Recently I discovered a book by Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D., called, "Make Your Brain Smarter". Dr. Chapman is the Chief Director at the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas. It is a book designed to help you increase your brain's creativity, energy, and focus. In it, it will teach you nine habits to keep your brain fit at any age, it includes unique tests and exercises to improve your problem-solving and higher-reasoning capacity, and help you discover how to become a higher brain performer. These benefits not only help us as individuals, but just as importantly, it gives us our greatest capacity as innovators in our businesses, places of work, as students, and as family and community members. You can order the book
here. And you can visit her website
here
Below I have shared with you my notes from the book:
Establishing a brain bench-mark is important. It is a baseline to measure against with future brain evaluations. Also, if weaknesses are identified, you can take pro-active steps to regain cognitive ground.
The cognitive assessment is called the Brain Health Physical. Performance results are used to guide individuals on how to:
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Increase productivity
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Decrease brain fatigue
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Achieve higher levels of work efficiency
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Identify weaknesses in strategic attention
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Focus and stay on task
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Increase flexibility in thinking
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Be aware of habits that drain the brain
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Identify areas of strong mental reserve
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Recognize ways to strengthen core areas of vulnerability
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Increase brain energy
The brain health physical is a mental stress test that measures cognitive abilities that can be enhanced and remain robust as we age.
1.
Strategic attention- How many people do you interact with during the day where you are “present” in the conversation without distractions- either doing another task or attending to thoughts in your head? Track the times it occurs.
2.
Integrated reasoning-
3.
Innovation
The key is to constantly push your cognitive performance to construct something novel and abstract.
Cognitive brain health depends not on how much information a person takes in but rather how deep the person is reinterpreting and creating new meaning from information.
Think of your brain as a bank, you must build your cognitive reserves.
Stretch yourself to take on new mental challenges you have a natural affinity toward.
How do you build up cognitive reserves? By constantly engaging in complex mental activity.
Your brain is your most important organ and deserves your attention.
Brainpower of:
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None
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One
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Two
What is a strategic brain?
When you use your brain strategically, it filters information by deliberately sorting input and output. The approach is two-pronged:
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Attending to necessarily essential information while
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Filtering out extraneous data that is less critical to the task at hand. A non-strategic brain takes in all information.
You need to be selective and keenly strategic in terms of what you store in your brain’s attic.
Retaking control requires daily prioritization of one or two predominant tasks, rather than jumping back and forth from one distraction to another.
The problem is, most tasks are done quickly, without thoughtful processing-and instead almost with mind numbing automaticity.
How often do you spend more than 10 minutes on one task at home or at work.
Just do one thing at a time.
Once you see how much more productive you are, you will not go back.
Internal thoughts can be a major obstacle to being present and focused on a single task.
Three strategies to implement in your daily life to enhance your strategic attention:
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Brainpower of none
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Brainpower of one
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Brainpower of two
The brainpower of none:
How often do you work harder and harder to solve a problem? What if the brain solves a problem best by taking a break from the matter? Have you ever noticed that when you struggle to solve a problem, you sometimes receive the answer just before you go to sleep or right when you wake up in the morning? Connections are built when brain activation slows and even when our brain is at rest. We are then able to connect the dots in new ways. Your brain works smarter when you make it slow down.
Taking a pause allows you to advance your complex thinking capacity. Practice the brainpower of none when you experience:
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Frustration and negativity
The Brainpower of One:
Multitasking diminishes strategic attention. It causes:
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Shallower and less focused thinking
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Increased errors
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A dramatic negative decrease on mental processing
High mental productivity requires periods of single-minded tasking.
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The concept of doing one thing at a time is not being rewarded in the workplace, at home, by individuals, or by bosses.
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Once interrupted, it takes, on average, 20 minutes to return to the original task.
Multitasking leads to a build-up of cortisol, the stress hormone that decreases our memory and contributes to increased brain cell death, and may eventually contribute to dementia.
Your brain is built as a single channel action system with limited capacity.
Focus on one task at a time, even if only for short segments of time.
The brainpower of two:
We often have too many items on our to-do lists without any reflection on prioritization, leaving us overwhelmed just by the sight of the list. They also fail to reflect a looming deadline and very often lack the necessary precision to tell us where to start and what to do here and now. Looking at an endless list of tasks freezes our minds.
We are working and attending to distractions immediately and continually functioning well below our brain’s potential. With a constant state of fragmented focus, our brainpower is kept at a very superficial level.
When you write your to-do list, focus on the two things- your elephants-that will have the most impact, require the most effort and strategic thinking.
Concentrate on my one or two elephants for the day, those are your top priorities. When in need of a break, take care of some rabbits. Be aware, rabbits should not turn into elephants.
To be mentally smarter, we must constantly re-evaluate and identify one or two top priorities that demand the bulk of our energized brainpower, not the left-over, burned-out energy. Even in the midst of doing an activity, we should ask ourselves: “Is the task that is currently consuming my brainpower the activity that I need to devote my longest attention to because it will have the greatest impact?
Strategically attend to your two most important tasks every day.
To boost your cognitive function, you must harness the power of strategic attention and build a brain that filters and focuses. Doing so will increase your productivity and lead to improved well-being.
Enhance integrated reasoning to accelerate performance:
Have individuals have taken advantage of opportunities and expended the effort to be an entrepreneur of ideas? Have they developed regularly practiced habits of complex mental processing?
Take the challenge to engage in complex mental activity daily by practicing integrated reasoning and you will advance your personal skills as a CEO, aka Cognitive Entrepreneur Officer.
Integrated reasoning is your brain’s platinum cognitive asset.
Integrated reasoning is represented by these mental activities:
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Generating synthesized ideas
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Reconciling and updating novel ideas within the context of your right knowledge base…
Integrated reasoning is transformative thinking.
You are promoting your integrated reasoning intellect when you actively synthesize new meaning continually.
Much of what your brainpower allows you to achieve is futuristic thinking- not just reactionary thinking.
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Think about talking with your boss
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Brainstorming at a board meeting
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Seeking medical solutions
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Probing wiser financial management practices
A good brain habit is to practice synthesizing ideas into one or two abstracted statements when presented with information.
Ex.- Before going into a meeting with your colleagues, boss, volunteer organization, or family meeting, ask yourself:
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What changes do I want or what crucial issues do I need their help solving?
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What do I want them to consider?
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What are the desired outcomes from this discussion?
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After a meeting, write down consolidated ideas, asking yourself:
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What are some new take-home messages?
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How does my thinking before the meeting compare with my thinking afterward?
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How can I use new information to redirect and reset goals?
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Write a synthesized brief of the meeting in 3-5 sentences and send it to those you met with to let them know you were listening and that the ideas and time they contributed made a difference. In doing so, you take pause and strategically engage your frontal lobes to reason continuously.
Extensive brain practices will help you:
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Ask probing questions about the unknown
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Offer new possibilities to advance ideas and projects
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Determine new paths that fit with your life changes.
3 Strategies that help enhance integrated reasoning:
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Zoom in
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Zoom out
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Zoom deep and wide
Zoom-in:
The brain power of zoom-in requires attending to facts, content, and the situation at hand. Gathering facts and using them to support a novel approach is essential to enhancing integrated reasoning and deeper level thinking. However, it’s a delicate balance of knowing when to gather more information and know when to stop looking for more facts to develop a point of view. The key is to toggle back and forth from the immense raw details to form high-level ideas.
Zoom-out:
To be able to glean synthesized messages requires the brainpower of zoom-out, to see a broader perspective, to appreciate the big picture. It is important to harness the brainpower of zoom out and lift off to a helicopter view, assessing pieces of data and disparate points of view from above, merging them into major themes and core concepts, and broad principles. Consolidating facts and opinions into big ideas and perspectives is necessary to cultivate creative thinking and problem solving. The brainpower of zoom-out helps avoid silos of isolated or static thinking.
Zoom deep and wide:
The brainpower of zoom deep and wide is the cognitive strategy of incorporating the major principles and generalized lessons learned into broader applications. This is cognitive strategy transfer at its best. The brainpower of zoom deep and wide requires the deepest level of thinking where you apply novel developments from one area to other issues, other problems. It represents:
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Synthesized topics to guide effective meetings and gatherings
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Generalized applications to mentor new trainees, colleagues, and family members
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Intellectually energized writing in e-mails, speeches, and projects
The dynamic ability to assimilate information from multiple sources to apply to diverse, novel, and complex issues requires the integrated reasoning strategy of deep and wide. It is critical to solving new problems that have ambiguity or arise unexpectedly almost daily.
A + B = 0
A= Incoming Content
B= Knowledge/Experience
0= Meaning converted into a new transformed approach or product
Example:
Planning for an upcoming meeting based on previous gatherings requires dynamic toggling across all three brainpowers of zooming- zoom in to the issues at hand; zoom out to the broadest perspectives to see vast solutions and potential directions, and zoom deep and wide to figure out new framing for old problems and novel applications to proven practices.
Boost your brainpower: Make a concerted effort to transform your hundreds of thoughts each day to the highest level of thinking possible.
The brainpower of zooming is not a trivial skill; it is recognized as a vital cognitive skill that has not been easy to assess. A recent survey of 740 business faculty worldwide revealed that they believe incoming business students needed to assimilate, interpret, and convert data, evaluate outcomes, and listen- key skills for 21st century students and future leaders in business.
Integrated Reasoning Linked to Strategic Leadership
Integrated reasoning is one of our most complex and forceful thinking capacities that can be enhanced. As such, this skill is associated with decisive and strategic leadership.
William Duggar shares his definitions of three kinds of intuition- ordinary, expert, and strategic. “Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement”:
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Ordinary intuition is a gut instinct.
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Expert intuition is a snap judgement that is done at rapid speed, based on experience.
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Strategic intuition is a slow, thoughtful way of solving a problem.
The parallels between intuition and integrated reasoning:
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Zoom out is a quickly abstracted idea. This is similar to a gut instinct, a vague notion of key points and directions.
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Zoom in corresponds to the power of knowledge where one can make a very quick, snap judgement or decision based on extensive facts or expertise.
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Zoom deep and wide is a process that is not fast, but it is deliberate. It involves an effortful, integrative process of reflective thinking through all the possibilities. Strategic leaders will use this type of cognitive process to prime new ideas and advance lines of thinking, as well as rethink past misdirection.
This is the foundation for entrepreneurial and innovative thinking. When honed, the benefits of integrated reasoning and strategic global thinking spill over to many frontal lobe and other brain functions. The ability to harness this global perspective is fundamental to creative thinking, problem solving, and energizing productivity.
Brain Value of Integrated Reasoning:
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Become a mastermind of information
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Create fresh and bigger ideas rather than crank out rote facts
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Chart new insights by combining data with right experiences and knowledge
Ex.- Zooming deep and wide leads to better work, particularly on the most challenging assignments like strategy development.
The brainpower of zooming encourages deliberate, reflective thinking, not just a snap judgement or gut reaction. Using this strategic approach to understanding information in your daily life requires dynamically shifting from what is in front of you to a global view and transcending the literal surface to construct novel and deeper levels of meaning in contexts you never before experienced.
Integrated reasoning allows you to identify and group important details into condensed, global meanings; thereby efficiently limiting the massive amounts of information one has to manipulate, comprehend, encode, and recall.
The added bonuses of frontal lobe skill of integrated reasoning; it improves and spills over to other executive functions that were never trained, achieving gains in higher memory for details and faster speed of processing:
Higher- mental productivity, brain energy, idea innovation
Lower- brain fatigue, brain boredom, rote repetition
You can experience an increase in brainpower when you constantly practice being an entrepreneur of ideas.
Both creative capacity and smartness work hand in hand to energize the brain. The ability to continually engage in innovative thinking is likely a key indicator of who will retain their smart capacity, the ability to acquire and build new knowledge.
Knowledge is part of the creative equation, we cannot go the next level without knowing the basic facts. However, innovative thinking should work synergistically with analytical and practical thinking for the best results. Often we take in information as truth rather than pondering what we do not know. Nor do we consider how we can add or modify that knowledge or practice.
Your innovative capacity:
However, innovation as a skill becomes paralyzed from lack of use, limited challenges, and fear of failure. Below are innovations greatest enemies:
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A brain on automatic pilot
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An avoidance of new challenges
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A belief that your best and most creative work is behind you
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An opposition to being renewable, adaptable
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A strong separation from those who have radically different viewpoints
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An evasion of collaborations on major projects
If you have not been stretching your innovative skills, then now is the time to jump-start this immense brain capacity. How often do you:
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Figure out ways to deal with new circumstances?
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Adapt quickly and adeptly to novel challenges?
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Shake up regular meetings that tend to drain the brain?
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Break with past habits?
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Be more energized in creating knowledge than acquiring it.
Innovative thinkers invent again and again.
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Innovation needs novel thinking.
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This brain competency predominates as a key investment to enhance your intellectual capital.
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Often we get distressed rather than inspired when asked to rethink a project or action or mistake.
Frontal lobe connectivity supports innovative thinkers:
A neuroscientific team from Japan was among the first to document that individuals with higher innovative thinking scores also show increased structural connectivity between the frontal lobe and the corpus callosum- a deep portion of the brain that links both hemispheres. This research supports the view that the frontal lobe is positively related to pivotal dimensions of creativity- specifically cognitive flexibility.
More brain activation versus less is associated with more learning as a novice. That is, those with higher expertise, perhaps associated with greater practice, perform the task more efficiently, with less brain activation.
Brain plasticity studies offer high promise that the declining brain capacity can be positively altered in the healthy brain by exercising innovative thinking.
Open up your thinking to devise new ways of doing things.
All of the core brainpowers- strategic attention, integrated reasoning, and innovation, require hard work. You can become more creative and inventive with practice. You just need to recognize and fully embrace that you have the capacity to increase your genius.
Seek ways to uncover the maximum number of possibilities. You need to use and therefore design your brain to move from the known to the unknown- but with foresight about the risks and opportunities that are changing at the speed of light.
Become an entrepreneur of ideas.
Transformative thinking:
In work with executive and high level management, significant gain in innovative thinking after only six hours of concentrated brain training. The training provided strategies needed to innovate.
Brain networks strengthen in response to new challenges or wither with status quo thinking at all ages.
The advantages of neuroplasticity:
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Building creativity requires continually exercising habits throughout your day, not just every so often. Develop innovation daily when you:
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Seek to broaden and revamp your perspectives, to view life differently, by reading different types of books, exposing yourself to different types of people, changing routine work presentations, etc.
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Dismantle old linkages of information to allow new thoughts to brew. Ponder free-flowing ideas.
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Consciously and dedicatedly convert ideas into deliberate change.
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Recognize there is no roadmap to get you there.
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Reflect and learn from mistakes quickly.
You only need to apply these abilities toward critical issues or messy problems.
To revolutionize your brainpower, seek to be a change maker- now.
Work, passion, and a sense of purpose are the best nourishments for healthy brain function and innovation. As has been said before, our brain is remarkable. You must neuroengineer your brain in the most engaging ways to stay inspired.
Innovative ideas are created out of fragments of information. Good, creative, and novel ideas are a composition of knowledge, experience, and new exposures fused in different ways.
A bored brain is a brain in decline.
Expand your extraordinary capacity for innovation by exercising the:
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Brainpower of the infinite
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Brainpower of the paradox
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Brainpower of the unknown
Brainpower of the infinite-
Innovative ideas are created out of pieces of seemingly random data, recombined in such novel way that the whole that was comprised of the pieces does not even look the same. There are infinite possibilities of how information can be connected in new ways to innovate. There is not a single answer or only one way to do things.
Practice Tasks:
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Create novel and innovative topics in your e-mail subject line.
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If you give a lot of presentations, change the message and make it fresh each time
3.
In this tough economy, think of at least 10 new ways you can cut your monthly budget by 30 percent.
4.
Mentor and encourage small teams to be inventive problem solvers on crucial projects
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Think of family gatherings that fall flat with the same old discussions. Stretch family members to engage in new ways they never have before, meet in new venues, discuss fascinating people of substance, or talk about current ethical dilemmas.
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Buying the perfect gift for someone requires creativity and innovation. Watch what their preferences are and connect the observations to what you think they would want.
Brainpower of Paradox:
Innovation and mental flexibility require embracing and learning from mistakes and challenges- overcoming insurmountable odds. Paradoxically, the tenacity to not get stopped or stuck by failure is the fuel that leads to the greatest advances in these areas. The brainpower of paradox is enhanced when one reflects on a completed task and perceives the holes and then dynamically and flexibly reworks and reinvents for a better product or output. The mental flexibility required to reflect on, revisit, and seek better solutions engages the frontal lobe, optimizing learning, which leads to transformative new insights and fresh ways of approaching outdated tasks- large and small.
Practice tasks:
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Reflect on a meeting that was essentially a time waster. Think about how to re-engage the issues to bring about mutually beneficial solutions. Attempt to garner more participation and ideas sharing to make gatherings more meaningful to attendees.
2.
Rethink a project, presentation, or event that you think went well. Brainstorm at least 5 ways it could have gone even better, and how it could be improved if you had another opportunity tomorrow.
3.
Remember back on a happening that seemed like the worst possible turn of events for you at the time and list at least 5 good things that eventually rose from that challenge.
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Identify your favorite mistake weekly and see what you can learn by looking back.
Brainpower of the unknown:
The brainpower of the unknown requires valuing curiosity and asking “What if?” We are born with an unparalleled capacity to explore. As we age, we often set our brains on default mode until they become paralyzed in familiarity. A highly innovative person is never satisfied with the status quo (the known) and is always looking for ways to move to the unknown, where things are constantly improving, changing, growing, and expanding.
Practice tasks:
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Volunteer to direct something you have never taken the lead on before; you will feel stretched with new ways of thinking
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When a new opportunity approaches you, think of ways it will teach you something new if you spend the time to be innovative.
3.
When you are feeling overwhelmed by a new position or major responsibility when 75% of what you are doing in unknown, practice earlier brainpowers.
a.
Brainpower of two (see ch. 4)- identify your two most important tasks to learn to make the greatest difference in your new position next month.
b.
Brainpower of zooming (see integrated reasoning, ch.5)- step back to appreciate how the important task you identified above fits into a bigger picture while continually breaking down important new learning tasks into doable steps.
As you expand your inventiveness, write how you have or will attempt to manifest each high-powered skill to increase your intellectual capital.
1.
Cause new things to happen
2.
Switch to novel modes of thinking
3.
Energize out-of-box thinking
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Construct ideas that relate to the future
5.
Imagine how things can be beyond the situation
6.
Seek ways to improve processes and products
7.
Become an agent of peace in a difficult conflict within your sphere of influence.
Being smart is a state, being creative is an action.
Innovation drives national economic growth and well-being.
We need to train people- at every stage of life- to ignite their highest level of novel thinking.
This brain capacity predominates as a key investment to enhance your intellectual capital.
