Building trust at the speed of light: Using neuroscience to activate trust with adults and build collective leadership

Monica Brinkerhoff and Cassandra O'Neill

Learning Goals

• Review neuroscience research about how the brain determines whether there is trust and safety which allows connection or distrust which causes communication to shut down;

Learning Goals

• Review neuroscience research about how the brain determines whether there is trust and safety which allows connection or distrust which causes communication to shut down;

Conversations

• Identify new strategies for adopting collective leadership practices and increasing trust and authenticity in coaching, mentoring, supervision, and family engagement.
• With yourself
• Peers
• Parents
• Within the System

Appreciative Mindset
Intentional focus on positive aspects with a fundamental belief in the untapped potential and generative capacity inherent in all of us

Looking for the best in others, believing we are all capable of doing astounding things given the right motivation and support

The Appreciative Mindset is Counter-Cultural and Unnatural because of the Negativity Bias but It can be learned and even hard-wired

Appreciative Engagement compared to Traditional Problem Solving Approach

Traditional Approach

• Define the Problem
• Determine the Causes
• Identify Solutions
• Implement & Follow-up

Define Your Problem

• Write down your problem
• Write a word that describes how it makes you feel
• Examples - my desk is a mess - overwhelmed, I'm not eating as healthy as I should - guilty

Pause & Reflect

• On a scale of 1-10 please rate:Write down your problem
• 1. How confident are you that you can successfully fix this?
• 2. How motivated or inspired are you right now to start working on this?
• 1 No confidence 10 Total confidence

Appreciative Engagement (AE)

ALIGN Vision/Values
ASK Appreciative ?
ACT from Inspiration
AFFIRM & Learn

Appreciative Mindset Exercise
1. List as many good things as you can about yourself, strengths, positive qualities, accomplishments...

Appreciative Mindset Exercise
2. List as many good things as you can about the situation. What you might learn from it, what you're grateful for, resources...

Align Exercise

• Reflect back on the word you wrote that describes how your problem made you feel.
• Write down a new word that describes how you really want to feel instead.

Align-Describe yourself in this ideal future

• Everything is the same in the future except you.
• You are feeling this new ideal way, perhaps saying, thinking, or doing different things.l
• Other people are the same, doing and speaking as they typically do.
• External conditions are the same (weather, events, mishaps)

Pause & Reflect

• On a scale of 1-10 please rate:Write down your problem
• 1. How confident are you that you can successfully fix this?
• 2. How motivated or inspired are you right now to start working on this?
• 1 No confidence 10 Total confidence

Ask Appreciative ?

• Think of a time in the past when you were able to successfully handle a similar situation. What did you do & what were the factors that led to success?
• 2. How motivated or inspired are you right now to start working on this?

Act from inspiration

• The AE approach motivates action by: creating an inspiring vision of success, reframing limiting beliefs, asking questions that build confidence and self-efficacy, providing action suggestions and goal setting guidelines based on neuroscience best practices

Act From Inspiration

• What is one thing you could do now, no matter how small, to move towards your ideal vision?

Affirm & Learn

• Appreciative approach is to study, affirm and build on what is working and learn from what is not?
• The AE process can be repeated for what is working as well as wha tis not

Affirm & Learn

• Write down a time and place you will reflect on your "one thing." Study what worked that you want to build on or do more of, and what you learned from anything that didn't

Affirm & Learn

• Write down a time and place you will reflect on your "one thing." Study what worked that you want to build on or do more of, and what you learned from anything that didn't