Improve your leadership approach by understanding your team

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Here at Herrmann we know that a better understanding of thinking preferences can be transformative in so many different ways.

We sat down with Senior Executive Coach Jill Livesey from the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL) to talk a bit about how better understanding your employees’ thinking styles can improve your leadership approach.

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Comparing Employee Assessments: The HBDI® and the MBTI®

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In this ongoing comparing assessments blog series, Anne Griswold, our Whole Brain® Thinking Catalyst, is taking a look at the similarities and differences of many employee assessment instruments and how you might use them – individually and together – to achieve your business and talent development needs. For this post, Anne discusses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) and how it compares with Whole Brain® Thinking and the HBDI®.

As we take a look at another assessment, let’s start once again with the premise. The premise of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is psychological assessment with a focus on personality, and it measures personality preference on four scales: Read more →

Learning from Failure using Whole Brain® Thinking

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History has shown us repeatedly that great losses can also be great lessons. Never has this been more evident than the lessons learned from two of NASA’s most significant and tragic failures – the Hubble Space Telescope Mirror Flaw and the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster.

Recently, Herrmann held a thinker event at Fonterra Centre Auditorium in downtown Auckland led by guest speaker Joy Kuhns – an inside consultant for ELORET in the Space Technology Division at the NASA Ames Research Centre when these mission failures took place. Read more →

Comparing Employee Assessments: DiSC® and the HBDI®

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Choosing the right employee assessment for your team or organisation can be confusing. Many instruments overlap in what they measure and in how they’re used. So, we’re kicking off a blog series to compare those different assessments and dive into how you might use them to achieve your business and talent development needs.

This series is written by Anne Griswold, our Whole Brain® Thinking Catalyst. Anne has been a facilitator, trainer and coach for over 20 years, working both inside companies and as an independent consultant. She is certified in many assessment tools and leadership training programs, including the HBDI, MBTI, DiSC, Hogan, Firo-B, EI 2.0 and Franklin-Covey Training Programs.

First up: Anne takes a closer look at the DiSC assessment and how it compares with Whole Brain Thinking and the HBDI.
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Learn Something New Every Day with these 10 Tips

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Learning is all about the process. It’s not an outcome, but a set of actions. In order to grow you must keep learning. Here at Herrmann, we view learning as a mental process that leads to lasting change in knowledge, behaviour or both.

Action takes a lot of forms. It doesn’t necessarily require a six-week commitment to a development course or participation in a leadership lecture. It can be as simple as taking advantage of the everyday learning opportunities that present themselves to you.

New opportunities to learn are everywhere. You just have to be looking. Here are a few of our favourite tips for finding ways to learn something new every day: Read more →

You Can Build the Workplace of the Future: Here’s How

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Do you feel inspired in certain environments? Stifled and stressed in others? It’s not just your imagination. There are scientific studies that explain why most people hate working in cubicles, or why we’re better at conceptual thinking when we’re in rooms with high ceilings.

In his TEDx Talk, Designing a Better Future, architect Scott Wyatt explores the power of design and how it shapes the way we think and perform. He’s now applying what he’s learned to create elegant, functional floor plans and building arrangements that are designed for the way work gets done today. Generative buildings, for example, encourage collaboration, creativity and chance meetings with people you don’t see every day. Read more →

Professional development: The millennial motivator

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You’ve heard the stigmas. You’ve witnessed their strengths. They’re likely all over your office. In fact, they’re probably climbing the management ladder of your organisation. Millennials are quickly becoming the biggest players in the modern workforce.

Research by PwC found that by 2020, their generation will make up 50 per cent of the global workforce. Defined as anyone born between 1980 and 2000, the millennial generation have left a lot of business leaders scratching their heads. As such, there has been plenty of research dedicated to better understanding this demographic. Read more →

Want To Grow Beyond What You Know? Try These 5 Learner Mind Hacks

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It seems like information is always changing. One day chocolate is good for you, the next day it is one of the most sinful fats.

From the personal to the large scale, our knowledge of everyday issues continues to evolve, and that pace of change is only picking up. What ‘everyone knows’ today could be obsolete tomorrow.

That’s why it’s so important to be a learner – not just a knower. Learners are open to new ideas and research, knowers are convinced they already know it all.

So, what does being a learner really look like? Here are some quick mind hacks to keep you learning and growing so you don’t fall behind. Read more →

Transformation can be a breeze with these 5 change management techniques

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Here’s the dilemma: Change requires a different mindset, but the brain loves routine.

We naturally organise our thoughts around patterns and mental maps that have been developed in our thinking throughout the course of our lives.

Sometimes these maps are helpful; sometimes they’re not. Most change requires that we challenge our mental maps and form new connections in the brain – and this takes a lot of energy and motivation.

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Stuck in a rut? 5 tips to get moving again

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You’re facing a blank page. You’re stuck debating a tough choice. You’re trying to navigate a never-ending to-do list. What now?

There are always going to be times when you’re feeling stuck. While it may seem counterintuitive, one of the most valuable things you can do to get moving again in these situations is to stop and think.

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Data Security and Herrmann: What You Need to Know About GDPR, Personal Info, and more

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With high profile scandals popping up every day in the news, data privacy is a very hot topic these days. At Herrmann, we’ve always taken a strong stance on data privacy, as we believe transparency on these important topics is vital to maintaining trust. However, with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect next week, we wanted to take the opportunity to remind you what we at Herrmann do to protect your data, and let you know about our most recent efforts to strengthen our protections for GDPR.

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Stay organised this year with some helpful tips from the Herrmann team!

Stay organised this year with these 10 tips

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The new year should be a fresh slate, right?

Of course! Yet some of us are still carrying over the clutter and chaos of the previous year (or decade).

While certain people do work best with mess, it's not just untidiness we're talking about here. Even if you work primarily in a creative role, you need to have some structure and organisation to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

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Herrmann worked with guests in Auckland to identify new approaches to wellness.

Wellness and Whole Brain Thinking: An Auckland Breakfast Seminar

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When we feel our best, we perform our best. It's genuinely that simple. Focusing on our own well-being as well as the well-being of those around us, is a key part of setting the stage for success.

At our recent Auckland Whole Brain Thinking & Wellness Breakfast Seminar, we explored the different ways to view well-being and how we can better support ourselves and one another.

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“The day I met Ned Herrmann.” 30 Years of Whole Brain® Thinking at Work

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It was 1979. I was off to a conference in Pittsburgh. This was before the days of non–stop flights to the US. I had to go from Sydney to Auckland, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and finally to Pittsburgh. I arrived at my hotel at 2am after 32 hours of travelling. Not feeling much like sleep I went to the bar. I exchanged greetings with the few that were there, downed a ‘Bud’ and headed off to bed for the few hours that were left.

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email

The Real Reason They’re Not Reading Your Emails

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Here’s an experiment. Read the following paragraph once:

With hocked gems financing him, our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter that tried to prevent his scheme. “Your eyes deceive,” he had said. “An egg, not a table, correctly typifies this unexplored planet.” Now three sturdy sisters sought proof. Forging along, sometimes through calm vastness, yet more often very turbulent peaks and valleys, days became weeks as many doubters spread fearful rumors about the edge. At last from nowhere welcome winged creatures appeared, signifying momentous success.

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