🤪I talked to the government! Practical tools for leaders to lead in the age of change.

TUNE IN TO LEARN: 
Imagine creating a thriving ecosystem that nurtures growth and success both personally and professionally? 
 
The ecosystem that helps your people innovate, collaborate, embrace challenges of the future instead of resisting change? 
 
In this episode, we unlock the secrets to fostering supportive environments to suppor the right kind of thinking to thrive in the age of rapid change. 
 
We'll talk about my experience leading a workshop for the Department of Economic Development and Tourism in South Africa. 
 
The focus is on understanding that being an effective leader means not just self-improvement but also uplifting those around you and enhancing your surroundings. 
 
Just like tending to a garden, when we create the right conditions, we elevate our thinking, decision-making, and the potential for a brighter future. 
 
We also explore the foundational principles of life field theory, shedding light on how our behavior and stress levels are deeply influenced by our environment which leads to different states of mind, different thinking and decision-making.   
 
This episode serves as a powerful call to action for leaders to adopt these strategies, ensuring that both they and their teams thrive and do the right kind of thinking amidst constant change.   

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of your Brain's Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brain's Coach, and it is my job here to bring to you all the best recent, cutting-edge, interesting, exciting, useful and applicable life-expanding brain-body tools so you could get out there and take better control of your thoughts, of your emotions and, most importantly, your actions. To become the captain of your ship, someone who owns your fate, so you could create the life experience, the future that you truly desire and envisioned for yourself all along. That's what we are all about here, and we are fans of our brain, the most sophisticated machine in the entire universe which we, as humans, have the privilege the only ones in the animal kingdom, in the kingdom of life. We are the only ones who possess this kind of brain, who has this beautiful property of self-awareness, of learning, understanding ourselves much better and having the ability to shape our environments, our worlds, inside and out, to create a future and the kind of life experience we want. Try that, being a zebra or a plant, you cannot really move or do much to change the outcomes that you're going to create in the future. And humans can. Yes, we have our automatic programs and wired in our childhoods automatic responses and patterns that often get in the way of us shaping the future we desire, without even us understanding or knowing or acknowledging that often. But we also have this capacity to create what we want by learning how to be and live more self-aware, more present for what's happening, to have a bigger, better opportunity to shape the outcomes we create in our life for ourselves and for people around us.

Speaker 1: 2:34

I'm reading this book, reunion, by Jerry Colonna, one of the greatest coaches out there that help leaders to shape their minds, to lead better, to create more positive impact. Right, and so in his new book, reunion, which we're going to be talking about on our upcoming podcast. So in the book he talks about how becoming a better leader is about not just creating the best version of you. Probably that's an obvious thing, might be for you, but his book Reunion really made me think about the fact that becoming a better leader is all about creating the better outcomes in other people in the world, helping others grow. And yes, it is not possible without you growing yourself first, but then, once you start making desired changes in yourself, once you start growing and advancing, as soon as you can start sharing this. Start letting this change, this growth, to overflow into other people and environments around you, because this is the meaning of life. We are like the cells in the body that are created for a purpose to improve the environment, to improve the surroundings, everything that's around us, to make the world better, to keep things going and the world turning around right. So it's never about just you. It's actually more about what you can do in the world once you start changing Ecosystem. So today's podcast is all about ecosystem. The title of this podcast they.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Finally, let me talk to the government. It is true, I got an opportunity to give a workshop, a talk, to people in the Department of Economic Growth and Tourism in South Africa, and in my talk I focused on the ecosystem, on the ecosystem that we create inside of us, that we have the opportunity to create inside of our bodies, our minds, and outside in our environments, to shape better thinking, better decision-making, better action-taking and, ultimately, to create the future we desire. It's all about ecosystem. One of the speakers, elsa, was talking about how one of the focus in the upcoming decade is on entrepreneurship and specifically on creating the right conditions, the right ecosystem for entrepreneurship to thrive, giving entrepreneurs all the tools and conditions so they can fulfill on their vision, on their dream, so they can have all the resources to have the ability to do what they want to do in this world. Entrepreneurs are a very active bunch of people. You probably know that if you have this entrepreneurial mindset, leader's mindset, you're very active by yourself. And as long as nobody will put what we say in Russia, don't put sticks in the wheels to let them keep rolling, keep moving. As long as you don't do that, you don't put obstacles in the way of an entrepreneurial leader. We keep moving, we keep taking action. We just need the right environment to support us, instead of the environment that is trying to stop us right. So also the speaker was talking about that creating the right kind of ecosystem where entrepreneurship can thrive, so the companies that we entrepreneurs create can create more jobs and help more people thrive, creating better world for all of us, all of us together.

Speaker 1: 7:01

And then I added to this with a joke. Well, elsa said that it's like nourishing a plant. If you want to grow a better plant, you don't influence the plant all that much. What you do is you give it the right soil, the right amount of sunshine, the right amount of water and the plant will thrive. So I added, on top of that I talked. Well, humans are just like plants, with a couple of legs and a brain, which gives us an unprecedented advantage of being able to move in our environment and to shape it the environment inside and out. Two do things like shaping our minds, shaping our thinking, shaping our decision-making into more creative, expansive, open, inclusive.

Speaker 1: 8:04

I gave this talk before COVID, a before a series of strategic workshops and strategy days where all these leaders in the economic, in the department of economic growth and tourism, would be talking about strategy goals, the future, the tools, what they need to create in order to get the results that they want. I was invited for that one and specifically for that purpose to help them make sure that they set up the right kind of conditions for themselves as humans, as individuals and as teams, to produce the right kind of thinking for this stage of their cycle in their work Strategy, inspiration, future, making things different, making things better, creating the best possible outcomes, the new outcomes, versus just maintaining status quo or looking into the future as a threat versus opportunity. A challenge, but first and foremost, opportunity to make things different, to make things better. During our workshop we started with movement because that improves circulation, blood circulation towards the brain, that invigorates nervous system. We started with breathing together that aligns everyone on the same wavelength and also we did a special kind of breathing exhale, focused breathing. We did a few cycles to prime the nervous system, to change the state of nervous system from fight or flight or too much excitement or feeling challenged. And these workshops where people are made or asked to speak up, to express their opinions, to think in public, to show up, very often they might be quite challenging and for a lot of people, especially people who are not used to be speaking up a lot or expressing their opinion in front of a lot of people, that might be triggering a lot of stress responses, which is not the best environment inside of us to promote the right kind of thinking, the expansive, the open, the creative, the new possibility kind of thinking.

Speaker 1: 10:42

I want to quote to you Harvard Business Review, an article called Stress Leads to Bad Decisions, called stress leads to bad decisions. Our brains are wired to be more reactionary under stress. This means that in tough moments we often reflexively narrow and simplify our options to all or nothing extremes. Sipping on some water here, keeping my voice hydrated. Don't forget to hydrate, folks. Your brain, by the way.

Speaker 1: 11:17

Your brain's function starts to decline very rapidly when you are dehydrated. Even 2% dehydration will make your brain work worse and also will put you in a state of stress. Humans can survive for a long time without food, but only I need to actually look it up how many days maybe a day, a couple we can survive without water. Water is very fundamental to your thinking, so do hydrate. This was a advertising ad for water. How often do you hear those?

Speaker 1: 11:56

But let's get back to the theme of our podcast. Our brains are wired to be more reactionary under stress. Stress creates the conditions for all or nothing extremes. And, guys, when do we need more all or nothing extremes? If anything, in our today's environment, in our world today, we need more open, this and that collaborative kind of thinking, not all or nothing, and that's why it's so crucial to have a few tools that you actively use and that your people, your teammates, people that you work with, that you live with. It's very important for all of us to have these stress management tools to make sure that our brain is set up for the right kind of thinking the inclusive, the open. This is an opportunity kind of thinking. Let's make things different. Change is stressful for a human being. Change is stressful. It produces sometimes mild, sometimes big stress response and in order to manage this change which our world, which the whole humanity, is going through, we need to have these tools ready to go and used actively on a daily, on moment-to-moment basis. We need to have this toolkit in our toolbox for all of us, for leaders, for entrepreneurs, for policymakers, for the government, for everyone around you.

Speaker 1: 13:37

Don't forget, folks, this foundational first principle of life field theory Behavior, human behavior depends, is a function of human meaning you or the collective in the environment, and that environment stress. Being in a state of stress, being in a state of calmness of mind, that is your environment. What you do, what conditions you set around yourself, how you frame things, meaning whether you look at change as an opportunity, as a challenge to embrace, to create better future, or you look at it as a problem to avoid. How you look at things, how you frame things, will, for example, create different state of your nervous system. You're going to be either more stressed, and your thinking and decision-making is going to be constrained, and more about resisting the change and maintaining status quo, resisting innovative ideas, being not open to other people's input. Is this the kind of brain we need to manifest, to nourish in our world, in our society today? Probably not.

Speaker 1: 14:59

And the worst kind of thinking, the worst kind of decisions, the worst kind of inhumane actions all happen under the conditions of stress, which you can change. You can change through things like breathwork. Change through things like breathwork. One of the most powerful, if not the most powerful ways to change the state of your nervous system from stress to rest, digest, calm and open. Breathwork is also about labeling or framing things, naming things and then telling yourself a different story Again, looking at it at any change as an opportunity to create better things, not as a problem to resist. So, framing, labeling, choosing the right kind of places, open, brightly lit, making sure that people are comfortable, fed and not, at the end of their day, already fatigued and overwhelmed and their brain's capacity to think and make decisions is diminished right, we want to think of all of that to create the right kind of conditions, the right kind of environment to help the right kind of thinking thrive and flourish so we could create better kind of future to all of us.

Speaker 1: 16:27

So at our workshop we again moved together, we did breathing together, and then we talked about the future and toolkits. You know, for example, sleep and how it is important to maintain an empathetic, open, creative state of mind. You know mild sleep deprivation, especially done consistently, will lead to more stress, to stress state of your nervous system, to you not being open and receptive to other people, to other people's ideas, you being resistant, you being uncollaborative. All of that sleep deprivation, even mild sleep deprivation, can do to you, as well as telling yourself disempowering stories, not knowing how to manage your stress with breathwork at key moments, putting yourself in stressful working conditions in some cramped offices where you're uncomfortable, maybe too many people All of this creates the wrong kind of conditions to shape our mind in all or nothing, extreme kind of thinking. So we talked a lot about that. We talked about how we can start meetings with choosing the right kind of place, choosing the right kind of time, moving together, breathing together and sleeping before that and nourishing the brain.

Speaker 1: 17:55

And yes, the knowledge of that will not change things alone, but it's the beginning, it's the spark to ignite. Without knowledge, things are not able to even begin, your mind is not going to be perceiving what's out there if you don't know about that. Your knowledge is very powerful, even though not supported by action. It means very little, but it's the spark, the ignition that gets the engine of progress roaring to life. Before we start moving, we've got to know why and where we are headed, and that's what knowledge does. And that's why workshops, like I did for people in the Department of Economic Growth and Tourism in Cape Town, that's why it was important to give this information to people, so they are aware of that. And then the best kind of outcome is setting up the environment, the conditions, so this knowledge has a chance to thrive and flourish as the plant would.

Speaker 1: 19:08

And now, folks, it's up to you what you're going to do with this knowledge. Are you going to make it a powerful part of your life, of your leadership, to set the right kind of conditions for yourself and people you lead, to nourish the right kind of thinking, decision-making and openness of our minds for the change coming, the rapid change coming, the innovation that we want to foster, the conditions to nourish again, open, creative, expanding, exclusive kind of thinking. So it's your turn, it's on you. The ball is in your court. What do you do to make sure you set yourself up for the best kind of thinking, and so you set the people up your people, your teams for the best kind of thinking. They are capable of Open, creative, expanding.

Speaker 1: 20:20

So it's your turn, and if you'd like me to come in and do the workshop in person or do an online workshop where we're going to learn about all these possible tools to foster, to nourish the right kind of thinking, please do get in touch or share it with the person who might be very interested Angela at brainbreakthroughcoachcom. Angela at brainbreakthroughcoachcom, reach out for any reason. If you'd like to find out where you could read more, find more resources like that, reach out and if you have any feedback, anything that you'd like to share with me, maybe express gratitude. That's always also welcome. So please also reach out. Share this podcast episode with leaders around you so everyone is aware how much power and capacity to change things we all have, we humans have. Share this to inspire, to spark, to ignite, and let's create a better world together for all of us, because that's why we're all here for. Thank you for listening, thank you for your attention, thank you for your time. Let's lead ourselves and the world to better places and until next time, stay tuned and keep getting better.