Is it just me or does everyone have a very new age boss?

Is it just me or does everyone have a very new age boss?

Is it just me or does everyone have a very new age boss?

Rod Brice, Content Director at 92.7 Mix FM, hired me twenty years ago and I absolutely love him for it.

Two decades later he and I are both trying to keep it interesting and this week he came to me with a kooky plan.

He asked me to clean my teeth with my left hand for thirty days straight. Morning and night.

Last week Rod saw a presentation from Todd Sampson the advertising executive, adventurer, TV guy.

In 2015 Todd Sampson set about re-training his brain and says he is fitter, smarter and more creative for the process.

Until quite recently experts believed the human brain was hardwired.

The same experts are now exploring neuroplasticity, or your brain’s ability to rewire itself as you learn new things.

Todd Sampson famously taught himself to walk across a highwire.  That’s an extreme case but he says it is just about fear.

Whether we’re scared of heights, public speaking, or dogs, we can train our brains to face our fears and overcome them.

I know that’s true because I used to be terrified of flying but the more I do it, the easier it gets.

Todd Sampson suggests lots of changes.  He says we should stand in meetings.  It gives us a sense of urgency and because it’s not that comfortable people won’t linger.

He limits all meetings to 20 minutes, the optimum brainstorming time.

One of his favourite problem-solving techniques is to “rent-a-head” – when faced with a problem he asks himself what Richard Branson would do?  Or what would the team at Apple do?

Another trick is to work your memory.  Start small.  Learn the lyrics to a song, think of the names of the kids you went to school with.  Make the tasks harder and harder until you notice improved recall in everyday life.

Do something different, repeatedly. If your desk is messy, clean one thing from it every day. File it, action or bin it.  Do that once a day until clearing your desk is second nature.

Learn something new.  Like cleaning your teeth with your left hand.  Even better, learn a new sport, a new cooking skill or an instrument.  Just do something new.

The truth is, the jury is out about teeth cleaning.

One University study from April 2017 found that repeated exercises with the opposite hand corresponded to increased communication among cells in the brain’s primary motor cortex, which means that the brain got better at controlling that hand. But that was it.  It didn’t make the participants noticeably smarter or more creative.

Brushing your teeth lefty every day won’t make me better on the radio, but it will make me really good at brushing my teeth with my left hand. It’s a start.

Caroline xxx