An Introduction to Neuroscience for HR Professionals

Welcome to your course, please click a lesson to start.

Introduction to the Programme

We developed this programme for one very simple reason – to bring together the latest advances in neuroscience and lay out how they can be applied to help businesses. We wanted to help HR professionals understand how the brain works and the impact this has on how others work, connect and lead. We wanted to help them to run more efficient, more effective, more successful organisations – organisations that we like to call brain-savvy.

We’ve been helping our clients apply the findings from neuroscience to a wide variety of businesses since 2009. One thing we’ve learned since then is that though our discipline isn’t the only approach to getting the best out of people and organisations, mixed with the right tools and a sound business strategy it can make a big difference.

Neuroscience can be counter-intuitive. The findings often contradict established opinion, particularly when they relate to what helps and what hinders performance at work. So whilst the challenge can feel uncomfortable, we’ve found that they get results where other approaches don’t. Neuroscience can give you great insight into why a policy, practice or way of leading may not be working, or explain why it is working.

And this insight is good to have but, without the right tools to go on and harness its potential, it’s of little practical use.  So we’ve provided a range of these tools and indicated where they may be used and the types of problems they will help you solve. The tools are the same ones we’ve used to great effect with our clients. Many are simple and we usually find that it’s these that have the biggest impact.

How this programme is structured

We have drawn together the neuroscience findings and their implications for business and grouped them into a number of modules. This programme is an introduction and we will be going deeper into different areas like learning and decision-making bias in future programmes. Each module has six main types of information and you can dip in and out – it is not necessary to work through in a linear fashion. The sections are:

• The science: A description of what neuroscience and other behavioural sciences are saying about how our brains work. This is delivered both in video and in our ebook which goes with each module. The ebooks build in to a guide to using neuroscience in HR. each chapter of the ebook contains a number of “What to do” tools and guides. These are the best and often incredibly simple methods we recommend for applying insights to your own business. All the tools have been tried and tested with our own clients, so we know they work and are consistent with a brain-savvy approach to business
• The application: Here’s where we summarise how this knowledge can help you improve policy, practice, leadership or processes. This section gives more details about how the science helps or hinders typical ways of working.
• Case study: Theory is all very well, but sometimes it’s hard to see how to apply it. So we’ve used real-world examples from our experience of helping clients solve a business issue or improve how they manage and lead their organisation.
• Explore further: At the end of each chapter we’ve listed the major papers that cover the scientific principles discussed so that if you want to dig a little deeper, you can. If you want a less scientific explanation, one that’s simpler or shorter, then we’ve also supplied a number of accessible videos and books on the subject.
• Reflection and application: we suggest how you can apply your learning. Our suggestions are based on how we know the brain learns, retains information and how you can apply your learning.

A Guide to the Types of Business Challenges Each Module Can Help With

At the start of each module we have included a couple of scenarios which illustrate the type of issue the science can tackle. Sometimes an issue doesn’t fit neatly into one particular module so you may want to investigate more than one. Before jumping straight in to a module, take a look at the scenarios. They’re designed to give you some guidance as to which parts of the science to focus on.