Bioclaris                                                         

Expanding Thinking at Work

When business leaders adopt the Bioclaris Method™, they drive their organization forward by expanding the thinking potential of all employees; advancing strategic goals and execution, spurring innovation, and developing the problem-solving skills of their employees.

Based on recent neuroscience research, the Bioclaris Method™ reveals how the potential for generating new ideas about any topic can be increased—simply and directly.

Neuroscientists have identified distinct and well-documented brain structures, known as First Person and Third Person (See Figure 1.) Not surprisingly, the most commonly used part of our brains is the First Person, which accesses our own ideas. In contrast, the Third Person part of the brain retrieves the ideas we have incorporated from others. For a great majority of people, this structure tends to be less active than the First Person and vastly underutilized. However, the Bioclaris Method™ changes this variance to build thinking power.

When employees learn to use the Bioclaris Method™, they gain new perspectives in addition to their own. Their brain resolves this cognitive dissonance by creating new neural connections, enabling employees to generate new ideas faster and with more clarity.

This improved communication and thinking enables each employee to contribute to strategic goals in a much more effective and powerful way.

  • Increase employee brain power

  • Generate new ideas faster and with more clarity

  • Advance goals rapidly by increasing idea generation among all employees

 

First Person and Third Person structures in the brain

Since the mid-1990‘s functional neuroanatomy based research has revealed distinctly different, but closely related, brain structures that are activated when a person takes his or her own perspective about a topic versus the perspective of another person about the same topic. Figure 1 documents these structures and the brain activity that occurs when subjects are thinking about solving a problem.

One structure is the First Person, which locates one’s own thoughts about how to solve a problem and is active in a specific area of the Frontopolar Gyrus region.

The second structure is the Third Person, which locates the ideas of another person when a subject takes the perspective of another person about how to solve a problem1.

Figure 1

1 What you believe vs what you think they believe: a neuroimaging study of conceptual perspective taking, P. Ruby and J. Decety, European Journal of Neuroscience, 17, 2475-2480, 2003

First Person locates one’s own thoughts; while Third Person locates the ideas of others

 

Leveraging the brain’s default network

Naturally, we rely our own intellect and experiences when thinking about any challenge or opportunity—and the First Person brain structure makes it possible to locate our own ideas.

The typical high activity level of the First Person, however, creates a barrier to new idea generation. As we attempt to form new ideas about a given problem or opportunity when listening to others, we compete with the high number of existing ideas of our own that the First Person structure is already accessing. This competition inhibits new ideas from forming and becoming established. The subsequent stress from not being able to form new ideas can further inhibit idea generation.

We can, however, use the Third Person structure to stimulate new ideas. By intentionally populating our brains with the ideas others have about a given situation, challenge, or opportunity and imbedding their perspective, we activate the Third Person brain structure. Because the Third Person structure is not nearly as active as the First Person it has the capacity to handle numerous sets of ideas. By populating the Third Person in this manner, we generate a strong drive in the brain to resolve these multiple sets of ideas about the same topic. This resolution is performed, at least partially, if not totally, by our brain’s “Default Network2. The Default Network works in the background to create new connections between our own ideas (First Person) and the ideas of others we have, located by the Third Person. And we experience these new connections as new ideas.

Essentially, when we use the Bioclaris Method™, we can use how others think about a problem, challenge or any topic to stimulate our own new ideas.

2 Buckner, R., Andrews-Hanna. J., & Schacter, D. (2008). The brain’s default network: Anatomy, function and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 1–38.

  • Over-activity of the First Person structure can inhibit us from generating new ideas

  • The under-utilized Third Person brain structure can be used to generate new ideas

  • Stimulate the Default Network to generate new ideas

 

Bioclaris Method™

The Bioclaris Method™ enables you to use how others think about a problem, challenge or opportunity to advance your own ability to generate new ideas. Whether you are talking with colleagues, managers, customers, vendors or competitors, the Bioclaris Method™ enables you to expand your thinking power.

To achieve the benefits of using the Bioclaris Method™ you must truly understand how another person thinks and be able to identify the elements of a problem or opportunity that a person sees as important, as well as understand how those elements are linked and prioritized. Then you must establish how others think into your Third Person region. For the purpose of generating new ideas, it is much more productive to focus on how another person thinks about a problem, since this creates a much more robust neural network that represents the thought process of another person. And the more robust the neural networks that you add to the Third Person structure, the more ideas your Default Network will generate.

In addition, the Bioclaris Method™ prepares you to be ready to recognize new ideas when they emerge and record them immediately. The Bioclaris Method™ is designed to be easy to use so that it can be used often. And the more you use it, the greater the results.

The Bioclaris Method™ works equally well on all types of problems, challenges and opportunities—from technical to strategic, from small to the most important and intractable.

Focusing on how other persons think about the topic is key

The more you use it, the greater the results

 

Results emerge quickly

The Bioclaris Method™ can be applied to a variety of situations involving formal or informal interactions. The following meeting sequence is typical for small group interactions in which the Bioclaris Method™ is used to generate new ideas about a problem or opportunity:

First Meeting: In preparation, participants read a summary of a colleague’s own explanation of a specific problem or opportunity along with an account of previous strategies employed as applicable. Participants are guided through the process of maximizing the number of new sets of ideas in their Third Person region.

Second Meeting: Participants capture the initial set of new ideas about resolving the problem/challenge. They record and share new ideas that continue to emerge both during the meeting and after.

Third Meeting: Participants prioritize current set of new ideas; determine which should be implemented; and begin to develop an execution plan.

Optimizing the benefits

Employees at all levels benefit from using the Bioclaris Method™ as they apply it to all types of challenges and opportunities.

The Bioclaris Method™ quickly becomes a natural part of how employees address challenges and opportunities since it produces results rapidly and easily.

When business leaders embrace the Bioclaris Method™ and employees are engaged in the process they see: increased idea generation by all employees; more focused listening and thinking; better problem-solving; increased productivity and improved overall employee satisfaction.

There is no limit to the potential for generating new ideas.

Leads to better problem solving; increased productivity; Improved employee satisfaction

Your normal group meetings can be used to generate more ideas

 

Getting Started

Our process begins with developing an understanding of your organizational goals. We will meet to answer your questions; discuss your business, your goals, your challenges. From there we develop a training strategy to support your strategic goals, your strategic timeline. We offer small group and large group training sessions that fit your schedule. Our process includes:

· Introduce the Bioclaris Method and training process

· Understand your business, your goals, challenges

· Develop customized training and materials

· Track results

· Transition to Continuous Self-Development

The Bioclaris team looks forward to working with you!