September 6, 2011 | Author randy
By Cameron O. Anderson
Investors and Advisors alike have come to accept the efficient market school theory that maintains 
that market activity is based on people making rational economic choices. But the reality is that people act on their emotions constantly and often unconsciously. We become overconfident or fearful, “irrationally exuberant” or regretful. Our herd mentality often takes over while we perceive and frame our investing options in unusual ways. But why? Neurofinance seeks to answer this question.
Neurofinance combines psychology, economics, and neuroscience, to study how people make investment decisions. The goals of neurofinance are to identify the psychological inputs that impact trading behavior and then connect these traits to trading success or failure. It also looks to develop the training methods to improve performance and lower risk.
There are certain behaviors that hold potential implications for investors. The following is an overview of common behaviors demonstrated by both investor and advisor:
- Overconfidence and Hubris. Individuals generally assume they know more than they actually do. They also tend to remember previous financial decisions in ways that exaggerate their own foresight. This can lead to overly aggressive decisions and a reluctance to admit—and correct—mistakes. The “illusion of control” and “how great gains change the brain” are common themes explored in the field. Effective questioning techniques of investors and/or advisors help to uncover and correct this investment behavior. Read the rest of this entry »
September 1, 2011 | Author randy
by Marina Willats
Master Multi-Tasking
There was a time when being stuck in traffic was a source of great frustration. Now it is an opportunity – you can sip your latte while you make some calls, check your email on your blackberry, and listen to the latest headline news. Sound familiar. If so, you probably consider yourself a master multi-tasker. It’s a point of pride for many. Why do just two or three things at once when you can do four or five? In fact, isn’t that what digital devices are for – to lighten our load by allowing us to accomplish more in less time. Yet this is rarely how it plays out. Instead the ability to connect and communicate instantly has led to highly disruptive work environments and low productivity.
The Myth of Multi-tasking
It has been proven that no one can effectively do two things at once. Just try listening to two people on either side of you tell you a story. Read the rest of this entry »
July 20, 2011 | Author randy
The Challenge (download the pdf)
An established Executive Team of twelve including two new members was struggling to reach agreement on several major strategic initiatives. The decision making process was being negatively affected by interpersonal communication styles and political agendas. Due to diverse interests and personalities, major strategic projects were being stalled. The situation was affecting the performance of the Executive Team, was poor role modeling for the rest of the organization and increased the costs associated with the stalled projects. The organization was engaged in several significant change projects and the inability of the Executive Team to “pull the trigger” would affect other projects and company confidence.
The Client
ASCI was appointed by the CEO of a large multi-national insurance company to work with the Executive Team. The team consisted of the CEO, CIO, CFO, Executive VPs from regional areas and market segments, Legal Consul, and the Chief Commercial Officer. Behavioral analysis (TAIS) of the team revealed that the dominant attentional style was Analytical/Conceptual combined with a relatively slow decision making preference and a very low propensity to risk. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Experiential Learning, Leadership, Pervasive Gaming, Psychology, Psychometrics | 
2 Comments »
July 8, 2011 | Author randy
by Randy Sabourin
Over the years both Cam and I have contributed our time and resources to several worthy charities. When we talk about Fairness as a team building attribute in our Team Dynamics Workshops, the subject of philanthropy often comes up. Research on why we volunteer our time to charities can be linked to our sense of fairness and desire to balance the scales. Others who are less fortunate, experiencing social injustice or suffering from a disease need our help. We feel better when we show compassion and help others. Matthieu Ricard has been dubbed the happiest man in the world. In his TED Talk Chade-Meng Tan from Google explains that Ricard’s happiness was measured with an fMRI and that it was the highest ever recorded. Ricard states that he was meditating on compassion at the time. Read the rest of this entry »
June 30, 2011 | Author randy
By Randy Sabourn
“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.” John Burroughs
A simple and obvious statement: successful people get things done. However, there are millions of great intentions that never turn into action – think back to your New Year’s resolutions or the last time you committed to getting your work/life balance back to a state of equilibrium. In the business environment, especially in sales, intentions without execution can be a problem. Missed revenue opportunities are the bane of every sales professional and manager. Keeping track of appointments, tasks from meetings, following up on future calls, and recording data for team selling are a few of the important tasks that can suffer when intentions are not put into action. Corporations are intention-generating machines and the challenge faced from CEO to salesperson is the same: to track, prioritize and execute intentions.
There are three primary stages to the process of converting intention to action: creation, storage and execution. When first the thought or idea germinates, it is an intention stored in short term memory. Next we transfer and store the intention either in long memory or an external system. Finally we retrieve the intention and execute. Some intentions are instantly converted to action while others are stored for later recall.
May 25, 2011 | Author randy
The next NeuroLeadership Institute Toronto Local Interest Group meeting on Thursday June 9, 2011 at 5:30pm. The location is: First Canadian Place, 3rd Floor Podium in the David Barkway Room. Use the Gold elevators behind the branch. The elevators are locked after 6:00pm. RSVP to this site. The topic for this session is NeuroFinance. Please RSVP to the Linked In Group.
Hope to see you there.
April 12, 2011 | Author randy
By Randy Sabourin
Leading change is one of the most difficult tasks faced by every level in an organization. Traditional ‘carrot & stick’ and humanism behaviour motivation is being replaced by a ‘brain based’ neuropsychology approach. Discussion and research continues on why we resist change and the often predictably irrational opposition seen when an organization adopts new strategies or systems. The placebo effect is a powerful phenomenon that may be an additional tool to assist us in realizing our change objectives.
The placebo effect has been a well documented phenomenon in the medical and scientific community for several decades. It can be defined as “the physiological or psychological response to an inert substance or procedure”. For quite some time, it has been observed that administering a remedy with no medical value (a sugar pill) can have positive results because the patient ‘assumes’ they feel the effect of the drug they believe they are taking. Although employed as a “commonplace method or medicine” as early as the 18th century, it was first brought into modern medicine context by an army nurse during the Second World War who lied about administering pain-killers to wounded soldiers. Read the rest of this entry »
March 14, 2011 | Author randy
The first meeting of the NeuroLeadership Toronto Local Interest Group was held last week at Aon Canada. There were approximately 20 interested business leaders present that participated in a robust conversation about the SCARF Model. The presentation is available here and to keep informed please join our Linked In Group here.
Thank you to everyone who came, the next session will be on June 9th and will be a discussion about NeuroFinance.
March 1, 2011 | Author randy
Anderson Sabourin Consulting Inc (ASCI) is pleased announce that we are launching the Local Interest Group of the NeuroLeadership Institute in Toronto. We would like to invite you to join us for our inaugural meeting.
When: Thursday March 10th, 5::30pm to 7:00pm, light snacks and beverages will be available.
Where: The Aon Building 20 Bay Street, Toronto on the 24th floor.
Cost: There is no cost to for this event.
Topic: This meeting will be a presentation and discussion focused on David Rock’s Influence & Collaboration Model SCARF. This event will be a forum to discuss the theory and applications of the brain-based team dynamics, leadership and coaching leveraging research and concepts presented by the NeuroLeadership Institute.
Meeting Format: For this and future meetings a topic will be presented by someone within the NeuroLeadership research community or a local practitioner followed by an open discussion. No sales or solicitation will be tolerated. Our objective is to create an open forum for discussion, learning and application.
Topic Overview: The SCARF model is a brain-based model for understanding how teams can work together more successfully. Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness are described as the foundation for successful interaction between two or more people. You can find the full article SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others, by David Rock here.
We have established a Linked In Group where additional information and discussion will be posted.
Please let us know if you are planning to attend the meeting on March 10th so we can prepare appropriate accommodations.
Hope to see you there,
Randy and Cam
Hello X, Anderson Sabourin Consulting Inc (ASCI) is pleased announce that we are launching the Local Interest Group of the NeuroLeadership Institute in Toronto. We would like to invite you to join us for our inaugural meeting.
When: Thursday March 8th, 5::30pm to 7:00pm, light snacks and beverages will be available.
Where: The Aon Building 20 Bay Street, Toronto on the 24th floor.
Cost: There is no cost to for this event.
Topic: This meeting will be a presentation and discussion focused on David Rock’s Influence & Collaboration Model SCARF. This event will be a forum to discuss the theory and applications of the brain-based team dynamics, leadership and coaching leveraging research and concepts presented by the NeuroLeadership Institute.
Meeting Format: For this and future meetings a topic will be presented by someone within the NeuroLeadership research community or a local practitioner followed by an open discussion. No sales or solicitation will be tolerated. Our objective is to create an open forum for discussion, learning and application.
Topic Overview: The SCARF model is a brain-based model for understanding how teams can work together more successfully. Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness are described as the foundation for successful interaction between two or more people. You can find the full article SCARF: a brain-based model for collaborating with and influencing others, by David Rock here.
We have established a Linked In Group where additional information and discussion will be posted.
Please let us know if you are planning to attend the meeting on March 10th so we can prepare appropriate accommodations.
Hope to see you there,
Randy and Cam
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November 30, 2010 | Author randy
by Randy Sabourin
I had a very interesting meeting with a former colleague last week that shown some light on a perplexing issue. Phil and I had worked together 15 years ago in the semiconductor industry. I was working on an Electronics Degree and Phil, an Electronic Engineer, was kind enough to help me understand some of the more complex math problems. I have always remembered Phil’s kindness so when he reached out a few weeks back to catch up I met with him.
It turns out we are in the same business again: Leadership Consulting and Coaching. After reminiscing for a while we returned to the present.
You will have seen on this blog, in our newsletter, and certainly in our workshops, discussions on the dynamics of human behaviour. As members of the NeuroLeadership Institute we are fascinated with how we might guide our clients through leadership, hiring and coaching situations through the power and potential of the human mind. Preferring the scientific approach to question of the boundaries and potential in the context of leadership we use a highly reliable psychometric tool (TAIS) and follow the latest research. The cutting edge of that research is often the most interesting to observe: that edge is also where the charlatans, whether well or ill intentioned, are found in abundance. Their presence while helping to push the frontier, simultaneously slows down progress by reducing credibility with unfounded claims and exaggerations. Lacking the credentials or research background to judge, I view our role as taking what we can to add value to our client engagements. Read the rest of this entry »
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In Fox Harbour NS today doing a Team Building session with the good people @ensemble_travel. Last night was great. - posted on 11/05/2012 07:49:02- RT @OrangeYYZ: Morning #Toronto! Visit our #OrangeTeam outside of Union Station. We've got some Saver's Blend to giveaway! - posted on 11/05/2012 07:45:58
- RT @mocost: Neurosecurity and the Ethics of Military Cognitive Enhancement
http://t.co/WdRLm8y8 - posted on 11/05/2012 07:44:41
- Working hard w/ @Ensemble_Travel team here at Fox Harbour NS -workshop strategy pics http://t.co/8T0bFp8D http://t.co/EaVY5rY9 - posted on 09/05/2012 15:15:28
- RIM’s corporate culture could be toughest battle for new hires http://t.co/06upBYzz - posted on 09/05/2012 15:00:39
