2. Your Facilitator
NarejoHR
â Established 2002
â Growing Businesses Through People
Rahila Narejo
â Chief Executive & Lead Consultant,
â Psychobiologist, Univ. California, Los Angeles
â Psychometrician, British Psychological Society (Levels A + B)
â Certified Balanced Scorecard Professional, Palladium Group
â Columnist, DAWN Newspaper, Workplace Sanity
â Associate Certified Coach (ACC), International Coaching Federation
â MSc. NeuroLeadership, Middlesex Univ. & NeuroLeadership Institute, 2014
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 Train Your Brain*Improve Productivity, Creativity, and Performance*Know your brain, transform your performance The blizzard of emailsâŚâ¨The competing deadlines⌠â¨The complex problems⌠â¨The pressure to performâŚThe legacy of an increasingly complex world, right? It doesnât have to be that way. The secrets to achieving high performance (and helping others to do the same) doesnât lie in your computer, PDA or smart phone â it lies in your ability to master your greatest asset â your brain.In this practical research-based program, you will be given the tools and knowledge to be more productive in everything you do, by gaining greater insight into whatâs happening in your own and other peopleâs brains.Wouldnât it be nice to have a manual to our brain? You might discoverbetter ways of doing things, or even learn of things you didnât know werepossible. Youâd also learn the best ways to maintain your brain and keep ithealthy. This webinar does exactly that. Youâll learn valuable braininsights and techniques to improve your own and your teamâs productivityand performance at work:- YOUR BRAIN AT WORK: Increasing Productivity- BRAIN FITNESS AND MEMORY: Increasing Overall Brain Power- BRAIN HEALTH AND STRESS: Stress and PerformanceIn this highly interactive webinar Rahila Narejo, Psychobiologist,Psychometrician, Entrepreneur, Executive Coach and the writer of the6-year, weekly-running help column âWorkplace Sanity,â explores the futureof workplace performance, productivity, and leadership based on thediscoveries of neuroscience. Recent insights into the brain have providedus with a new science of peak performance, and with a Master inNeuroleadership, Rahila is leading the way in turning this science intopractical and applicable skills. For the last 12 years Rahila has beenleading NarejoHR, a boutique Coaching and HR Consulting firm in Karachiwhere she focuses on executive teams, behavioral modification work andstrategic reengineering. Her passion at the moment is helpingcompanies improvethe performance of their people by teaching them about their brains and howto use them better.*
Neuroscience is the science that studies the brain to explain human behaviour. Discover the latest findings and improve the way you learn, create, socialise and live.Do what you love, love what you do... and also make a living out of it! Understand your motivations and how your brain engages at work, boost your focus and achieve more.the neuroscience perspective on how to work with your brain to maximize your performancetrain your brain Is it really possible to change the structure and function of the brain, and in so doing alter how we think and feel?The answer is a resounding yes.Benefits Employees that:Arrive at solutions faster and easierMake better decisionsFeel less stressed and know how to stay cool under pressureCollaborate more effectively with othersFind it easier to evaluate othersâ performance and offer inputAre more effective at influencing the behavior of others
How do you work with your brain rather than against it. Something we tend not to doâŚwe tend to fight the brain.As we go through the webinar, Think about how can I use and integrate this into my life?Turn you electronic devices off, not silent/vibrateâŚbecause our brain is easily distracted.What does it mean for you to âparticipate fullyâ?Your brain is going to get distracted, off to Hawaii, thatâs ok, pull yourself back, take notes, ask questions, in the chat boxâŚTake a sec to think what do you want to get out of this session?
If you donât know your cerebrum fromyour cerebellum, have no fearIn the past decade alone, neuroscience has revolutionizedour understanding of the normal structure and functioningof the brain, how it changes as we age, and what cango wrong in neurologic or psychiatric disease states. At thesame time, the brain is truly one of the last frontiers inbiological science, still rife with mysteries about its innerworkings.Cerebral cortex: the brainâsheavily folded outer layer of graymatter, critical to cognitiveProcessingParietal lobe: perceives andinterprets bodily sensations suchas touch, pressure, pain, andTemperatureOccipital lobe: seat of thevisual cortex, which detects andinterprets visual stimuliCerebellum: facilitatesmovement, coordination, balance,and posture, and appears to beinvolved in some types of learningHippocampus: part of the brainthat developed early inevolutionary history; involved inlearning and short-term orworking memoryFrontal lobe: controls higherthought processes and executiveFunctionMotor cortex: part of thecerebral cortex that controlsMovementWhatâs clear is that each of us hasa brain that is unique. The overallanatomy and location of key brainstructures is similar across thepopulation, but the pattern ofconnections among nerve cells âthe synapses by which brain cellstalk to one another â is the singularproduct of our individual lifeexperiences.Each of our brains, no matter ourage, is a work in progress. Itresponds and adapts and literallyrewires itself in accordance withwhat we put into it â what we learn,what we say, what we do, how weinteract with others, and even whatwe eat. Scientists call this âplasticity.âItâs the reason we can affectour cognitive function when we takethe steps to do soâŚwhy we CAN train our brains!!!Books,,,Train your brain to think like a thin personâŚtrain your brain to think like a leaderâŚor a London Cab Driver
London Cab Driver have structural changes in the hippocampus based on the number of years of experience driving in london...structural changeA classic example from theannals of brain scienceshowing how experience canshape the brain is a 2000study performed on Londoncab drivers,1 who have highlyrefined abilities for navigating alarge, complex city. Using magneticresonance imaging (MRI),researchers at UniversityCollege, London, found that cabdriversâ hippocampuses â partof the brain involved in spatialmemory and navigation â weresignificantly larger comparedwith those of other people. Thelonger the taxi driver had beenon the job, the larger his hippocampuswas.A number of studies have documentedchanges in the part of A classic example from theannals of brain scienceshowing how experience canshape the brain is a 2000study performed on Londoncab drivers,1 who have highlyrefined abilities for navigating alarge, complex city. Using magneticresonance imaging (MRI),researchers at UniversityCollege, London, found that cabdriversâ hippocampuses â partof the brain involved in spatialmemory and navigation â weresignificantly larger comparedwith those of other people. Thelonger the taxi driver had beenon the job, the larger his hippocampuswas.
A number of studies have documentedchanges in the part of the brainâs motor cortex thatmaps activity in the handamong musicians who playstring instruments or the piano;it is even possible to determinewhat instrument an individualplays by looking at the patternof structural change in themotor cortex.2 Other studiessuggest that practicing a skillin the mindâs eye only â visualizinga specific series of fingermovements, for example, ratherthan actually performing themâ has a corresponding effecton brain structure in the relevantregion.Such studies have becomeclassic examples of how oneâslife experiences literally shapeand reshape the brain.Take learning, for example. When welearn something new, and we learnit well, our brain literally creates aparticular pattern of synaptic connectionsfor that learning. Itâs as ifthe phone number of your boss orthe route to your parentsâ housestakes out its own piece of realestate in the brain â but itâs moreof a highway than a building lot.Each new experience we encounter,if it is repeated often enough, will berepresented in the brain with itsown signature pathway of nerveconnections. These connectionsinterlink and may overlap with many(sometimes many thousand) otherpathways that are in some wayassociated with that experience.Synapses that donât continue to beactivated fade away. If your bossânumber changes, or your parentsmove, the associated neural realestate will likely be up for sale, atleast after a while. This is the âuseit or lose itâ concept.Some things may be indeliblycarved into our neural circuits â likereal estate permanently designatedfor a specific use. You may stillremember the phone number of thehome you grew up in, even if youhavenât used it in years. So, too,emotionally charged memories maybe especially strong and enduring.If you were to undergo brain surgery, would you care if the surgeon regularly carried out mental practice of the operation? Or, would you only be interested in the physical practice?(By mental practice I don't mean getting 'psyched up' or making plans or getting in the right frame of mind; I mean mentally running through the physical movements required for the operation.)Quite naturally you'd probably be much more interested in how often the surgeon had carried out the operation in real life, rather than in his imagination.But should you be? What is the value of mental practice, not just in surgery, but in life in general? How much benefit is there to mental rehearsal and do we undervalue the power of mental practice?RehearsalFor neurosurgery specifically there is no study looking at what difference mental practice can make (although some surgeons do carry out this sort of rehearsal). But we do know that for basic surgical techniques, mental practice can benefit performance.One study by Sanders et al. (2008) was carried out on medical students. On top of their usual trainingâwhich included physical practiceâhalf were trained in mental imagery techniques, while the other half studied their textbooks.When the students carried out live surgery, those who'd used mental imagery performed better, on average, than those assigned the book learning.Another study looking at laparoscopic surgery has also shown benefits for mental practice for novice surgeons (Arora et al., 2011).Away from the operating theatre, the main way we're used to hearing about mental rehearsal is in sports. Whether it's an amateur tennis player or Roger Federer, sports-people often talk about how mental rehearsal improves their performance.My favourite example is the British Formula 1 driver, Jenson Button. In practice he sits on an inflatable gym ball, with a steering wheel in his hands, shuts his eyes, and drives a lap of the circuit, all the while tapping out the gear changes. He does this in close to real time so that when he opens his eyes he's not far off his actual lap time.Powerful pinkiesThe reason that sports-people, surgeons and many others are interested in the benefits of mental practice is that they can be so dramatic, plus they are effectively free.Here's a great example from a simple study in which some participants trained up a muscle in their little fingers using just the power of mental practice (Ranganathan et al., 2004). In the study participants were split into four groups:These people performed 'mental contractions' of their little finger. In other words, they imagined exercising their pinkies.Same as (1), but they performed mental contractions on their elbows, not their little fingers.Did no training at all.Carried out physical training on their little finger.They all practised (or not) in the various different ways for four weeks. Afterwards, the muscle strength in their fingers and elbows was tested. Unsurprisingly those who'd done nothing hadn't improved, while those who'd trained physically improved their muscle strength by an average of 53%.The two mental practice groups couldn't beat physical training, but they still did surprisingly well. Those imagining flexing their elbow increased their strength by 13.5% and those imagining flexing their little finger increased their strength by 35%. That's surprisingly close to the 53% from physical training; I bet you wouldn't have expected it to be that close.Thinking practiceThis is just strength training, but as we've seen there's evidence that mental rehearsal of skills also produces benefits. Examples include mentally practising a music instrument, during rehabilitation from brain injuries and so on; the studies are starting to mount up.Indeed some of these have shown that mental practice seems to work best for tasks that involve cognitive elements, in other words that aren't just about physical actions (Driskell et al., 1994).So it's about more than mentally rehearsing your cross-court forehand. Rehearsal could also be useful for a job interview or important meeting; not just in what you'll say but how you'll talk, carry yourself and interact with others. Mental rehearsal could also be useful in how you deal with your children, or make a difficult phone call or how you'll accomplish the most challenging parts of your job.Notice the type of mental imagery I'm talking about here. It's not so much about visualising ultimate success, with all its attendant pitfalls, but about visualising the process. What works is thinking through the steps that are involved and, with motor skills, the exact actions that you will perform.To be effective, though, mental practice has to be like real practice: it should be systematic and as close to reality as you can make it. Just daydreaming won't work. So if you make a mistake, you should work out why and mentally correct it. You should also make the practice as vivid as possible by tuning in to the sensory experience: what you can see, hear, feel and even smell, whatever is important.If it can work for surgeons, elite athletes and little-finger-muscle-builders, then it can work for all of us.
PFC needed for:DecideUnderstandMemorizeInhibit (Braking System)RecallLimited Conscious resources, PFC is like your RAMâŚneed ENERGY to do all of this!To understand this limitation, think of your PFC as the size of 1 cubic meter vs your nonconscious as the milky way!Conscious resources are much smaller than unconscious resourcesâŚthis has dramatic implications on how we workPUT THIS TEXT IN THE ICEBERG PICTUREContents of our Conscious mind at any one moment= rational mind=where we do our mental work= psychologists call it our working memoryWorking memory is required for understanding a new idea, for making a decision, forWorking memory is what we hold in mind, the contents of our conscious mindIf you compare what we can hold in our rational mind, conscious working memory vs subconscious, is a comparison of a cubic meter and the entire milky way. An extraordinary differenceWe are dramatically more non-conscious than consciousBOOKS:Thinking Fast and SlowThe Believing BrainLots of books on mistakesWe have so many cognitive biases (around 50 of them!)âŚwe donât operate on conscious memory.Video: Hollow HeadWe donât operate on conscious processes very much.Our conscious is very small and our non-conscious is dramatically bigger!We use a tiny little resource, the PFCWhat does that mean to you in terms of how you work the rest of your day?Ie How can I tap into the non-conscious?How to speed up or make it more efficient?1+12+38+712+4759+32Simple math, 2 2-digit numbers, why did it take longer? Was this more complicated than what you do at work everyday?No, as soon as we go to anything that requires PFC to be used, we see the resistance of the brain to spend that energyâŚYou see how quickly the brain resists to use this limited energy intensive resourceThe brain itself represents 2-4% body massAmount of energy it takes to operate is about 20%Think about that in terms of your appliancesâŚany appliance that contributes to 1/5 of your daily energy billâŚwhat would you do?We have limited resources for decision making and impulse control (braking system)âŚand if you use it once, you diminish your energy source and it makes it difficult to repeat it againâŚEx, used your self-control toâŚthen were faced with a scrumptious all-you can eat buffet
PFC is important for focused attention, it is positioned at the very front of the brain, an area esp developed in humans, and fully developed by your 20'sAffects the ability to orchestrate our thoughts and actions towards achieving our goals.Attention is limited, important for encoding of info, need to consider it when designing training programs:1. it is picky, requires just the right amount of arousal to function properly2. requires a lot of energy to function, and can become exhausted, like a muscle limited resourceLevel of ArousalLevel of ProcessingSelf-referenceDivided Attention
Hand brain model
Itâs true after all: use it or lose itEveryone knows what a fit body looks like, but fit brains,which donât boast rippled muscles or six-packs, aretougher to distinguish. Brain fitness is a state of mind inwhich we are performing well cognitively and emotionally.When weâre cognitively fit, weâre maintaining our mentaledge, staying sharp, aging successfully. Brain fitness is notonly the absence of disease, either Alzheimerâs or other typesof dementia; it is also the preservation of emotional and cognitivewell-being throughout our working years and beyond.
Study of 6,000 employees, 10% said at work! 39% at home!51% at cafes, where they shouldnât really be thinking, they are doing their best thinking!Respect your attentionWhen asked about when? 59% said first thing in the morning
Take care of your Brain!Cognitive fitness isa state of mind inwhich we areperforming wellmentally, emotionally,and functionally.Attaining it entailsfollowing healthybrainpractices, suchas exercising themind and body,staying sociallyconnected, eatingand sleeping well,and managing stress.What if simple exercise could boostthe rate at which your brain makesnew neurons? Columbia Universityresearchers have found provocativeevidence that structured aerobic exercisedoes exactly that3 â and weârenot just talking about rodents on awheel.Neuroscientist Scott Small and hiscolleagues put 11 adults through 40minutes of aerobics four times a weekfor 12 weeks, then measured bloodflow in the participantsâ brains.Smallâs team wanted to know whetherthe exercise would help generate newneurons in the hippocampus (aprocess called âneurogenesisâ), ashad previously been shown to occur inanimals.Since thereâs no way to measure neurogenesisdirectly in humans, theresearchers did a parallel study inmice, examining their brains after theywere allowed to exercise freely fortwo weeks (mice actually like exercise).They found blood flow changesin the animalsâ brains that correlatedwith the degree of neurogenesis thathad occurred. Then they comparedthese changes to those in thehumansâ brains.The patterns matched closely, convincing scientists that they were seeing the first surrogaterepresentation of increased neurogenesis in the human hippocampus. Whatâs more,the blood flow changes in the brain correlated with both cardiopulmonary and cognitivefitness. Conclusion: increased blood flow to the hippocampus may trigger or support newneuron growth, which in turn may improve learning.Enhances memory and learning,demonstrated by better performanceon a range of cognitivetests.Improves mood and counteractsdepression. There is substantialevidence for the antidepressivequalities of regular aerobic exercise,and government-fundedclinical trials are underway toinvestigate exercise as a treatmentfor depression, alone or incombination with antidepressantmedications.Enlarges blood vessels to pumpmore blood and oxygen into thebrain.Increases levels of brain-derivedneurotrophic factor (BDNF), agrowth factor that supports andnourishes brain cells.Ramps up the rate at which newnerve cells are generated in thehippocampus, and increasesthe volume of the hippocampus.Increases the number of glia,brain cells that support neuronsand speed neural processing.Your Brain Needs Social ConnectionsHumans are social animals. Study after study has shownthat staying socially connected â that is, spending timewith friends and acquaintances and participating in manysocial activities â is one of the fundamental tenets of cognitivehealth. Conversely, being socially isolated is associatedwith a host of health problems and shorter lifespan overall.Think about it: When youâre activelyengaging with other people, youâreusing your brain (How can I get himon my team?). When youâre meetingnew people, youâre using your brain(What was her name?). People aregood for brain health because theyare unpredictable. They keep us onour toes. And we can learn somethingfrom every person we meet.Social pain = physical pain!!!Richard Davidson and colleagues at theUniversity of Wisconsin showed thatâexpert meditatorsâ have a higher level ofthe brain waves associated with advancedmental activity such as attention, learning,and conscious perception.7 The distinctrhythms persisted even when participantswere not actively meditating, suggestingthat long-term meditation alters baselinebrain activity.RechargeâŚstress managementâŚYour Brain on MultitaskingMultitasking has become a way oflife â and work â for many of us. Wecheck email while on a conferencecall. Review slides during a meeting.Talk on a cell phone while weâredriving. Doing two or three things atonce may have become so secondnaturewe donât even realize weâredoing it. We may not be able toimagine how we would get throughour day if not for this capacityto juggle.It may surprise you to learn thatmultitasking is not the most efficientuse of brain power. A series ofstudies in recent years has usedbrain imaging to understand howthe brain handles discrete tasksthat are performed simultaneously.The results suggest that multitaskinghas a cost in terms of efficiency,learning, and neural activity devotedto each task.One of the most recent studies,from Vanderbilt University,9suggests that the brainâs executivecontrol center in the frontal lobesis incapable of processing two decision-making operations at once,effectively creating a bottleneck ininformation processing that delaysthe execution of the second taskuntil the first one is complete.The idea that sleep is necessaryto consolidate what welearn into long-term memorieshas gained significant groundin recent years, despite thedifficulty of proving thehypothesis. While itâs clearthat people remember betterif they have a full nightâssleep, why this is so hasremained largely a mystery.Recent work by BrownUniversity neuroscientistsoffers fresh clues.11,12 MayankMehta and colleagues recordedelectrical activity from thebrains of mice anesthetized tomimic the deepest sleepstates of humans, when memorystorage is believed tooccur. (The hippocampus isresponsible for new learning,but scientists believe thatlong-term memories arestored in the cortex, and thata âfilingâ process happenswhile we sleep.)Getting a good nightâs sleep â 7 to 8 hours for most adults âis essential to performing at our best. If you find yourselfregularly having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, thereare some things you can do to address the problem.
Enrich Your Life, Enrich Your BrainIf you had your own personal cognitive fitness trainer,what kind of a training program would he/she put you on?Clearly, cognitive fitness is multidimensional. Itâsmore than physical activity. Itâs more than mentalstimulation. And itâs more than social interaction, diet,stress management, or adequate sleep. Each of thesefactors is important, but even more important is puttingthem all together.
 Train Your Brain*Improve Productivity, Creativity, and Performance*Know your brain, transform your performance The blizzard of emailsâŚâ¨The competing deadlines⌠â¨The complex problems⌠â¨The pressure to performâŚThe legacy of an increasingly complex world, right? It doesnât have to be that way. The secrets to achieving high performance (and helping others to do the same) doesnât lie in your computer, PDA or smart phone â it lies in your ability to master your greatest asset â your brain.In this practical research-based program, you will be given the tools and knowledge to be more productive in everything you do, by gaining greater insight into whatâs happening in your own and other peopleâs brains.Wouldnât it be nice to have a manual to our brain? You might discoverbetter ways of doing things, or even learn of things you didnât know werepossible. Youâd also learn the best ways to maintain your brain and keep ithealthy. This webinar does exactly that. Youâll learn valuable braininsights and techniques to improve your own and your teamâs productivityand performance at work:- YOUR BRAIN AT WORK: Increasing Productivity- BRAIN FITNESS AND MEMORY: Increasing Overall Brain Power- BRAIN HEALTH AND STRESS: Stress and PerformanceIn this highly interactive webinar Rahila Narejo, Psychobiologist,Psychometrician, Entrepreneur, Executive Coach and the writer of the6-year, weekly-running help column âWorkplace Sanity,â explores the futureof workplace performance, productivity, and leadership based on thediscoveries of neuroscience. Recent insights into the brain have providedus with a new science of peak performance, and with a Master inNeuroleadership, Rahila is leading the way in turning this science intopractical and applicable skills. For the last 12 years Rahila has beenleading NarejoHR, a boutique Coaching and HR Consulting firm in Karachiwhere she focuses on executive teams, behavioral modification work andstrategic reengineering. Her passion at the moment is helpingcompanies improvethe performance of their people by teaching them about their brains and howto use them better.*