Cognitive Gym

Optimizing Information Flow In Organisations

• 4 weeks (8 hrs total); weekly
• Coming soon
• Instructor: John Dobbin
• English only

Why is it that organisations are so terrible at adapting to new situations? And why are so many employees distracted and disengaged? This is a real big problem that affect many organisations. Part of that deeper problem is poor communication and information flow.

In this course we're going to look at the roots of the problem and examine some powerful theories for overcoming it. We'll be looking at information theory, the notion of adaptive information, collective intelligence, collective computation, social physics and more.

Leading Better With Narrative Intelligence

• 5 weeks (10 hrs total); weekly
• Coming soon
• Instructor: Alexis Niki
• English only

The challenges of today require leaders who can create shared narratives of possibility. We need leaders with high levels of narrative intelligence. Narrative intelligence is about understanding just how fundamental story is to our human existence.

Leaders who understand story as a dynamic human process, a shared reflex, also understand that we ignore the power of story at our peril. This course will awaken your narrative intelligence. You’ll look at what stories are, how they work and influence us, and how we can harness their power to create hope and possibility.

Unlocking Focus and Flow in the Knowledge Age

• 4 weeks (8hrs total); weekly
• Coming soon
• Instructor: Jane Piper
• English only

Our human brain power should be a source of advantage in the digital age. Mindless, repetitive work is easily outsourced to automation and machine learning.

Harder to outsource is innovation, collaboration and creativity, so a potential source of competitive advantage in knowledge intensive sectors.

This course will explore how we can develop skills of focus and attention, reduce mental and organisational drag so that you and your team can bring your best brain power to your work.

Developing Organisational and Future-Fit Culture

• 4 weeks (8 hours total); weekly
• October 2021
• Instructor Geoff Marlow
• English only

Every organisational community has its own unique culture, which people experience as “the way we do things round here”. Culture is much deeper than these surface level attitudes and behaviours but most models, concepts, and theories are too complex, intangible, and impractical for normal people in the real world.

Fortunately, we humans are naturally equipped to adapt to new cultures. Harnessing this innate capacity is the key to creating a culture that’s fit for an increasingly uncertain and unpredictable future.

The Future of Work: Who, What, Where and How.

• Coming soon
• 4 weeks (8 hrs total); weekly
• Instructor: Serene Seng
• English only

How will the future of work be like? What kind of work will we be doing, where will we be doing it, who will we be working for, and how will we be doing our work?

Come join us for this Dialogic discussion to think more about the work we will be doing for the future and how we should prepare for it now.

Navigating The Complex World Through The Lens of Requisite Variety

• Coming soon
• Time TBC
• 2-hour session
• Instructor: Malcolm Cawood
• English only

It's often said that we now live in a complex world, which is often referred to as VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous), a term first coined in 1987. However, back in the 1950s, William Ross Ashby posited something called "The Law of Requisite Variety", where "variety" is characterized as a measure of complexity.

For any "system" (whether mechanical or biological, person or organization), there needs to be a balance between the "variety" out there in the environment and the organization's internal variety.

Different Perspectives In An Ambiguous World

• Coming soon
• 1-hour session
• Instructor: Johan Nylander
• English only

This session is about the greatest break-up the world has ever seen.

The conflict between the world’s two biggest economies is far from being just about trade. It’s a fierce and escalating battle between two ideologies. If the past decades were characterized by globalization, the next may well be all about decoupling: the disintegration of the relationship between the US and China. 

However, this session is not about the world going up in flames. It’s about change,  opportunities and seeing the world from a different perspective.

Fragmenting Minds - Wellbeing at the heart of work

• Coming soon
• 2-hour session
• Instructor: Dr Richard Claydon
• English only

To work well, you need to be well. At best, employees struggling with their wellbeing simply won't be able to perform at the levels required to be simultaneously productive, collaborative and innovative.

At worst, risk becoming extremely ill, as the high cortisol associated with poor wellbeing is predictive of anxiety, depression, heart disease and cognitive impairment.

And then there’s the mental health challenge, which risks becoming a pandemic that dwarfs COVID, with the potential to bankrupt entire social security systems. 

Leading With The Power of Perspectives

• Coming soon
• 2-hour session
• Instructor: Becky Andree, PhD candidate
• English only

Now more than ever before decision makers and leaders need the right mental tools to make sense of a complex world. This session explores and examines the difference between perspective taking, seeking, and coordinating.

You will determine when and how to use perspective seeking in VUCA situations and learn to understand all the skills that make up perspective coordination and skills.

Growing Your Social Capital: behaviors for high-quality connections 

• Coming soon
• 2-hour session
• Instructor: Becky Andree, PhD candidate
• English only

Whether we are physically or virtually together, the way we approach interactions either creates energy or depletes it.

In this live course participants explore

• the range of connections experienced at work (low to high quality)
• discover how to tame toxic interactions
• relationships and understand the skills/behaviors that contribute to creating high-quality connections

Designing Decisions: Understanding Cognitive Biases To Make Better Decisions.

• Coming soon
• Instructor: Oscar Venhuis
• English only

Cognitive biases are unconscious errors in thinking that arise from problems related to memory, attention, and other mental mistakes. These biases result from our brain’s efforts to simplify the incredibly complex world in which we live. Confirmation bias, hindsight bias, self-serving bias, anchoring bias, availability bias, the framing effect, and inattentional blindness are some of the most common examples of cognitive bias.

Cognitive biases have direct implications on our safety, our interactions with others, and the way we make judgments and decisions in our daily lives. Although these biases are unconscious, there are small steps we can take to train our minds to adopt a new pattern of thinking and mitigate the effects of these biases.

Mastering Hybrid Leadership

• Coming soon
• 4 weeks (8 hrs total); weekly
• Instructor: Lalita Raman
• English only

Technology enablement and safe distancing imperatives work together nicely to help us even be productive from home. No matter the debate around returning to work vs work from home, the pandemic has transformed our thinking and opened up new possibilities.

As a human being, how do you lead your team and organization through this “new normal”. Key highlights of the 4 modules of 2 hours each to empower you to manage this challenge are

• create an environment that facilitated and enhances a motivated and engaged team
• how to manage the current dynamics, what kind of skills are required of the leader and their teams
• master your people skills (starts with self-awareness)