Workshop + coaching

Our brain evolved to deal with a world much simpler than the one we live in. Fear probably helped our ancestors avoid being eaten by wolves. Fear can prevent us from making wise investments. Recent advances in neuroscience help us understand how the brain is wired to make decisions, and how things go wrong. The purpose of this workshop is to apply this new knowledge.

You will learn:

  • To recognize common thinking errors
  • Where the problem comes from (“Ah, this is my Nucleus accumbens playing tricks with me!”)
  • How we can do better
    • At avoiding the errors, and make fewer mistakes
    • At exploiting the same errors for fun or profit

Different types of thinking errors call for different solutions. Avoiding cognitive errors requires us to think about our thinking. Sometimes our rational brain is overwhelmed. Simulation exercises can help us make quick, effective decisions. Finaly, how do groups reach decisions? Insights from the airline industry are now being applied to other fields. Which is most important to you? Do you hesitate about using your gut instead of rational thinking? Do you have a hard time making a decision as a group? Do you sometimes wonder how a thinking flaw was not seen?

We can look for the causes of cognitive errors, such as a propensity to quickly assign value to an object or a person. We can help you recognize when emotions get in the way, for example to recognize when our reward systems get tricked. We can watch for limitations of our prefrontal cortex (the site of rational thinking), and resulting processing errors. Finally, we can look at group dynamics, and what gets in the way of good decisions.

Leaning to do better can take different forms. It starts with learning about your situation. We then have a list of managerial thinking errors from which topics can be selected.

The workshop format allows time to internalize the concepts through connecting them to your personal stories. In our experience, this format works well for groups of 5-6 people, or multiples of these numbers. The duration can be adjusted to target fewer or more topics. It takes a minimum of two hours, and can be expanded to a half or full day.

A one hour seminar can give you an introduction to the concepts. 

Individual coaching is also available as stand-alone, or as a follow-up to a workshop or seminar.

Please contact us for details and scheduling at info@thinkingerr0rs.com