I will ask you simple and I think obvious question: what is missing Belarusian manufacturers to ensure that our products have become competitive? What you need to add in the educational process of our teachers and educators so that graduates of schools and institutions became a star in scientific circles. How to make so that the roads do not have any traffic, and housing should not become a “copy-paste” numerous grey socket? The answer to all these questions is, in fact, one: it’s time to start thinking.
“Stop wasting public money!”, “Are our producers can’t create something of their own?”, “The competition will appear only when you begin to move the gray matter, and not blindly (and foolishly) copy!” — calls to include brains and to see the world in a new way of flying to the masses from the stands of the government, due to the teacher’s Desk, from the lips of business leaders. But the result is usually zero. Why? We will now discuss.
As more and more countries are entering the stage of information society, it becomes obvious that the success of individuals and States in the present and the future depends not on resources, but from our thinking. From the point of view of neurophysiology, there are several “command centers” that can take different decisions depending on the conditions. Therefore, one and the same person, as the saying goes, can think of different places. And the effectiveness of thinking very much depends on what we think. Speaking simplistically, you can think of the subcortex (amygdala), imitate (mirror neurons) or to think consciously (prefrontal cortex).
Get ready for what’s next we will have a lot to read and a lot to think about. Go!
In the depths of the temporal lobe is the amygdala (not the one in the throat). It is the most ancient command center, which is involved in reactions to stress, aggression, fear. His motto is: “Just to survive”. It is activated in the face of pressure, stress, hierarchical threats, dangerous unpredictability. The amygdala is triggered automatically and very quickly, often even before the person has time to ever realize that. All of her possible reactions is genetically hard-coded and stacked in five ways to respond to the situation (5F): stopping to look around (freezing), nervous behavior (fidget), run away (flight), fight (fight), and if all else fails, freeze and play dead, to fall into a daze (faint). Nothing more people under stress can’t figure out if the command in his brain are intercepted by the amygdala. Moreover, such a person does not accept criticism, often behaving inappropriately and ignores long-term consequences of their actions. The more active the brain, the amygdala, the stronger suppressed the prefrontal cortex.
The stronger the “twisted nuts”, increasing the pressure, the uncertainty, the more excited amygdala. Therefore, under stress all creativity disappears and remains in the head only to escape, to hit, to pretend to be dead.” Of course, such thinking of an animal worked in the stone age, but now this is clearly not enough. People who are anxious to “hit first”, or to “not bent”, the show cave way of thinking. In today’s complex world, it no longer works. If instead of working moments you hear the heart-rending conversations about the status, stability, interpersonal relations (respect), fairness, independence, you can be sure that reaching out to the cortex of your brain, and the amygdala. Threats can be made to plow the field, but not to innovate.
The following command structure is mirror neurons, which are distributed across temporal, parietal and frontal lobes. These nerve cells, as their name implies, are involved in the recognition processes of emotions and actions of other people and their repetition. Because imitation and copying is the easiest way to learn something new. It is the mirror neurons are responsible for learning. Even the ancients knew that the best way of learning is a joint work with the person that owns the skill.
Unfortunately, imitation is faltering, if we are talking about complex systems. Copying without understanding the process degenerates into a ridiculous parody. The most amusing example of the blind copy is a “cargo cult” — a special religion that arose in Melanesia during the Second world war. On these Islands were temporarily housed military airfields of the United States, while the natives got a large part of humanitarian aid. After leaving the military there was a cult: the natives believe that Western goods were created by ancestral spirits and rituals, which are similar to the actions of white people to receive humanitarian assistance. The natives are built of palm trees and straw copies of the airports, towers, and aircraft. On the towers are on duty “managers” who listen to “spirits” through a straw headphones. Now the expression “cargo cult” is used when people blindly copy symptoms without understanding the internal driving forces of a phenomenon. That is why it is ridiculous are the appeals to the Belarusian enterprises to “copy” the Western experience. Unfortunately, blind imitation will not work.
Another “bug” mirror neurons is our innate tendency to copy the behavior of others. To ancient people this provided the coordination group members during the big game hunting and in warfare. But in modern society, a strong cohesion of the team could dearly cost him. If conformism is stronger than the desire to make the right decision, people tend to be group thinking, to be “all”.
To understand that you are in the trap of groupthink (think “all”), will help the following characteristics: the illusion of the infallibility of the group, ignoring the consequences of their actions, secrecy environment, hatred of opponents, the desire for unanimity, the charge of disloyalty by any member of the group who questioned her decisions, accepting silence as consent, and some others. Paradoxically, each of the members of the group can reasonably think separately, but if a collective discussion is the main cohesion of the team or the authority of the leader, then the General solution of the group may be on the order of stupid decisions by individual member of the group. So to “solve the world” will not help to think correctly, and the uniformity of opinions — a sure sign of the wrong path.
Following our “thinking” — the prefrontal cortex. If you look at yourself in the mirror, we can see that humans have no fangs, scales, poison or wings. We have survived and conquered the world due to the ability to come up with “innovations” — new knowledge, which helped to change the world. All this became possible thanks to the most advanced part of our brain. The prefrontal cortex is our “human” command center, which is located right behind the frontal bone. That is the prefrontal cortex makes us human, it plays a major role in creativity, the creation of complex cognitive schemas, decision-making, ability to take criticism and to learn from their and others ‘ mistakes. Civilization arose due to the ability of people to invent new solutions and maintain mutually beneficial ties with its neighbors, compromise instead of confrontation.
The best conditions for the work of the prefrontal cortex are created, if you encourage open dialogue, critical thinking, debates, controversy. Of course, very important is the absence of constant stress and hard limits, which are often mistaken for discipline. The prefrontal cortex is closely connected with the identity, so the passion, professionalism, autonomy, individual assessment of work and domestic responsibility are conducive to creative thinking and innovation. The higher the interest and love of the work, the more flexible and innovative will be the thinking.
All these techniques are known from ancient times. That is why the advent of democracy coincided with the flourishing of culture, science and military Affairs. Small and competing Greek city not only laid the Foundation of modern Western civilization, but also to protect her, defeating the vastly superior forces of the Persian army. The story includes the phrase “hit, but listen”, and it is thanks to the ability to listen and to negotiate it was to win a decisive battle.
This is why IT companies create the best conditions for activity of the prefrontal cortex from their employees. Encouraged openness, the simultaneous existence of different points of view, individuality, allowing you to avoid the errors of groupthink. Employees are afforded a wide level of freedom: remote work and flexible schedule opportunities to experiment and anti-stress offices. Encouraged self-education, and the expression “most intelligent” is a compliment and also devoid of negative connotations, which can be heard in hierarchical structures. Also important is the fact that productivity has a much higher loyalty. The lack of a rigid hierarchy, active working groups and open discussion of projects, the search for a compromise in negotiations customers and providers improve cognitive abilities and contribute to the growth of productivity.
Thus, for productive and creative thinking that gives birth to the innovation, it is important to create a permissive environment. Even the most intelligent people, placed in the environment of stress, prohibitions, secrecy, conformism and of fear, can not come up with anything worthwhile. You can get people to fear, but you cannot make him think. And if you begin a conversation about innovation, do remember the dilemma: obedient frightened employee without initiative or productive creative nonconformist innovator?
