Genius Awakening

An intertesting take on profiling. Very similar to the ones that I hold the New Zealand Agency for. You can check my ones out at www.wholebrainthinking.com.au and have a look at the video clip here: http://www.geniusawakening.com/video1_access.php

The Element and Whole Brain Thinking

This from my friend and colleague, Ken Wall. http://www.wholebrainthinking.com.au/

I've just finished reading for the second time a really outstanding book by Sir Ken Robinson, The Element.

Sir Ken is probably most well known for his TED lecture in 2006 on how schools and our education systems are killing creativity in our children. His argument in this great talk (www.ted.com) was that the education system mainly recognises and rewards traditional left-brain thinkers. He doesn't suggest - and neither do we - that the traditional and basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic coupled with science are not important. Ken Robinson is suggesting, and we agree, that there is a lot more to being good at school - and in life - than being good at the basic left-brain subjects.

But what happens to right-brain thinkers? How do they get on in the left-brain education system?

The Element explains, through many examples and personal stories, how every one of us can find ourselves in our own personal Element, and achieve everything we are capable of and enjoy our lives to the fullest. One of the key principles of the Element is that we need to challenge what we take for granted. This is particularly important given the rate of change we now face and even more so as we go into the future. Children starting school today will leave school in 2022. What are we going to teach them to prepare for the day they leave school in 12 years time? Rather than focus on what is happening outside, Ken Robinson suggests that we might be better off if we focus on ourselves, what we are good at and what we would really like to do - our Element. The book takes this discussion a stage further and shows how each one of us has a point - the Element - at which our natural talent meets our personal passion. This idea has a very strong connection with our personal preferences and skills as measured by the Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI).

The NBI can give us a clear indication of our thinking preferences (personal passion?) and our personal skills (natural talent?). These two NBI profiles can therefore add considerably to the personal insights required for people to discover their personal Element, and to make more informed decisions about their future, or the future expectations of their nearest and dearest. It can also explain why you love - or hate - your current job, subject choices or career path. So don't leave it too late!

A good starting point would be to complete two NBI profiles - Personal Skills and Thinking Preferences.

Taking your brain into 2010

Apple has announced the iPad, politicians are fighting over whether climate change is real, some countries have survived the economic crisis, some are in deep trouble, hundreds of thousands are homeless after earthquakes, wars are going on in over 30 countries, technology is moving faster than ever, and Roger Federer has won another Grand Slam...!

So what?

This is just a tiny sample of the complexity of our lives in 2010, and it's not going to get any less complex as time goes on! How do we make sense of it all, and how can we operate more effectively in such a complex environment? Given that everything we do starts with our brain and how we think, wouldn't it make sense to find out more, and help others to find out, how their own special brain operates and how they prefer to think and therefore how they operate from day to day?

The Neethling Brain Instrument (NBI) is the ideal tool to help make sense of complexity and manage your way through the confusion.

NBI Practitioners are ideally placed to help your clients and your staff make more sense of their own particular environment, whether it is at work, at home, in relationships, in learning, parenting, career choice, and even on the sports field.

There are thousands of untapped opportunities and potential applications for the NBI profile. In fact - I would dare to suggest that there are many more potential NBI applications than there are apps for the iPhone!

There are now 22 different NBI profiles available on-line:

General Adult
Job
Teacher / Trainer
Young Child Indicator
Personal Negativity
Eating Habits
Junior Student
360 short assessment
Senior Student
Rugby
Parenting Style
Soccer
Leadership Style
Rugby Referee
Learning Style
Cricket
Creativity Style
Tennis Skills
Skills
Netball
Relationship Style
Golf Skills

Some recent success stories include:

· A call centre operation that improved staff retention and shortened learning
times by 50%. NBI Job profiles were completed for 'exemplary' performers
and shortlisted candidates asked to complete the NBI Skills profile and the
NBI Preference profile. Candidates selected on matching profiles
outperformed previous recruits in learning time, job performance and
retention.

· A national sports team were ranked outside the top ten before a World
championship series. Every player in the squad completed an NBI profile.
The team was then taken through a series of workshop sessions, where
thinking preferences, positional play and strategy were the subject of intense
scrutiny and discussion. Significant changes were made to match players'
thinking, and new thinking patterns were developed, understood and adopted
as the changing game strategy demanded. The team reached the semi-finals
for the first time in their history!

· In a strategic planning session the top team completed NBI Preference and
Leadership profiles to examine individual preferences and to develop
leadership strategies that would take their personal and group thinking
patterns into account. As a result the whole team was more willing to adopt
'Whole Brain' thinking tools and techniques, to produce the business plan in
shorter time and to a much higher quality. Individual differences were seen
as a strength, rather than an opportunity for competition and point scoring
behaviour.

Please contact us for more information. Between us we can change the World - or your business - ONE THOUGHT AT A TIME!

In Australia: info@wholebrainthinking.com.au
In New Zealand: wayne@future-edge.co.nz

The Neethling Brain Instruments

I accepted an invitation to speak at a creativity conference in South Africa last October. Whilst at the conference I met Kobus Neethling from South Africa and Ken Wall from Australia.
Ken introduced me to a suite of whole brain thinking instruments that Kobus had developed.
I had not seen anything quite like them before.

The aim of the NBI suite is to help individuals understand their thinking preferences and the implications so they can make personal and professional decisions that result in increased performance, productivity, and satisfaction.

Use of the NBI™ can help individuals and organisations to:

Increase individual productivity
Enhance organisational performance
Strengthen customer and client relationships
Establish better job and person matching
Build and lead effective teams

Thinking preferences give an indication of how an individual:

Does business
Acts toward other people
Communicates
Learns
Teaches
Solves problems
Makes decisions

I liked them so much that I am soon to become the New Zealand agent for them.
So watch this space.
Leave me a comment if you would like to know more or contact me at
wayne@future-edge.co.nz