Neuroleadership: Creative Leadership with a Focus on the Brain

Acknowledgments
Introduction
	A Definition
	The Creative Model
	Leadership is Quite Demanding
	Exploring the Capabilities and Limitations of the Brain
	A Disciplined Process
	Contents
Contents
About the Authors
1 Leadership, Followership, and Context
	The Great Man
		Domination and Control
		Power Based on Fear
		Power as a Relationship
		Legitimate Authority
		Fusional Leadership
		Trait Approach of the Great Man
		From Innate Qualities to Competencies that can be Acquired
		Too Much Attention to the Leader
		Influence of the Context
	Focusing on the Leadership Process
		Situational Leadership
		Transformational Leadership
		Charismatic Leadership
	Leadership of Collaboration and Learning
		The Interwoven Texture of Leadership and Followership
	Exploration and Execution
		Leading and Managing Are Mutually Supportive
		Exploring New Visions and Perspectives
		Execution and Experimentation
	Importance of Context and Culture
		When the Context is not Right
		Creating the Proper Context and Culture
	The Creative Leadership Model
		From the Easy to the Hard Way
		An Explicit Leadership Model as Reference
	The Limit of Prescriptive Models
		Leaders Still Disappoint
	Neuroscience can Help
		Why Did the Taylorian Bureaucratic Model Spread so Easily
	References
2 A Straightforward Rational Managerial Model
	Industrial Revolution and Mass Production
		Division of Labor and Standardization
	The Scientific Organization of Work. A Rational Approach
		The Taylorian Approach Was Grafted onto the Bureaucratic Model
		The Strategic Vision
		A Command-And-Control Leadership Style
		A Rigid Context
		A Transactional Culture
		Hiring
		Rewarding
		Resilience of the Taylorian Bureaucratic Model
	The Fixed Model of Leadership
		Three Main Dimensions of the Fixed Model
		A Range of Possibilities
	Reference
3 A Brain in Three Dimensions
	Why Do we and Other Animals Have a Brain?
	Vertical Integration: The Triune Brain
		The Instinctual or Reptilian Brain
		The Emotional or Limbic Brain
		The Cognitive or Cerebral Brain
		Cognitive Externalization
	Left–Right Integration
		The Right Hemisphere
		The Left Hemisphere
		The Left-Brain Interpreter
	Back-to-Front Integration
		From Perception to Abstraction
		Perception
		Frontal Cortex
		Prefrontal Cortex
		From Perception to Conscious Processing and Action
		Central Executive
		Working Storage
		The Magic Number Seven
		The Theater Stage
	References
4 A Very Emotional Brain
	Revisiting the Notion of Rationality
		Rational–Emotional Dichotomy
		The Emotional Brain Plays a Crucial Role in Reasoning
	A Useful Brain Valuation System
	What is the Point of Emotion?
		Emotions are Action Programs
		Emotional Intelligence
	The Bias of Emotional Reasoning
		The Emotional Tail Wags the Rational Dog
		The Political Brain
		Court Decisions
	The Fear Circuit
		The Fear Circuit and the Amygdala, the Emotional Sentinel
		Cooling Down Emotions
	The Reward Circuit
		The Dopamine Reward Circuit
		Dopamine, the Stimulator
		The Dopamine Control Circuit
		Delayed Gratification and Temporal Discounting
	Self-Control and Willpower
		Regulating Our Emotional States and Impulses
	References
5 The Rebellion
	Employees Rebel
		Rebellion Against the Rational Pyramidal Approach
		New Experiments
	Customers Rebel
		Focus on the Customer
		Toward the Lean Organization
		Transversal Cooperation is not Natural
		Evolution Towards Services
	Toward Transformational Leadership
		Toward a Creative Model of Leadership to Mobilize Followers
		What Makes People Move and Engage?
		Main Motivating Factors
		Regression to the Fixed Model
		Routines and Bias of Least Effort
	References
6 Creative Leadership in Action
	Toyotism
		The Beginning of the Story
		What They Saw Was the Traditional Taylorian System
	A New Strategic Vision
		From Pushing Objectives to Pulling the Flow
	An Engaged Leadership Style
		Sharing and Deploying the Vision
		Kaizen, the Continuous Improvement Approach
		Empowerment
	Shaping the Context
		Hiring Policy
		Flattening the Pyramid and Reducing Complexity
		Making Hidden Problems Visible
		Specific Methodologies
		Standardizing
	Reinforcing the Culture and Orchestrating the Whole
		Implementing a Culture of Collaboration and Learning
		Orchestrating the Training and Sharing the Philosophy
		Extending the Strategic Thinking
	Turning Around Virginia Mason
		A Change-or-Die Situation
		Trying the Total Quality Approach
	The Strategic Vision
		Focusing the Whole Organization on Patients
		Agreeing on a New Contract
		The Strategic Plan Pyramid
	Leadership Style and Governance
		A Resolute and Deliberate Long-Term Commitment
		The Leader as a Role Model
		Empowerment and experimentation. The principle of continuous improvement
		Patient Guide System
		Healthcare-Acquired Infections
	Organizing and Redesigning the Context
		Recruiting and Retaining the Best
		Making Things Visible on the Patient Journey
		Redesigning the Emergency Department in 2009
	A Fluid Context and a Learning Culture
		Flattening the Hierarchy and Teamwork
		Relational Engagement
		A Learning Culture
	Orchestrating the Whole
		The Drive Starts from the Top
		A Systematic and Deliberate Approach
		A Promotion and Monitoring Office
		Twenty Years Later
	References
7 Strategic Thinking
	Rational Thinking
		Strategic Direction as a Source of Motivation
		Rational Demands on the Prefrontal Cortex
	Predictive Intelligence
		A Repertoire of Underlying Patterns
		Recognition-Primed Decisions
		Intuition and Rational Reasoning
		Intuition Must Be Trained
		Correcting Intuition with Rational Thinking
	Innovation and Creativity
		The Fleeting Nature of Creativity
		Four Periods of Intellectual Creation
		In Summary, Three Levels of Information Processing
	Strategic Thinking is Constrained by Our Biases
		The Bias of Immediate Reward Prevents Long-Term Strategic Thinking
		The Confirmation Bias Prevents Questioning and Innovating
	Reference
8 Leadership Style
	The Leader’s Personal Commitment
		Caring for Others and Long-Term Commitment
		Leading by Example
		The Limits of Good Resolutions and Egocentric Bias
		Omnipotence and Narcissism
		Difficulty of Perseverance with the Bias of Immediate Reward
	Sharing the Vision to Mobilize Followers
		Transparency and Repetition
		Telling a Convincing Story
		The Gap Between Vision and Reality
	Mass Empowerment. Everyone as a Potential Leader
		Empowering
		Letting People Take Ownership of Their Work Processes
		Taking Power Away from Managers
		The Leader as Coach and Integrator
		Are Leaders Ready to Let Go of Control?
		Are They Ready to Trust Their People?
		The Strength of the Hierarchical Bias
		So, It is not Easy to Take the Hard Path and Trust People
	References
9 Establishing the Right Context and Culture
	Hiring the Right People
		Importance of Cultural Context in Mobilizing Followers
		Hiring the Right People and Developing Competencies
		Emotional and Social Competence
		Diversifying the Group
		Engagement
	Setting up the Proper Context
		Lighter Structure and Redistribution of Power
		What Are the Obstacles?
	Practicing a Culture of Relational Engagement
		Relational Engagement
		Performance Springs from Emotional and Social Intelligence
		Strengthening Trust
	What Limits Relational Engagement?
		Relational Engagement Goes Against the Bias of Least Effort
		Relational Engagement Goes Against the Bias of Social Conformity
	Practicing a Learning Culture
		Experimentation
		Learning from Experience
		Self-affirmation and the Courage to Speak Up
		Learning Everywhere, All the Time
		Embedding Responsibility Within the System
	What Limits the Learning Culture?
		It is Difficult to Unlearn
		People Are not Very Flexible
		The Insecurity Bias Hinders the Learning Culture
	Orchestrating the Whole
		Rewards. Victory is Collective
		The Big Picture
		Coordinating the Whole Process
	What Limits Overall Evolution and Orchestration?
		Rapid Evolution of Competencies
		Reward Remains Individual and Blind to Long-Term Effort
		A Disjointed, Piecemeal Global Approach
	References
10 Accepting Our Brain as It Is
	Back to the Overall Picture
		A Brain with Some Pitfalls
		Memory Notepad at the Conscious Level
		Affects and Emotions
		Inferences and Intuition
		Habits
	Our Brains are Biased
		We See the World in a Biased Way
	Overcoming Biases
		Overcoming Biases by Relying on Ourselves
		Overcoming Biases by Relying on Others
		A Preventative Approach According to the Situation
	Mitigating the Seven Capital Biases
	Bias of Fear and Psychological Insecurity
		Preparing Well for Communication
		Developing a Culture of Psychological Safety
	Bias of Immediate Reward and Future Discounting
		Taking Some Distance to Curb Impulsivity
		Deferring Gratifications with the Help of the Control Circuit
		Using Coercion
		Internalizing Habits and Routines
	Egocentric Bias and Overconfidence
		Deciding Who Speaks and When
		Remaining Modest
	Hierarchical Bias of Domination and Control
		Avoiding Triggering This Bias
		Rotating and Redistributing Power. Fluidity of Roles
		Giving up Status Symbols
	Bias of Inertia and Least Effort
		Challenging Routines
		Halo Effect
		Introducing Opportunities for Questioning
	Confirmation and Framing Bias
		Promoting Contradiction
		Reframing
		Breaking the Frames
	Bias of Similarity and Social Conformity
		Choice Driven by Similarity
		Avoiding Easy Consensus
		Curbing the ‘Us Against Them’ Mentality
		Diversity and Inclusion
	A First Step but This is not Enough
	Reference
11 A Disciplined Process in Action
	A Disciplined Approach to Generate Motivation and Swim Against the Tide
	Sharing the Vision with Determination
		A Clear and Meaningful Vision and Priorities
		Giving Meaning and Understanding the Why
		Determination from the Top
	Hiring the Right Talent
		Disciplining Behavior Through the Recruitment Process
	Distributing Power to Facilitate Experimentation
		A Reversal of Perspective
		Ownership of the Work Process and Experimentation
	Setting the Proper Context and Culture
		Taking Power Away from Managers
		Reinforcing Transversal Cooperation
		Instituting a Culture of Relational Engagement
		Instituting a Culture of Learning
	Rewarding and Orchestrating the Whole
		Rewarding Contributors but also Regulating Offenders
		Disciplining Behavior Through Education
		Coherence. Orchestrating Initiatives
	Leadership According to Jim Collins
	Netflix’s Innovative Approach
		The Strategic Approach
		A Deliberate Strategic Commitment
		Who? Hiring the Right Talent
		Distributing Power and Facilitating Practice and Experimentation
		Practicing the Proper Context and Culture
		Orchestrating Initiatives and Swimming Against the Tide
	References
12 Conclusion. Keeping the Human Side in Mind
	Two Benchmark Leadership Models
		The Fixed Default Model
		The Creative Model
	The Importance of Knowing How the Brain Functions
	Putting Relational Culture Back at the Heart of Things
Annex 1—A Handbook
Some Information About the Brain
Main Regions of the Human Brain at a Glance
The Cast of neuromediatorsat a Glance
The Seven Capital Biases
Other Biases
Attribution Bias
Bias of Emotional Reasoning (also Called Affective Realism)
Annex 2—The Big Five Personality Traits
The ‘Big Five’ Model
Introducing a Sixth Factor, Assertiveness
Meta-Trait: Stability
Neuroticism: Withdrawal and Volatility Versus Emotional Stability
Agreeableness: Compassion and Politeness
Conscientiousness: Industriousness and Orderliness
Meta-Trait: Plasticity
Extraversion: Enthusiasm (Dissociated from Assertiveness)
Openness to Experience: Openness and Intellect
Assertiveness and Self-confidence
Annex 3—We Are Our Synapses
Neurons and Synapses
Communication and Memory
Communication at the Level of the Synapse
Memory at the Level of the Synapse
The Paradox of Neuroplasticity
Neuromediators
Neurotransmitters
Neuromodulators and Hormones
The Cast of Neuromediators
Annex 4—The Fear Circuit
The Amygdala
Regulating Our Emotional States and Impulses
Explicit and implicit memory
Annex 5—The Reward System
The Structures Involved in the Valuation Circuit
Annex 6—The Insula: The Body Sensor
Annex 7—Habits
Operational Automatisms
The Curators
How Habits and Norms Become Anchored in the Brain
Annex 8—Teaching and Practicing Biases
Learning About the Functioning of the Brain
Attention
Connection and Appropriation
Emotion and Motivation
Spacing
Bibliography