What do strategic leaders - people who influence organizations to transcend their limits and create a better world - have in common? They have trained themselves, over the years, to occupy a high ground in their minds and brains when making critical decisions. As they consult their inner "wise advocate" -- their facility to look at themselves the way a compassionate outside observer would -- they take on a similar role in the world around them. In this talk, Art Kleiner draws upon insights from neuroscience and organizational research, and real-world turnarounds and business drama, to describe how powerful practices can lead to new kinds of organizational prowess. He covers dilemmas like the "mentalizer's paradox," which explain how people can lose their ability to lead strategically as they rise in a hierarchy, and explores the ongoing leadership practices from his book The Wise Advocate, coauthored with Jeffrey Schwartz and Josie Thomson (Columbia Business Press, 2019). 

The brain can exert a powerful grip on one’s life – but only if you let it. The good news is that you can overcome the brain’s control, and rewire your brain to work for you, by learning to debunk the myths it has been so successfully selling you, and choosing to act in healthy, adaptive ways.

How can you achieve this? With the Four Step method that teaches simple skills you can use and practice every day to achieve a lasting change in perspective, courtesy of your intelligent, caring inner guide, The Wise Advocate. This friend will help you counteract deceptive brain messages and act in concert with your own goals and values. You will finally see who you really are – not who your brain has been telling you that you are – and put your true self in the driver’s seat for the rest of your life.

Breakthroughs in brain research explain how to make organizational transformation succeed.

One of the biggest challenges organizations encounter is how to thrive when faced with constant, disruptive change. The study of neuroscience has provided us with a deeper understanding of why people find change so unsettling. It offers valuable insight into the way people approach new tasks or manage upheaval and helps us understand how the human brain utilizes mental resources to deal with ambiguity, resolve conflict, or find creative solutions to complex problems.

Neuroscience can help organizations become more effective in how they manage change, which should increase organizational productivity and employee satisfaction. Responding thoughtfully to external events, rather than saying what first comes to mind, prevents leaders from responding in a way they may later regret.

In this workshop you will learn how to develop the capacity to consider the context surrounding external events before reacting to them. Dr Schwartz will discuss the importance of what the great economist Adman Smith called the 'impartial spectator' and the concept of a quiet mind, in remaining cool and rational under pressure. The more we understand the phenomenon of change, the more effectively we can manage it.

Neuroscience shows us why some common practices work well, such as allowing people to take ownership of a new initiative. It also explains why some don’t succeed