Daniel Goleman's Blog, page 18
March 20, 2013
Maximize your “Aha!” moment
Brain studies on creativity reveal what goes on at that “Aha!” moment when we get a sudden insight. If you measure EEG brain waves during a creative moment, it turns out there is very high gamma activity that spikes 300 milliseconds before the answer comes to us. Gamma activity indicates the binding together of neurons, as far-flung brain cells connect in a new neural network – as when a new association emerges. Immediately after that gamma spike, the new idea enters our consciousness.
This heightened activity focuses on the temporal area, a center on the side of the right neocortex. This is the same brain area that interprets metaphor and “gets” jokes. It understands the language of the unconscious what Freud called the “primary process”: the language of poems, of art, of myth. It’s the logic of dreams where anything goes and the impossible is possible.
That high gamma spike signals that the brain has a new insight. At that moment, right hemisphere cells are using these longer branches and connections to other parts of the brain. They’ve collected more information and put it together in a novel organization.
What’s the best way to mobilize this brain ability? It’s first to concentrate intently on the goal or problem, and then relax into stage three: let go. The converse of letting go – trying to force an insight – can inadvertently stifle creative breakthrough. If you’re thinking and thinking about it, you may just be getting more tense and not coming up with fresh ways of seeing things, let alone a truly creative insight.
So to get to the next stage, you just let go. Unlike the intense focus of grappling with a problem head-on, the third stage is characterized by a high alpha rhythm, which signals mental relaxation, a state of openness, of daydreaming and drifting, where we’re more receptive to new ideas. This sets the stage for the novel connections that occur during the gamma spike.
Those moments of out-of-the-blue, spontaneous creative insights may seem to come out of nowhere. But we can assume that the same process has gone on, where there was some degree of engagement in a creative problem, and then during “down time” neural circuits make novel associations and connections. Even when creative insights seem to arise on their own, the brain may be going through the same moves as during the three classical stages.
On the other hand, I would guess that the three or four classical stages of creativity are somewhat of a useful fiction – the creative spirit is more freewheeling than that. I think the main neural action is between intense focus on the problem and then relaxing about it. And when that creative idea arrives, it’s almost certain that the brain has gone through that same heightened pitch of gamma activity that was found in the lab.
Is there a way to create the conditions whereby the gamma spike is more likely to occur? Gamma spikes normally come at random – they can’t be forced. But the mental stage can be set. The pre-work for the gamma spike includes defining the problem, then immersing yourself in it. And then you let it all go – and it’s during the let-go period that that gamma spike is most likely to arise, along with that “Aha!” moment, the light bulb over the head of a cartoon figure.
There’s a physical marker we sometimes feel during a gamma spike: pleasure. With the “Aha!” comes joy. Then there’s that fourth stage, implementation, where a good idea will either sink or swim. I remember talking to the director of a huge research lab. He had about 4,000 scientists and engineers working for him. He told me, “We have a rule about a creative insight: if somebody offers a novel idea, instead of the next person who speaks shooting it down – which happens all too often in organizational life – the next person who speaks must be an ‘angel’s advocate,’ someone who says, ‘that’s a good idea and here’s why.’”
Creative ideas are like a fragile bud – they’ve got to be nurtured so they can blossom.
Learn more about maximizing your brain states at work with my book The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights from More Than Sound.
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December 14, 2012
Kickstart Handprinter!
A New York Times headline recently read “With Carbon Dioxide emissions at Record High, Worries on How to Slow Warming.”
I’ve got a way to slow warming: Handprinter. I’ve just donated to their Kickstarter campaign. Here’s why.
We’ve all heard about our carbon footprints, the sum total of all the carbon dioxide released as we go through a day: driving, making meals, heating our houses and workplace, washing our clothes and dishes, and on and on. The global impact of all such human activity, we’re told, endangers our future as a species.
If you start tracking your carbon footprint, the data can be downright depressing. When Gregory Norris, the industrial ecologist who invented Handprinter, has his students at the Harvard School of Public Health measure their footprint, many tell him, “The planet would be better off if I never had been born.”
Instead of tracking all the bad news about our carbon footprint, Handprinter puts a positive spin on our environmental impacts, tracking all the good we do. With Handprinter you measure every action you take that lowers your carbon footprint, and keep growing that number.
If you can get friends to do what you’ve done, you get credits for that, too. A school, store, company, or family can track their handprint – and compete to make theirs the biggest.
Handprints can make us feel good about what we’re doing, and encourage us to do more to lower our carbon impact. As a psychologist, this makes great sense to me: instead of de-motivating folks with their footprint, keep them enthused and working on building their handprint.
Handprinter.org is the beta website; the Kickstarter campaign is for a mobile web app-in-progress. A smart way to help keep the planet a bit cooler.
November 15, 2012
On self-awareness
Q: You’ve described self-awareness as one of the most important facets of EQ. How can people develop greater self-awareness?
A: Self-awareness means the ability to monitor our inner world – our thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness is one method for enhancing this essential capacity – it trains our attention to notice subtle, but important signals, and to see thoughts as they arise rather than just being swept away by them. Google University has built a course on this – one of its creators, Mirabai Bush has an instructional audio I recommend, Working with Mindfulness
November 11, 2012
Social skills and EQ
Q: Having good social skills is another component of EQ, but does that mean people who are shy or introverted don’t have as high an EQ? Again, how can one improve social skills?
Social competence takes many forms – it’s more than just being chatty. These abilities range from being able to tune into another person’s feelings and understand how they think about things, to being a great collaborator and team player, to expertise at negotiation. All these skills are learned in life. We can improve on any of them we care about, but it takes time, effort, and perseverance. It helps to have a model, someone who embodies the skill we want to improve. But we also need to practice whenever a naturally occurring opportunity arises – and it may be listening to a teenager, not just a moment at work.
November 8, 2012
EQ in the workplace
Q: There seems to be an growing interest in emotional intelligence, especially the workplace – why do you think this is (i.e., what exactly is EQ and how can it improve your success in life)?
A: The interest in emotional intelligence in the workplace stems from the widespread recognition that these abilities – self-awareness, self-management, empathy and social skill – separate the most successful workers and leaders from the average. This is especially true in roles like the professions and higher level executives, where everyone is about as smart as everyone else, and how people manage themselves and their relationships gives the best and edge.
October 25, 2012
Toxic emotions at work
Toxic emotions at work: Drew Hansen covers Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence at Forbes.com.
Emotions in the workplace
Q: Historically, leaders in many organizations discouraged emotionality in the workplace. Why is EI an important quality for leaders (and employees)?
A: Emotional intelligence does not mean being emotional – letting it all out. Quite the contrary – it means being skillful in the emotional and social realm. With neuroscience finding that emotions are contagious, and that they flow from the more powerful person outward, leaders are on the spot: your emotional state is contagious, for better or for worse.
October 19, 2012
Emotional intelligence and customer care
Q: Today, more than ever, creating an extraordinary customer experience is critical for an organization’s survival. Can you address how EI plays a pivotal role in the area of customer care?
A: Because emotions are contagious, how your employees interact with your customers determines how the customer will feel about your company. You want your employees to be using their emotional intelligence to get and stay in an upbeat, empathic space, and to relate to your customers from that state. In Working With Emotional Intelligence I reviewed data from the hospitality industry showing that the most effective employees were adept at emotional intelligence competencies like emotional self-management (curbing negative feelings and encouraging motivation and engagement), empathy (which allows them to sense how others feel, and so be more effective communicators), and collaboration (so they work seamlessly as team members).
August 10, 2012
Technology and SEL
I’ve never seen a computer-based SEL lesson, though they may exist (and I’d love to know about it, if so). While these skills are traditionally learned in the thick of life, there is no reason this learning could not be complemented by tech-based lessons, particularly in vivid simulations of learning opportunities (like trying to work out a disagreement, say).
I suspect all the above could become media for SEL lessons. I know that some gaming groups are already including lessons in cooperation, empathy, and emotional self-regulation in their games. And neuroscientists like Michael Merzinich are creating games that give systematic training in mental skills like paying attention, a core skill for emotional self-regulation.
August 3, 2012
Meditation: where to begin
A: Meditation is an excellent way to enhance emotional intelligence skills, especially self-awareness. There are many effective methods. Meditation was developed within the framework of religions; every major world religion has its meditation methods. I surveyed meditation paths in my first book, The Meditative Mind, recently released in a digital version. But now these meditation practices have been taken out of the religious context and their benefits made available to anyone, regardless of religious beliefs. Those benefits include heightened concentration, relaxation, improved health and resilience under stress and an overall sense of well-being.
Many organizations are now offering their people instruction in meditation. Chad Meng-An’s recent book Search Inside Yourself details the meditation course developed for folks at Google. Mirabai Bush, one of the founders of the Google course, has an audio program that instructs in this approach to meditation.
Many medical centers have long offered their patients instruction in mindfulness-based stress reduction, based on the work of my old friend Jon Kabat-Zinn. His instructional tapes are an excellent way to begin, if you can’t find a meditation center near you.
There are numerous kinds of meditation, and not everyone finds a given meditation to their liking—I suggest you shop around a bit, then settle on a method that suits you. My audio program Relax gives instruction in a half dozen different methods for that reason. But once you settle on a method you like, try to practice it daily. That will give you the most benefit. Think of it as a mental fitness workout.
