Book Reviews Done by Chandana

As an insightful comparison, in a contemporary education system, parts (b) and (c) are likely to be the missing or less focused links while some selected parts of (a) are given prime attention. More specifically, evaluating implicit learning undergone while engaging in (a) and (b) would be difficult unless resorting to assessing learning portfolios, journal entries or answers to open-ended questions. After all, the brain is a structurally boundary spanning and highly interconnected organ. It has the dynamic feature of neuroplasticity that enables us to adapt to what we are interested, found useful and paying attention. Such an educational focus contrasts from widely practiced, contemporary systems in which learners are “trained” for a narrow skill set pertaining to a particular domain area, in a segmented manner, as opposed to an integrated manner, as if programming or configuring robots or machines to perform specific, routine tasks, stifling structurally inherent human creativity. If we pay attention only to the problems of our department or the organisation, then we will not be able to see beyond this constrained view in order to understand the real problems in the real world, let alone attempting to find solutions in a creative and compassionate manner. With enhanced AR, ER and CR abilities, we should be able to divert our focus to where it is needed the most.  In “The Neuroscience of Learning and Development”, the authors do justice to the needs of the current world by emphasising on the multidisciplinary perspectives of education. The essential role played by mindfulness and compassionate training practices in the important human development processes involving AR, ER and CR are quite correctly highlighted, irrespective of the area or discipline of study. Compassionate practices decrease the bias and inhuman treatments, resulting in happier and more productive citizens and workforce and better interpersonal relationships. Further, how such human developmental processes play a vital role in leadership training are presented to possibly direct our prospective leaders on the right path to guide our world. What the world needs is that leaders who are comfortable with uncertainty, complexity and unknown nature of problems we are facing as well as we are to face on an ongoing basis into the future. This is the reason why the authors have pinpointed the regulation of attention, emotions and cognition as of prime importance on an individual or grassroots level. Finally, the authors have provided guidance on how to effect a major transformation in the educational forefront as described by effectively and appropriately managing the process of this dramatic change. Yes, it is a complete paradigm change with a focus on the “whole person” development, with the emphasis on inherent human nature, human characteristics and human development. An invaluable feature of the transformed system is that, despite all the positive features, the new system is highly affordable to masses due to the fact that the new measures or practices used, for example, for developing AR, ER and CR, are not complicated to understand or carry out; an urge for a change from top-down is what is needed, and probably what is hard to assimilate.  

Hopefully, we would be able to see many in educational leadership/administration/policy-making positions around the world keen and courageous to embrace the described evidence-based, much-needed transformation to direct our individual societies to sustainability. We, along with the authors, need those responsible to suspend judgement of what we know to be true and prolong a state of inquiry with an open mind, even on matters we refused to pay attention before, to identify what is best for us, as a whole, and for our future generations. 

As an educator/education professional, I see great value in Meng’s approach to learners of all levels on their paths to lifelong learning. The presented self-regulation/self-awareness approaches (attention regulation (AR), emotion regulation (ER) and cognition regulation (CR)), revolving mainly on mindfulness practices, are the essential generic skills, irrespective of the domain or discipline of study, for any learner to be in possession for achieving enhanced learning/wisdom/consciousness. Also, with such practices, learners become resilient to adverse situations, which are unavoidable in many social environments, building empathic and compassionate attitudes. Investing time to develop resiliency through well-proven mind-training practices, despite our busy schedules, is analogously paying an insurance premium to cover for the unexpected or to safeguard us when the reality bites, destroying stereotyped expectations in an uncertain, ever-changing world. Further, developed skills in AR, ER and CR lead to enhanced creativity, critical thinking, interpersonal relationships, intrapersonal intelligence, and as a result, enhanced productivity at the workplace and community engagements.

Meng has successfully communicated an empowering message – “what we think, we become” based on the all-important concept of neuroplasticity; our abilities to learn or the capacities to regulate or cognitive and emotional activities are not fixed by genetics, but can be changed by the environmental factors. We no longer should argue about the “Nature vs. Nurture” debate as deterministically validating research has emerged. As Meng highlighted, the skill of mindfulness can be practised and enhanced to a level that one becomes conscious or aware of every time unit lived in a non-judgemental (relaxed and calm) way. It is the time when individuals learn implicitly/incidentally, the most common form of human learning (make no mistake or doubt – it is not the classroom learning), to create lasting memories that are widely used in a generic sense and situations. Further, mindfulness practices enable learners to develop in a “whole person” manner, integrating many operations of the brain including cognitive and emotional ones along with other neural networks of knowledge. Mindful integration of knowledge networks (in a non-judgemental (open-minded), relaxed and calm manner) is likely to make individuals receptive to all types of information/knowledge received without getting psychologically constrained by domain boundaries (or learn in an interdisciplinary manner), enabling them to see the reality as it is in an integrated and deeper manner. Having such a higher level of consciousness is referred to as possessing a healthy mind or, in Abraham Maslow’s words, a self-actualised mind; Kazimierz Dabrowski referred to it as reaching the highest human development levels – level five.

Meng has shown us the path to inner peace in individuals at grassroots in an evidence-based manner, which in turn should radiate as world peace in due course. The starting point of this journey is developing a self-awareness by “Search Inside Yourself”, to understand one’s strengths/weaknesses, likes/dislikes, the purpose of life and the like. This commendable work gives much-needed guidance to education policy-makers and other professionals in the same industry to take right decisions in educational reforms for the benefit and sustainability of our future generations. Highly recommended and a must read for every adult! 

As an educator, I am fascinated to realise the ways we can apply the integrative human development concepts highlighted by Professor Siegel to generic teaching-learning environments/classrooms to enable individuals to achieve enhanced learning, creativity and wisdom. By emphasising on these mind integration practices, we as educators can focus on the much needed “whole person” or “holistic” development of learners. Linking any new concepts or contents introduced to as many autobiographical memories of the learners and transforming their implicit memories to explicit ones using an appropriate pace following mindfulness concepts would be some critical pedagogical practices we have to engage. Similarly, we should use open-ended questions as well as reflective journaling practices for mindfully retrieving learners’ idiosyncratic and creative ideas for assessing them for their learning as well as in holistic human development. Such assessment would yield more accurate and lasting evaluations of the level “whole person development”, which can be used as a metric for further developments along the same lines, leading to individual productivity, resilience and happiness in general. Interestingly and encouragingly, Professor Siegel has put forth how narrowly focused education systems (focusing on a disintegrated narrower set of skills) existed at the time he was a student have started to improve with a realisation to value broader “whole person” development approaches. The book on “Mindsight”, by Professor Siegel gives some highly useful insights and guidance to educational professionals including policy-makers to direct our pedagogical practices and education systems towards more evidence-based and much-needed learner transformation practices and systems. Such changes will help us to develop more harmonious and sustainable societies. 

As an educator, I see a great value for any learner in following mindfulness practices that enable achieving enhanced learning constantly. Neuroscience research has revealed that most of our learning is implicit and it does not necessarily take place in a formal learning environment or classroom. In regard to this revelation, imagine the extent to which a learner can benefit, or can engage in learning per se if he/she can maintain a state of mindfulness constantly by paying voluntary attention non-judgementally in everything encountered and anywhere. In a universe of information that we cannot avoid as the transmission is enabled by various technologies and media cost-effectively, the best way to respond is to be receptive non-judgementally by keeping all our sense open rather than getting overwhelmed by it and closing our receptive sensors. We should also not disregard our internal body signals that help us develop a self-awareness by identifying and reflecting on our feelings, emotions and thoughts and the like in making our all-important decisions and in enhancing our well-being. Researchers have identified that such an awareness that can be developed through mindfulness practices is of prime importance in developing individuals with healthy minds or in achieving higher levels of human development. When we progress to higher levels in human development, we necessarily involve in an integration process of both external information as well as internal body signals that enable a “whole person” development learning path leading to wisdom. Further, we as learners/individuals become better-skilled in essential human functions such as attention regulation (AC), emotional regulation (ER) and cognitive regulation (CR) so that we develop the capacities required to be more effective, empathic, compassionate, resilient and productive social members. These members are better equipped and more capable of identifying and proper addressing of so called wicked problems. 

Finally, the author Jon Kabat-Zinn, who himself has been a practitioner of mindfulness for over forty years, put the readers on a path to developing wisdom. The benefits of mindfulness practices have a radiant effect on many facets of life – in enhancing learning, healthcare, self-awareness, emotional and social intelligence, interpersonal relationships, parenting, decision-making and in short overall well-being and productive human operations.

The significant findings of the human conditions required for insights/creativity/wisdom are illustrated comprehensively with the analogy of stage drama of life. Essentially, a relaxed and happy mind with an appropriate level of arousal is required to get the attention focussed. Under these conditions, we make many parts of our brain (including the right cerebral hemisphere that play a leading role in creativity) to operate in synchrony at higher frequency levels (gamma range), integrating many forms of information and signals such as thoughts, memories, emotions/feelings senses and the like. These pieces of information and signals are represented in the brain, in fact, as neuronal networks that self-organise based on the learning and experience the individual undergo, following the important notions of neuroplasticity and epigenetics. To minimise higher levels of arousal such as anger, fear and sadness so that an optimal brain operation is accommodated, the author, Rock, has demonstrated the use of mental techniques that include emotion labelling, situation reappraisal and managing expectations realistically (a principle that closely relates to the notion of equanimity).

Another key area that is emphasised in the book is the notion that the human brain is a social animal. In fact, researchers have understood that the social world or having healthy social connections is a primary human need like food and shelter. The presence of physical brain structures such as mirror neurones that help human beings to empathise or understand the minds of other human beings validate the premise of human beings essentially as social animals. Further, the author, Rock, has highlighted the SCARF (Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness) model as a guide (ideally for leaders/managers/counsellors/parents etc.) for making human operations or performance optimal or positive in a social world. They are primary features that human brains are implicitly yearning towards for and any threats causing a movement away from them (within an organisation or group) would result in significantly reduced human performance.

“Your Brain at Work” has also provided some useful guidance for successfully implementing a social/individual change/transformation, however small it is, based on the fundamentals of brain science. The brain is an organ that naturally attempts to minimise threats (fear anxiety, anger etc.) while maximising rewards (relaxation, happiness etc.). It has the inherent capacity to change (physically as well), as highlighted in the notion of neuroplasticity, under conducive conditions and environments. Consequently, following the SCARF model, any social/individual change/transformation should not move members away from (or at least minimise such a move to the lowest level) the features of Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. Any action that makes a move away from them would result in ineffectiveness in the change/transformation process. As highlighted by Rock very aptly, the status and relatedness features in the SCARF model can compete with each other in an organisation/team environment (as status is usually a measure that compares individuals and it does not help healthy relationships). Consequently, in an ideal or healthier situation, comparison of an individual should be made to a previous status of him/her instead of against another individual. Further, the motivation for a change should be more appropriately enhanced through intrinsic (or more lasting) rewards than that of a “carrot and stick” or extrinsic type.

Finally, as an educator, I believe that “Your Brain at Work” offers many insights that educators can make use of in teaching-learning environments. They can be used to enhance learning and motivation in individuals to progress towards higher levels of human developments with capacities of mindfulness and wisdom.

By engaging in the mindful practice of “habit release”, we switch-off the “auto-pilot” whenever it is appropriate and shift from a “Doing” mode to “Being” mode. In a frantic world, we get entangled in a “Doing” mode, trying to squeeze in as many “robotic” procedures as possible into our daily routines. We simply work like machines performing routine tasks repetitively with no time spent on reflections to see, or more correctly, to perceive what we are doing in a more detailed and creative way with wisdom/insights while being in a “Being” mode. Most importantly, the key to our health and well-being, reducing symptoms such as stress, anxiety, depression and similar negative psychological conditions is the increase of time in a “Being” mode while minimising the time in a  “Doing” mode.

Another significant mindfulness practice that is highlighted in the book is the development of an approach/acceptance-oriented mental state as opposed to an avoidance-oriented one even in the presence of unavoidable realities of life yielding negative emotions. That is we befriend with such emotions like sadness and frustration with a loving kind/compassionate attitude towards us as well as towards the rest of the world. Clearly, this is not passive acceptance of or resignation to the adverse conditions in a spineless manner. Instead, it is the practice of equanimity through which we get to see and understand the realities of life better, possibly through the secretion of mood-control body chemicals such serotonin at appropriate levels. Through this clear vision and perceptions, we, in fact, get to the point that we can seek real solutions to the problems/conditions that caused the adverse situation. Further, we may get to see that these real solutions may not be present immediately; we may have to persevere for weeks, months or even years at times to find and apply them in a lasting manner. 

Authors also aptly highlight that mindfulness practices help us to avoid the rigid and inaccurate decision-making following a process of over-generalisation. When we are not appropriately mindful, possibly due to being entangled in a “Doing” mode, we tend to jump to inaccurate decisions or conclusions without having access to an adequate amount of information related to the matter. Consequently, it stops us from perceiving the realities better resulting in negative conditions such as stress, anxiety, sadness and frustration.  Worsening the situation further, we may continue to rigidly believe in what we understood as real without adequate information and without being reflective or open-minded.

As educators, we have many lessons to learn from the practices of mindfulness to enhance student learning. First and foremost, we must make sure to avoid the teaching-learning process get into a “Doing” mode. Instead, we should allow learners enough time to reflect and be mindful during the learning process. Further, during the process of learner assessment, we necessarily need to get them to a “Being” mode, disallowing them from getting into a “Doing” mode in which they produce premeditated, habitual answers devoid of reflection and open-mindedness. Such conceptual changes at fundamental levels would lead to enhanced learning and more valid and lasting learner evaluations.

Dr. Edelman highlights some of the faulty thinking we may hold and that we can challenge using CBT practices.  Some examples are black and white thinking (rigid thinking), overgeneralising (making conclusions/decisions without adequate information), just world fallacy (related to perfectionism and strongly believe that everything in this world is just/fair), hindsight vision (repenting on past decisions/actions), tyranny of should (things are expected to happen in a certain way without necessarily having valid reasons), awfulising (expecting worst to happen), mindreading (making assumptions on what other would be thinking) and comparing (oneself to others in an unnecessary way). These faulty thinking patterns can contribute towards developing some common negative psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression, anger, ineffective (non-assertive) communication and low frustration tolerance (lack of resilience) etc.  Some common practices of CBT we use to challenge the above types of faulty thinking instances are Socratic questioning (logical disputing or constantly questioning attitude), behavioural disputing (introducing forceful behaviour to challenge our thinking) and goal-focussed thinking (set a goal and focus on that despite challenges). The important lesson we have to learn is that if we develop reflective/metacognitive skills (or a self-awareness) appropriately, we will be in a position to self-identify the above faulty-thinking patterns within us so that we can take appropriate measures keep away from them. It implies that we can and have to play an important role on our own in managing (or appraising/reappraising) our thoughts cognitively as well as behaviourally so as to enhance our happiness, psychological health and overall well-being instead of always awaiting for some external sources or conditions to provide them.

In contrast to CBT, in mindfulness practices, we pay voluntary attention to objects/emotions/thoughts or the reality as is in a non-judgemental, open and curious way. Our focus is not to solve any problem or change our thinking. However, by paying full attention, we get to see and understand the matter at hand more clearly and fully. As a result, we are able to understand any problems/issues with enhanced clarity as well as possible solutions to them, even though this is not our initial intention. Further, sometimes we may have to continue mindfulness practices for longer periods such as years before our perceptions of problems and solutions become clearer to an appropriate level. Consequently, we may not find solutions to problems in an urgent sense using whatever the information available as the main focus and benefit of mindfulness practices is to perceive the reality as is, possibly over time, enhancing clarity alongside.

As an educator, I find that CBT practices would help learners immensely to set up an appropriate psychological environment within (with a proper arousal level/emotional state) to engage in lifelong learning effectively. Use of CBT practices can be thought of as doing the groundwork to develop healthy minds that are capable of getting associated with learning and development more efficiently in everyday life situations (don’t forget that most of our learning is implicit, through life experiences).

Professor Langer quite insightfully argues that directing learners to get to only one possible outcome in an unconditional manner in the quickest possible time is a meaningless effort as the resulting learning has a very limited applicability in other similar but different scenarios, even though these types of outcomes can be tested and assessed in an accurate and precise manner as part of learner evaluation. As a result, recognition tests in which we evaluate whether learners have developed an awareness (conditionally and contextually) rather than whether a piece of information is memorised in an exact format would be a better and more valid assessment. Such assessment would assess individuals’ real transformation (with a lasting impact) that takes place through learning. She further argues that many intelligence tests use a similar assessment concept in which attempts are made to match the individual being tested to one perspective of reality out of many possible perspectives of reality. Further, an interesting distinction is made between approaches to learning based on (single domain) intelligence (or linear problem-solving approach) and mindfulness. In the mindful learning approach, learners are guided to be open-minded, alert and flexible in their learning with an understanding that most of our learning is conditional and subject to change based on our new and/or future learning.

 Professor Langer insightfully and highly reflectively describes how learning/assessment can become mindless:

“Schools generally pay little attention to how, when, and by whom the criteria for grading were chosen. If the criteria were questioned and varied, students’ position on the continuum might change. But they are rarely varied. To make matters worse, once we are placed on the tail end of the distribution, social forces work to keep on us there, setting us up for a lifetime of success or failure. Our fate as winners, losers or just average is sealed.”

Further, after forty years of research, she has become courageous and was persuaded to summarise:

“Our schools are the problem. They unintentionally teach us to be mindless. Schools do this in at least two ways. They teach us to evaluate each other and ourselves, and they teach us to see or accept information as if it were absolute and independent of human creation”

Some of the other interesting insights the author put forth are the need to deemphasising overlearning to the extent of reaching mindlessness and losing creativity, minimising the attitudinal differences shown to play and work (and also to play and learning) and rethinking ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) by introducing/highlighting much needed novelty to the process of learning in order to get and maintain attention from the learners. When something is overlearned, it tends to lose cognitive/executive control on the part of the learner and the neuroscience-based phenomenon known as automaticity creeps in making the learner act in an uncreative manner with less attention to detail. It is also not uncommon that individuals view work and learning in a negative/mindless way with some unjustified preconceptions. This contrasts with the mindful attention they pay when playing. Simply by being more mindful while working and/or learning, like the way we pay attention while playing, and thereby being more open to novelty and attention to detail, we have a better chance of overcoming boredom and stress and enjoy the tasks of learning and working. In relation to ADHD, Professor Langer insightfully sees the possibility of lack of novelty in the item of focus and/or being attentive to a different object or matter as the reasons for inattention/distraction. This alternative view of ADHD in itself is a demonstration of how one can be mindful of a concept/phenomenon by viewing from multiple perspectives/dimensions.

In contrast, when mindfulness is used and practiced, individuals develop the abilities to see many perspectives of the same problem/matter, receive and approach knowledge in a conditional and/or contextual manner that is subject to change over time or seen from a different context as opposed to receiving them as hard facts irrespective of the underlying contexts. In a learning environment, learners will be benefited in their human development process to be more creative, productive and resilient beings when additional time is used to introduce learners to many contexts and perspectives of a single concept or piece of knowledge (possibly without restricting to a single domain/disciplinary area) in a conditional manner. In other words, learners are presented with high-level/generalised concepts/knowledge (contextually and conditionally) that can be readily re-categorised and re-contextualised in future situations/problem-solving efforts. Further, in learning and development, what matters is the mindful process that the learner undergoes rather than any outcome, a notion that is at odds with many contemporary educational systems that purely focus on the outcomes (in many instances outcomes do not necessarily reflect the process undertaken) irrespective of how (positive or negative ways) they are achieved.

In mindless learning, individuals attempt to use past learning done in a rigid/hard-facts/unconditional manner inappropriately to current situations/problem-solving exercises while in mindful learning, they become open, alert in an ongoing manner and are flexible when receiving/grasping knowledge in a conditional/contextual manner as well as re-contextualise/modify them in a manner that is appropriate to current, future or new situations. Consequently, a mindful person becomes open to new information/knowledge and ideas and can see a problem/matter from multiple perspectives. This is essentially a creative approach to life and day-to-day matters. In other words, the abilities/skills in mindfulness lead to the development of better psychological health and resilience (as defined relation to the notion of emotional intelligence) in facing challenging situations in life. For instance, in the psychological/counselling practice of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), individual get exposed to multiple perspectives of depressing/negative life circumstances or presented with a reinterpretation of the same. Such notions are implicitly embedded as part of practices of mindfulness. In essence, mindfulness promotes the overall well-being of individuals especially in the areas of ageing where, in general, there is a negative perception of the notion. Many research assignments conducted by Professor Langer have produced positive results on healthy ageing and enhanced immunity systems enhancements for those who are engaging in activities mindfully. Further, as Professor Langer points out, due to the highly receptive to information/knowledge nature of mindful individuals, they tend to be highly intuitive (possessing gut feelings on mattes) as well (possibly as a result of implicit learning that takes place in an unconscious manner through openness/non-judgemental to information received).

As pinpointed by Professor Langer, many have questioned her about real practical possibilities/difficulties of becoming mindful in a constant/ongoing manner. They even raised the issue of developing a situation of indecision or tarnishing the skill/ability to make quick and firm decisions when one becomes highly mindful. In fact, the strength of mindfulness lies in the ability to make optimal decisions by considering as many perspectives/dimensions as possible. It contrasts with producing less optimal/substandard decisions/results rapidly by neglecting some important perspectives/contexts. Consequently, we see that if the leaders of our societies possess the skills/abilities of mindfulness, our world will thrive towards sustainability. Further, mindfulness is not a tool in possession by everyone all the time so that an individual can make use of it when he/she desires. Instead, it is skill/ability that needs to be learned and practised over time (possibly from very young age) to get to a level that makes it part of an individual’s everyday life.

The author, Kerry Alison Wekelo, should be commended for boldly making use of some the emerging and widely discussed human development concepts/phenomena that are verified through numerous research for her role as a leader of human resources management. These concepts/phenomena include developing self-awareness, emotional intelligence, empathy/compassion, effective/empathic communication, openness in conflict management, continuous personal improvement/learning and work/life balance (I personally prefer to use the idea of work/life integration by being mindful to a higher degree and enjoying both equally) etc. Research in the last two decades or so has revealed that these are some of the essential ingredients of improving individual (and organisational as well in return) well-being leading to much-needed higher productivity. Also, many scholars have identified them as essential qualities of effective leaders. Consequently, as Kerry highlighted, intentional infusion of the above features/concepts into the organisational culture necessarily begins with the right leadership.

Another important notion Kerry highlights is the need for organisations to focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Though CSR is a notion that has been there for some time, its significance appears to remerge with a vengeance (availability of a number of social media platforms that reach out to masses effectively generating positive/negative images of organisations could be the main reason) in the recent past demanding organisations to focus beyond their profit margins as social organisations. In fact, as Kerry put forth, CSR could begin with organisations paying due attention to the well-being of their employees who themselves are members of the broader society. Further, when goals of a socially responsible organisation align well with internal voices of its employees, they become motivated to engage in their work better enhancing overall productivity. If this aspect of focusing on people is not given the due attention and emphasis, we cannot expect the notion of CSR to go beyond the organisation boundaries genuinely. Further, impacts of well-looked-after employees who are happy will have a flow-on effect on their family members, relatives and friends causing a rippling positive effect on the communities.

As an educator, I was able to generate some useful ideas for improving our teaching-learning practices using the real-world insights given in the book. We need to incorporate appropriate practices and raise awareness of our learners on the important concepts/notions such as self-awareness (through reflective questioning/journaling), emotional intelligence (through practices of raising self-awareness, emphasising on multiple perspectives), empathy/compassion, empathic/effective communication, conflict management (through creative approaches of emphasising multiple perspectives from different individual’s points of view) and encouraging mindful learning and an associated mindset (non-judgemental openness/flexibility in receiving/processing information by emphasising on conditional/contextual/multiple perspective of information and recognition tests as opposed to associative recall tests)  as means of yielding enhanced/deep learning outcomes and minimising study-related stress at the same time.

Finally, Kerry’s employees’ well-being-based approach to human resources management in a corporate environment gives readers much-needed hope in overcoming some of the negativity associated with traditional corporate cultures plagued with disharmony and lack of synergy.

One of the most important neuroscience/brain related concepts Professor Siegel highlights in the book is the need to integrate a whole range of differentiated brain activities/regions/neural networks for developing healthy minds. Some examples are the integration of emotional and cognitive functions/regions and left and right cerebral hemispheric functions. That is, the notion of whole brain/person development through various ways (and using some tools as well) of integration emphasised. When such processes of integration are not present, individuals tend to develop imbalance minds that can be in extremes of rigidity (inflexible and lack of emotional feelings) and chaos (overly emotional and lack of coherence). As an educator, insights I get from the book is that we need to help learners to integrate diverse neural networks of learning and senses that are differentiated to enhance learning or to develop the ability to see the connected whole. For example, we need to encourage learners to be reflective of all types of learning and develop a self-awareness/intuition on them so that the learning becomes an integral and internalised part/neural networks of the learner.  

Another important research-based notion Professor Siegel emphasises is the attachment an individual has/receives from parents or close adults, especially during the childhood. If a child grows up with a secure attachment (other non-ideal types of attachment being avoidant, ambivalent and disorganised), especially from parents, he/she is likely to develop capacities to integrate brain functions/neural networks better, minimising the chances of developing mental/psychological imbalances during the adolescence and later in the life. In a secure attachment, parents or close relatives are more receptive and accepting of the needs of the child. As a result, the child gets an environment to thrive and explore. Further, Professor Seigel signifies the need of a similar close attachment and guidance from the part of parents even during the much critical adolescence years for a healthy mind development of their offspring, supported by a positive intergenerational interaction/communication.

Interestingly, the brain integration/linkage process Professor Siegel puts forth is not limited to within a single individual/brain, but also across individuals/brains. In other words, for the healthy development of the minds of adolescence in particular, it is important that their brains are able to develop healthy interpersonal relationships with peers and adults. The notions of empathy and compassion are the essential ways that adolescence (and adults as well) need to connect with others. Empathetic understanding of others is, in fact, understood to be supported by neural structures in the brain known as mirror neurones. Adolescence brains that are prone to social engagement should be guided to do so with empathetic/compassionate attitudes for better interpersonal integration towards healthy minds and overall well-being all involved.

Finally, one of the greatest messages Professor Siegel passes onto the adult readers of the book is debunking some of the myths held about the adolescence brain. The adolescence/teenage period is not something that is unwanted that we all have to get over with great difficulty and risk. Nor is this negativity created by a hormone imbalance or excessive hormone activity. It is all about letting adolescence brains to thrive through the processes of self-awareness/self-authorship with proper understanding, relationships and guidance on the part of adults. As an educator in higher education, I see a great value in Professor Siegel’s message in attempting to enhance learning through integrative processes (within as well as in an intrapersonal way) of neural networks in adolescence/teenage groups.

The author, Professor Daniel Siegel has fittingly presented a poem on defining “SUCCESS” by Bessie Anderson Stanley to wind up the text.

“It offers insights into what successful adolescences might look like, how the essence of adolescence can enrich the rest of our lives.”

SUCCESS

“To laugh often and love much;

To win respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children;

To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

To give of one’s self;

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung exultation;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived-

This is to have succeeded.”

Professor Magolda’s research studies have revealed some interesting features of human development that happen essentially through the process of self-authorship highlighted in the book.  Self-authorship, as implied, is a realisation the subject individual has to develop on his/her own. However, some life experiences -especially the painful ones- and support personnel (referred to in the text as partners) such as parents, spouses, friends, supervisors/employers, teachers, counsellors may assist or become catalysts in the process. Self-authorship begins, usually during early adulthood, when the subject individual experiences discrepancies between internal belief systems and external worlds, especially when the individual is faced with situations of crossroads. Individuals, who depended heavily on external voices/authority (of parents/teachers/elders etc.), begin to be more independent at the onset of the adulthood and thereby listening to their internal voices more. It could be an intriguing research question pursue to get to know how some individuals (possibly the ones who demonstrate the trait of mindfulness) are prone to develop a high value/belief system internally and encounter a conflicting imbalance between the internal and external worlds. If an individual progresses in the process of self-authorship, he/she would develop the ability to listen and believe in his/her internal voices increasingly firmly while at the same time developing an understanding that though some external realities cannot be controlled, the reactions to them by him/her can be regulated mainly by getting to know of multiple perspectives/contexts.

Interestingly, we can draw some parallels between the theory of self-authorship defined by Professor Magolda and some other human development frameworks presented by other philosophers/researchers in the past. For example, Abraham Maslow’s theory of self-actualisation highlights mainly external/environmental requirements such as fulfilling basic needs (food, shelter, clothes etc.), love and security and social acceptance etc. for an individual in his/her progress in human development to higher levels. Consequently, the two theories of self-authorship and self-actualisation complement each other giving two different perspectives of internal and external to the subject individual in the human developmental process. In Kazimierz Dabrowski’s human development framework of Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD), the disintegration process from a primary integration to a somewhat unstable state (state of psychoneurosis as Dabrowski referred to) towards a much more stable state of secondary integration has some similarities with the theory of self-authorship. In progress towards self-authorship, the subject individual first becomes shaken by observing the differences between the internal values/thinking and what is present externally in the real world especially when encountered with crossroad situations. In order to overcome this turbulent state of mind, the individual has to continue listening to internal voices more firmly so that he/she comes to a realisation of what can or cannot be controlled and/or what should/shouldn’t be accepted as realities of life.

One important insight highlighted in the book is that turning inward towards identifying one’s internal voices more while deemphasising on external stimuli (or ordinary socialising) does not mean that an individual in the process of self-authorship fails to develop healthy interpersonal relationships. In fact, as the studies showed, it was the opposite – through the development of a higher level of self-awareness, these individuals become more capable of understanding others more deeply thus enabling the enhancement of their interpersonal relationships. In other words, they may incline more towards introversion on a scale of extroversion-introversion while engaging and integrating with the self firmly along with a clearer understanding and acceptance of the differences between internal and external real worlds.

For educators, the single most important take away message from the book is the need to relate the content being introduced to a personal level so that learners can associate them to their individualised internal voices through a higher level of reflection. In other words, educators should endeavour to connect important concepts presented to as many real-life scenarios as possible so that a wider learner cohort would be able to make real personalised meanings for them. That is, the knowledge is not represented as something external to the learners, rather it is created and enhanced internally by the learner following the notion of the constructivist theory of learning. The essence of learning and development is an internal process of the learners although some external education systems and experiences may positively facilitate it. As Professor Magolda highlighted, learning and development is a process that needs essentially to be self-authored and directed mindfully by the subject individual on his/her own to meet his/her internal voices/value systems.

The author, Professor Kabat-Zinn, deserves a special commendation and gratitude for producing such an epic resource giving vivid and elaborate descriptions of some of his real-world practices in the MBSR program. Millions of readers around the world, who are desperately looking for some form of healing in facing catastrophic situations, would benefit in their life-changing transformative processes from the mindfulness practices presented. The beauty of these complementary/integrative medicine practices with significant proven benefits in individuals’ health and wellbeing is that one only requires a trust/faith and commitment in them to benefit as they incur only a minimal cost, if at all. In a world where there are ever-increasing medical costs around the world giving individuals and governments a huge financial burden, the cost-effective practices suggested in the MBSR program as personal transformative measures are giving humankind a ray of hope into the future in a world of “poignant enormity” (in the words of Professor Kabat-Zinn). Even more, to introduce the essence of the MBSR program to the individuals seeking healing/benefits, it only requires 8-weeks of attendance/commitment at the MBSR clinic, after which they are expected to carry out the practices on their own to benefit in an ongoing manner.

Interestingly, the author, Professor Kabat-Zinn has analysed and categorised what is commonly termed as “stress” into some insightful constituents such as “work stress”, “time stress”, “people stress”, “sleep stress” and “world stress”, to name some. At work, many of us would become stressful for reasons such as high workload, meeting deadlines, engaging in routine/tedious chores and maintaining relationships etc. Time stress results in when we attempt/struggle to meet deadlines in either professional or personal lives thereby getting trapped in situations where we are being driven and controlled unconsciously by time without ever realising even what we are doing by paying full attention. When we find ourselves in situations of conflicts with who we interact either in professional and personal lives, it can produce a varying degree of stress depending on the specific circumstance. Medical professionals recognise and recommend an adequate amount of daily sleep as an essential measure of recuperation from varying degrees of daily stress for all human beings. However, sometimes these daily stressful encounters themselves force individuals to ruminate on them and thereby creating difficulties in sleeping. Professor Kabat-Zinn has coined-in the term “world-stress” to highlight negative situations, either as natural disasters or otherwise, we get exposed to routinely through digital/technological means of the Internet, TV or radio. When there are so many sources that we can become stressed, what would be the cost-effective and harmless (without any side-effects) means of relieving these stresses? Can we anaesthetise us to become numb or simply become non-receptive to avoid these hard realities? Would they be viable solutions for us to calm our craniums? Can we expect us to depend on a magic pill that can do them all for us? As proved by the MBSR program, various mindfulness practices (which ae conceptually very simple albeit difficult in real usage) have come to our own rescue in this regard, meeting the above requirements. Becoming mindful/aware/accepting of the various sources of stress, in many occasions in a courageous and bold manner, would be the starting point for us to look for appropriate measures of stress relief.

“There is still far too little of this in our education. As a rule, our schools do not emphasise being, or the training of attention, although this situation is changing rapidly. When mindfulness is not taught in school, we are left to sort out the domain of being for ourselves. It is doing that is still the dominant currency of the modern education. Sadly, though, it is often a fragmented and denatured doing, divorced as it is from any emphasis on who is doing the doing, and why. Awareness itself is not highly valued, nor are we taught the richness of it and how to nurture, use, and inhabit it – how it can round out the limitations and sometimes the tyranny of thinking, and provide a counterbalance to our thinking and our emotions, serving as the independent dimension of intelligence that it actually is.”

 Finally, as an educator, I become increasingly convinced that there is so much mindful learning from the part of individual learners and mindful pedagogical practices from the part of educational practitioners that can contribute to learner development/self-actualisation/self-authorship to higher levels. The decision-makers of the educational forefront are being exposed to increasingly compelling evidence-based resources to initiate and develop transformative learning and development processes as a matter of urgency to enable fairer, just, ethical and sustainable societies. 

Another useful and common type of meditation is loving-kindness/compassion meditation. These practices are shown to enhance meditator’s capacities to empathise with others when they are in difficult situations. Also, long-term meditators demonstrated a trait of a higher level of preparedness to help those in need or for engaging in the greater good than the meditators with less number of hours. A higher level of activity was shown in the brain’s radar organ of the amygdala for such preparedness in the long-term meditators (with focused- attention meditation, the amygdala activity was reduced helping to minimise mind wandering). Some empathy-related neural firing was also shown to resonate with other body parts such as the heart validating our longstanding belief of having a “good heart” when we are compassionate. Further, psychological conditions such as kindness, empathy and compassion are shown to minimise the impacts of negative ones such as anger, depression and stress thus enhancing the meditators immune system and overall well-being by minimising proneness to inflammation and unhealthy attachments such as cravings (for examples for some food, alcohol and drugs etc.). Usually, the negative psychological conditions are associated with involvement of the so-called default network/mode/self-system of the brain that becomes activated when one is idling or not focusing on any specific object/function, and this default mode is more prone to focus on negative thoughts/emotions one may possess.

One interesting and surprising observation authors made in their research with long-term meditators was the generation of higher frequency (than normal) gamma waves in the brain during their open presence and compassion meditation activities. The main feature of gamma waves is the ability to synchronise many regions of the brain for highly efficient information processing such as generating insights. Non or novel meditators are also capable of generating gamma waves, but they last only for a fraction of a second while for long-term meditators could have them for minutes. Even more, the long-term meditators showed to have gamma waves generated during their sleep indicating a possible state of “awakening” round the clock. Another observation the authors made in their research was the abilities of long-term meditators have open-presence/attention to whatever that comes to their mind, accomplished possibly by the non-judgemental (without rumination on the past and future) way of paying attention. The authors also highlighted the notions of neuroplasticity and epigenetics they validated from their research. The two phenomena relate the brain’s capacity to change (or develop new neural networks while removing unused ones) based on the experience the individual undergoes. That is, we do not want to keep debating on whether a person’s capabilities are a matter of nature or nurture. The notion of epigenetics relates gene expression made possible by appropriate experiences while suppressing some others when relevant experiences are not present. Further, the text brings to our attention that, open-attention/mindfulness and loving-kindness/compassion meditative practices were successfully used in an evidence-based manner for overcoming/healing depressive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) respectively.

“The faculty of bringing back a wandering attention over and over again is the very root of judgement, character and will…an education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.” William James – Father of modern psychology

As an educator, I see some great insights emerging from this text. One of the fundamental capabilities we need to develop in learners is to get them to pay attention/focus (for content by reading/seeing, presentations by listening etc.) despite there is a tendency for mind wandering, especially for the contents perceived to be difficult. In other words, we need to encourage learners to persevere in engagement in the content/learning until a clearer understanding is achieved. Learners can also be directed to practice paying attention by asking them to focus on their breathing. Also, learners can be encouraged to practice open presence/attention by being open to whatever that comes to one’s mind through reading/seeing experiencing/hearing in a non-judgemental way with an intrinsic motivation to learn or developing an understanding that such practices help one in lifelong learning, developing a growth mindset, resilience to adverse social/personal situations and overall well-being. Here we highlight the fact that most of our learning is implicit (not explicit/formal as in a classroom or within an institute) and we benefit simply by paying attention/being mindful to our experiences/environments indiscriminately. Reading and journaling can be two prominent areas one can apply open presence/attention at one’s own pace. Loving-kindness/compassion meditation practices are some useful means to develop an understanding or positive feeling of empathy and equanimity. These positive emotions would enable learners to maintain a balanced mental state at an appropriate arousal level in the journey of lifelong learning with a growth mindset.

Finally, we need to commend the authors Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson for giving the public a gem of an evidence-based resource that can be used in many applications whether as learners, employees or leaders.

As Dr Goleman puts forth, the development/growth of the brain areas associated with self-awareness is also influential in enhancing “other” focus- the second area of focus highlighted. Essentially it is the notion of empathy, as commonly known – the ability to cognitively as well as emotionally see/understand/feel other individuals we interact regularly or even sparingly. The reciprocal connection between self-awareness and empathy helps us to have what is known as “360 degree” evaluation and also to avoid situations of “groupthink/shared blind spot” Another area that comes under this particular focus area is the social-intelligence/social-sensitivity/context awareness in which we usually have to be proficient in picking non-verbal social clues.

“…people attribute what happens to them to events close in time and space, when in reality it’s the result of the dynamics of the larger system within which they are embedded…The problem gets compounded by what’s called the “illusion of explanatory depth,” where we feel confident in our understanding of a complex system, but in reality have just superficial knowledge. ”

In the third area of focus, we extend our attention beyond our selves, others in the communities we interact to outer societies/worlds or the whole planet. Put differently, it is about systems thinking, a focus area that is getting an increasing interest among scholars. With a focus on systems thinking, we start to appreciate the notions of our interconnectedness to and interdependence of/life cycle analysis (LCA) of many other systems/living beings/societies/groups, directly or indirectly even in more distant ways in space and time. The author, Dr Goleman duly highlights the fact that there is no specific brain area or radar that is sensitive to this system’s viewpoint resulting a situation referred to as “system blindness” that need to be addressed by paying diligent attention to the aspect.

“…data science requires more than math skills: it also takes people who have a wide-ranging curiosity, and whose innovation is guided by their own experience – not just data. After all, the best intuition takes huge amounts of data, harvesting our entire life experience, and filters it through the human brain.”

 “The need to focus on a less complicated order (whether in organising our closets, developing a business strategy, or analysing LCA data) reflects a fundamental truth. We live within extremely complex systems, but engage them lacking the cognitive capacity to understand or manage them completely. Our brain has solved this problem by finding means to sort through what’s complicated via simple decision rules.”

We have now seen the significance of the three areas of focus highlighted in the text by Dr Goleman. The next big question now is, how can we develop these focusing skills in leaders/learners etc. or measures can be taken more broadly for the benefit of masses? Fortunately, there are some simple techniques and methodologies identified to be useful in an evidence-based manner – breathing-based focused attention training and mindfulness/open attention practices. These practices were proven to be working from primary school students to top-level leaders such as CEOs.

“Setting aside some regular reflective time in the daily or weekly schedule might help us get beyond the firefight-of-the-day mentality, to take stock and look ahead. Very diverse thinkers…are calling for mindfulness as a way to help leaders see the big picture. They propose we need not just mindful leaders, but mindful society, one where we bring a triple focus: to our own well-being, that of others, and the operations of the broader systems that shape our lives.”

Finally, if research shows undeniably that these three areas of focus were instrumental for excellence, as an educator, I wondered the ways, if at all, we address and develop them in learners through our education systems. One important observation we make is that the above triple focus areas are independent of the domain or discipline of study, and as a result, they become a broader set of generalised skills that can be developed in any learner irrespective of the discipline of study. Despite this commonality, it is important for educational policy-makers to understand the limitation that in a typical educational/learning environment or education system, we do not address directly in improving the abilities of self-awareness, empathy or systems thinking per se. For example, how could we make use of this evidence-based knowledge to avoid sociopathic minds (those bullying minds) being developed misusing cognitive empathy and devoid of emotional empathy at the grassroots? What happens in most of the typical educational/learning systems pay emphasis on specific contents related to the discipline of study without giving learners generic study skills, strategies and methodologies that are useful in their lifelong learning endeavours and in developing growth mindsets. By giving undue emphasis on specific contents narrowly, we tend to give a wrong message to our learners that such a narrow knowledge-base would guarantee them overall success/well-being in the highly uncertain/changing future that we all are struggling to predict, despite many significant advances in many areas including technology. In fact, the reality is exactly the opposite – no such guarantees – in a rapidly changing world through the notions of artificial intelligence/automation, climate change, geopolitical uncertainties, big data etc.

Professor Walker also highlights the important link between having an adequate amount of sleep and overall health and wellbeing. Citing a wealth of research evidence, he showed how inadequate/lower quality sleep leads to a number highly problematic and widely concerning health issues such as cancer, diabetes, dementia, high blood pressures, cardiovascular/heart and immune-deficiency diseases. Not only these primarily physiological health conditions, a number of common mental health issues and their relationship to having inadequate sleep are also duly highlighted for the benefit of masses individually and society at large.

“Our brain scanning experiments in healthy individuals offered reflections on the relationship between sleep and psychiatric illnesses. There is no major psychiatric condition in which sleep is normal. This is true of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder (once known as manic depression). Psychiatry has long been aware of the coincidence between sleep disturbance and mental illness. However, a prevailing view in psychiatry has been that mental disorders cause sleep disruption – a one way street of influence. Instead we have demonstrated that, otherwise healthy people can experience a neurological pattern of brain activity similar to that observed in many of these psychiatric conditions simply by having their sleep disrupted or blocked.”

“REM sleep is what stands between rationality and insanity. Describe these symptoms to a psychiatrist without informing them of the REM-sleep deprivation context, and the clinician will give clear diagnoses of depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia. But they were all healthy young individuals just days before. They were not depressed, weren’t suffering from anxiety disorders or schizophrenia, nor   did they have any history of such conditions, self or familial.”

Another important area Professor Walker discusses elaborately is how lack of proper education/knowledge on sleep impacts negatively on some education-related matters. As an example, he duly questions widely used practices in medical education to make resident medical interns to work long hours as much as 30 in some instances in a single shift. Issues raised are not just the health and wellbeing of the medical interns subjected to the sleep deprivation, but also the impacts of the extremely possible non-ideal decisions made by them in those situations.

“Halsted inserted his cocaine-infused wakefulness into the heart of Johns Hopkins’s surgical program, imposing a similarly unrealistic mentality of sleeplessness upon his residents for the duration of their training. The exhausting residency program, which persists in one form or another throughout all US medical schools to this day, has left countless patients hurt or dead in its wake – and likely residents, too.”

“There’s simply no evidence-based argument for persisting with the current sleep-anaemic model of medical training, one that cripples the learning, health, and safety.” 

 In a similar vein, Professor Walker questions the practice of some governments and institutes to start schools as early as around 7.00 – 7.30am, an action that disallows children some very useful refreshing sleep time that enhances their overall wellbeing and capacities to learn, retain memories and be creative. This fact applies more specifically to teenage students who have a circadian sleep cycle/clock that is moved forward by around two hours.

“An added reason for making sleep a top priority in the education and lives of our children concerns the link between sleep deficiency and the epidemic of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder). Children with this diagnosis are irritable, moodier, more distractible and unfocused in learning during the day, and have significantly increased prevalence of depression and suicidal ideation.  If you make a composite of these symptoms (unable to maintain focus and attention, deficient learning, behaviourally difficult, with mental health instability), and then stripe away the label of ADHD, these symptoms are nearly identical to those caused by a lack of sleep. Take an under-slept child to a doctor and describe these symptoms without mentioning the lack of sleep, which is not uncommon, and what would you imagine the doctor is diagnosing the child with, and medicating them for? Not deficient sleep, but ADHD.”

 To wind up, the author, Professor Matthew Walker must be commended for brilliantly presenting a compelling case essentially for widespread education on the important topic of the biological human need developed through an evolutionary process of millions of years for adequate daily sleep. With such awareness-raising education at all levels of individual (more critically to minimise LED screens generated blue lights especially a few hours before sleep), organisation, government and societal, the whole society can benefit leading towards sustainability, especially saving governments billions of dollars on medical and health-related costs. 

“In fact, most children are natural nonconformists. Unfortunately, either at home or in school (or both), many children grow up in environments that devalue independent and creative thought and instead reward imitation, memorisation, and rote learning. The suppression of free thinking and imagination often starts in the educational system. Many people can recall an experience during childhood…when they were punished for thinking differently from everyone else. These experiences can lead children to suppress their natural inquisitive and creative instincts.”

 The need for appropriate means of instruction for learners by encouraging them to ask questions and finding appropriate information on their own while minimising direct instructions is presented in the book as an important step in encouraging and enhancing creativity. Such practices are likely to minimise stifling of learner creativity inadvertently as a result of inappropriate means of content delivery and expectations from learners.

 “…common teaching methods that emphasise direct instruction – those in which the child shown what to do rather than given the opportunity to figure it out for herself – can hamper the child’s ability to solve problems independently and creatively and may instead encourage mindless imitation…she won’t be learning the important real-world skills of asking questions and sleuthing out new information about a problem…learning to imitate sometimes means learning to generate the less intelligent response. This is the response that most students give, because of both the way they are instructed and the fact that they may be punished for presenting the more creative answer.”

As the authors elaborated, sensitivity and openness to experience appear to go hand in hand in supporting creativity in individuals. Through these traits, creative individuals are able to take in and process a larger volume of information from external (from the outside world through sensory organs) and internal (thoughts, emotions, self-awareness, intuition etc.) environments compared to one who does not show these traits. Such inherent broader and in-depth information processing capacities themselves are also shown to make creative individuals exposed to many vulnerabilities as a result of becoming aware of as well as reactive to some perceived/felt negative subtleties and nuances emerging from social encounters.

“…creative people of all types tend to be acutely sensitive, and conversely, sensitive people are often quite creative. It is easy to see how one trait feeds into the other: To both highly creative and highly sensitive mind, there’s simply more to observe, take in, feel, and process from their environment. To highly sensitive people…the world may appear to be more colourful, dramatic, tragic, and beautiful. Sensitive people often pick up the little things in the environment that others miss, see patterns where others see randomness, and find meaning and metaphor in the minutiae of everyday life.”

Given the above vulnerabilities faced by creative/sensitive individuals, the only ways to minimise or overcome them appear to be the other characteristics highlighted fittingly by the authors – solitude, passion and mindfulness. In many instances, as aptly presented by the authors, creative individuals were able to turn adversity into advantage through the means of relaxing/recharging in solitude and identifying and working towards passions of the greater good. They are also helped by their inherent capacities of mindfulness in which they demonstrate both focused attention as well as open attention abilities in a balanced manner. More specifically, in open attention awareness/monitoring, creative individuals are able to receive and digest information entering into the default/imagination network (while daydreaming) in a non-judgemental/open manner, leading to emotional stability and clarity of understanding.

The authors have also highlighted the interesting point of similarities in brain activations of highly creative thinkers and people who are prone to psychosis/mental imbalances. They used the spectrum of referred to as schizotypy – a personality continuum ranging from normal levels of openness to experience and imagination to extreme manifestation of magical thinking/psychosis – to highlight the difficulty in demarcating the boundary between creativity and psychosis, possibly leading to widely discussed medical misdiagnosis instances of creative/highly sensitive individuals, yet another vulnerability faced by them.

“So what determines whether schizotypy goes the way of intense absorption and creative achievement or tips over to mental illness? This is where a number of other factors come into play. If mental illness is defined as extreme difficulty in functioning effectively in the real world, then the complete inability to distinguish imagination from reality is surely going to increase the likelihood of mental illness. However, if one has an overactive imagination but also has the ability to distinguish reality from imagination and can harness these capacities to flourish in daily life (with the help of things like motivation, posttraumatic growth, resilience, and a supportive environment), then that is far from mental illness.”

Finally, authors have fulfilled a commendable task in directing our readers and societies to sustainability by making use of human creativity appropriately. To pursue that path, we first need to develop the capacities/awareness to identify the characteristics/behaviours of creativity and make it a point to encourage/enhance them rather than stifling them unconsciously right from the childhood. Our societies, in its current form of operation, need a different and evidence-based perspective of seeing, identifying, supporting and embracing this important notion/instinct of human creativity for the sole purpose of their sustainability/survival. 

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Years of research have shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence is two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies were shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness leading to strategic gains, while a leader with three or fewer competencies, tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. command and order) that are likely to produce only short-term results.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is based on: “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Years of research have shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence is two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is based on: “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Years of research have shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence is two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is based on: “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This book review/appreciation is based on: “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is based on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

The review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

The review/appreciation is on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

In twelve booklets, a team of contributors led by the world-renowned psychologist/author Dr Daniel Goleman enlightens readers with the essentials of the competencies associated with the important personal/leadership development framework of emotional intelligence (EI). Year of research has shown that EI competencies are directly related to high performance at all levels of work, and EI is referred to as the distinguishing competency when used over a threshold competency such as general intelligence/IQ. In fact, it was a book on emotional intelligence published by Dr Goleman over two decades ago that made the notion highly popular among many others working in the field of psychology, and business leaders alike. We further see that EI competencies also provide useful guidance for any individual in their personal growth so that he/she could become a valued social member/citizen in general. These twelve booklets give the readers the latest enhancements/refinements on the notion compiled by associating the research outcomes, experiences and knowledge/insights of many other scholars working in the area. The authors have divided the notion of emotional intelligence into two broad sets of abilities: self-awareness led self-management and social-awareness led relationship management. It is very interesting and insightful to see that EI led personal growth/leadership development must start from internally oriented self-management before extending to externally oriented relationship management. In other words, it suggests that some introversion characteristics need to be more prominent and given focus before moving onto the extrovert ones. Another interesting research revelation highlighted is that depending on the number of EI competencies a leader possesses, he/she would follow different approaches to managing/leading. A leader with six or more EI competencies was shown to be more democratic in their approaches, and as a result, boost employee motivation and effectiveness, leading to strategic gains. On the other hand, a leader with three or fewer competencies tends to fall back onto directive/coercive approaches (i.e. giving commands and ordering people around) that are likely to produce only short-term relative results, if, if at all.

Moreover and importantly, the authors give the neuroscience basis of the EI framework. Essentially, achieving a higher degree of EI is indicative of enabling the use of the executive area of the brain- the prefrontal cortex (PFC) – to manage one’s emotions (and associated brain areas including the amygdala), disallowing the situations referred to by amygdala hijack. Another example of a neuroscience basis for the EI framework is the use of the brain areas referred to as the social brain, which includes mirror neurones, for understanding and connecting with other people/relationship management.

This review/appreciation is written on “Building Blocks of Emotional Intelligence: 12 Leadership Competency Primers” by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Vanessa Druskat, Richard J. Davidson, George Kohlrieser, Mette Miriam Boell, George Pitagorsky Michele Nevarez, Matthew Lippincott, Ann Flanagan Petry, Peter Senge, Matthew Taylor, Amy Gallo and Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

Schmahmann and his followers have amassed persuasive evidence that the cerebellum is also involved in emotion. This would account for why it becomes activated when people listen to music they like. He notes that the cerebellum contains massive connections to emotional centers of the brain – the amygdala, which is involved in remembering emotional events, and the frontal lobe, the part of the brain involved in planning and impulse.

It is indeed fascination to see that the research conducted at Dr Levitin’s lab has revealed why listening to intensely emotional music makes us calm, pleased and relaxing; increasing levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine is released by the brain’s reward centre nucleus accumbens while regulating emotions by getting the frontal lobe activated. It is interesting to find out the impact on our neural system if the music/emotions are associated with a loving-kindness theme, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Considering that neuroscientists’ tendency to define consciousness as synchronous firing of neurons of as many brain regions of the brain at 40Hz (Gamma waves), it is interesting to see whether listening (possibly watching at the same time) to intensely emotional music could yield a similar situation, even though many sub-cortical brain regions are involved.

The rewarding and reinforcing aspects of listening to music seem, then, to be mediated by increasing dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens, and by the cerebellum’s contribution to regulating emotion through its connection to the frontal lobe and the limbic system. Current neuropsychological theories associate positive mood and affect with increased dopamine levels, one of the reasons many of the newer antidepressants act on dopaminergic system. Music is clearly a means for improving people’s moods.