What is Culture?

As our workforce becomes more diverse and our work teams more greatly impacted by cultural issues, many managers and leaders today are struggling to find the answer to this very complex question. Many believe that if we can just understand culture better, we can reduce conflict and challenge in our teams.

Here are a few links to resources defining culture. Visit these and then think about the following questions;

• Can culture be managed?
• Do only immigrants and ESL speakers have cultural issues?
• Can cultures be bridged?
• Can cultural issues at work be made irrelevant?
• What are the essential parts about culture that we need to know?
• Can we create a cultural profile about specific groups of people and use that to understand them?

Consider posting your thoughts and sharing your discoveries.

Links:

1. http://www.culture-at-work.com/concept1.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture
3. http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_1.htm
4. http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html

In our Diversity and Cross Cultural Communication training courses, we at Advance Corporate Training focus on identifying the roots of commonality and the core principles that connect us all. By focussing on the basci principles of trust, love and respect and then analysing how they are illustrated by various cultures and subcultures we can create a best practise workplace model.

We can do it for you too.

Controlling blood glucose may fend off cognitive decline

If you are over 30 - no more large meals for you!

After age 30 we all become insulin resistant meaning we have glucose spiking after we eat. At my age (it's a secret, but it's more than 30!) a big meal would have my glucose spiking for almost 3 hours. As we age, our brains are bathed in glucose and new research is showing that this tracks with cognitive aging.

Here is more bad news - in a study published January this year, it was reported that elderly people who reduced their caloric intake by 30 percent for 3 months scored 20 percent higher on a test that involved remembering words - OMG does this mean Diets do work?

Read more on these studies and more on the brain at www.dana.org.

Inside the Teenage Brain

Excellent resource - click on the title to go to a PBS website.

Average brain weights - yes one is bigger!

Average brain weights (BW)AGE BW - Male (grams) BW - Female (grams)
-------- ----------------- -----------------
Newborn 380 /360
1 year 970 /940
2 years 1,120 /1,040
3 years 1,270 /1,090
10-12 years 1,440/ 1,260
19-21 years 1,450 /1,310
56-60 years 1,370 /1,250
81-85 years 1,310 /1,170

The Brain's Motivation Station.

How do we really know what motivates people? Is it really as subjective as people speculate?

Motivation in the human brain is really quite simple - the motivation for performance by choice is directly influenced by reward areas of the mesolimbic region as well as the learning-related hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe of the brain. This means that when we need to recall something for later use, our motivation to do so is directly influenced by the reward for us doing it. Low reward = low motivation. High reward = high motivation.

Recent studies have shown that even the anticipation of a desired reward can have teh same motivation value as actually recieveing it.

Now, here's the rub - just when we think motivation is as simple as reward - the perception of reward is solely defined by the recipient and is based on their biology, their experiences and their learning. Sometimes they don't even know what it is! Ever have one of those days when you feel jazzed by a job well done? That's the satisfaction of reward that drives your motivation. Now try to figure out exactly what got you there so you can repeat it? Good luck in defining it.

So, in motivating others, get them to reflect on times they felt most satisfied at work. Map what they are doing as similar to that time and let them at it. Recalling the satisfaction of their reward, fosters anticipation of receiving it again, which fuels motiavtion.

Now, if they have never felt that way? Good luck....