blog

Our most recent neuroscience workshop, entitled ‘The Neuroscience of Individual and Group Decision Making and Risk’, took place in June 2015 in London.

It addressed the following questions:

  • Do we make more creative or accurate decisions when working individually or in groups – and how?
  • How does working in a group impact our decision making?
  • What are the social influences at play when we make decisions?
  • Is brainstorming the most effective way to come up with new ideas?
  • What’s the neuroscience behind the way we assess risk?

Neuroscience is providing new and cutting edge information about how our brains operate and is stimulating new thinking about what makes us – and others – tick. It is also becoming increasingly recognised as a key tool in the development of high-impact leadership, employee engagement and effective decision-making.

My colleague, leadership coach Megan Evans, and I work in partnership with neuroscientist Dr Geoff Bird, of the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, and our workshops blend Geoff’s presentations with the opportunity to reflect in groups and individually on how we want to integrate our learning from those presentations into our practice, both as leaders ourselves and as developers of others’ leadership.

Dr Geoff Bird is unique as a practising academic neuroscientist – supervising experiments and publishing research – as he is also trained as an executive coach and is able to translate his findings to the business and organisational world.  For more information on him please see http://www.neuroscienceforbusiness.com/

Besides the learning that the events offer, they are a valuable opportunity for delegates to network with peers in coaching, consultancy, leadership development, training, financial services and related fields.

Participants in our neuroscience workshops have commented:

  • “The neuroscience workshop was brilliant – thank you so much. I felt privileged to be there. You hosted it quite beautifully. Great conversations and Geoff was fascinating”
  • “A very interesting and authoritative guest presenter, some serious and interesting participants, and a clever mix of expert input and participant exercises: thank you for a fascinating and enjoyable afternoon.”
  • “Thank you for arranging such an interesting and relevant workshop on the Neuroscience of Wellbeing with Dr. Geoff Bird last week.  I found the content extremely informative and Dr Bird’s clear, organised and obviously credible material to be hugely useful.  I very much enjoyed the afternoon and found it to be of immense professional value.”
  • “Most of all I enjoyed the conversations with new people and your focus on ensuring that we embed the new learning and take it away with us.”
  • “Many thanks to you, Megan, and of course Geoff for organising last week’s workshop. I found it so useful and stimulating.”

E-mail lw@lindsaywittenberg.co.uk to join our mailing list and be informed of future events.  We expect the next workshop to take place either towards the end of 2015 or at the beginning of 2016.

Photo by  MR McGill via Compfight

Neuroscience of Decision Making and Risk

Our workshop for coaches, consultants, and trainers ‘The Neuroscience of Individual and Group Decision Making and Risk' with neuroscientist Dr Geoff Bird will take place in London on Thurs 30th April 13.30-17.00. Sign up here

Read more »

Leading across Cultures

To work effectively with difference, the starting point is to understand and be aware of oneself: behaviours, emotions, interpretations, assumptions, and the impact of assumptions. It means taking a holistic view, being curious, and holding back from making judgments of the worth of this or that person, or from jumping to conclusions. Leaders who are culturally aware create sub-cultures of greater trust, more effective communication, healthier relationships and leadership that releases infinitely more potential.

Read more »

Factors in managing the executive career

Executives who have taken their careers in hand in a holistic sense, thinking ‘whole-life’ rather than simply in terms of the next apparently logical step on the ladder, are more likely to enjoy career longevity and deliver the fullest value for themselves and their organisations. The Wittenberg Career Coaching Model weaves together multiple factors within multiple perspectives to take account of this ‘whole-life’ approach.

Read more »

Step back to go forward

Coaching clients who can't see the bigger picture of their challenge can look their problem in the eye by externalising the issue: working with the systemic factors of their environment can bring a fresh perspective and acknowledging ‘what is’ often makes a new solution possible.

Read more »

Your personal brand: a marketable identity

Your personal brand conveys what makes you compelling, memorable and interesting, and becomes increasingly important the more senior the roles you take on. Expressing your personal brand relates to your passions and the sources of your personal fulfilment, your values and your achievement, your strengths and your reputation, your personal vision and your thought leadership.

Read more »

Leadership coaching

Leaders who embrace the process of learning and raising their levels of self-awareness, self-understanding, understanding of others and understanding of the systems and contexts they operate within stand to gain the most from leadership coaching. On their coaching journeys they learn to listen to themselves and see themselves as others see them. They become more authentic, they see more clearly what kind of leaders they want to be, and they discover how to make that happen. They learn how to respond rather than react, in a fuller awareness of the choices they make.

Read more »

You're unbelievable!

'You're uneblievable' - the latest article in my regular reflection column - has been published in 'Coaching at Work'. I'm inspired by Dr Kate Granger, a 32-year-old doctor who’s a terminally ill cancer patient and who's launched #hellomynameis. Change that lasts is internally motivated rather than externally motivated.

Read more »

Managing yourself to lead others

The leader who builds on, and develops, their self-awareness in such a way that they can step back emotionally from situations to put their own thinking on hold, and empathise with the players in those situations, will find that they are more connected with their people, and that higher levels of trust, performance, engagement and discretionary effort – rather than obedience or compliance (and the corresponding ‘jobsworth’ mentality) – are the order of the day.

Read more »

Diversity: making more of difference

In order to work effectively with difference, the first two steps for the leader are, first, to understand and be aware of their own thinking, emotional processes and place in their systems, and, second, to adopt a stance of acceptance, humility and celebration of diversity. If the prevailing culture in their team, division or organisation doesn’t acknowledge or value diversity, then the leader needs to change their relationship to that culture (and the relationships within it) rather than try to change it from the outside.

Read more »




Join Me

Click here to receive the occasional interesting e-mail

Click here to receive my free report for coaching sponsors:
Evaluating coaching

Click here for my free report for coaching clients:
How to choose the right coach

Get In Touch

You can call Lindsay on
+44/0 20 7112 7001 or
click to send her a message