Why Games? Why are games great for learning?

“Why games? Why are games a good way to teach something?” I asked to kickoff the breakout session after my keynote at the International Game Developer’s Association (IGDA) Leadership Summit. I was honestly blown away at the amazing answers: “All games teach.” “Because play is how we naturally learn, it’s how we’ve always learned throughout human history, read more…

Truly Tap Your Strengths To Do Better Work and Enjoy It More!

Strengths = Talent + Energy At Happy Brain Science we teach individuals and organizations how to Truly Tap Strengths by focusing on examining beliefs that may be inhibiting strengths, exploring ways to discover strengths, and strategizing ways to act and build on strengths. A strength, as defined by strengths researchers, is a behavior that you read more…

Book Review: Your Brain at Work by David Rock

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long is highly recommended. “In this book you’ll get to know your brain in a way that brains like: by reading a story.” Author and leadership coach, David Rock, wrote the book like a play, going scene-by-scene as the two main characters, Emily and Paul, read more…

Audience question: How can I make my happiness more contagious than my coworker’s unhappiness?

Scientific data clearly shows that happiness is contagious – and so are negative attitudes. In graphics showing the distribution of happier and less happy people, you will find obvious clusters of happiness and unhappiness–not a random distribution. But in what direction do positive and negative attitudes spread – and can we influence it? An audience read more…

Leveraging the holiday of gratitude.

Gratitude beyond Thanksgiving. The month of November calls for a focus on gratitude, but the topic is actually an evergreen in neuroscience and positive psychology, relevant all year. By now, several scientific studies have been indicating the effectiveness of so called “gratitude interventions” in increasing our level of happiness. A gratitude intervention is simply an read more…