Secrets From a Coach - Debbie Green & Laura Thomson's Podcast

189. Maximise Your Cognitive Potential - Simple Strategies for Complicated Thinking

• Season 15 • Episode 189

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In this second episode of our 4-part focus focusing on Maximising Personal Touch we look at how to think clearly when faced with complicated situations. 

Many workplaces are demanding quicker and deeper levels of innovation, focus, creativity and problem-solving. As Apple unleashes AI in 1 billion smartphones across the planet (reported 11 June 2024), what role human thinking in the ever changing world of work now and into the future? We explore practical tips for looking after your ability to think clearly (use it or lose it) and strategies for helping self and others to process information to apply accurately and flexibly. 

A good listen for anyone who wants to think clearly through overwhelm, or take a colleague or team through some practical exercises that enable us to simplify complicated situations. As AI powers up around us, remaining empowered in our ability to think and bring our human edge to a situation is vital for personal wellness, team morale and industry confidence in how we navigate these new human/machine pathways ahead of us. 


Curious? Check out our previous relevant episodes:
Ep.165 The Stoic Approach to Success During Times of Change 
Ep. 172 Making In-Person Moments Count
Ep. 176 Protecting Yourself and Others From Burnout


Speaker 1:

secrets from a coach thrive and maximize your potential in the evolving workplace. Your weekly podcast with debbie green of wishfish and laura thompson, stavely of phenomenal training there's lord, you all right yeah, how's robot land for you oh, it is all buzzing and ticking along, devs. Do you know what? Did you catch? That news that came out this week about apple?

Speaker 2:

I saw a little bit, but you know, I thought you know what I know, who's gonna know all about that? And that was you.

Speaker 1:

So I read it and ignored it well, obviously my pupils dilated, my heart sped up, my pulse quickened as I saw it saying apple unleashes artificial intelligence in 1 billion smartphones around the planet.

Speaker 2:

And then you think could possibly go wrong devs, yeah I wonder that would be interesting to watch that one unfold.

Speaker 1:

Right, I'm sure that's not going to impact things at all, because we're all really balancing our life ever so well, aren't we? Of course, between real life and virtual.

Speaker 2:

I know, yeah, of course we are. We're doing a grand job of it in the big scheme of things, but hey, what's that going to mean in the long term, though, laura, and especially on our cognitive thinking right, absolutely?

Speaker 1:

And thinking right, absolutely, and, of course, to remain empowered in all of this change.

Speaker 1:

It's up to us, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's our decision as to whether this is the best thing that happens to humanity or the worst things, and if we can focus on the things that we can control, which is, as tech goes around doing its stuff and doing its thing, and all the brilliant stuff they can bring as well, what does that mean for us as humans? To maximizeise our human edge, whether it is in our own roles that we're doing now. But each person's role is also impacting us in our outside work life as well, because any entertainment you access, any food or beverage service that you access, that's someone else's day job. So, whether it is us in our roles or interacting with other people, how we go our day-to-day and how do we maximize that human edge right here, right now, you know it's up to us really to define what is it. And then how do we do more of that stuff and how do we leave the dull, dirty, dangerous, boring, routine, repetitive stuff that actually doesn't fill our boots or fire us up or create a connection? We can leave that to the machines.

Speaker 2:

So looking forward to this one so what are we actually covering on this one law, I know last week we had a right storm of a conversation I loved it and this one what we're doing. This one about our cognitive thinking and maximizing that, aren't we?

Speaker 1:

that's the one we're going to be highly practical. So we're looking at how do you maximize your cognitive potential we'll look at that in a moment. Simple strategies to if you've got some complicated thinking that needs to happen. So we're going to split this into three, so you're going to take us through some foundations for maximizing your cognitive potential. We'll then have a look at some practical strategies. So if you've got a lot of complicated things going on at the moment and you're balancing and you're spinning lots of different plates, we'll look at three of our most popular tools that can just help, um, think things through in a clear way and then we'll find, uh, we'll finish off by looking at, actually through conversations, how can we help people, um, and what can we do to then help someone remove a shift from overwhelm to, uh, to be able to decomplicate things so we can maximize our cognitive potential in the collaboration. Should we just kind of define what cognitive potential means?

Speaker 2:

yeah, let's, should we do that?

Speaker 2:

I mean, obviously we were looking at how many different ways of doing it, but the one that I really like was, um, basically, in a nutshell, the cognitive potential is the cornerstone of how we learn, solve problems and navigate the complexities of daily life.

Speaker 2:

So when we think about how that might link into our general health and wellbeing and our mind health, which is what we always talk about, I thought it was fascinating because it actually enables us to shape our ability to process information, make great decisions. It enables us to face these challenges in a different way and look out for how we can do things. I think it also makes sure that we, I suppose, unlock the potential that is within us and not just leave it to wishful thinking. But it's about being proactive in identifying what it is you need to be doing and thinking and learning about in order to have that. I suppose mental agility really to be creative, to be a great problem solver, to make decisions in the moment based on the information you've got. So I just love how it's linked in with that health and wellness aspect around our mind health, because if we get the thinking right, then it will impact on, therefore, how we feel and then how we behave.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that's what I loved beautiful. So in a moment you're going to take us through um, a roundup of things that we can do, that foundation for wellness. I think what's interesting with that c word cognitive. So when I did my degree, like way back when it was in 1995, um, stuff around cognitive was all the boring bits. So cognitive was learning and development, memory recall, language acquisition, information processing, all that stuff. That was like oh, a bit less exciting than all the stuff around psychopaths and behavioral issues and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1:

What's been really interesting, as I'll clock forward um 20 years, actually, could it be that those individuals, teams, industries, professions, countries that are able to harness the collective cognitive potential, the stuff that sits inside the brains of all those colleagues, all those people, then they shall inherit the riches of where we could have great machine stuff, so high tech, along with that high touch, that ability for that human brain to be able to do things that are still unmatched, you know, in terms of that level of creativity. As we say, if you could be anxious and worry about something, you could be creative and solution focused about something. It's that same kind of bit of kit. So should we find out from a wellness point of view, give us a roundup of, in terms of maximising our cognitive potential, what would be some top practical tips looking at wellness as the foundation.

Speaker 2:

Let's do that. So, laure, the biggest thing around looking after our mind health well is really basic stuff that we can all do. It's just whether we want to, and I found some research that Harvard Medical School have done back in 2021, they did this and this was adapted from their health publishing Harvard Health Publishing 2021. And what they said? They cited six key factors in maintaining that healthy body brain functioning around it, and there's basic stuff that we're now hearing so much more of, which is a plant-based diet rich in fruits, vegetables and grains, regular exercise, good sleep habits, reducing stress, connection and social involvement and being able to challenge your brain, and they emphasize the importance of cultivating these factors together, as they then reinforce each other and lead to optimal brain and cognitive health. So, when you think about it, it's that healthy body, healthy mind, healthy mind, healthy body.

Speaker 2:

Whatever way you choose to look at it, it's looking at how we can do those basics, which are diet, exercise, sleep and stress reduction, which is all within us, but actually the social interaction and challenging the brain involves more cognition, more directly. So when you're thinking about how do we connect and socially integrate and talk and chat that can spark off all sorts of different conversations with our brains. It gets us thinking differently and that ability to have that social interaction and to share ideas or thoughts or talk about what Apple are doing with unleashing AI, it just starts to create creativity first of all, but creates thinking which we may maybe not have done if we are not connecting with other humans. And it also means that it challenges our brain, I think, in a way that gets us just processing stuff differently and going away after a conversation and then just thinking, reflecting on what you might've heard or said, and then having the ability to then go and find out more.

Speaker 2:

So the research around it going oh, I'm interested in that. What does that mean for me? Um, and that's what they're saying, that making sure it sort of links in with what we want to know and how inquisitive we are and how curious we are in order to understand it better, which I think is just what we need. So the bigger social networks we have, the bigger connections we make with people, these opportunities to have great conversations can really spark other thoughts in others, and there's no right or wrong. It's just having good conversations which, you know, sort of fire the brain up, if you like, to have that ability to just process it differently and think different, which is what we want.

Speaker 1:

You know you're using the language about firing up. One of the favourite phrases I've ever picked up from anything I've ever read around neuroscience is the cells that fire together, wire together, and thinking is, if you imagine it's like a little electrical charge that goes through your synapses and all that kind of stuff, which there are incredibly amazing books out there that describe it all. But if we were to summarise it, your thoughts become your feelings, become your behaviors, become your habits, and so if you are thinking, actually there are, I do feel like my solo burger, eating horror film, watching solo life that I'm doing every night. Maybe that at some point might have some consequences on my ability to think quickly. So if we've got that thing of yeah, maybe there are some things I could shake up a little bit, then, um, changing your thoughts around it. So not only, oh, I've got to do it because of my job, but actually I want to do it because the benefit of being in a job means that I am forced to do some things that just require me to think differently, have conversations with different people. Um, and could it be how we lead our work life, part chapter of our, of our overall life, that the more variety we can get in in our work, working years, the longer our brain is going to be able to work for afterwards.

Speaker 1:

Because of that ability to demonstrate cognitive flexibility, for example, which is the ability to pivot from one call, where you might be having a deeper meaningful to someone, to a presentation, to dealing with a customer complaint, to writing an email. So if you were to hook yourself up to an MRI scanner, that's quite a lot of mental gymnastics that's going on in that. So short term. How do you deal with that in a way that doesn't view that as a stressful day sort of short term? The longer term, if you just pick that up, that's a lot of gym activity. That's a good workout for your brain that you then do it. The neurobic stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's it, that's exactly what it is, because I think the more you are, I suppose, engaging your brain in activities and you know some of the things that you always you know, read or see or hear is you know doing things like puzzles, for instance, or word searches, or you know, or doing um you, what were you talking about earlier that you love to do, the what did you call it? Puzzle?

Speaker 1:

b or something. Yeah, and the spelling b, that was it. So anything you're doing like that.

Speaker 2:

That's using your brain, um can really help with your thinking and pivot. The more we're learning, the more we're reading different mediums, so we're not just scrolling on our phones, only being fed what the algorithms are giving us. It's actually broadening that and I always love the fact that you you read to a completely opposing newspaper article. You know things, so you get that. I suppose that you get different sides of a story and I think that's what we should think about.

Speaker 2:

Go and see something different, you know, go to the theatre and rather than keep going I mean, I love musicals, but maybe go to a play, which I did a couple of weeks ago and just see a different medium in a different way, and it just means you're engaging with different parts of your brain and you're learning something. And I think that ability to be able to find out more, be curious, use your imagination. I think I read somewhere a couple of weeks ago that when we're not tapping into our imagination enough in the world of work today, because we're we've got so much on, we have one way of doing things. So the more people can sit around a table and just discuss stuff and topics and get our imagination playing, the better it is for our cognitive agility as well. So it's so many things we can do that can help us.

Speaker 1:

And just to round up the bit around foundations and wellness, we've had CEOs in our room. We've had frontline customer service advisors in our room. No matter who you are, no matter what rung of the ladder you are in an organization, whether it's public sector, private sector pretty much most people leave any of the workshops our team are running this year with.

Speaker 1:

I need to prioritize my self-care massive yes, whether that is because you're dealing with constant complaints from disgruntled people who hate the world and are bringing it at you, or whether you are responsible for steering a ship out of a, you know, a bit of a difficult stretch into into newer waters. So, whatever your role is, I just think it's quite interesting that I think a lot of people are waking up and going. If I'm knackered now, that is going to influence my ability, impact my ability to be able to think through some of these challenges and opportunities that we've then got. So I just think that's really great to start off with before we start looking at some tactics. Actually, if you're running on an empty, if you're running on empty, then your brain is not going to prioritise its ability to use imagination. It's going to prioritise anxiety, because it seems to then be fueling survival, because you've just not got the.

Speaker 2:

You've just not got that, that those uh brake pads pumped up enough to be able to deal with some of that stuff it's fascinating and I think, as you said, laura, one of the things that the self-care is so, so important, because it's not going to get any easier. And you always talk about that anyway, don't you around? You know, if you think, yeah, we've had some change in 20. You know the 20, this 2020 is, 20 onwards is and 2024. Now it's certainly going to get. It's not going to stop, is it? It's going to get even more change. So the ability to be able to problem solve, make decisions quickly means we have to look after ourselves, otherwise I'll, we're just full up, was what I always call it and and therefore you'll get stuck because you don't know whether you should be going left or right, up and down, because your brain is too full of everything else. So that wellness, piece and mind, health and being mindful, is so important to just look after yourself well.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful Link because let's now have a look If there is a scenario where your brain is full up and you're doing all the right things, or maybe you know there's things that you can kind of adjust but from a strategy point of view, let's look at some simple strategies that, if you've got a lot of seemingly complicated things that you need to grind your way through, what could be some things that can help in that moment?

Speaker 2:

So go on then. Laure, I know we've got a couple that we love, don't we that we're a go-to, and I think the one that I love, which I know I'll come on to once you've shared yours I think I've used it about I don't know it feels like a million times in the last three weeks. It's not quite that bad, but it's just such a lovely one where we are using our brain it's such a lovely one.

Speaker 1:

In the pod review uh, overview we'll put a couple of um other decision making related podcast episodes, because a lot of this kind of links to that um, but if we just go way back when this isn't new we had the stoics talking two and a half thousand years ago with phrases like under the comb, the tangle and the straight are the same, so all of these strategies we're going to look at basically form the principle of pause stop, take a breath and cut out the noise and focus on the signal, because if, actually, you've got a lot of complicated stuff going on in your life or in that project, if you just slow it down and take a realistic, practical look at one thing that you could then do, then under the comb, that's equivalent of putting the comb you've already started to detangle it, and actually, probably, those things boil down to relationships, processes and clarity. You could probably summarize most of the things, and the thing that can happen, though, is we all sort of know that, but if you've got 101 things that you're dealing with, that's where some of these tools can be quite useful, and also, I imagine us, like everyone, at the moment, is dealing with a lot of uncharted challenges, opportunity situations or where there's not enough resource to go around and you've got to prioritize. Well, do we do X or do we do Y? So the first tool that we like is something that we kind of conjured up a couple of years ago. We called it 4D thinking, four-dimensional thinking. So if you think about the basic shapes of 1D, 2d, 3d and then 4D, so a one-dimensional shape is where you've just got a straight line. You've just got a line. So let's say you're thinking should I do X or Y? Shall I recruit, shall I leave my job, shall I do this project? Should we do the X or Y?

Speaker 1:

The first dimension is well, what does that problem look like head-on? So what does that problem look like head-on, the pros and cons of looking at that problem? The second dimensional shape is you then put a bit of kind of breadth to it. So, okay, let's now take a second dimensional look at that problem. So if that's the pros and cons, what are some of the other considerations either side that we might need to think about that? For example, if someone's about to go off on mat leave or pat leave, paternity leave, that's going to influence that decision. For example, if someone's about to go off on mat leave or pat leave, paternity leave, that's going to influence that decision.

Speaker 1:

The third the 3D model is then, when you put a bit of depth to it. So the 3D model is, and what's the impact of this decision one year on? So if we were to put a third dimension of this and put a bit of depth to it, what's the impact of this decision one year on? So actually one. One year on, we think the company's likely to sell. So actually doing this now, maybe there's a better time. We can then do it, even though the pressure might be on to do something. One year on we can see it's given a different perspective.

Speaker 1:

And then the fourth dimension of a shape, which is uh time. So putting that fourth dimension on. So, for example, there are 3d printing machines now deb's that these robots will do for us and it will have a time component put in. So it will change that shape, will change shape once it reaches a certain amount of time. They use that my understanding is in deep drilling, where the drill will get buried down and then it knows that when a certain amount of time is elapsed it will then change shape. It's been put in in that code. So, again, decisions can change shape over time.

Speaker 1:

So the fourth dimension to apply to that decision shall I, shant I on top of pros and cons, which is quite simple, on top of the second dimension, which is a bit of breadth. So I decide what might the impact be? On top of third dimension, which is a bit of depth, so one year on. Then the fourth dimension is in five years plus. What do I want the impact of this decision to have been in terms of a ripple effect?

Speaker 1:

And what the 4D thinking does is it enables you just to look for unintended consequences of things that then might happen. So an unintended consequence might be that we did this in that bit over there and actually had a knock-on effect. Over here We've seen that in automation, where there might be organizations that have made a short-term decision to cut a load of humans and put robots in place but they need to recruit the same amount of people in the customer call center because everyone's so enraged and they want to negotiate with the machine. So 4D thinking is, if you're looking at a lot of quite difficult, heavy decisions at the moment that's personal life or work life the 4D is a way of just looking at that problem and seeing it for what it is. It is one opportunity in that moment of time and there might be some other things that are coming in or some other consequences, and it can help just give a bit of perspective.

Speaker 2:

I love the 4D. It makes you really think, doesn't it, I suppose? And that brings in once you know where you're at. That brings in my all-time favourite, which is brain right, which I know we got from you um ages and ages ago, you, I think you got it from your nct class?

Speaker 1:

was that where you got it from originally? Absolutely, it was either that or my speed awareness workshop, one of them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh, by the way, I've got to do one of them in a couple of weeks as well. Oh my god.

Speaker 1:

So I'll let you know it's got some great content. We'll, we'll, we'll, upcycle it, bring it out. Yeah, so that'd be fun, yeah.

Speaker 2:

so brain for me is. I used it yesterday on a workshop because they would I'm in an arm in as to what decision they were going to make, and so therefore, I said, well, why don't we just do a brain scan and we talk through brain. So brain stands for benefits, risks, alternatives, intuition, nothing. And when you work a problem through that, so alternatives, intuition, nothing. And when you work a problem through that, so okay, before we make any decision, what are the benefits of us doing this or that? And then you can have a great conversation around identifying what some of the benefits would be. You would then obviously go the flip so what might be some of the risks?

Speaker 2:

So then again, an opportunity for that group of people, or even if you're doing it individually, to just really think about the risks, so like the pros and cons, really, of that, what you were saying earlier. And then, if you take a step back, okay, so what might be some of the alternatives here that we could consider that we may not have thought of yet? So we can use our imagination, our creativity, to maybe look at what alternatives there could be, and then your gut feel, your intuition, is saying well, actually, this is what I think we could do. This is what my gut's telling me. So tuning into your senses is super important. And then exploring that, because that may be just your perspective, whereas if you have a group of people, they might have different gut feels or intuition.

Speaker 2:

And then the million dollar question is well, what if we did nothing at all? So the nothing one is the one where people go oh well, we can't do nothing. Okay, so let's go back and explore what we can do then. And then what are the benefits of that? And it's just one of those conversations that you can apply. And just to you come to that. Ultimately, you come to a decision which is, nine times out of 10, the right decision to do in that moment, with all the information that you've got to hand. And, um, people love it and I love it and it's just I really thank you for introducing me to that, because I've used it so many times. Um, you know, to help people make a decision that they know is going to be as far as possible, they know, know is going to be the right one for them, run jumping with two feet and go, oh, I wish I'd never done that. Well, let's, you know, run the wishful thinking. Well, let's literally do some actual thinking through it. So brain is mine.

Speaker 1:

benefits, risks, alternative intuition, nothing I reckon it's one of our most photographed workshops yeah, it definitely is right now, yeah yeah, it's really useful.

Speaker 1:

I think it's so useful to equip any younger people yes, in your family or friendship or work network as well, where there's a lot to consider.

Speaker 1:

I think if you're entering into the world of work now and it's very easy for different generations to look upwards or downwards and think, oh, you know wasn't like that when we were then, you know, but, uh, but. But what we're seeing is more and more demand for this sharp um, immediately executable decision making on the spot, for example, where someone's under pressure with the most litigious um screenshotted. Every email could be shown in a court of law. So you know, we've never demanded so much from people in a blink of an eye. But equally, there's never been so much consequence as a result of it being a wrong call. So the other benefit of brain is that it enables you to have confidence in justifying and validating that decision. Nature might have changed something that you know. Fate might have played a part in the outcome of that decision, but at the time that you took that decision and it might have been a complicated scenario you've used a strategy to be able to demonstrate afterwards the reason why you made that decision. It was well thought through.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so we've had 4D, we've had brain. Go on, then what's your other fave one?

Speaker 1:

Well, the other favourite one is sometimes, I think, what can complicate thinking is the pressure for excellence and the pressure for perfection. So if you're sort of asking yourself, right, we're not making enough money at the moment, how do you make more money? And then it's like this big mountain in front of you of oh God, well, we did that before, we did that before and oh, that's never going to work. And it can sometimes overly complicate things because you're laden with all of that past baggage with it. The reverse brainstorming tool is something I nabbed with some of the PR agencies. I did some work with ages ago, one of my first, very first clients and I thought it was genius. So if the problem seems insurmountable, how do we make more money? Well, if it was that easy, we would have done it already.

Speaker 1:

The reverse brainstorming tool which I'm not sure if the AIs will do, actually is what's going to lose us money? So what is going to lose money? Colleague engagement, customer retention, patient safety, whatever that outcome is, student attendance, whatever that may be how would we lower that? How would we ruin it? And then you've got to go. Well, if we did X Y, z, that would damage it, brilliant.

Speaker 1:

So what's the flip of X, y, z, and what it can enable you is rather than the mountain of we have to sort this out in front of us, which can make things feel even more loaded and complicated is you just switch it and then just say, okay, that's the valley down there, what was it we did to get there and what might be the reverse that we could do it. So it's called the reverse brainstorming technique, where if you've got a bit of a mental block about how do we brainstorm ideas for making things better, then it's often much easier to look at it from the back door, which is well, how do we make things worse? And from a team point of view, it can really unlock some certainly some energetic thinking, because we can all think of things from the past that have made things worse. So once you've got that out, then you can then flip that. So what would the opposite of that?

Speaker 2:

be. Yeah, that makes perfect sense, doesn't it? I love that. And again, it taps into our need to be creative and use our brain differently. So you know, we've got a whole brain. Use the whole brain right.

Speaker 1:

So, Debs, I just want to wrap up by telling you a story of some magic I saw in action yesterday. Go on then, Debs, there I was and I was facilitating a coaching workshop with some amazing early leaders who were just really getting to grips with coaching and what it is and how it works, and they were in coaching trios. Then you could have a coach, a coachee and then an observer then discussing it after. And I was just sort of eavesdropping because it felt like there was a bit of an awkwardness that was there, and I just sort of paused and just checked are we having a pretend coaching conversation, like role-playing, or a real one? And they said, oh, we're having a pretend one. I said, oh, forgive me, I haven't briefed it. Okay, we're having a real coaching conversation. So what is something really genuinely? That actually is a bit of a challenge for you. There's a complication that you want a bit of thinking time.

Speaker 1:

And then you sort of saw one of the delegates who then was the coachee. You saw all the emotion take over her body and she had loads of stuff that was going on with her role. You then saw the person that was being the coach in that moment, just a bit sort of starstruck of oh my God, what do I do with this person? So then the other one was going ask some questions. Yeah, ask the question. And actually even when the coach asked some questions, it was still overwhelming for this coachee because there was some huge big stuff.

Speaker 1:

I was sitting there as the facilitator thinking, ooh right, so what's my role in this? As I was watching the wildlife documentary, you know. And then the person who was playing the coach, they just said tell you what, hold it there. Rather than saying it, let's get some post-it notes. And you take a post-it note and write each one of those issues onto a post-it note. It was magic, Debs, because you just saw the person that was being coached, just go, oh, and she couldn't say it because it was so loaded of all of this stuff that had gone on, but she could write it and it was magic. So someone who's done decades of coaching devs, what was the magic that happened? How can we then replicate that? And, as our final bit on this focus, what might that mean in terms of having great conversations with people?

Speaker 2:

that helps us and others to be able to maximize our cognitive potential, to be able to think clearly oh my god, that technique of getting all your thoughts out of your head by writing it one thing on per post-it just shows you the enormity of what you carry around in your head. So whoever did that, credit to them for doing it, because it's coaching. Um, and that's what we do. We will disrupt somebody's thoughts process. We'll find different ways. We get creative as to how we might help that person process some of those thoughts so they get them out of their heads and out in the wild to be able to then pick and choose as to let's have a look, and how do you want to explore that? So when you're getting it out of the head, it just frees up your space, if you like, to just pause and reflect and think about, well, out of all of that stuff that they've obviously collected, you know, suddenly it's there. Oh my God, I can just breathe. So the pressure's off.

Speaker 2:

And that is what I think is magic. Is that ability, as you witnessed yesterday, was just to catch somebody in the moment and give them a different technique, to try, rather than just talking, because coaching is a lot more than that. You know, you can do it through let's. You know visualization you can do it through shapes, you can do it through colors, you can do it through objects. You know we sometimes will give somebody an object or pick an object as to how they're feeling right now. Or how would they demonstrate where the dynamics of a team are when they've got loads of little animals to play with, you know? So we tap into that side of their creative brain, because it can be a lot easier to talk that through, but also process what's going on for them through the medium of something else.

Speaker 2:

And I think that is why we do the job that we do, because we are tapping into what that individual might need in that moment and in nine times out of ten, instinctively saying well, what about if we just write? You write everything down on a post-it, you hold the space for them still, and then you let them process it, and then they, then you could carry on with that coaching conversation. And I think that's what we do, we. That's the job that you know. When you watch that magic happen, you watch that person shift and change in their whole being to know that they are now going to be able to have a good conversation for themselves. That's going to get them from where they were maybe feeling overwhelmed and loads of stuff to a place of clarity, a little bit more purpose and understanding of where they want to be going and what's important but what's not important I mean, it was a magic moment and, linking back to that, under the comb, the tangle and the straight seem the same.

Speaker 1:

It was the process. It was almost like combing it through when actually the two things that I I saw happen was number one that person then raised up in their level of empowerment because suddenly they were bigger and more powerful than this little post-it note that was part of all of this tangle. That was just clogging them up, you know, and really, really, they were just, you know, at the beck and call of their team and all sorts of bits and bobs were going on their team and all sorts of bits and bobs were going on um and so then and then the second thing was then that this person was able by naturally started to put an action plan in place, because you've got it there in front of you. It's just very easy to start putting a logical priority in process and also cluster some things. So there might have been three. That was all around team dynamics, which might have felt overwhelming and complicated, but once you started to look at and and it was it was amazing to watch it.

Speaker 1:

So linking back to our cognitive potential. There are different ways to kind of slice and dice it. I guess what we've looked at now is it's about disrupting your thinking and slowing it down and putting that comb in, and we can do that for self, we can do that for others. We've looked at some strategies, whether that's 4d thinking brain or a bit of reverse brainstorming that enables you to harness that cognitive potential, the ability to process information, and do something practical with it. But all that is dependent on getting that foundation of wellness in, because if you're fatigued, if you're um, uh, wrung out, if you haven't got much space to look after yourself, let alone deal with any complicated problems, then that might be the first place to start definitely so.

Speaker 2:

I think that leads into my call to action. Law was if you're finding that you know, your brain is a bit frazzled, as Ruby Wax always calls it, it's that ability to be mindful. So how do you create a space that enables you to tap into your senses, so you're consciously bringing in from a now position. You know what you know, if you can do it, for you know, what am I seeing? What am I hearing? What am I feeling? What am I smelling? What am I sensing? You can you know what? Some people use the taste one, but on the whole, it's like tapping into the senses that you are your go-to ones. They enable you to just be in that moment and look around and think, okay, this is where I'm at right now and therefore, what can I do now to move myself forward from here? So, use your senses and my share.

Speaker 1:

The secret might be actually sparked by you saying um, just the call earlier about how you were part of a walking and talking sort of coaching kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

So, um, have you got a friend or a colleague that's got a lot on, get them to listen to this. You've then got some shared language to maybe go for a walk and just have a chat and think things through. Maybe there's a colleague who's equally frustrated as you with some of the stuff that's going on in your organization, or you're both job seeking or whatever side of the fence you're on, um, listening and then shifting and changing your perspective, because as soon as we've got some identity to those thoughts, then we could do something with it. We can. Then we sort of get our power back, and if we're not doing that and if we're only using Google to give us ideas and strategies, then we're losing the most important kit of being a human, which is the ability to have a theory of mind, to understand that people view things differently and to um to really tap into that, that collective cognitive potential yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my god, I've loved talking about this today. It's been so cool because it made you think, and that's the whole point of having that mental agility right is to create more thoughts and thinking about oh, that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

And then what you do with it, it sparks that interest and that's what I love about it, and debs, even if it is a single simple shift of someone comes to you and says I've got this problem, can you help me? And just to even shift to that coaching perspective of so what are yours, what's your thinking so far? Just even to reflect it back, rather than going straight into solution mode but to just hold it with well, what's your thinking so far? And then we're practicing that ability to think rather than just be served pre-processed information that might not work in that moment, because one size fits one, absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

Robots can't do that, laura, because they can't necessarily think in the moment when it comes to humans and what they really need.

Speaker 1:

Well, not at this stage. Well, I, hope.

Speaker 2:

never, laura. I'm holding out hope, I really am.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's up to us. It's up to us to harness our cognitive potential. So it's up to us to be able to enjoy it. You know and do all those things and use our imagination and have some fun along the way as well.

Speaker 2:

So we're going to have more fun next week talking about following on these topics for the whole of this series, really. So I'm really looking forward to going into something slightly different next week as well, Laura. So we'll hold that thought and then we'll explore it next week. Let's do that.

Speaker 1:

Fantastic. In the meantime, may you have a wonderful week full of human moments.

Speaker 2:

Deb Plenty, you too, laura. Love you, laura, love you Bye.

Speaker 1:

We hope you've enjoyed this podcast. We'd love to hear from you. Email us at contact at secretsfromacoachcom, or follow us on Insta or Facebook. If you're a Spotify listener, give us a rating, as it's easier for people to find us, and if you want to know more, visit our website, wwwsecretsfromacoachcom, and sign up for our newsletter here to cheer you on and help you thrive in the ever-changing world of work. Bye.