Quiet Leadership

IT’S PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DECONSTRUCT OUR WIRING

Connections that are used become stronger, even permanent elements of the neural circuitry.

JEFFREY M. SCHWARTZ AND SHARON BEGLEY (2002)

We’ve explored how our habits, thoughts, aptitudes, and skills are based on unimaginably complex sets of connections that can’t be accurately predicted. Many of these connections are firmly embedded into our subconscious. These connections then define how we see the world, the choices we make, and therefore the results we produce, without our knowledge that this is happening. So if we want to improve a person’s performance, the obvious next question is how do we change their connections? The answer, it turns out, is that unfortunately we can’t. It’s ...