Category: Recommended Reading

Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks? You Bet!

8/28/2018

While our middle-aged brains may get distracted (and there is a reason for that), they are actually performing many higher-level brain functions better than our younger selves.

So, I just finished reading a book that I can't stop talking about; it's called The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind by Barbara Strauch, which I came across while wandering around Powell's Books on my recent vacation in Portland, OR.

If you're a bookstore lover and you've never been to Powell's, you may just have to make a special trip to Portland for no other reason than to spend a week roaming the rainbow-coded multi-floor, mega-mecca-emporium's floor-to-ceiling stacks of new and used books. Needless to say, the hour I had was hardly enough to cover a measly corner of the place—but, oh, what a corner it was.

Strauch's book immediately appealed to me on several-levels:

It's focused on how the brain works, which, let's face it, as a strategist, has a lot or pretty much everything to do with my work;
With middle age defined as between 40 through our 60's, I'm definitely in the target demographic—there's no denying it; and,
Recently, my older brother and I laughed about our joint concern that we are experiencing signs of early on-set senility—no, not a laughing matter to be sure. Our paternal grandmother suffered from it, so the fear is real and the laughter a coping mechanism. Strauch opens her book with a lot of similar stories from early middle-agers, which are what inspired her to write the book in the first place.

So, it turns out that my brother and I are both actually experiencing the common signs of what I learned is middle-aged brain. I'm sure you can imagine my relief.

Now, if you frequently find yourself:

Saying, "Now, why did I come in here?" as you stand in the center of a room that you just entered, or
Thinking to yourself, “Where am I going?” as you sit in your car with the engine running, or
Asking every person around if they've seen your glasses as they give you funny looks until you glance in the mirror and, oops, there they are right on the top of your head...

But, here's something to cheer you up and get downright excited about (And, for those of you who aren't quite in the middle-aged mindset, yet, this will give you something to look forward to as you contemplate the onset of your own middle-aged brain episodes):

[The Seattle Longitudinal Study] is one of the longest, largest, and most respected life-span studies, which was started in 1956 and has systematically tracked the mental prowess of six thousand people for more than forty years. The first big results from the study, released just a few years ago, found that study participants functioned better on cognitive tests in middle age, on average, than they did at any other time they were tested.
During the span of time that constitutes the modern middle age...people in the study did better on tests of the most important and complex cognitive skills than the same group of people had when they were in their twenties.
In four out of six of the categories tested—vocabulary, verbal memory, spatial orientation, and, perhaps most heartening of all, inductive reasoning—people performed best, on average, between the ages of forty to sixty-five.

Excerpts from "The Secret Life of The Grown-Up Brain" (2010, Viking)

What does all this mean? While our middle-aged brains may get distracted (and there is a reason for that), they are actually performing many higher-level brain functions better than our younger selves. So, as Neil Charness, a psychologist at Florida State University says in the book, "if what you are doing depends on knowledge, then you're going to do very well as you get older."

Who among us, in today's economy, whether a business owner or career professional, isn't trading in knowledge and expertise, in some way or another? There's some comfort in knowing that as we get older our experience actually does count for something—it really does make us better at our jobs, smarter than our younger selves (and competition) and wiser than even we may have expected (really, there have been studies to prove it). Read Strauch’s book if you don't believe me.

And if you need a strategic edge with your business or career my one-on-one sessions are a great way to get the support and boost you need to get you to that next level. Call or email me today to for details.

To Become an Expert: Learn to Fail to Learn

8/23/2018

Without a willingness to fail and learn from failure one cannot gather the information needed to identify the best solution for success. 

Several years back Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford, and her team ran an experiment in NYC with 5th graders, conducting several rounds of exams. The first round was a relatively easy exam after which each student was given their score and either praised for their intelligence or their effort. Then, they were offered the choice of taking a more difficult test, where they were told they would learn a lot, or a test that was about the same level of difficulty as the first.

Next, Dweck gave the same group of students an exam designed for 8th graders, making it extremely difficult. After taking the test, students were asked to choose between seeing exams of other students who scored either better or worse than they did on the same exam.

Finally, the students were given a round of tests similar in difficulty to the initial round and were asked to self-report their scores.

Of the group praised for their intelligence:

The majority chose the easier exam in round 2.
In round 3, the 8th grade exam, the majority got frustrated and easily discouraged.
They almost always chose to see exams from students who scored worse than they had, seeking comfort for their shaken confidence.
Their average final exam scores compared to initial exam scores decreased by 20%.
Almost 90% lied when self reporting their final test score.

Of the group praised for their efforts:

90% chose the harder test in round 2.
In round 3, the 8th grade exam, they worked hard and often, unprovoked, exclaimed things like, “This is my favorite test.”
They almost always chose to see exams from students who scored better than they had, helping them understand their mistakes.
Their average final exam scores compared to initial exam scores rose by 30%.
About 10% lied when self reporting their final test score.

So what does all this have to do with being or becoming an expert? Well, it shows that failure is necessary and, I would even say, vital to the process of learning. Without failing our brains can’t properly work out the patterns that reveal the best solutions because they don’t have enough information from which to formulate the correct answers or drive us to make good decisions.

Dweck’s research shows that our desire to learn is highly influenced by the feedback we receive. In her research, like in most learning situations, Dweck's feedback sparks each child's desire either to learn or to succeed; those inspired to do the former embrace exploration and the possibility of failure rather than fearing failure and opting for what might be thought of as "the safe bet."

It is this willingness to fail that encouraged 90% of the effort-praised 5th graders to attempt the more difficult round 2 exam and drove almost all of them to learn from their mistakes by comparing their exams to those who scored better than they in round 3. And, in the end, it's the defining factor in why they became more proficient and expert while their intelligence-praised classmates actually decreased in proficiency.

Without a willingness to fail and learn from failure one cannot gather the information needed to identify the best solution for success. Expertise results from innately recognizing patterns for success, which itself is not possible without a preponderance of information and/or experience within or among a given field or function or set of disciplines.

If you’re an expert or want to be seen as one, you need to understand the patterns that govern your success so you can communicate your expertise in a way that makes sense to clients, customers, colleagues and/or employers. Consider:

What lessons you continue to apply in your work from earlier “failures” or mistakes.
If you have a formula, process or outline for clients, your business or yourself to achieve success, how and/or why do you know it works?

If you need help with defining, refining or translating your expertise for your business or career, please don’t hesitate to get in touch; I'm always happy to put my expertise to work for you.

Related Links:

Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks? You Bet!

To Become an Expert: Learn to Fail to Learn

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