Brain & Behavioural Change Programme

How you can work with your brain to stay calm, focused, and motivated

It is easy to wonder after you have been involved in a particularly unhelpful emotional response to a situation what emotions are for, and in what way they can possibly benefit us. Emotions provide important signals about how well we are performing and so ignoring them can result in ineffective behaviour. By learning what role emotions play and by working more effectively with these signals, we can improve our own and others’ effectiveness. Motivation is also highly dependent on emotional state. By considering the way in which the brain uses emotions, we can investigate the link between emotion and motivation and how to use this more effectively both to motivate ourselves and others.

By the end of this module, you should:

• Understand the role of emotion in our lives.
• Be able to distinguish between expressed and regulated emotions and have tools available to regulate your own emotions when required.
• Understand the benefits of a large emotional repertoire and know how to expand your own repertoire.
• Understand the connection between emotion regulation and motivation.
• Know the difference between approach and avoid modes of behaviour and have tools available to switch between these modes.
• Be able to describe the brain systems involved in emotional regulation and motivation in a manner that is accessible and useful to non-experts.

How you can learn to unlock your brain’s natural capacity for innovation and problem solving

In times of economic hardship, one way for individuals and organisations to survive is to be more innovative than their competitors. Innovation requires creativity and insight to come up with new products, new solutions or new markets.

One of the wonders of the human brain is its ability to generate novel ideas. Sometimes these seem to require sweat and tears, while at other times they arrive out of the blue. So, how can we create this type of original thinking when we need it most?

By exploring what changes in the brain during different types of creativity and insight we can improve our chances of being creative when we need this most. We will use practical exercises to show you how best to increase your own creativity and problem solving.

By the end of this module, you should:

• Understand the importance of a climate that is suited to creative thinking and have tools to create this climate.
• Differentiate between different types of creativity and know which type is best for particular applications.
• Understand the nature of insight and know how best to cultivate this in yourself and others.
• Be able to determine types of creativity and insight to support best states for goal setting.
• Be able to describe the brain systems involved in creativity and insight in a manner that is accessible and useful to non-experts.

How you can use your brain to learn faster and retain more at any age

Being able to learn and remember is a fundamental ability that we use every day of our lives. We all have the experience of sometimes find learning and remembering easy and struggling at other times.

Understanding how the brain learns and remembers can help us to make learning more effective for ourselves and others. It can provide us with tools and techniques that we can use whenever we need to learn new skills or remember new information.

Here, we will learn about different types of memory, and the systems in the brain that are used for each. This understanding will be the springboard for practical tools for effective learning whether individuals in organisations, teams or families.

By the end of this module, you should:

• Have an understanding of the importance of learning and memory as functions in the brain.
• Understand the mechanisms used for learning in the brain and how best to promote new learning.
• Understand the role of context, repetition and emotion in learning and be able to use these to create more effective learning.
• Understand what memory is and what it does for us.
• Have tools to be able to improve memory where required.
• Be able to use your understanding of learning and memory as springboard for effective communication skills.
• Be able to describe the brain systems involved in learning and memory in a manner that is accessible and useful to non-experts.

How you can make confident, effective decisions even when the pressure is on

As we move up the ladder of success in the workplace, or when we become parents, we are required to make decisions and plan for events that affect people’s lives – sometimes in highly significant ways. We are also responsible for bigger budgets and financial planning. But we don’t always get support for how to get the best from the decision-making systems in our own and other’s brains.

Through improving our understanding of the different mechanisms that are available in the brain for decision-making, individual differences in how these are used, and the situations in which these are most likely to be activated, we can better understand how effective decisions are made. This leads to tools and techniques that we can use to drive more effective decision-making for ourself and others.

By the end of this module, you should:

• Understand the evolution of decision making and the brain systems that are in place to mae decisions.
• Differentiate between different decision making processes and understand the strengths and limitations of each.
• Be able to consider which decision making system to use in particular contexts.
• Have tools to help with decision making in complexity.
• Be able to optimize individual and team decision making and planning.
• Be able to describe the brain systems involved in decision making and planning in a manner that is accessible and useful to non-experts.

How you can learn to react more effectively to stress and cultivate everyday resilience

What exactly is stress? And what function does it serve for us? Why would we have evolved to become stressed? And why do some people seem to be much better at dealing with stress than others? What lessons might we learn from these people about how to be more resilient?

By understanding why the stress response evolved, we can become better at recognising when stress is working for us and when it is ineffective and even harmful. This leads to more effective interactions with events that we might consider stressful and therefore greater resilience.

In particular, recent advances in neuroscience have demonstrated that contemplation of different forms (e.g. mindfulness, meditation, yoga) can impact our level of stress. We will explore this evidence and provide tools for how to best use contemplation to reduce stress.

By the end of this module, you should:

• Understand the function of stress and how to use this effectively.
• Understand the nature of resilience and have tools to increase resilience in self and others.
• Have tools to decrease stress and increase resilience in self and others to work/live more effectively.
• Understand the nature of contemplation and its benefits.
• Understand the links between contemplation and techniques including mindfulness and meditation.
• Understand the benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices to brain functions.
• Be able to describe the brain systems involved in stress, resilience and contemplative neuroscience in a manner that is accessible and useful to non-expert.