Three Levels Required To Build And Support Brain-Friendly Conferences And Events

You can transform your conference or event into one of the best in world by using brain-friendly strategies.

And you can help your event participants transform their personal and professional lives by applying the current science to your event.

Three Levels Of Change Require

Putting the neuroscience to work for your conference or event requires a three step process.

1. Start With Yourself

First, building and supporting a brain-friendly conference or event must start with you.

Whether you’re the organizer or a team member, the change has to start in your mind. You have to become familiar with the research and think of ways to apply them to your event.

And you have to change your mind about how things should be done. Remember, you can make small changes in your mind that will make big changes in your life.

• Learn all you can about how the brain works.
• Increase your awareness and understanding of your thoughts and emotions. Begin to reframe and regulate your emotions during difficult situations.
• Identify behaviors that you would like to change.
• Remember, as you work on your own self, your work and organization is not making those same changes…yet. You will probably still experience doubt, stress and uncomfort.

2. Work With Your Team

How do you improve the brain-friendliness of your team?

Begin with an awareness strategy. What is the biggest pain point your team has? Where is there a lot of energy around a negative issue?

Engage your team by informing and educating them about a possible shift in culture. As a leader, display a positive emotional state that can become an emotional contagion among your team.

• Identify articles in neuroscience, biology and cognitive psychology that are easy to read and explain the science of how our brains work.
• Share these with your team and discuss methods for applying that research.
• Focus the team on redefining the event by aligning it’s schedule and programming with the biology of the brain.
• Discuss a line of attack for implementation brain-friendly strategies both during planning and implementation of your event.

3. Work With Your Organization.

Once you’ve made changes and your team is dedicated to a new path, then you can focus on educating your entire organization.

Work with your team to create a brain-friendly framework. This can be used to examine each part of your event.

Consider changing 10%-25% of your event at first and not the entire thing at once. Share the research with everyone and get volunteers, committee members and the board committed to the new direction.

Hat Tips to social scientist, life-long learning advocate and author Erika Garms who writes about creating brain-friendly workplaces.

What are some ways to help others become more comfortable with change? What strategies have you successfully used to create organizational change?