Iconoclasts: A Neuroscientist Reveals How to Think Differently. By Gregory Berns

A very thorough analysis of the so-called iconoclasts (someone that goes against conventional practices or established dogmas). From a useful brain-driven perspective, it is interesting to see what it takes to create an unusual perception, to sustain it through its inception and implementation and to present it to others. In other words, how to think differently.
o the book walks you around the various ways in which you can generate a perception different than that of others; sometimes, even distorted by fear, anxiety (even to a pathological level), imagination, success or even by accident. It even encourages the reader to seek these hidden (different) perceptions.
Then comes what typically kills a non-traditional perception; this is the fear for failure; fear of embarrassment; or even plain lack of self-confidence. Fear creates an aversion to risk; sometimes risk perceived by others becomes a source of fear to you. If a person can overcome this stage, he may be just about to create a truly different way of seeing things.
Of course, it does not make too much sense to create a different something when others are not willing to adopt your ideas. So you get to the point where you have to motivate others to see what you see. Your level of Social Intelligence becomes then critical. You promote the adoption of your ideas by being familiar to others and by enjoying a rich reputation (this is the essence of Social Intelligence). The book explains how the brain can promote your Social Intelligence by understanding how something results familiar; or how someone with a good reputation is more likely to drive you into adoption of his ideas.
Understanding how the brain reacts to potential danger, risk and unfamiliarity may provide you with an edge in conquering some hurdles. It is the amygdala that fires up under these circumstances. This is an ancient evolutionary result in your brain that you cannot remove; but you can seek to control. Social Intelligence is all about quieting the amygdala of people around you!
So next time you believe you are seeing something in a different way; that your perception about something is different than that of others, there may be something interesting about the way you think. If you can carry it two steps further (resist fear and foster the promotion by others), you may be on your way to establish yourself as an iconoclast.
It is indeed the best time to find far many more iconoclasts than the ones we see around these days. We could use a few of them.

Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn't Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science. By Charles S. Jacobs

Yes, we have too many rules, too many friends, too many opportunities. Do we?... really? Or is it really what we make out of our reality?
This book sets out an interesting concept which provides the supporting workbench for what I consider one of the most fundamental challenges we face as professionals: break your existing paradigm and jump into a new one.
Do we dare to change our paradigm out of no reason? Of course we do not; we need a very good reason to even consider it. As a matter of fact, we are full of reasons why we do not do it; and if we run out of these reasons, we create more. An effect known as cognitive dissonance cleverly described in this book.
The book presents a well-defined paradigm as an alternative to whichever one we have chosen to live in. It is labeled the Cognitive Paradigm. In simple words, it states that humans are thinking-beings capable of self-directed action (or miss-directed action). Sounds obvious but one can get surprised to see how far from implementation it may be.
Supplementing knowledge and logic with a mode of thinking that factors the environment specific persons live in, their relationships with us and others and their personal versions or reality can add a significant dimension to our managing practices and expectations. Of course, the version of reality that we assemble is dictated by the three-pounds engine (your brain) that accommodates many interdependent variables.
This concept matches fairly well (at two thirds roughly) with a book I read previously (Iconoclasts). Perception of reality and fear to express it are a given in human nature. So it remains to be determined how the Social Networking component of an Iconoclast fits into this paradigm.
So, relationships, persuasion, metaphors and stories become an essential toolset to alter the perception of reality of someone else; and to a great extent our own. This also correlates well with concepts such as the power of Story Telling.
Under this paradigm, the understanding of concepts such as of rewarding and punishing gets weaker compared to what prevails under the traditional paradigm (Aristotelian) where we impose OUR perception of reality onto others. Interestingly enough, the starting point heading out of this stiff paradigm is the understanding of the counterintuitive meaning of these concepts.
Can you imagine a world where rewarding removes the motivation to engage in positive behavior? Or a place where punishing reinforces the behavior that you are trying to eliminate? Get ready to embrace and cope with the concepts of Neuroscience; for this is the world where you and I live in. A world inhabited by human beings.
For as long as we do what our common sense dictates, we are at the mercy of a biased approach. On the contrary, a Socratic approach where we ask others for their participation to assemble a common reality opens many doors that permit the ventilation provided by the Cognitive Paradigm.
Changing paradigms is not going to be an easy task. First-order changes (actions within a system that does not change itself) accomplish very little; Second-order changes (actions that change the system itself) are the ones that can make a difference. Provided you have the guts.
The title of the book (Management Rewired) makes it necessary to touch Management practices in the light of the contributions of neuroscience to the paradigm-related concept. The concepts presented are counterintuitive (expectedly so!!) but the whole story comes together fairly well.
The book is worthwhile reading if you can stand to go over the first few pages throughout which the intention of the overall text is not clearly defined. As you read on, case studies and very interesting pieces of information connected to neuroscience and neuropsychology add incrementally to the concept. Upon reaching the end of the book, you will have the feeling of having something under your arm at least worthwhile trying.
For my own concept-tracking record, in this book I can connect Iconoclasts, Storytelling and Applied Neuroscience.