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The Brain is Designed for Small Business

Put its powerful wiring to work to becomeFit to Thrive in Any Economy

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We humans make our living in exchanges

Exchanging with others is in our biology – it’s an essential part of being human

We’re highly sensitive about it: a matter of survival

We’re at our best when we know we contributed and can enjoy the returns

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Interactions with others is the basis of businessand the stuff of human life

Casual or formal, monetized or not, tangible or intangible The brain is hard-wired to keep us focused on others, and on our role and status in those exchanges

When people are not engaged in some kind of exchange, they’re often thinking about it

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Commerce is as old as the first human community

• Developed over more than 200,000 generations

• The brains of early hominids are about 1/3 the size of modern humans. They were certainly cooperating and maybe trading

• The brain reached it current size about 1300 generations ago

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The basis of sociality and the basis of commerce are the same

Noticing what others are concerned about

Making reliable promises

Commerce is in our biology – our brains were made for it

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We become ingenious when ‘our people’ are vulnerable

People mobilized instantly in 18 degree weather

The mood of the whole country changed

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Reality – as processed by our brains - is social. Business is a form of social interaction

We are designed to consider others: What they may be thinking and feeling How they respond to us Whether we are safe with them Whether they are safe and what they need

“The brain is built for sociality” – Matthew Lieberman, PhD, Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, UCLA– Marco Iacoboni, MD, PhD, Neuropsychiatric Institute, UCLA

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Small business has an advantage

It’s relatively easy for us to know our clients, to look them in the eye and let them know we care about their concerns

That’s powerful brain glue that big business can’t buy

Seize that advantage.

When customers’ worlds change, be the first to focus on how you can help

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Use the brain’s hard wiring • Exquisitely sensitive mirror neurons tell us how to fit in and whether

we can trust – Am I vulnerable with you?– Do you know me?– Do you care about me (do you get me and my concerns?

• Hard wired: Are you in my tribe (automatically a safe trading partner?)

Make your Value Partners feel like they’re in your tribe

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Whatever business you may be in…

You’re in the business of generating rich exchanges. Brain fitness can provide a competitive edge

What would your world be like if exchanging with you was the richest experience of peoples’ day…week…?

• When your brain is not stressed, you can design• When customers’ and employees’ brains are not stressed, they can fully

partner

Learn to make it happen

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At its best, the human brain is capable of extraordinary feats

• To question• To learn• To invent• To create• To interpret• To communicate• To choose

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Questions for our time

• What puts people in shape for ongoing learning and change?

• To thrive in a shifting environment?

• To age gracefully and enjoy new stages of life?

• To minimize suffering and seize opportunities to contribute?

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Exchanging with others - the lifeblood of human society – has become stressful

Modern life makes demands on our brains that they’re not designed to handle:

• We’re in frequent contact with unfamiliar people and cultures – we don’t know what to expect

• Our environment changes quickly: technologically, economically, socially, and sometimes politically, climatically

• Peoples’ concerns shift in response• New variables often call for new

exchanges

Seize the opportunity to be nimble, compassionate and responsive

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Peoples’ concerns are continually shifting

Even though the adult brain is wired to resist change, humans retain Neuroplasticity into adulthood

It’s a huge advantage: we can learn for our entire lives

Small business can seize the advantage to move faster - embrace change with curiosity

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Welcome the challenges of change (…invariably

demanding new exchanges)

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In modern business, we are called upon to design important exchanges

• An occasional event in tribal life – not how the brain evolved

• The Industrial Revolution – and the educational systems it spawned – in which we grew up – reduced the value of ingenuity and curiosity. For the better part of 2 centuries, people were viewed as ‘consumers’ or ‘pairs of hands’

• The global information age bombards us with ‘new’ stuff and demands innovation

It’s up to us to find ways to be fit @ 5Movez 2014

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Thriving in a world where peoples’ concerns are continually shifting

That demands:• Courage - To question - To take in ‘unwelcome’ news - To risk something new • Fitness - To be nimble and responsive to a changing world

Requires staying curious about new exchanges

We’re challenged to learn a new kind of vitality for the modern age - and small business has the advantage: we

can move quickly

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Boosting brain fitness boosts business fitness

Seize the small business advantage

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The drivers of vitality are interconnected

Personal Vitality• Keep building new neural

pathways – be a learner, a graceful beginner• Spark and feed curiosity• Rest deeply and often• Find pleasurable ways to move;

laugh and play• Love and contribute• Avoid multitasking• Enjoy all 5 senses

Business Vitality• Keep building new neural pathways –

design your culture around learning and inquiry• Spark and feed curiosity• Encourage rest, rejuvenation, and enjoyable exercise • Celebrate caring and contribution• Reward laughter and play • Use visuals, sound, smell…the senses• Discourage multitasking

Use them all to be nimble and smart

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Get smart about your personal habits to get smarter about business

• Keep building new neural pathways (cultivate Neuroplasticity) - Choose something new to learn every year - Vary your exercise; find new ways to move and play - Use brain teasers or guided brain fitness products• Spark and feed curiosity - Avoid multi-tasking and information overload• Rest deeply and often• Move – exercise at least 3x week for 45 min – keep experimenting, find

pleasurable ways to be active• Love and Contribute - Stay connected to people you care about; include others and be included• Laugh and play; enjoy all 5 senses

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Are you a graceful beginner? Willing and able to enjoy learning?

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Are you engaging with others who share your deepest concerns?

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Are you challenging and expandingyour abilities?

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How often are you really resting?

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What about laughter and play?

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It all works together

The island where people forget to die?

There’s no 24/7 on Ikaria, but unlike a ‘modern’ island 3 miles away, everyone socializes with local wine, walks up and down hills to collects wild food, and enjoys living on and on…

Source: NY Times, October 24, 2012

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Make your business a smart work environment

• Promote Neuroplasticity - Rotate the task of sparking meetings with new activities: a kush ball exercise, a brain teaser, a challenge about someone else’s business….

• Reward learning, honor beginners, experiments, and ‘mistakes’

• Stimulate ingenuity by keeping Value Partners’ vulnerability top of mind: bring fresh stories about customers, suppliers, strategic allies…

• Take stress reduction seriously

• Respect resting; make multi-tasking and emails between 7 pm and

7 am undesireable

• Spark curiosity with inclusive, collaborative inquiry

• Celebrate the pleasure of working and learning together, with diverse styles and points of view

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Change is integral to modern work

A modern productive worker is someone who does a great job in figuring out what to do next. Seth Godin

Unfortunately, the imperative to continually generate new value sources ongoing stress

Thriving cultures ensure that stress relief is as important as seizing opportunity

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High-performing business cultures are based in inquiry

• Promotes inclusion• Neutralizes status• Provokes curiosity• Encourages neuroplasticity• Cultivates learning and responsiveness to change

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Generate the experience of belonging

Create inclusion with play Create inclusion with sincere questions

Encourage gratitude

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Cultivate curiosity and learning

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Use powerful questions to keep your business fresh

Provoke curiosity• Introduce new

interpretations, labels, graphics, sound…

• Focus on genuine vulnerability

• Open possibilities for contributing

A good question is a pleasure and an opportunity

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Designing new value is a natural pleasure for an unstressed brain

• Interpreting vulnerability

• Identifying opportunity

• Devising ingenious ways to use resources

• Driving innovation

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Notice work environments at the forefront of ingenuity and responsiveness

• Twitter has a rooftop garden with turquoise couches

• Dropbox has a music room• Skype has a pool and foosball

room• Facebook has treadmill desks• Airbnb has a nap room and

communal tables where employees eat lunch together YouTube’s indoor slide

Source: The Atlantic, December 2012

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Minimizing stress is a competitive move

Essential for enabling employees to respond effectively to a changing environment

The task requires investing in innovative management and infrastructure

The payoff is big: not only will it make people smarter and able to learn, it will reduce your health care costs

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A low-stress business environment involves some departures from tradition

• Rest – 3 naps a week optimizes brain function and overall health. Create a nap room?

• Social inclusion – play and questions . A play room is just a start. Bring in juggling and clown classes?

• New forms of exercise. Make stairwells interesting? Bring in Zumba, Irish dancing…?

• Pauses for guided breathing?

Check out what market leaders are doing to ensure people are in great shape:

Zappos has a gratitude board

Warby Parker asks potential hires about their favorite Halloween costume

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Whether you own the business or not…

You’ll win by being a source of fresh, rich exchanges with all yourValue Partners

What would your world be like if exchanging with you was the richest experience of peoples’ day…week…?

Embrace the demands of vitality: when the body is rested and brain is not stressed, people can design and fully partner in any challenge.. In fact, they love it, and you will too

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Curiosity is the silver bullet

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Connection and contribution are lifeblood

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Exercise, play and rest are foundational

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Ongoing stress is the killer

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What is possible in life and in business is determined by what the brain can do

Understanding how it all works may enable us to navigate through another big change in the weather

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Brain fitness puts you in shape to generate rich exchanges

• New forms of fun, exercise and moving• Sincere questions, genuine vulnerability• Fresh visuals • Breaks and rest• Experience of belonging

• Concerns for status• Multi-tasking• Fatigue• Stress• Ambiguity• Information overload

Enable with: Impair with:

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What will you do differently tomorrow?

How will you make yourself and others smarter –

ready to create more rich exchanges?

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Go forth and seize your business advantage from the brain’s powerful wiring