Create-teeth(Creative)-Buzz: Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?

Christophe Vorlet

The New York Times
by JANET RAE-DUPREE
Published: May 4, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/business/04unbox.html?ei=5087&em=&en=12f4319f96a5d073&ex=1210737600&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1210583527-C/L6paCiUVnguCtJ9hBl4w

"HABITS are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting herd,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative connotation."

Author suggest that it seemed antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity and innovation. Yet with the advances in neuroscience, brain researchers have discovered that with conscious development of new habits, parallel synaptic paths are created and even allows new neurons to 'jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.'

"Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind” and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners noted “the first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder ... But we are taught instead to ‘decide' ... and to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

Whats interesting is that: researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (or collaboratively) and innovatively. The argument goes on to say that with standardized testing in schools, analysis and procedure that is highlighted would then disallow people to use their "innovative and collaborative modes of thought."

New personal mastery can come by developing new habits. "If you’re an analytical or procedural thinker, you learn in different ways than someone who is inherently innovative or collaborative. Figure out what has worked for you when you’ve learned in the past, and you can draw your own map for developing additional skills and behaviors for the future..... If you have a pathway to learning, use it because that’s going to be easier than creating an entirely new pathway in your brain.”

Ms. Ryan and Ms. Markova identified 3 zones of existence: comfort, stretch and stress. "Comfort is the realm of existing habit. Stress occurs when a challenge is so far beyond current experience as to be overwhelming. It’s that stretch zone in the middle — activities that feel a bit awkward and unfamiliar — where true change occurs."

When we enter the stretching zone, “it helps keep your brain healthy. It turns out that unless we continue to learn new things, which challenges our brains to create new pathways, they literally begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. ... but scientists speculate that getting out of routines makes us more aware in general.”

Interestingly, the May 08 issue of Harvard Business review interviewed John J. Medina and sought his views on how 'The Science of Thinking Smarter' can show managers way to improve productivity.

He stated that scientists still know very little about how to apply the new knowledge of neuroscience to real-world settings.
Whats for real though, would be that by "unpacking the neuroscience of stress, companies can dramatically improve the productivity of their knowledge workers and thus gaining a competitive edge."
Also, it is established that the brain is highly sensitive and can respond very differently to external experiences and thus implies that we can "literally rewire it through exposure to cultural influences."
How learning is fixed is unclear and he notes "memory is not fized at the moment of learning, and repetition improves the odd of retrieval."
What is common knowledge is that the brain, like a muscle, gets larger and more complex with increased activity and experience.
Oh, and that exercise-known to be improve cardiovascular system enhances blood flow and blood vessels in the brain and thus, reduce chance of contracting Alzeheimer's disease

Ms Ryan proposed the practice of kaizen, a Japanese technique that calls for tiny, continuous improvements. “Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain,” “If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and we’ll run from what we’re trying to do. The small steps in kaizen don’t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.”

Ms. Markova suggests that by taking a look at how colleagues approach challenges, it brings about intellectual diversity in the business. "We tend to believe that those who think the way we do are smarter than those who don’t. That can be fatal in business, particularly for executives who surround themselves with like-thinkers."

They encouraged that by churning through the initial confusion state with new activities, the brain then starts organizing the new input, leading to the creation of new synaptic connections if the process is repeated enough. But if, during creation of that new habit, the “Great Decider” steps in to protest against taking the unfamiliar path, “you get convergence and we keep doing the same thing over and over again,” she says.