Ignited: Managers! Light Up Your Company and Career for More Power, More Purpose, and More Success

Chapter 7. Ignition Point 2: The People

The Power of the Linkmaker

Picture a mass of some 100 billion living cells, each operating like a kind of on/off switch, always either resting (off) or shooting an electrical impulse down a wire-like structure (on). Each of these structures generates a tiny electrical charge, and from their ends they spit out chemicals that trigger impulses in other nearby cells. The cells are called neurons, the wires are axons, and the trigger chemicals are transmitters with names like epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

Welcome to the neural network known as the human brain. The continual flow of energy from one cell of the network to another is how the brain creates intelligence—by generating new neurological connections, ...