In our last several ABCs I have been suggesting books and related research materials to assist alumni in better understanding what we are thinking with regard to our overall leadership development process.  As many of you are aware, we have made significant advances, particularly as it relates to the impact of our new LIFE program, and the number of companies and universities expressing interest grows every day. Additional consequential developments with our strategic partners -- Kepner-Tregoe and Results Coaching -- are encouraging us to go back and revisit all elements of the leadership development process (including their contributions) to more fully encourage and support the beneficial personal growth and development incentives stimulated by LIFE.
 
To this end, the CIMBA team will be focusing on decision-making and problem-solving, particularly as those topics relate to group decision-making and problem solving, throughout the coming summer months. It just so happens that in the past several months the popular press has delivered several interesting books to consider -- but I encourage you to look at them from a particular point of view. With specific regard to decision-making, you might want to take a look at Jonah Lehrer's How We Decide, Robert Burton's On Being Certain: Believing You're Right Even When You Are Not, Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, and Richard H. Thaler's Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness among others.  (Although negotiations are currently ongoing, we are hopeful that Jonah Lehrer will be a keynote speaker at our NeuroLeadership Summit at UCLA in late October.)  In a group or team setting, recall that we would refer to the basic thinking process examined in these books as a Decision Analysis (DA). With specific regard to a "problem-finding" thinking process, I would suggest Michael A. Roberto's Know What You Do Not Know: How Great Leaders Prevent Problems before They Happen.  Recall that in a group or team setting, we would refer to this thinking process as "problem-avoidance" or Potential Problem Analysis (PPA) (Alumni will want to take a moment and recall the "exploding whale video" used in our KT classes featuring longtime CIMBA supporter, Mr. Paul Linnman).  It is in the notion of decision-making and problem solving within a group setting - where effective leadership is an indispensible ingredient -- that we feel the current literature is coming up short in their thinking. It is from this mindful prospective that I encourage you to read these works.
 
As you have heard me assert before, effective leadership is not about how any one individual makes decisions or solves problems; it is about how that leader motivates and inspires his or her team to make decisions, to take effective action. It is a core component of CIMBA's leadership development process that the concerns raised in each of the above books can be very effectively addressed by implementing necessary and appropriate process tools into your organization.  After considerable research, CIMBA adopted the Kepner Tregoe rational process tools for that specific purpose. We strongly believe that through such tools and the common language, guidelines, and behaviors they provide to team members that a leader gets the most from all of the brains in the room. Effective leaders are masters of process, not content.
 
Our principal research interest this coming summer is verifying the connection between neuroscience's notion of social pain (which in the case of decision-making and problem-solving in teams or groups is brought about by a lack of a commonly understood process) and the deficiencies in individual leader decision-making and problem solving to which the above books so artfully refer. Although decision-making in social settings has only just begun to receive attention amongst neuroscientists, a number of important questions with potential to significantly impact leadership and leadership development are emerging. There is a tendency in the leadership and management literature (and in the real world) to view decision-making and problem-solving as identical activities, with the terms often used interchangeably. If we view decision-making as a managerial response to the question "What are my choices?" and problem-solving as a manager response to the question "What has gone wrong?," can neuroscience tell us whether the brain uses the same algorithm in bringing  about a solution (We hypothesize that the brain uses different  algorithms)? Can knowing the answer assist leaders in getting the most from team member mental resources (We hypothesize that better focusing team mental resources will enhance performance)? Does "making thinking visible" through the use of an explicit process serve to overcome the processing limits of the prefrontal cortex and increase team member performance within those limits (We hypothesize that by eliminating process ambiguity, the associated limbic response will be dampened down thereby increasing productive thinking)? With leadership and management theorist showing that an overwhelming majority of top managers consider it a sign of immaturity to express sentiments during decision-making meetings, what does social cognitive neuroscience have to say about the use of such suppression mechanisms to inhibit personal feelings in regulating emotion, particularly in those situations where personal values and organizational objectives conflict (We hypothesize that the current research on emotional regulation will show clear productivity - and health -- gains from relabeling and reappraisal)? We hope to let you know by the end of the summer.