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Deborah Pascoe's avatar

Andrew, I honestly don’t know how you do this week after week, I get a piece of gold each time.

I know Katie O’Keeffe’s work and what she doesn’t know about teams and neuroscience is not worth knowing. What a beautiful connection you made between this and the worlds of Ellie and Cassie.

I am unashamedly declaring my political leanings in this next comment. This election, regardless of political preference, and in the context of the geo-political dysfunction (aka shit-show) we are seeing, I think it is incumbent on us all to not let a right wing political persuasion get a stronger foothold in this country.

And oh how I love the magic and the power of the DMN. I think there’s a link between this and the leadership practice of negative capability https://www.leadingsapiens.com/developing-negative-capability-leadership/

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Mark Dalgety's avatar

Negative capability (new to me) seems to overlap with the psychological concepts of someone having a wide "window of tolerance" or zone of ‘optimum arousal’ which enable full cognitive functioning while in a parasympathetic state. This state is where my most creative responses emerge from, able to be with not knowing....or something like that.

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Diana Jones - diana-jones.com's avatar

I was intrigued by your convergence notes Andrew, and big credit to the teachers who created 'convergence' for Ellie, Cassie and their classmates. Ive worked with a similar concept most of my professional life based on Jacob Moreno's work in sociometry, generating and measuring companions, finding unusual and shared expereinces, in life and work. Finding criteria which uncover shared experiences in work teams becomes the work in the early stages of groups; some of the simple ones I worked with, depending on the purpose of the group, were raised by a single parent, birth order, caring for a relative, or inviting simple story telling what was happening in your family, in your school or community when you were 16, favourite music as a 16 year old! The teachers using favourite fruit, movies, characters reveals shared likes and dislikes is brilliant. The 'energy' you describe is the mutual relationships forming based on understanding and acceptance of one another, as common ground is discovered, the flow of feeling is positive 'tele' (a Morenean term). We have all felt the chill factor when differences dominate, and negative tele amongst team members is more evident. I loved your example with Ellie and Cassie! brilliant,

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Dennis's avatar

As usual great insights Andrew!!!

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Katie O'Keeffe's avatar

Another wonderful 5MSM Andrew. I love how you've taken complex scientific concepts and related them in such simple and clear ways using real world stories. Bravo!

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Chris's avatar

This is one of the best 5MSM's I've ever read, bravo Andrew.

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Dr. Susan Rhodes's avatar

This is my jab! I love learning anything about neuroscience. This lesson is pure magic! Thank you.

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Michael Hillier's avatar

Thanks for your 5 minute strategic mindset emails.

They've been such a great resource for me over the years.

It very much helped me with my small software business.

All the best. Mike

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