Change Blindness
I came across Nova Now on PBS yesterday and the episode had to do with the growing field of Neuro-Science and the different fields of research. An absolutely fascinating piece of content that everyone should watch and that profiles various scientist and their areas of focus. You have always wondered how magic happens? Well, now you will know:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/change-blindness.html
My particular interest is in merging this field with business management and thus explore better ways to run ourselves and our institutions and also to pursue innovative ways of being. Who would not want more Steve Jobs, right? There is so much to delve into, but one area that is interesting and applicable to my World has to with the perception of change.
There is a phenomenon called: Change blindness and it occurs in situations where we are so focused on one thing that we miss a larger event happening right in front us. For more intriguing demonstrations, see this website maintained by psychologist J. Kevin O'Regan, one of the first scientists to describe the phenomenon.
As one that has been in the trenches trying to shift people's minds to new ideas, this was very intriguing and I am now wondering if the research can translate to change management. In other words, can the specific findings of why and how it happens shed light into why people resist change? It turns out that in the process of change blindness we have neurons that make us focus on movement and another that makes focus less on what is happening around us. (I am not doing it justice so please see the episode). It appears that our brains are wired like this so we could see that tiger or lion that was about to eat us. In order words, a self-preservation instinct.
So, the question begs, is this self-preservation instinct going array and is it now stopping many of us from accepting the inevitability of change? Now is not the lion but that new product or idea that will unseat my power-base; absolutely, I see this every day. The harder question now is how to prove it - scientifically - and how to develop techniques to counter it. Anyone want to cooperate on this?
This is the work, this the hard work, this is the hardest work.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/change-blindness.html
My particular interest is in merging this field with business management and thus explore better ways to run ourselves and our institutions and also to pursue innovative ways of being. Who would not want more Steve Jobs, right? There is so much to delve into, but one area that is interesting and applicable to my World has to with the perception of change.
There is a phenomenon called: Change blindness and it occurs in situations where we are so focused on one thing that we miss a larger event happening right in front us. For more intriguing demonstrations, see this website maintained by psychologist J. Kevin O'Regan, one of the first scientists to describe the phenomenon.
As one that has been in the trenches trying to shift people's minds to new ideas, this was very intriguing and I am now wondering if the research can translate to change management. In other words, can the specific findings of why and how it happens shed light into why people resist change? It turns out that in the process of change blindness we have neurons that make us focus on movement and another that makes focus less on what is happening around us. (I am not doing it justice so please see the episode). It appears that our brains are wired like this so we could see that tiger or lion that was about to eat us. In order words, a self-preservation instinct.
So, the question begs, is this self-preservation instinct going array and is it now stopping many of us from accepting the inevitability of change? Now is not the lion but that new product or idea that will unseat my power-base; absolutely, I see this every day. The harder question now is how to prove it - scientifically - and how to develop techniques to counter it. Anyone want to cooperate on this?
This is the work, this the hard work, this is the hardest work.
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