Reflections on the Dalai Lama's Visit

On Friday of last week I joined a hundred and sixty thousand other people in coming to hear the Dalai Lama speak in Seattle on the topics of compassion, learning, and science.  To be more accurate, the Dalai Lama was a participant in these discussions, which included an impressive array of neuroscientists, educators, and leaders.   The following observations come after seeing the talk on "The Scientific Basis of Compassion."  You can view this talk (and the many others that happened over the weekend) by clicking here. 

Here were some of what I found to be the most interesting points as they apply to leadership:

There is a link between our emotional states and our ability to learn.  Studies in infants demonstrate that when they are engaged and happy, that they are better able to learn.  I suspect, although I don't know if it has been studied, that this holds true for adult learners as well.

The heart sends more information to the brain than vice versa.  The old poetic notion that emotions "live in the heart" does have a biological basis. 

Kindness, Compassion, and Problem Solving are all abilities that are developed within the structure of the brain.  When children have their emotional needs met, they are better able to develop the brain in these ways.  Thus, children who have emotionally aware parents have a better shot at growing up to be good problem solvers.

Fear and Anxiety can decrease learning.  Audio/Video learning methods are far less effective than human interaction.  Again, these studies were in the very young, but I am curious about the workplace implications.

Children can learn to use their emotions like tools.  One researcher gave the example of telling a child that his ability to focus was "like a flashlight."  Thus the child was able to remember to "use his flashlight" when focus was important.

Children (and later as Adults) view the world through the lens of the way they were treated by their parents.  Thus when we witness employee behavior in the workplace, much of what we see is influenced by the way our employees were raised as children.  This isn't startling news, and the brain is capable of change even in adulthood, but this idea of people being "stuck in the patterns of their childhoods" may give us some perspective (and even empathy) when we struggle with difficult employees.

In children, the brain doesn't strongly distinguish between people who are "like me" and people who are "not like me."  Thus empathy and caring for others is a natural reaction in children.  As we grow older, our brains make a stronger distinction between those who are "like us" and "not like us" and when our brain identifies someone who is "not like us" the area of the brain that generates kindness and compassion tends to shut down. 

Thus, one way to improve our compassionate treatment of others is to begin seeing people as "the same as us" even when there are external differences.  Of course the Psychologist Carl Rogers talked about this when he discussed "Unconditional Positive Regard."  Gradually, neuroscience is supporting many of the points that scholars have suspected about the human mind all along.

I hope you enjoyed these tidbits from a great day of science and learning.  More to come.