Shine: Using Brain Science to Get the Best from Your People

Neuroscience has made enormous advances in the last two decades. The discipline has also extended from the arena of serious scientific discourse, to the arena of popular business literature. Business people have been greatly enriched by this new science, and this easy to read book is an example of how “brain science” can enrich the complicated task of managing other adults.Brain science has made surprising discoveries, such as the fact that the brain can change throughout life, (neuroplasticity) and about the oddly neglected psychological state called happiness. We know that “no pain, no gain” is not strictly correct. Excellence occurs in direct proportion to “necessary suffering”, but in inverse proportion to “unnecessary suffering”.The author, Hallowell has practiced as a psychiatrist for 25 years and as an instructor at the Harvard Medical School. He has gathered some important insights from brain science and has compiled a useful guide to how to draw the most out of one’s staff. His five-part guide is easy to follow and implement, and firmly based on good theory and hard facts.The five parts are interconnected so if a problem occurs at any point, you should look back to see if the previous steps are still intact, or were correct in the first place. The most common mistake managers make when a person is not performing, is to urge or threaten them to get them to work harder. The mistake is not having created the conditions that will lead workers to want to work harder.So, let’s go to the beginning. Hallowell’s first step is “Select” - put people into the right jobs in the right environments so that their brains light up. It is the manager’s task to select a task that she is good at, something she likes to do, and something that adds value to the project or organization. If you fail to do this step correctly, all that follows will be affected.“Working the wrong job is like marrying the wrong person: it will involve lots of hard work but few happy days,” Hallowell explains. A person can’t will himself to work diligently, and a manager can’t motivate employees who are in the wrong place in the company.To assist in selecting the right person, Hallowell offers a useful do-it-yourself interview questionnaire. (But then you probably do have access to one of these.) Far more interesting is his introduction to a less known insight – your employees’ ‘conative’ style. The word ‘conation’ derives from the Latin ‘conari’, to try. This is a natural, inborn, style of solving problems and initiating actions.Does she need to be specific and gather lots of data before starting? Is he a is a natural multitasker who easily adapts? Does she follow though to the end of a task? How do your people naturally try to do their work? (See Kathy Kolbe’s free online Conative style test.)Hallowell’s second step to having a staff member work well is “Connect”. There is no end of forces that disconnect people in the workplace from each other, and from the mission of the organization. Positive connections are the most powerful fuel for peak performance. Connection is the bond an individual feels with another person, group, task, place, idea, or anything else that makes one feel attached, loyal, excited, inspired or willing to make sacrifices for the sake of that connection.Disconnection is one of the chief causes of substandard work in the modern workplace, Hallowell asserts. Without the invigoration of connection, the brain shrivels and life sags - and yet it is thoroughly preventable!Data gathered over 70 years on the lives of 268 men (known as the Gant or Harvard Men study,) is one of the best pieces of research on what makes for a full and successful life. The conclusion? “The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships with other people.”Ask any achiever for the key to their success, and they will most often refer to a person who believed in them, and drew out of them more than they knew they had.This step, seeing that your people have real connection with other people (NOT digitally intermediated), requires the most skill and patience from managers. The results will make the effort worthwhile.Research by Tom Rath and the Gallup organization published in 2007, showed that having a best friend at work is a major predictor of superior performance.Disconnection at work is often caused by managers who rule by pressure and fear, which lobotomizes their people.A good place to start with the connection step is simply to notice and acknowledge people.“If you treat employees as if they make a difference to the company, they will make a difference to the company.”The third step is “play”—imaginative engagement—a phenomenally productive yet undervalued activity of the mind.Play stimulates the amygdala, a group of neurons deep within the brain, that helps regulate emotions and exerts a beneficial effect on the prefrontal cortex in the brain. This is the executive part of the brain which performs the functions of planning, prioritizing, scheduling, anticipating, delegating, deciding, analysing and so on.“So, play is good for business, and not being able to play hurts business,” Halloway explains. Is your environment as “playful” as possible in your circumstances?The fourth step is “Grapple and Grow”. This involves deliberately creating conditions where people want to work hard and are making progress at tasks that they understand are important, even when they are challenging.All the above leads to the fifth step, “Shine”. Doing well feels very good and giving recognition and noticing when a person is doing well, is critical. Creating a culture that helps people ‘shine’, inevitably becomes a culture of self-perpetuating excellence.According to a 2005 Harris Interactive survey, 33% of the 7,718 employees surveyed believed they had reached a dead end in their jobs, and 21 % were eager to change careers. Only 20% felt passionate about their work.It doesn’t have to be that way. Read this book and find out how to do it.Readability Light -+--- SeriousInsights High --+-- LowPractical High +---- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of the recently released ‘Executive Update.

"in ethical and religious language we seem constantly to be using similes. But a simile must be the simile for something. And if I can describe a fact by means of a simile I must also be able to drop the simile and to describe the facts without it. Now in our case, as soon as we try to drop the simile and simply to state the facts which stand behind it, we find that there are no such facts. And so, what at first appeared to be simile now seems to be mere nonsense." [Wittgenstein]Hallowel likes using similes and buzzwords far too much, obscuring the substance of the content and leaving it apparently superficial. There are gold nuggets in his book, and he refers to literary authorities to assist his subjects, but the book reads more like a motivational speaker's presentation... or worse: like a snake-oil salesman's pitch. This is a pity, because an engineer like myself need to know how to get the most out of my subordinates and colleagues and there seems merit to most of what he writes about.The style of the book is the biggest problem I have though, but if you can ignore the floral embellishments and buzzwords, then you could really get some value out of it. The final two chapters especially were worthwhile for me.

It's not my first reading for Dr. Hallowell. His writing style is amusing and he makes a wonderful job in creating the context for his advices through real-life anecdotes. Moreover, he excels in transforming recent scientific discoveries in psychiatry into applicable actions for managers to get the most out of their teams, which is the main goal of the book.The process presented by Dr. Hallowell, called the Cycle of Excellence, does not address a single key idea as the basis for peak performance. It is a combination of many ideas while drawing upon the latest research from diverse disciplines. It is a process that he have created and honed over the past 25 years as a doctor, practicing psychiatrist, author, consultant, and instructor at the Harvard Medical School.Hallowell's cycle consists of five steps (Select, Connect, Play, Grapple & Grow, and Shine), with each chapter explaining one of them and concluding with few pages listing valuable, concrete suggestions on how to implement the explained concept.What's unique in this book and in the Cycle of Excellence is the bringing together of the five steps, each one of which is not new in itself, but taken together create a new and powerful approach to bring out the best in people.I highly recommend this book for managers and CEOs who want their companies to thrive even in difficult times!

A la fin de ma lecture, je trouvais le livre bien creux. On y trouve certes de belles histoires, comme la poignante introduction du cireur de chaussures, mais l'ensemble manque singulièrement de références scientifiques. C'est un ensemble d'intuitions de bon sens, et la caution d'un lointain PhD en sciences cognitives ne suffit pas à me convaincre de leur solidité.Toutefois, quelques mois après la lecture, je réalise m'être souvent inspiré des exemples et outils dans le cadre de mon métier managérial, et avec succès. Les conseils de Ned Hallowell ne sortent peut-être pas d'un laboratoire, mais ils ont le mérite d'adresser le manque de réflexion autour de notre orientation professionnelle.

Simple language , small and feasible steps towards change. We may be already following many things but this book brings structure to that .

Book was recommended to me. Did not disappoint.