Company

Services

News

Contact

Posts Tagged ‘neurology’

Shakespeare in Innovation

By admin on September 13, 2011 | Category: Blog | Tags: , , | No Comments

Who would have thought that the 15 years that I spent dedicated to Shakespeare could play a role in innovation and enterprise. According to a recent study published in Big Think, Shakespeare’s use of language excites our brains.

Professor Philip Davis from the University of Liverpool School of English looked at brain responses. Our most common brain response time is 400 milliseconds after “experiences, a thought or perception”. These responses are called N400 and they are the most common. However when the professor studied the brains of people exposed to Shakespearean language they had a response called P600, which indicates activity 600 milliseconds after their initial contact with the text. The professor equates this type of response of “a state of heightened consciousness”.

In the process of innovation, this is exactly what we strive for. We strive to be in a heightened sense of thought, exploration and awareness. The brain needs to be turned on and exercised, or it will literally get bored – and a bored brain only throws out ideas that are patterned.

Imagine how much more exciting your ideas would be if you could operate your brain to provoke P600 responses rather than the usual humdrum, day-to-day responses.

The professor’s hypothesis is that the Shakespeare’s unorthodox use of linguistic construction interrupts our brain. It tells the brain that this is something that needs further attention. We cannot just sit and read Shakespeare; he forces us to think. He actually interrupts our consciousness because our brains cannot create patterns or make linguistic assumptions. In other words, when we read simple text our brain no longer has to ‘think’, but when exposed to Shakespearean language your brain has to be in the moment, aware, and on.

Being innovative is like being a great athlete: you cannot foster an active brain by sitting by and being lazy. Your brain needs activity and stimuli.

Brain Exercise

  • Read a Shakespearean text, preferably one of his sonnets as they are full of alliteration, metaphor, and linguistic oddities.
  • Interpret the text in your own words. Write the imagery it creates in your brain, how it makes you feel, possible meanings, etc.
  • Finally, tackle an idea that you have been considering. Write it out, ask questions and explore it.
  • Write down the differences in your thought patterns, levels of consciousness, and any new interpretations of the idea.

Brain Technology: How Well Do You Know Your Brain?

By admin on March 25, 2011 | Category: Blog | Tags: , , , , , | No Comments

The human race has constantly developed tools to make better use of the world and generate new economic platforms. From fire, flints, assembly line, to technology we have been incredibly agile at innovating and moving towards more advancement.

In our observations, our brain is the latest tool we need to develop and understand to move towards a new area of economy and enlightenment.  This is the core of brain technology, learning how to use our brain to its potential.

When was the last time you questioned how your brain forms thoughts or ideas? Or are there things that you can do to make better use of your brain?

Did you know that zone one part of the brain can only take in 40 items per minute, whilst zone 2 can take in millions? Or did you know that it only takes 90 seconds for a neurochemical to flood the entire blood stream? These two facts seem irrelevant to business, but if you are only using the zone 1 of your brain to create ideas or solve problems, you will only produce patterned ideas rather than building new neurological circuits. Building new circuits and delving into zone 2 generates better solutions thus allowing us to better business strategists.

Or take the second fact, if we are constantly releasing dopamine over and over, we stop the brain from strategic thinking, however if you don’t release enough your brain does’t have the energy to create conceptual thought.

Knowing our own brain technology helps us make better use of our potential, which is what we need right now; we need better visionaries, thinkers, and innovators.

When you look at disasters like Japan, the economic crisis, the economic state of Detroit, it is not the use of old knowledge that will lead us to better answers, it is the understanding of our brain.

After all the brain governs everything, how we think, how we articulate thought, how we interact with others, our ideas, and ultimately how we do business.

The solutions are always there, it is just learning how to use the amazing technology inside our heads that is missing.

How Do We Do It

Every tool that IEA develops for innovation and business strategy uses brain technology. Our tools are new and are constantly being questioned, observed, and developed. This is to ensure tools are fresh, relevant, and innovative.

First Stage

We spend 3 weeks studying research from brain synapses, circuitry, diseases, neurochemicals, etc.

Second Stage

We extrapolate the knowledge and create tools for business and innovation.

Third Stage

We experiment with the new tools during PLATYPUS and refine them.

Fourth Stage

We use give the tools to our members in our spaces and to our corporate clients

How Is It Deployed

We deploy our brain technology through our collaborative workspace in London and soon in our innovation workspace in New York.

Do You Focus On Cause Or Effect?

By admin on January 4, 2011 | Category: Blog | Tags: , , | No Comments

As entrepreneurs, we seem to be primed by business theory to focus on results. Results based on financial forecasts, business growth, and profit. Yes, businesses need to profit, especially in these shifting economic tides, however when it comes to productive problem solving, focusing on “results” is the wrong way around. The reason why? Because focusing on “results” creates visual associations in your mind of an effect, and not the cause of your achievement. And if you cannot visualize the how, then you cannot achieve the effect.

Idea Engineering Agency has been conducting neurological studies as to why focusing on results is not productive, as well as what neurological functions are better for problem solving.

Let?s start with an exercise:

A. Imagine a horse jumping over a fence.

B. Now,imagine How a horse would jump over a fence?

Which setting engaged your brain more, A or B?

The majority say B. The reason is because when you ask your brain to imagine A, it is a within specific parameters. You have boxed in your results into old neurological patterns. In contrast, B asks a question, forcing the brain to move away from usual neurological patterns and create more associations, which then leads the brain to ask further questions, starting a catalyst for an innovative solution.

Recent research found in Norman Doidge?s book ?The Brain That Changes Itself?, defies our usual perception of the brain being like a computer, which stores memory. It is more like interconnected patterns attached to a circuit board. For example, we understand what a tree is because of its neurological pattern in our brain. As we hear the word our brain generates the most immediate neurological pattern, allowing us to ?see? the tree, which we then interpret and understand.

Relying on past neurological connections can be useful, such as when you are trying to find your way home at night. However, in business we are always looking to innovate better solutions, so we need new neurological patterns.

Try the following to create better neurological patterns in order to generate fresh new solutions:

Control What Is Possible Y=F(X)

Above is a problem solving formula used by industrial engineers. (Y) is the desired uncontrolled variable or desired result and (X) is the controlled variable or input. For example, a venture capitalist trying to decide whether or not to invest in a company should focus on why the company is a good investment (X). For example:

What are the functions of the company? What is its economic ecology? What is the philosophy/psychology of its leaders?, What is its relevance to (fill in the blank?)

If the X?s begin to add up to a good picture then the investor will be able to impact his desired result (Y), which is to make a wise investment. It is a simple formula: you generate good input (X) that effectively impacts the result.

Ask Questions

When you ask your brain a question it creates a feedback loop very much like a circuit. New research conducted at Yale University has found that the electrical field in the brain works like a circuit loop. So when posed with a question, your brain will continue to problem solve until it finds the desired solution. Ask questions like, “what are the qualities of a company?” Immediately the brain will begin to fire new neurological connections leading to a better solution and allowing the investor to spot an opportunity that might have otherwise been missed. Here are a couple of tips to make this work:Observe

Once a question is asked, sit back and observe the thoughts that come.

Relaxed Brain

When the brain is relaxed it is able to openly observe and find the best solution. For example, the final piece of the printing press was generated when the inventor was invited to a winery and saw the grapes being pressed. Now imagine if he was stressed or generating assumptions. He would have gone to the winery and come out none the wiser.

What leads to Greatness

By admin on October 22, 2010 | Category: Blog | Tags: , , | No Comments

HBR posted a blog about how forethought not intuition separates the good from the great. We disagree on the blog and here is our points. Our opinion based on our observations and research we have conducted with entrepreneurs is as follows.

Semantics

A. Forethought: the planning or preparation for the future. Deliberation, thinking and consideration for the future.

B. Intuition: rapid cognitive thinking based on past primers, experiences, and thought.

The Forethought VS. Intuition

It has been documented that many of the ‘greats’ have had their moments of insight when they were not even thinking, Einstein, for example used to favor long walks to generate his answers than sitting in his laboratory. So how did his strokes of genius happen? Well according to Dr. Keith Sawyer, author of Group Genius, strokes of greatness do not happen in isolation rather from a lot of smaller moments, which are mixed of failures, mistakes, smaller ideas,varied knowledge, and collaboration. Now, imagine that you you take these moments and repeat them over and over to create experience, then experience is honed to create intuition, which can then be used to react to situations, where finally you get a moment of greatness. The example of the snake that the blogger gives is just untrained intuition, our intuition is only as good as the patterns we create in our brains. If the patterns have been created via great mistakes, vast knowledge, and detailed observations our intuition will make us better reactors. Intuition is also very layered, it is not only patterns, but also things like reading body language, tone of voice, assessment of how your environment feels. For example, Native Americans used to watch how certain changes in the environment would indicate a certain event, they would see how the air would feel, how the trees would move, or the animals would react, all of that made them great intuitive thinkers and reactors, which allowed them to be great hunters. ??The problem with forethought is that it creates false untested patterns in our brains, we all have had it happen, when we think that a certain event will unfold in a particular manner and then it doesn’t, so we have just wasted valuable time in forethought for no reason. forethought also guides you down a path leaving little room for innovation, observation and reaction, which is detrimental to ideas of greatness. Einstein for example, had no forethought on his law of relativity, he got there through many years of experimentation, honing his intuitions, reacting, restructuring, and collaborative knowledge. A person of greatness would not waste their time pondering his idea in the future, as they are too busy reacting to the moment and observing the changes to make better decisions. If you ask people that have achieved greatness they will tell you that they didn’t plan it, most say ‘ I couldn’t have imagined or predicted, what I have achieved’ . Finally, forethought can lead to negativity and depression, if your idea doesn’t unfold as you had predicted it would. The future is unpredictable and the more time spent thinking about it the less time is spent reacting to current situations, which is what will lead to greatness.

Ingredients for Greatness

  1. Train your intuition, fill it with detailed observations, vast knowledge, diverse experiences, and mistakes.
  2. Create contrasting associations for your brain. Learn languages, listen to other ideas, learn an instrument, etc. etc. This helps engage your imagination into new realms and thus creates better ideas.
  3. Be a great reactor. Success is like a ball coming towards you, if you try to use forethought and predict where it will land you will miss the fact that its coming straight at you.
  4. Be a great observer, Einstein, Newton, Galileo, etc, spent a lot of time just observing and letting that fuel their imagination and solutions.
  5. Relax your brain and let it breath, so it can give you the moments of insight, which will lead you to greatness. Meditation, walks, restful sleep, exercise are all way to turn off and let the brain relax.
  6. Always think positive and set positive primers in your life, so when the opportunity does strike you will be in the right mind to grab it.

Innovation

By admin on September 26, 2010 | Category: Innovation Process | Tags: , , , | No Comments

IEA believes that innovation should be accessible, tangible, and an immediate course of action.

What is innovation? Innovation is when a strong idea is turned into a successful enterprise, which has the stamina to survive fluctuating economies and obstacles. Bottom line- it can create and sustain economy.

How Does Idea Engineering Create Innovation?

  1. We dissect and valuate ideas using our uniquely blended neighborhoods of knowledge to ensure that we start with a strong idea.

  2. We create a bespoke process for each client, which will have a immediate course of implementation that is simple, easy to follow, and fits with the ultimate goal.

  3. Finally, we create a process of risk assessment and troubleshooting, which clients can take away to create sustained innovation and continue to implement their idea efficiently.

The process in detail is below…

Idea Catalyst

Before the brainstorming process of ideas starts, there is a process of exploration to analyze where good ideas come from:

  • Where to search and where to focus attention
  • Neurology based training

Idea Generation

Generating ideas is good, however generating strong ideas is optimal. The IE intelligence generates ideas that have depth, unique value, and innovation. Starting with a well designed idea makes the implementation process easier and reduces risk of failure:

  • Neurobics
  • Observe & Research
  • Cross industry & bespoke think tanks
  • Idea Maps
  • Neighborhood of thoughts using neurological processes

Idea Valuation

Knowing the value of the idea is important to decide whether or not it is good to move forward or pivot:

  • Analyse the value of the idea for originality
  • Analyse the depth and dimension of the idea
  • Create empathetic scenarios
  • Measurement of observational capacity
  • Evaluation of potential risks

Idea Selection

Once ideas have been generated it is crucial to create a selection process to know which to move forward and which to leave behind:

  • Measure the economic viability of the ideas
  • Measure the cubic space of the idea
  • Idea Map

Idea Prototype

After the idea are selected- an experimental environment from which to test run the idea:

  • Measure the limitations of the idea by including target market
  • Revise the skeletal processing and systems of the idea
  • Facilitate an empathetic process that observes and trials the idea with low economic impact
  • Flow Map

Idea Implementation

One the idea has proven its economic value and innovation, it is time for implementation:

  • Implementation Map
  • Creating economy
  • Revenue Map
  • Business Flow Map
  • Systems and process distillation

Staff Psychology & Utility

Neurological based application process to increase leadership in the workplace.

Communication Psychology

Business  should not ‘sell’ but rather communicate with their client base:

  • Analysis of sales strategy
  • Psychological observation of target market
  • Map out communication strategy
  • Create a reactive marketing map

Sustained Innovation

Idea Engineering is a intelligence that teaches individuals and companies how to be more effective thinkers. Therefore it is essential for innovation to be sustained a long time after the initial strategy:

  • Our industrial and systems engineer conducts a productivity, efficiency, and quality scan of your business to continue to produce a lean operation system.
  • Streamlining costs
  • Reducing growth risks

Reactive VS. Proactive

By admin on September 3, 2010 | Category: Blog | Tags: , , , , | No Comments

As part of IE we are always looking to challenge and find new process to help increase the success of ideas. Through out the corporate world the word proactive is constantly mentioned, you have to be a more proactive employee, show your immediate superior that you are able to anticipate situations. In this environment being proactive is a positive, you can anticipate needs and tasks, if you are really good at it, being proactive can lead you to a pay raise.

The problem with being proactive is that it gives you tunnel vision and you don’t stop and observe your surroundings. You are making assumptions, looking to the past to anticipate the future and the creating plans based on this knowledge. This can be dangerous because you are leaving room for new thought and without new thoughts you can not reach ideas

However, in the world of ideas, being proactive is not enough or applicable at least not at the idea generation stage. If as most of us you have come from employment into enterprise, the old neurological connections are very much still there, the need to anticipate, project, assume, and be proactive are engraved, making us want to respond in the same way we always do.

Why is Reacting better for Ideas?

1. When you react it is under the assumption that first there was an observation process, therefore your idea starts from an empathetic point.

2. Starting your idea from empathetic perspective will help you later on understand exactly who your market is, what its needs/wants are, and how to communicate with them.

3. When you react to a need or want in the market you increase the success rate of your idea, because you are reacting to a tangible desire.

4. There are different degrees of reaction, if you are a great observer and engage your imagination you will be able to see further than current needs/wants and begin to create ideas that are ahead of the trend curve – really begin to innovate. For example if you react to a sunny day and sell lemonade, great your idea is good and you will make a humble living, however if you engage imagination and further observation you can create a lemonade lounge, sell a variety of lemonade flavours, offer cooling tips, a place to relax in the shade, partner up with local parks and set-up mobile lemonade stands etc. Facebook is a good example of this, Zuckerberg observed his peers and imagined a whole  new platform that would help them keep in touch.

5. Reaction helps create a sense of timing, which is essential for ideas. As you are reacting to your surroundings and creating an idea based on that observation, you will have a better gauge of where you are in regards to your competitors and trends. Knowing when to launch an idea is crucial too early and wont get off the ground (if twitter had come before Facebook, the social psychology would not have been there) too late and you will miss a good portion of the market ( take the American auto industry, they never reacted to the need of small vehicles like the Japanese and now they are now a crippled industry).

6. Reacting helps you save time as well, instead of spending time brainstorming ideas out of thin air or wasting time with bad ideas that come from assumption rather than observations; you can get straight to the idea by reacting to your surroundings. Then spend time brainstorming how to get the idea of the ground, which is time much better spent.

7. Reaction gives you a head start from bigger competitors. Again as reaction is a consequence of good observation and most big companies don’t allow themselves to observe, you can reach the market first by reacting faster. Also bigger companies have to go through hierarchy and bureaucracy so their reaction time will be slower, giving smaller businesses the advantage of speed and reaction.

How to become a better reactor

1. Observe, observe, and observe. What is happening in your surroundings, peer group, market, society, etc.

2. Move away from your comfort zone, as when you are too comfortable your brain goes on autopilot and you don’t observe. This is why most car crashes happen within the first 2 miles of your home.

3. Engage in new environments, peer groups, etc

4. Research behaviours, interest, and preferences of your peers or desired market

5. Read material that gives you insight on the sociology and psychology of your environment and society.

6. Read material that educates you on what others are doing, have done, industry, and trend behaviour.

7. Spend time in your right brain and learn to trust your instinct and gut feeling.

8. Assume nothing be curious and investigate.

9. Read books on process rather than ‘how to books’ as the former will encourage you to think and engage your imagination instead of sitting passively and ingesting someone else’s thoughts.

10. Be an outsider, investigate different theories other than your own realm of knowledge. This will help you engage your imagination and expand your mind-space, leading to distilled innovative ideas.

11. Let the idea takes its course, so you don’t limit the success of the idea. So the reaction process continues, keep reacting the possibility rather then plotting each step meticulously.

12. Build neighbourhoods of thoughts; investigate other related mindsets/theories that the idea may live in, in order help the idea develop and expand. For example the Wright Brothers, had to investigate their observations in physics, engineering, nature, and Da Vinci in order to imagine the possibility of an apparatus that would transport humans in flight. Their neighbourhood of thought was expansive expanding their observational field and thus making their idea great and achievable.

All the above will help your brain make new mind maps which will lead you to create that epiphany faster and effectively.

Once the idea has been created and you need to implement being proactive is good, this is when you switch from right brain to left brain thinking.

Idea Engineering: Neurobics

By admin on July 27, 2010 | Category: Blog | Tags: , , | No Comments

The Idea Engineering team believes that a thoroughly stimulated brain creates better ideas. Through our neuroplasticity research we have concluded that dopamine is the ‘idea generating’ chemical. Dopamine is a compound present in the body as a neurotransmitter and a precursor to epinephrine, which is a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, which increases rates of physiological reaction. In other words, dopamine prepares your brain to fire on all cylinders. When you increase dopamine in a brainstorming process, you have a greater likelihood to generate more exciting ideas because your brain is physically reacting to the dopamine. Every thought in your head creates a chemical release, which leads to a feeling. If you are constantly thinking positive thoughts you will release more dopamine, thus creating a feeling of joy. This is actually essential for your brain to connect with the right hemisphere and to begin to produce ideas.

So how do you increase dopamine? There is a new form of mind exercises called neorobics, which help create more dopamine, make the mind more flexible, and ease the brain’s reliance on familiar patterns. Making new patterns is especially important as it helps your brain make new connections for quicker and more innovative responses.

Some exercises to think about

Take a different path home: The change of scenery helps the brain absorb a new environment and create new patterns.

Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand: Switching hands makes the brain use both the right and left sides of the brain. This helps strengthen the communication between the left and right hemispheres.

Random joy ride: Taking a drive without a plan raises dopamine levels and also forces the brain to observe new environments.

Learning a new sport: Sports are a great way to challenge your brain to become more coordinated with your body and also increases dopamine.

Try a few of these out and see if you find yourself feeling more stimulated, engaged, optimistic, and creative.

Client Thoughts

Without Idea Engineering, our business would not have been possible.

THECUBE
www.thecubelondon.com

Client Thoughts

It helped turn my ideas in to reality and I felt like an entrepreneurial support group that gave people the confidence, advice and even contacts to go for it!

Celia Norowzian

Idea Engineering Copyright 2010 - All rights reserved

Go up Top