Our brain is the most complex part of our body.
Employers believe that problem-solving and critical thinking are essential skills that will grow exponentially by 2025 reskilling, and the ability to solve complex problems will become increasingly vital.
“50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025” — world economic for self-management.
Self-management and working with people have also been identified as essential skills.
Today more than ever, it is essential to think about planning to upskill and learn the significant problem solving and critical thinking skills required in modern workplaces. Problem-solving critical thinking strengthens your ability to objectively analyze and assess challenges in the constantly changing working environment and is vital to your success.
So how can problem-solving be improved using some well-researched neuroplasticity techniques?
Neuroplasticity is simply about your brain’s ability to rewire itself, relearn and recognize a need to adapt to any situation. We do continue to develop our brains throughout our life.
I have found the neuroplasticity concept exciting and valuable in my work and everyday life. As leaders, our crucial role, I believe, is in defining and driving high-quality problem-solving — this means walking away and allowing our team members to tackle the problem-solving at hand.
I strongly encourage my team members to tackle the problems head-on before coming to me, or even better resolving them before they are addressed to me.
The first step to mastering problem-solving is to ask the right questions. We continue to see so many IT and software projects wasting months and millions trying to solve the wrong problem.
So why is neuroplasticity the secret ingredient in problem-solving?
We need to think about acquiring training tools and techniques to rewire our brains to be much more effective in facilitating business needs and problem-solving. Rewiring is a learning curve; it is about learning and changing how our brain thinks and our ability to change our habits.
Your brain keeps on developing.
The human brain keeps redeveloping until even after 40s years of age. It is the only organ in the human body to undergo development for a long time. It also sees more changes than any other organ.
Let’s not forget about fixed vs. growth mindset.
You may already be familiar with the latest mindset research and topics around the fixed mindset versus growth mindset.
Growth is about believing in yourself and developing yourself over time. Fixed is your intelligence, knowledge, or skill issued; if you are is not good at something, you think you will never be good at it.
Try to implement a few strategies to work on a growth mindset by learning, acquiring new skills, dealing with new challenges, learning something new all the time.
For example, leaders or individuals with a fixed mindset may use neuroplasticity to move toward growth and innovation.
5 simple tips on how to use neuroplasticity techniques to enhance problem-solving skills effectively
I found these techniques helpful.
(1) Play a game — Who would have thought this could be helpful. Having a hobby can be very helpful in improving your cognitive beliefs. It helps with visual recognition, memory, reasoning, decision-making, problem-solving, resilience, team building. By playing different games, you can teach your brain new skills.
For example, You will learn that when you fail in the game, you can get back in there and bounce back very quickly. You will get your way from setbacks by exploring different ways to a task, also boosting your creativity (creative thinking). Maybe our new generation (for example, millennials and generation Z) are inherently developing a better set of problem-solving skillsets.
Research has shown that playing computer games can improve your problem-solving skills. Game of chess, perhaps. You are tuning into language.
These techniques can help you by paying attention to stakeholders and continuing to challenge your stakeholders, challenging your brain, going to someone you wouldn’t don’t go to usually.
I have personally never taken on the computer games resources in the past. During isolation, I have found myself playing computer games with my daughter (with limited time, of course), and I am starting to get better, although virtual characters seem to win most of the time.
(2) Learning a new language — learning another language would not only boost your career, but it would also be excellent for your brain. By learning another language, your brain functioning will improve in the areas such as:
memory
language
attention
emotions
problem-solving and creative thinking
improved vocabulary
Ability to multitask, and more.
You may want to consider spending only 10–15 minutes perhaps a day to learn a new language while also playing games.
(3) Sleep on it- studies have shown that“sleep can be manipulated to direct its unique talent for problem-solving towards finding solutions that prove elusive while awake.”Based on the medical study performed on the brainteasers solving puzzles: “In the morning, having slept on a problem, the refreshed participants were able to work through more of them. They could solve 31.7% of the puzzles invoked by sounds during sleep — a 55% improvement over the 20.5% of uncued puzzles that they could solve. “
(4) Drink coffee — did you know that coffee can assist with problem-solving?
“A 2020 study from the University of Arkansas found that participants who consumed a 200 mg caffeine pill (roughly equivalent to a strong cup of coffee) were able to solve problems significantly faster than the volunteers given a placebo. Caffeine gets you awake and alerts by blocking adenosine: a neurotransmitter that builds up during the day and makes you sleepy. Of course, a significant downside of mainlining coffee is the negative impact on sleep. And you probably don’t need scientific research to tell you that poor slumber zaps your concentration. For this reason, it’s best to take your coffee early in the day, suggests Frank, so the adenosine-blocking action has worn off by the time you want to go to bed.”
(5) Visualization — another powerful way to train your brain for success. You can turn an abstract hope into a picture that not only inspires you but also guides you — practice visualization for at least six weeks for up to 10 minutes.
Ask yourself:
What is my unique talent? Who will benefit? What is my passion? What is my higher calling? What are my goals?
(6) Exercise and be mindful — don’t forget to exercise, for example, yoga and meditation. Not only does the exercise help with the positive mindset improvements by rewiring different parts of our brain), but it will also assist with you reacting to problems with an increased sense of calmness and awareness.
I start my day by hitting the gym for an hour, followed by 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation to help my brain from wandering.
I have recently added the 5 minutes mind exercise to rewire my brain to my daily routine for six weeks. So far, it is working for me.
The most important thing to remember with problem-solving
Your brain will learn.
You can effectively improve your problem-solving and critical thinking skills by harnessing neuroplasticity through practice and repetition. Your brain will learn and reinforce new neural pathways to learn new skills, ways of think, and habits.
By focusing attention on and repeatedly practicing new, desirable behaviors, you can redirect your brains’ chemical, hormonal, and physical resources to create new ways of thinking and habits.
Sharpening your brain to assess your mental toolbox to find innovative solutions and critical thinking is one of the essential skills needed in business and business analysis.
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