Are there lessons you can apply from brain development to the lifecycle of a company?
A: I am not sure about the lifecycle of a company, but certainly for the environment in which the company’s lifecycle takes place.
I am often asked to speak to business audiences on the potential of applying findings from the cognitive neurosciences to business practice, something about which I am very skeptical. I usually say three things to explain my skepticism:
a) We don’t know enough about how the brain works to apply anything to business practice. We don’t know in real terms how your brain knows how to pick up a glass of water and drink it. Let alone be prescriptive about how business should work.
b) That doesn’t mean we are clueless about brain functioning. We know a lot about the brain’s performance envelope, for example. The brain appears to have been designed to solve problems related to surviving in an outdoor setting—in unstable meteorological conditions—and to do so in near constant motion.
c) So, even though we don’t enough to be prescriptive about how companies should run their business, we do know this: if you wanted to design a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain is naturally good at doing, you would design a cubicle. And you would place it in a building with very few windows surrounded by people who were constantly gunning for your job.
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- “Everything posted on this blog is my personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the views of my employer or its clients."
