22. May 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Check out this fantastic article at Wired on Pecha Kucha - a new form of presenting using only 20 power point slides while showing each slide for 20 seconds. It’s a great blend of slam poetry and corporate presentations. Slims them down, spices them up, cuts to the heart of the matter and allows for discussion by the audience.

Check out the sample presentation at the end about emotionally intelligent signage. Great novel topic. Empathy in signage.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha

Have a fantastic, wonderful, strengths-filled weekend!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Author of the award-winning book Guide To Self:The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion & Thought

Guide To Self, Inc.

913 San Ramon Valley Blvd. #280

Danville CA 94526

GuideToSelf.com - Web site

DrJohnBlog.GuideToSelf.com - Award-winning Blog (recently named #1 positive psychology blog by PostRank and Top 100 blog by Daily Reviewer!)

@johnschin - Twitter 

Posted in Emotion & productivity, Corporate Culture, Danville CA, Emotion & learning, National speakers, Employee engagement, Executive coach, Well-being, San Francisco Bay Area, Optimal Human Functioning, Visual perception, Emotion and technology, Organizational psychology, Guide to Self, Dr. John Schinnerer, Managing stress, Business & psych, Emotional IQ, Organizational change initiatives, Emotional management, Emotional mind, Customer Engagement, Nervousness, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

14. May 2010 by John Schinnerer.

Coming from the perspective of positive psychology, I am admittedly biased towards the inherent power of emotion. Emotions are among the top reasons for failed attempts to improve corporate productivity and culture.

Fear:  Fear and anxiety paralyze change initiatives. 

Anger: Culture changes are sabotaged due to intense resentment and long-held grudges. Failed projects begin to pile up due to residual anger and back-stabbing between executives.

Sadness:  Resignation and hopelessness stall attempts to improve productivity, sales, and ongoing improvement.

Without a legitimate and thorough understanding of the emotional minds of your employees, you are at the mercy of their emotions.

In his book, Developing the Leader Within, John Maxwell discusses the difference between character-driven people and emotion-driven people….

“Character-driven people…

• Do right, then feel good.
• Are commitment driven.
• Make principle-based decisions.
• Let action control attitude.
• Create momentum.
• Continue when problems arise.
• Are steady.
• Are leaders.

Emotion-driven people…

• Feel good, then do right.
• Are convenience-driven.
• Make popular decisions.
• Lett attitude control action.
• Wait for momentum.
• Quit when problems arise.
• Are moody.
• Are followers.”

Maxwell makes an interesting yet incorrect distinction. It’s a false dichotomy. For we are all character-driven AND emotion-driven.

The emotional brain (which is associated with the amygdala) has been in existence in human beings for 3 to 10 million years. On the other hand, the rational brain (which is associated with the prefrontal cortex) has only been around for roughly 50,000 to 1 million years.

The emotional brain has been through countless revisions and is nearly perfect in it’s ability to keep humans safe and act as a general guidance system (approach vs. avoidance). The emotional brain is faster and has the ability to hijack the rational brain when danger is sensed. ‘Danger’ is based on our perceptions and can vary widely depending upon the makeup of the individual.

The rational brain is still in the earliest stages of revision on an evolutionary scale. It is fallible, prone to mistakes in thinking, and can be overpowered by the emotional brain in a matter of 33 milliseconds.

Without doubt, we are all a combination of the rational and emotional brains. The tricky part is finding ways to teach the rational and the emotional sides to work together in cooperation so as to maximize productivity and allow for constructive change in the workplace.

To this end, I’ve been developing research-backed tools to teach groups to manage their emotional mind, and not merely to turn down the volume on negative emotions such as fear, anger and sadness, but to turn UP the volume on positive emotions such as awe, pride, curiosity, interest, relaxation, happiness and amusement.

My discovery is that merely learning to manage the negative emotions is necessary but not sufficient to increase employee productivity, cooperation, teamwork and innovation. Positive emotions serve to broaden and build. Positive emotions enable us to think outside the box, to act in new ways, to create and innovate.

Thus, it’s one thing to deal with the negative emotions in your workforce. It’s another to learn ways to cultivate the positive emotions which will spark new ideas and facilitate new, more productive behaviors.

To set up speaking engagements, call now. 925-944-3440. Or click here for the one-pager.

Have a fantastic week!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Award-winning author of Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought

Author of top 3 blog Shrunken Mind

Collaborator on International Wellbeing Study

Positive Psychology Expert

Posted in Emotion & productivity, International Wellbeing Study, Danville CA, National speakers, Emotion and technology, Corporate Culture, Employee engagement, San Francisco Bay Area, Well-being, Alamo CA, Optimal Human Functioning, Executive coach, Resiliency, Organizational psychology, Emotional IQ, Chief Marketing Officer, Managing stress, Realistic optimism, Business & psych, Customer Engagement, Happiness, Anger Management, Men's emotions, Emotional management, Emotional mind, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

9. March 2010 by John Schinnerer.

The Well-Being Explosion and What’s Next

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman states that increasing interest in life satisfaction and well-being is reaching critical mass throughout the world now that economists are involved with measuring Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH) and other key metrics. In a clip from Gallup’s series, “Next Steps: Transforming Americans’ Health and Well-Being,” Kahneman looks at why the study of emotions is likely to be the future of well-being research.

 http://www.gallup.com/video/123914/Well-Being-Explosion-Whats-Next.aspx

It’s a fantastic, uplifting feeling to know that the rest of the world might be beginning to realize the importance of the work on which I’ve been spending the past 15 years of my life. Ever since 1995, I’ve been studying, practicing and teaching the best scientifically-proven methods to alleviate destructive emotions (e.g., fear, anger, sadness) and cultivate more constructive emotions (e.g., awe, pride, love, contentment, curiosity, and more). I’ve written award winning book (Guide To Self: The Beginner’s Guide To Managing Emotion and Thought), spoken to tens of thousands of people and done a daily prime time radio show. It is so rewarding to think that some folks might be understanding the power, importance and ubiquity of emotions.

I’ll check in with you soon!

All the best,

John

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Positive Psychology Coach

Guide To Self, Inc.

http://www.guidetoself.com 

Posted in Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, International Wellbeing Study, Emotion & learning, National speakers, Science of love, Emotion and technology, Corporate Culture, San Ramon CA, Alamo CA, San Francisco Bay Area, Well-being, Self-compassion, Emotion & Athletics, Executive coach, Optimal Human Functioning, Curiosity, Gratitude, Dr. John Schinnerer, Life coach, Happiness, Measuring emotions, Managing stress, Forgiveness, Business & psych, Morals and values, Guide To Self Beginners Guide To Managing Emotion, Men's emotions, The human brain, Organizational psychology, Managing Sadness, Managing Anxiety, Emotional mind, Emotional management, Positive Psychology | Print | No Comments »

21. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

From ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2009) — Everyone tends to float off into space once in a while and fail to see what is sitting there right in front of them. Recently researchers decided to put the theory of “inattentional blindness” to the test: the unicycling clown test. They documented real-world examples of people who were so distracted by their cell phone use that they failed to see the bizarre occurrence of a unicycling clown passing them on the street.

The study is published in an upcoming issue of Applied Cognitive Psychology.

Compared with individuals walking alone, in pairs, or listening to their ipod, cell phone users were the group most prone to oblivious behavior: only twenty-five percent of them noticed the unicycling clown. The walkers not using a cell phone noticed the clown over fifty-percent of the time.

Furthermore, the cell phone users had difficulties performing even the simple task of walking, an action that should require relatively few cognitive resources. They walked more slowly, changed direction more often, were prone to weaving, and acknowledged other individuals more rarely.

Dr. Ira E. Hyman, Jr. at Western Washington University, head researcher of the study, says: “If people experience so much difficulty performing the task of walking when on a cell phone just think of what this means when put into the context of driving safety. People should not drive while talking on a cell phone.” Furthermore, the research shows that the level of familiarity with the person’s real-world environment does not affect their attentional awareness.

 For full article, please click here.

Is it possible that using a cell phone makes us more mind-less? Perhaps it disconnects us from what is going on within our bodies and immediately around us outside our bodies. Use caution when talking on the cell while driving.

Latest stats show that driving while talking on cell is as dangerous as driving drunk. It simply overtaxes our minds and our attentional capabilities.

 The take home point is that our attention is limited in nature, not limitless.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

Guide To Self, Inc.
Danville, CA 94526

Positive psychology coach

Posted in Danville CA, National speakers, Executive coach, Psychology and technology, Visual Attention, Emotion and technology, Awareness, Guide to Self, Life coach, Consciousness, The human brain, Mindfulness, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »

20. October 2009 by John Schinnerer.

 ScienceDaily (Oct. 19, 2009) — You can teach an old dog new tricks, say UCLA scientists who found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web. 

The findings, presented Oct. 19 at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults. 

As the brain ages, a number of structural and functional changes occur, including atrophy, reductions in cell activity and increases in deposits of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which can impact cognitive function. 

Research has shown that mental stimulation similar to that which occurs in individuals who frequently use the Internet may affect the efficiency of cognitive processing and alter the way the brain encodes new information. 

“We found that for older people with minimal experience, performing Internet searches for even a relatively short period of time can change brain activity patterns and enhance function,” said study author Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the author of “iBrain,” a book that describes the impact of new technology on the brain and behavior.

For full article, click here.

All the best!

John Schinnerer, Ph.D.

‘Man has never made any material as resilient as the human spirit’

– Bernard Williams

English Philosopher

Posted in Emotion & learning, Emotion and technology, Danville CA, Emotion & productivity, Executive coach, Curiosity, The human brain, Creativity, Life coach, Guide to Self, Rational mind, Dr. John Schinnerer | Print | No Comments »