Your Brains Work Best When You Turn Failure Into Success

I admit it. I’m an evangelist for better business principles which are more lean, more agile and responsive. But I know unfortunately, the cards are stacked against all of us. J. Kotter1, Turner and Crawford2, and Prosci3, to mention only three researchers of the success of change in companies
over the past twenty years.  All of them have conducted rigirous studies which indicate that only 30% (at best) of projects introducing change in organizations have reported any real measurable change. One study concluded only 18% of change initiatives have any significant permanent change impact and adoption. If you look at the flip side, that’s 70% failure, or 82% if you really like failure. Now I’m not a half-empty kind of guy, but I am a realist and if Conventional Wisdom says I’m likely to marginally succeed only 30% of the time, then I’m going to be looking to do something different than what most folks are doing. I  like succeeding. If it’s 4th and 2and the play I’m using is only 30% effective at best, I’m going to either find a way to never get to 4th down or find a 4th and 2 play that converts at least 70 % of the time. By the way, in 2003 NFL teams converted 71% of their 3rd or 4th and 1 plays against only 53% of passing plays.

So what do this have to do with you and your company and what are we doing? Simple, we are inviting you and your key staff to take an evening to be introduced to a way for you to make those 4th and 1 plays work better than the NFL guys do. Our eight-week workshop is all about getting your conversion rate up for your overall performance. If  that’s intriging, keep reading. If you think you are doing OK right now, I ask you to think about this single statistic. If your company is grossing $3m per year the research shows about 30% of your efforts are going toward wasted, unproductive efforts, you are losing $900k each year. Our discounted fees for this workshop series are about 3% of that annual loss. We know we can help you can put more than 10% of your gross revenues on the bottom line the first year. That’s a 3x
return on the cost of your workshop. Wouldn’t you want to quit losing that money year after year? I’m going to be blunt. If you don’t don’t believe me then quit reading and move on, because no one will be able to help you. On the other hand, if you are tired of failure, take a small step, click on the button below to reserve space for you
and your team at our Open House the evening of  September 14th. Find out all the details of this 8 week turn-around workshop series. It will permanently change your company.

Stack the Deck in Your Favor with Neuroscience

Over the years I have found you need to stack the cards in your favor to have some kind of advantage. The kind of advantage I’m talking
about runs against the grain of Conventional Wisdom, but then CW hasn’t been doing much for any of us anyway, so why not. CW says to
succeed you have to go through an elaborate set of rules to succeed.  But I’ve found another way which is faster, more direct and effective.
It’s called Fail. Fail on purpose, Fail Quickly, Fail a Lot. Now I know I said that I hated to fail, but paradoxically failing leads to success. You just have to figure out how to fail safely. I’ve figured that out too. Control your failure. No, don’t do this with a real production system, do it off on the side. Do it so you fail quickly, very quickly in a way your brain patterns can be interrupted such that  it rewires itself to succeed  immediately. Now you can’t do this all by yourself, you need everyone who is going to be working together for this to work so you will need to bring your key staff to all of the workshops for this to work. Oh yes, and to get this done, you have to have higher management, preferably ownership. If that’s you, then let’s move on. If not, get this article in front of your ownership, right now.
The basis of all this is neuroscience research done since the 1990′s 5,6,7. This research has revealed four basic facts abour our human brains. Facts about human brain physiology which spans age, race, gender and nationality. Yep, even Joe the Plummer.

1. First, we are a positive folk: we are wired to think positively and that gives us the ability to take risks. Experience in life might dampen that risk-taking  tendency, but it is always there.
2. Second, we are social beings: we only do our best when working as a group, especially on a difficult problem. Success is contagious, even small ones reinforces our positive, risk-taking bent.
3. Third, our brains are built to adapt and change: when properly encouraged, many old habits can be replaced in days, not weeks or months. You just have to know how to trip the triggers in the human mind to permanently effect the change. The scientists call this ’plasticity’ or I like to think of it as “rewiring” our brains.
4. Fourth, and lastly for now. Our brains seek congruence in all things: where there is inconsistency in thought it will be manifested in action and attitude. Our brains will work very hard to remove that inconsistency. All of us have had that nagging thought just outside of consciousness which bugs you. That’s just our brain’s way to tell you “Pay attention!! Something’s wrong here!”

I know it sounds all crazy and upside down, but it isn’t really. It is how we now know our brains work. When we get people thinking correctly about a problem they will solve it in the most efficient manner they can figure out given the experience of failure. They’ll throw out all the old rules which were causing the failure before and find a way to get the job done better than before. Human brains really are wonderful that way, they look for harmony, so let’s let our brains work as they were
meant to. Break a few eggs, fry up some failure and then watch the delicious omelets come flying out. By the way, after your teams start thinking right, lean, agile and the new flatter, more responsive management ideas will seem like child’s play – fun and exciting. 


So are you ready to reserve your place at the Open House the evening of  September 14th? If so, click on the button below, it will send you to our reservation sheet so we can hold one of the limited spot reservations for your company.


How Do We Get This Done?


Our eight workshop sessions use these crazy ideas to show you and your staff how to succeed. Remember I told you I don’t like failure. Well the academic and business communities and ourselves have found these techniques are almost 100% effective at making change permanent. We know that’s true, because over the past 10 years or so we and a number of other folks have been using these techniques with phenominal success. We aren’t going to say something works when it doesn’t. These scientific principles of brain mechanics are the foundations of human learning and interaction. You have been living with them all your life and took them for granted. We are just going to show you how to help your brains work better and easier. 


Aren’t you tired of missing on 4th and 2. Continually turning over the ball with only one or two yards to go is a nightmare you know you want to quit repeating. If you’re interested in learning how to use your brain effectively and start converting all those 4th and 2 plays, or even better, make 1st downs in three plays or less, come and join us. Only 5 Tucson metro firms will get a place for this round or workshops, so you should make sure you attend the Open House the evening of  September 14th for a fun and informative evening of networking, games and learning so you can get your place reserved for this exciting and rewarding program.
Now you know what we are offering, so what is holding you back? The evening of networking and fun is free. You will meet some other great business owners and managers during the evening and have some fun as well and you could discover a way to get unstuck. So go on, you don’t have anything to loose and every thing to gain. Click on the Open House button below and we will see you soon. Remember the space is limited, so get your reservation now.

Looking forward to seeing you soon, 

Andrew Abernathy
Founder, NoSilos.com




References:
1. J. Kotter, Leading Change, Harvard Business Press, 1996.
2. Turner & Crawford, Warriewood, N.S.W. : Business &Professional Publishing, 1998.
3. “Best Practices in Change Management, Benchmarking Report 2007″ Prosci, 2007
4. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2004/tis-better-have-rushed-and-lost-never-have-rushed-all
5. NIH, Presidential Proclaimation for “The Decade of the Brain,” NIH,July 17, 1990
6. ”A Decade after The Decade of the Brain – Educational and Clinical Implications of Neuroplasticity, Dana Foundation, February 23, 2010
7. “Decade of the Brain: Top 10 Discoveries” (The Infinite Mind, Vol. 142), May 23, 2001