For years we have heard about how communications works with a sender and a receiver. What this model does not help people understand is what is happening for both the sender and receiver cognitive processes. What is happening is a process of connecting new information or input with past information or input. By doing this those connections create meaning for each party. Often the receiver is finishing the senders message by predicting what he or she is going to say. Based on the beginning of the connection process. Jeff Hawkins author of On Intelligence describes the way the brain works to invent a new way of computing.
We see this notion of connection in how the brain works to how technology is trying to mesh-up the way we work with computers. Shiftables are at the very beginning of this trend. Shiftables were developed by David Merrill at the MIT Labs.
In Just Ask Leadership you learn that asking questions is a powerful way to help your employees engage, align and connect. This happens best when you as the leader help co-workers find those connections by asking the right questions. This is similar to the work Jeff Hawkins is doing in brain research at the Redwood Neuroscience Institute, and what David Merrill is doing with Shiftables at the MIT Media Lab. It is trying to facilitate the connections to the brain to expedite and enhance the cognitive resources available to each of us.
