Coaching with the Brain in Mind

CHAPTER 6

Neuroscience Platform—Neuroplasticity

It had rained overnight in the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains in northern Italy. Early-morning sun glistened on cobblestones in streets barely wide enough for a small car. Cyclists who had pitted their strength against steep inclines breathed a thrill of victory in reaching the ancient town of Asolo. NeuroLeadership Summit participants threaded their way among the cyclists and townspeople to gather in the 500-year-old convent that had become the headquarters for CIMBA, an international business school and conference center. Jeffrey Schwartz was about to unveil a formula for consciously managing brain changes that he and David Rock had developed:

DS = (exptn + exprnce) × AD⁺ × VP

In other words, dynamic stability equals a combination of expectation and experience multiplied by positive attention density multiplied by veto power. Dynamic stability is another way of saying “positive change,” change that allows a system to adapt and develop, rather than remaining inflexible and unable to respond, and to do this without becoming overwhelmed by chaos.

For most of the 20th century, assumptions of mechanistic science, added to limitations on observing the inner workings of live brains, led to several conclusions:

1. Damaged brains cannot regenerate.

2. Human brains at birth have all the neurons they will ever have.

3. Human brain structure is fixed by the beginning of adulthood.

4. From adulthood on, loss of neurons and thus of mental ...