolutions.

With that, New Year greetings from all of us at Trailblazer Trainers.

Noel Tan
Resident Philosopher

Rebuilding

Today is Dec 26 2006, a full year after the Asian Tsunami tragedy. If time heals all wounds, then it is obvious that for many survivors, 365 days is not enough. Not even with the largest reconstruction aid budget in the history of Man. Not even with the world's leaders weighing in with their immense influence to make sure that things happen. Whilst the rebuilding process of habitation and settlements began in earnest in the days right after the disaster, it is the rebuilding of hearts and lives that is this post's focus.

The process of rebuilding lives and relationships, destroyed and displaced abruptly, is especially traumatising, where entire villages taken with the exception of 1 or 2 individuals. It is about pressing on without the people who were the anchors and hope of one's endeavours: parents, spouses, children and neighbours. It is about continuing on without the laughter of travelling companions, who were once there. It is tough because of the grief and the heavy hearts that are left to deal with the loss.

It is especially because of the trauma, that we stand humbled at the fortitude and quiet determination of those thousands of survivors along the Indian Ocean coastlines to move on and rebuild. There are many lessons we can learn from their rebuilding experiences, of which 3 are as follows:

1. Re-focusing
The rebuilding process involves activity, but activity without focus is not action. Survivors tell of how they chose to look at their circumstances and decided that they remained on earth for a purpose. Essentially, they saw that their life was half-full, rather than half-empty.
And they focused their energies to discovering and fulfilling that purpose.

2. Re-energising
We read about the amazing story of an Indian couple who lost all their 3 children to the tsunami. As they re-focused, they discovered that their purpose was to help other families who had lost children to rebuild their lives through a counselling programme. Along the way, they also adopted children who were left orphaned. By helping others regain their focus, we too will be re-energised to face those challenges.

3. Remembering
Through the many stories heard from those who have rebuilt their lives more successfully, we see that they have not chosen to block out the event fully. Instead, they chose to remember the pre-tsunami phase of their lives spent with those they had lost: Parents remembering cuddling their children, lovers walking on beaches, wives helping with the catch once the fishermen husbands returned etc. Of course, there would be moments of grief and regret when one remembers. But, it is certainly easier on the mind to deal with trauma in this way, rather than to block the event from memory, ignoring the natural emotion of sadness and preventing the healing passage of time from taking its course.

As we stand at the threshold of 2006, we owe the survivors of the Asian tsunami heartfelt thanks for being teachers even in their loss. Our constant prayers should go to God, to be with them in the days ahead.

Noel Tan
Resident Philosopher

The Journey Inwards

"Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing." - Warren Bennis, Ph.D, On Becoming A Leader

It probably isn't a coincidence that the first proper blog entry of Trailblazer Trainers is on Leadership. What better contribution to the theme is Warren Bennis' quote, even as the latest groundswell of negative publicity surfaces around the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). Government-appointed auditors, KPMG, released their report 2 days ago, providing a no-holds-barred, critical analysis into the inner workings of one of Singapore's more prominent charities.

Certainly, it is most damning to learn that the monthly contributions of thousands of hardworking Singaporeans did NOT go to subsidise the various kidney dialysis patients on NKF's rolls. Instead, Singaporeans woke up yesterday to discover that their hard-earned money went to pay for excesses and self-aggrandisement of key decision-makers in the NKF and only marginally to the benefit of their less-fortunate Singaporeans.

How did it all happen in squeaky-clean Singapore? Well, in the case of the NKF, it all came down to slick marketing, creative representation of figures and perhaps a good dose of dubious management motivations.

Which brings us to the heart of Bennis' quote: the key distinctive quality of a leader is in his or her focus, determination, belief, call it what you will, to do the RIGHT thing. Certainly, going by the quote, the ex-CEO of the NKF would not have done RIGHT by the people who depended on his decisions: the kidney patients, the clinical & clerical staff of NKF and if we extend it a little further, the various other charities who serve other causes. With all these revelations, there is little wonder that other charities are having difficulties raising funds in the aftermath of this fiasco.

Even if we examine the performance of the ex-CEO and the previous board of directors in the light of the first half of the quotation, I have serious misgivings that they even could be counted as managers. Fund-raising became the primary competency of the NKF, rather than providing professional and affordable care for kidney dialysis patients.

We at Trailblazer Trainers, believe the heart of any organisation reflects the heart of its leaders. This philosophy forms an integral part of our Leadership programmes. Each and every leader, aspiring or current, must take that Journey Inwards to constantly refine his or her motives; to keep the pure, the right, the noble. The Leader must discard the rest, like a farmer removes the chaff from the wheat. (By the way, I got the phrase 'The Journey Inwards' from Batman Begins - what Ras Al Ghul told Bruce Wayne.)

I leave you with 2 other quotes, which leaders should do well to bear in mind:

1. 'Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.' - Lord Acton.
2. 'Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.' - Abraham Lincoln.

The frontiers of the Journey Inwards is what each and every one of us must breach. Only in the Crossing of our individual Frontiers, do we become better than we were the day before.

Noel Tan
Resident Philosopher
(* All text is copyright of Trailblazer Trainers Pte Ltd)

First Post

We're currently updating our website and including a blog in it.

Here, we hope to share insights to topics we're passionate about:

• thinking
• learning
• team effectiveness
• leadership

It's our hope that these insights might also broaden your horizons as we cross these frontiers together!

Brenda Tan
Mrs. Philosopher