Our ability to concentrate on one thing to the exclusion of others can be practical and efficient. It is also a coping mechanism. Selective attention provides a way for us to navigate through the maze of data that comes our way every second of the day. We can: Tune our ears – a mother reacting […]
Archive for the ‘Organizational Development’ Category
“Calmness” before the Dow Up Tick
“Calmness”, an emotional state that was analyzed from over 9 million Tweets, predicted the direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with an 87.6% accuracy rate – four days ahead of time. Hard to believe? Listen to this NPR: All Things Considered report by Guy Raz interviewing Johan Bollen about his just released study, Twitter […]
Automaticity – Help or Hindrance
As with all species, our brains are designed to recognize certain things and disregard or minimize the importance of other things. Face recognition, for example, is developed in humans at a very early point, beginning in the first month of life. Shankar Vedantam, in The Hidden Brain, discusses an experiment that he performed using his […]
Expectations of the middle aged workforce
Who would you rather have flying US Airways 1549 on January 15, 2009, a 58 year old Sully Sullenberger, or a 28 year old Sully Sullenberger? The odds are that your best chance for survival, had you been on that flight, is the mature Captain Sullenberger. In her latest book, The Secret Life of the […]
Expectations and the young work force
A friend told me about a recent volleyball tournament that he attended with his daughter. During the multiple-day tournament, his very excited 15-year-old daughter ran up to him and exclaimed, “Daddy, we won a bronze medal, and we’re going to get our picture taken in the medal ceremony.” Somewhat bewildered, the Dad gave his daughter […]
