Here in this video on Leadership, Motivation Management Training, Patrick Dixon argues that the future is about emotions, and passions.
What’s the most important literacy in our society? Is it one that relates to Passion? How to engage people in learning and education, in social networks, or at work ?
How do we help people? What sort of literacies are important in helping other people in building and nurturing their family, at work, in engaging with education, or working and learning with the networks and communities, or contributing to the society.
What do people care about?
How can we communicate with passion?
Would these be the literacies other than those in Critical Thinking?
How about emotional and social intelligence?
When it comes to success in leadership and life, would it be about relationships?
Here is my previous post on Emotional Intelligence.
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Hi John I really appreciate your bridging the emotional in this discussion of the necessity for critical literacies. The first video however was just too much smarmy marketing speak for me. JSB, J.Hagel and Dan Pink for that matter have better arguments for why and how passion motivates and innovates?
But! I’ve been railroaded from further readings tonight because Goleman’s talk is so fascinatingly detailed and far reaching in its implications for learning.
When we cannot inhibit the amygdala our capacity for learning is inhibited because we are focused on the negative event, our working memory (which is our attention) cannot focus on the lesson in front of us. Instead it is focussed on the negativity which is a chronic handy cap for learning, as preoccupation with distressing emotions prevents cognition, secreting cortisol and adrenaline.
In contrast Goleman recognises Csíkszentmihályi’s optimal cognitive functioning or ‘flow’ as ideal for learning.
The latter half of the talk described a study by Davidson revealing that meditation heightens the capacity for self mastery through heightened self awareness and social intelligence by inhibiting our unconscious amygdala fear/anger circuitry. The capacity to inhibit the activity of the left prefrontal cortex (amygdala) Goleman perceives as separating the leaders from the leaders if you will. Goleman emphasises that this circuitry extends to the gut. It is essential to know oneself and discern gut responses in order to make decisions, this is he says significant for moral and ethical decisions, to feel.
Goleman suggests we can help kids strengthen the capacity to inhibit this unconscious reactivity of the amygdala by helping them to understand why they feel what they do and how what they do makes others feel.
He ends the talk with very astute evidence of how our internal feeling states influence each other.
Goleman reveals that the requirements of self mastery through emotional intelligence, such as the capacity to inhibit the amygdala-the capacity to defer gratification for instance, to create rapport by unconsciously mirroring others and others in turn mirroring your higher states of consciousness (laughter,meditation) are all greater factors for successful learning, leading and social outcomes than IQ.
The demographics of the studies mentioned do seem to be gleaned from people already closely linked to the academic professions. The application for Goleman’s talk was US centric and delivered to a selective social strata-Google employees. I dont know how it might pan out if the same research was sampled from students attending government institutions in Tasmania for instance. Or if this same research was applied to them in what ways it might be delivered differently or adapted? I see significant application for empowering students through meditation here, meditation can come in many forms, I’ve found like learning that it is highly personal and useful to trial out a variety of techniques in order to adapt the one most suited. Meditation like learning is particularly useful when self motivated, but even more fun and powerful in social groups.
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for such thoughtful insights into emotional intelligence and its significance on learning. I agree with your views, regarding marketing and arguments aspects.
Relating to how emotional intelligence will impact on student’s learning, there has been research studies indicating the relationship between EQ and success in online learning: higher EQ -> higher chance of success.
Relating to leadership development:
One of the crux of leadership development that works is self directed learning: intentionally developing or strengthening an aspect of who you are or who you want to be, or both. That model of learning was developed by Richard Boyatzis during three decades of work in leadership development.
People who successfully change in sustainable ways cycle through the following stages:
– 1st discovery: My ideal self – who do I want to be?
– 2nd discovery: My real self – who am I? What are my strengths and gaps?
– 3rd discovery: My learning agenda- How can I build on my strengths while reducing my gaps?
– 4th discovery: Experimenting with and practicing with new behaviours, thoughts, and feelings to the point of mastery.
– 5th discovery: Developing supportive and trusting relationships that make change possible.
So the critical literacies centred around change through self reflection, self-directed learning (with learning agenda, experimentation & practice), and relationship building (social networking, networking on the job etc.)
Thanks again Ruth for your comments.
John