Skills of a 21st century teacher. Cognitive flexibility: how to quickly adapt to new standards

Even a short trip can have a beneficial effect, but it is important to follow certain conditions

Irina Solomonova

Nov 15, 2020 · 7 min read

Photo by Gianpaolo La Paglia on Unsplash

When we feel bored, tired, or life has become too monotonous, for many the main way to shake things up is to change the environment by going on vacation. But the holidays are not only a break from work, an opportunity to have a drink at lunch and a lot of new photos. More and more scientific evidence suggests that travel can help us stimulate our brains and even become better people. If you've ever thought that traveling makes you feel better, you'd be right.

In many countries, an increasing proportion of workers are refusing vacations, preferring to work non-stop. In the United States (as of 2014), 42% of company employees did not take a single day off from their allotted vacation, and only 15% spent 20 vacation days in a year. The reasons are clear: in conditions of growing uncertainty and competition, people are afraid that if they do not demonstrate their dedication and desire to work non-stop to management, then there will be someone who will still be ready for this. Russians have other problems: they don’t go on vacation because there is no money for it.

Against this background, scientists began to explore the question: what happens to the body if you don’t rest. It turned out (naturally) that it was not good. For example, data from the famous Framingham Experiment (the world's largest study of cardiovascular disease, going on for 70 years) showed that women who take vacations every 6 years or less face double the risk of heart attack or other fatal heart problems compared with those who vacation twice a year. Working a lot is, in principle, harmful - by devoting 10-11 hours a day to our career, we increase our likelihood of encountering cardiovascular diseases, depression and other consequences for the body.

At the same time, evidence began to accumulate that vacation in the form of a trip somewhere has the opposite effect. This is the case when what is fun and enjoyable also brings benefits. Part of this effect of vacation can be explained by the relaxation and reduction in stress levels in itself, but not only.

Today, flexibility is one of the main requirements for a highly effective leader, team or organization in an environment of constant change.
Flexibility refers to a person's ability to change their own thoughts and actions according to the demands of the situation, without changing their values ​​and beliefs. The degree of development of this skill determines how much a leader is able to act in situations of uncertainty, quickly adapt to changes and find new opportunities and ways of making decisions. Flexibility can be intellectual and behavioral , which is manifested in a person’s way of thinking and his behavior patterns. The benefits of having flexibility, both intellectual and behavioral, are obvious. A flexible person perceives changes in the outside world more easily; in addition, flexibility helps a person resolve internal and external conflicts.

If we consider the manifestation of flexibility among company management, then the relationship is obvious between the flexibility of a manager’s thinking and his ability to detect different points of view, and therefore, carefully examine a particular problem. In addition, by making his thinking and behavior more flexible and agile, a leader can maintain calm and sober thinking even in the most critical and dynamic situations.

How we think and generalize

What prevents us from being flexible? Any of our activities are guided by mental models - these are general ideas that shape our thoughts and actions, as well as ideas about the desired results, in addition, these are the convictions and beliefs that we focus on in life. Mental models guide our actions and give us a sense of stability. We uncontrollably defend our positions and beliefs, and perceive the world through them. But by assessing these models according to the criteria of how much they contribute to a person’s achievement of his goals and help him adapt to changes, we can identify productive and unproductive mental models. If your model leads to the phenomenon of “selective success”—where you are successful in some situations but fail in other, very similar situations—then this indicates that it is unproductive.

Thus, unproductive mental models, as a rule, include templates, stereotypes and mental constructs.

Now in more detail:

• Templates represent a mechanical, unconscious act or belief regarding a certain phenomenon, the reasons for which are not rationally explained to a person. For example, “to avoid the evil eye, you need to knock on wood,” “to be healthy, you should eat three times a day.” Their positive side is that they tell us how to behave in a certain situation, it is easy to carry out familiar activities, but at the same time, they greatly simplify the world around us.
• Stereotypes are a monotonous, repeatable pattern of thinking or behavior, our perception and interpretation of information when recognizing and recognizing the world around us, based on previous social experience. At its core, this is a “social reflex”. For example, “it’s dangerous to keep money in banks, because if the bank goes bankrupt, no one will return the money.” How can stereotypes influence a leader's decision-making? He can do a selective analysis of information, taking into account only those facts that confirm his goal, ignoring those that contradict it. In relation to personnel, the manager may be engaged in attaching “labels” to employees or departments
• When we talk about “ mental constructs ,” we mean a set of a person’s beliefs that are based on previously acquired positive or negative experiences and that guide his actions in certain situations. In business management, this can manifest itself in the form of attitudes “you need to do everything yourself if you want to get a decent result”, “marketers just have to spend the company’s money”

All these models lead to a limitation in our perception of what is happening, do not allow us to think objectively and see new opportunities for change.

How can we change our mental models? First you need to learn to recognize them. If you can determine that in this situation you acted according to a pattern or stereotype, that is already half the battle. Next, they should be revalued, i.e. After analyzing, understand whether this model is productive or not. If you determine it to be unproductive, it needs to be replaced. In addition, it is necessary to consciously develop the multivariability of solving a problem or situation, and gradually you will be able to reach the level of systems thinking: you will be able to track and understand cause-and-effect relationships.

Behavioral flexibility

Just like intellectual, behavioral flexibility can have two models of manifestation:

1. Adaptive allows you to achieve the necessary goals, taking into account your own interests, the characteristics of the situation and the people included in it
2. Maladaptive , on the contrary, does not provide such an opportunity, or goals are achieved in violation of one’s interests, ignoring the situation and others

Manifestations of maladaptive inflexible behavior can be persistence, resistance, procrastination, perfectionism, fixation, displeasure, lack of focus, and more. Let's look at some typical inflexible behavior patterns:

• Excessive persistence can manifest itself in a situation where we continue to work on something that has already lost its value. For example, while preparing for negotiations, you thought through a set of arguments to convince your opponent. During the negotiations, after some arguments were voiced, your opponent agreed with you, but you continue to present your arguments further when they are no longer necessary
• Unhealthy perfectionism is the desire to put more effort into achieving a goal than is necessary. To solve each of the problems that life poses to us, a certain amount of work is required. If we do too little, we fail to achieve our goal. If we do too much, we waste our resources (“the mountain gave birth to a mouse”)
• Excessive fixation on something is freezing on the path to the goal; it is blocked by our dependence on some external factor. Instead of moving on to other things, we are left in limbo until we can continue working on the same project again
• Resistance is the unwillingness or lack of ability to abandon one's previous activities, goals and actions in situations where circumstances require a fundamental change in course

Adaptive behavioral flexibility makes it possible to choose one of five behavior models: spontaneous, passive, persistent, aggressive and adequate, depending on the situation:

• With spontaneous behavior, a person easily expresses his feelings and desires, freeing himself from conventions and gaining the opportunity to be himself. This model of behavior can contribute to the emergence of new non-standard ideas and solutions, act as an inspiring means, allow you to “defuse” the situation and relieve tension, and also, if it manifests itself in the manager, reduce the distance between him and his subordinates
• Passive behavior , as a willingness to obey external circumstances and the absence of any volitional actions, in some situations can be used as a tactical move or a wait-and-see position
• Aggressive behavior can be effective in situations where a crisis is brewing and it is necessary to take control and achieve results in the shortest possible time. In addition, the manager is absolutely sure that the solution he proposes is the only correct one in the current situation.
• Persistent behavior is manifested in persistently achieving a consciously set goal and defending one’s position, coupled with adequate argumentation. This behavior is effective in situations where the leader clearly understands his goal and knows the best way to achieve it. In some situations, excessive persistence can turn into stubbornness or be perceived as aggressiveness
• Adequate behavior promotes independent solving of one’s problems using the optimal method of interpersonal interaction and allows one to flexibly choose the desired form of behavior in accordance with the people and circumstances in which the leader operates. This model of behavior allows you to get more out of communication with people, the necessary support from colleagues and build productive relationships in the team, and also helps strengthen the authority of the manager and improves trust on the part of colleagues and subordinates

How does behavioral flexibility manifest itself? When our behavior and emotional reactions are adequate to the situation . For example, we show strong emotions to important events, and weak emotions to insignificant ones. Inappropriate emotional reactions block effective interaction with others and lead to misunderstanding on the part of others and the emergence of conflicts.

Awareness of our mental and behavioral patterns leads to an understanding of what limits us from achieving higher goals and prevents us from seeing new opportunities in an ever-changing reality.

Brain like a jungle

According to clinical neuropsychologist at the University of Pittsburgh, Paul Nussbaum, travel has its own, independent effect on the body. As a "restorative" activity for the brain, they may help delay the development of conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. “When you find yourself in a new, unusual, or perceptually challenging environment, your brain reacts accordingly,” he explains.

Anything can be new: language, smells, climate, length of daylight hours, and so on. When exposed to unusual conditions, the brain begins to grow more dendrites—neuron processes that receive information from other neurons. The more branched the dendritic tree is, the more input impulses the neuron can receive, which means the more information it can process. In other words, the brain becomes more powerful. “It literally starts to look like a jungle,” Nussbaum says.

According to the researcher, other types of activity also serve this purpose - the growth of dendrites: a new hobby, sports, going to the Philharmonic, or just having lunch in a new place. But travel is the ideal method. When we go somewhere, we “throw” our brain into a new environment, a place with different rules of behavior, atypical visual stimuli, unfamiliar people, perhaps an unknown language and culture. All this forces the brain to actively process signals coming from outside, and this requires more effort than processing usual information.

In this sense, the trip may not be long (going for a couple of days to a place you have never been before also makes sense), nor relaxing from start to finish. Even stress (if it is short-term) is beneficial - difficulties in finding the right address, fear of missing the train, nervousness before a flight - these factors take us out of routine and require attention, analysis and other mental resources.

Fresh ideas

If creativity is important to you in work and in life in general, travel and a change of environment should become your friends. Writers and other creative people have been using this trick for a long time: travel and moving from country to country brought inspiration to Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Nabokov and many others.

Now the influence of travel on creativity can be considered scientifically confirmed. The newness of the environment is again to blame here. “Experience in another country increases cognitive flexibility, depth of thought, the ability to put together a big picture from details and see connections between different categories of things,” says American social psychologist Adam Galinsky, known for his research on the nature of leadership and power.

Galinsky is the author of several works on the connection between creativity in a broad sense and travel. One of them demonstrates that memories of a trip to another country help us find multiple solutions to one problem and allow us not to get stuck on one thing when we need to make a decision. Another shows how the experience of living abroad increases creativity using the example of top managers of companies from the fashion industry: brands whose leaders had such experience were able to create more interesting (according to experts) clothing collections.

True, according to the researcher’s observations, in order to learn how to burst with fresh ideas, it is not enough to just go somewhere. In fact, this requires at least temporary immersion in an unfamiliar environment and adaptation to it. Interestingly, in his study of the fashion industry, people who lived in 1-3 other countries were more creative than those who had experience living in more cultures. According to the scientist, this is due to the fact that with frequent changes of place of residence, a person does not have time to qualitatively immerse himself in a new society.

By the way, Galinsky noticed another feature in his works: if another country is too different from your homeland, life in it does not give impetus to creativity. Perhaps this is explained by the fact that in a too alien culture we feel too constrained and awkward, and it is more difficult to adapt.

New identity

According to existing research, a small and short-term effect can be obtained even if you don’t go anywhere at all: a group of Australian scientists found that just thinking about being in nature makes the mind clearer. In an experiment with 150 students, they found that after looking at photographs of greenery for 40 seconds, participants maintained better concentration and made fewer mistakes on a boring but attentive task. This tells us how important it is to disconnect from your routine activity, at least for a short while.

But it appears that the longer a trip lasts, the greater the impact it can have. For example, an interesting publication by German psychologists Franz Neyer and Julia Zimmermann shows that living in another country can literally make us a new person. Zimmermann and Neyer followed 527 students over the course of an academic year, some of whom went to study abroad for a semester, some for a year, and some who continued to study in their home country.

Participants were tested to measure the Big Five personality traits. This is a popular model in psychology that suggests that a person has five relatively independent characteristics that make up his personality:

• openness to new experiences (curiosity, active imagination);
• conscientiousness (consciousness);
• extroversion (and introversion at the other end of the scale);
• Agreeableness (the ability to reach agreement and treat others warmly);
• neuroticism (the opposite pole is emotional stability).

It turned out that those who lived for a long time in another country experienced changes in three Big Five traits: openness to experience, agreeableness and emotional stability (with a simultaneous decrease in the neurotic component). For those who did not travel anywhere, these personality traits remained the same over the year.

These findings echo those obtained by Nussbaum. When a person enters an unfamiliar culture and begins to communicate with people, his brain tries to quickly adapt to the changes. The neural connections involved in this process are strengthened, and in the future it becomes easier for a person to accept new experiences, find compromises and control their own emotions.

Understand yourself

Travel also brings other psychological dividends. Mary Helen Immordino-Young, a researcher at the Institute for Brain and Creativity at the University of Southern California (founded by renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio), argues that cross-cultural experiences strengthen our understanding of ourselves. “By now, many publications in the field of psychology show that communicating with people from other backgrounds helps us with this,” she says. “Stepping out of your social comfort zone has a similar effect.” According to Immordino-Young, the more diverse the cross-cultural experiences we have, the more clearly we see our own values ​​and beliefs.

Depression

You'll often read on travel websites that vacations can "cure depression" or alleviate its symptoms. In fact, this is not entirely true: depression is a serious disorder, and even the most ideal trip cannot be a cure for it. But vacation really helps to lift your mood: according to surveys, after a vacation, up to 80% of people feel more energetic and positive, and 70% experience less stress. And on average, those who regularly take vacations feel happier than those who neglect vacations.

However, psychologists emphasize that it will still not be possible to get rid of depression through travel - this idea is too good to be true. “Many people blame external factors for poor health: work, family, relationships, etc.,” explains Mary Seaman, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. “But when you move away from the supposed problems, you discover that the reason is inside you.”

Moreover, a trip can aggravate the condition, because for a depressed person, planning, finding tickets and accommodation, and being in an unfamiliar environment with strangers can only add stress, but not relax. “All the difficulties will affect the depressed person more than usual,” says Seaman. “Irritation, inconvenience, lack of sleep, lack of a familiar environment, disruption of the usual schedule, happy faces around, involuntary socialization... Jet lag will be more severe, loneliness will be more acute, contacts with new people will become a burden.”

Finally, even if the trip itself went well, a person can be “overwhelmed” upon returning to the same routine and stress, experts say. This does not mean that a person with depression should not travel - rather, this is a reason to sensibly assess your expectations from the trip, think it over better and not abandon the therapy recommended by your doctor in the hope that the vacation will have a magical effect.

Psychological flexibility is a key leadership quality

Personal growth
Most modern experts in the field of leadership argue that acquiring real qualities of a leader is impossible without developing psychological plasticity in an individual - the ability to separate the advice of the mind from the dictates of the heart, as well as developed intuition and the ability to predict the actions of both opponents and comrades. This set of skills makes the owner of such qualities an ideal partner for working in a team and a natural leader capable of leading any project.

The influence of psychological plasticity on the atmosphere in a team is difficult to overestimate. Doing any work in a team can provoke a conflict of interests, and the ability to separate private sympathies from business interests is precisely the fuse that prevents the cauldron of contradictions and grievances from exploding. In addition, flexibility in establishing contacts with colleagues allows you to increase the productivity of overall efforts. An employee with the proper level of psychological flexibility is able not only to listen to the ideas of his colleague, but also to hear the rational part of the thoughts expressed. Psychologists say that almost all children who comprehend the wisdom of the world around them possess similar qualities. For child psychologists, the ability to listen and understand an interlocutor is designated by a special term - “active listening”, meaning the presence of a listener’s reaction to the words of the interlocutor. It is this quality, inherent in a person from birth, that allows you to make the most reasonable choice in a wide variety of life situations.

In addition to the ability to hear the interlocutor, a modern leader must have another important quality - the ability to work in a team. Multi-level projects have become the norm of modern business. The implementation of such plans requires the involvement of several top managers at once, bringing into reality a certain part of a complex business plan. At a certain stage in the implementation of such complex projects, the very concept of “leader” in the classical sense of the word disappears. The most critical decisions are developed by the collective intelligence of team members. Personal interests and passions simply must fade into the background, making room for balanced and deliberate actions. It is at this stage that the ability to work in a team, seasoned with psychological flexibility, acquires particular importance. It is at this stage that the ability to “actively listen” and interact with the surrounding society, familiar to any child, would be useful to an adult. Otherwise, each leader of a separate point of the executed plan will “pull upon himself” power and authority, disrupting the execution of the overall plan. A group of top managers working according to the principles of “team leadership” is a serious force capable of turning any plan into reality, and its members are extremely highly rated both among subordinates and among business owners.

Unfortunately, most adults have lost their ability to be psychologically flexible and do not want to respond to words or listen to the thoughts expressed by their interlocutor. However, according to most psychologists, psychological plasticity can be restored using various trainings and cases. Of course, the classes will take a lot of time, but the diligent student will be rewarded with unprecedented prospects and skills. However, according to some experts, it is not possible to develop psychological flexibility in every attendee of courses and trainings. To do this you need to have special character traits and business qualities.

In short

• Apart from external and surmountable factors, it is difficult to come up with a reason why you should not travel. Switching from routine to rest has a beneficial effect on a person’s physical and mental health.
• Traveling to new places gives our brain a “power boost,” meaning it helps it process information more efficiently. Thanks to this, a person better finds the relationship between different phenomena and looks for non-obvious solutions.
• Beware: long travel can make you a better person. Those who have spent several months or more in another country become more open to new experiences, negotiable and emotionally stable.
• And thanks to travel, you can become a more integral person: encountering a foreign culture helps you realize your own values ​​and beliefs.

How to be flexible

Learn to deal with your initial reaction

What usually happens when plans go wrong?

The first reaction is a wave of emotions: aggression, irritation, indignation. This reaction is involuntary, instinctive.

Realize that this is just a reaction, let the emotions pass through you, balance yourself and make a conscious choice on how to act in this situation.

With experience, when you learn to be flexible, you will not react. You will not have an emotional outburst or an acute reaction to changing circumstances.

Example. Your computer has broken down and you need to work. If you can’t resolve this issue in the near future, think about why you need this situation.

How should you travel?

The main advice that makes sense to remember is repeated by everyone and always: when going to a new place, be sure to communicate with other people, try to understand local traditions, try the cuisine, and so on. Thanks to scientific publications in recent years, we understand why this is important: encountering the unusual stimulates the brain, takes it out of the everyday state of “everything is clear here” and makes it work more actively.

The older we get, the more beneficial it is to give our minds a boost: anything that falls into the “not business as usual” category activates areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, creativity, and critical thinking. Studies in mice have shown that novelty in a familiar environment has a beneficial effect on Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative, neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Parkinson's disease, brain injury and stroke. That's why older people are encouraged to break up their routine in all sorts of ways, from learning a new hobby to wearing a watch on one hand or the other. Traveling is an ideal way to break out of your usual scenery and give food to your mind.

How to develop cognitive flexibility

The development of cognitive flexibility occurs gradually, as you master skills and accumulate effects. But even if you give up this activity after some time, it will still affect the functioning of your brain for a long time.

Pay attention to your thoughts

Where do your thoughts go when you are called to share knowledge or experience, or complete tasks? Are they looking into the future, the past, or analyzing the present? Point them towards the future and the present. Shift your focus away from the past.

Drink invigorating drinks

During intense mental activity, drink invigorating drinks, such as coffee or strong tea. They help you focus better on tasks. Cognitive flexibility improves temporarily and you get better results.

Set your intentions

Ask yourself a few questions: What exactly do you want to know? How do you want to obtain this knowledge? What do you want to discuss? What do you want to apply? What is important to you and what is not so important. If you think that this does not affect cognitive flexibility, then you are wrong. Your focus determines where you look and what you see around you.

Create criteria, categories

Create mental categories for information and situations in advance so that you can benefit from your experience and knowledge. For example, when reading the news, break the headlines into categories: “Environment”, “Politics”, “Arts”, “Entertainment”, etc. Try to divide into categories everything that happened to you and what you learned today, this week, etc. This is necessary so that later you can very easily remember the information. This reduces unnecessary cognitive load and cognitive flexibility improves.

Combine Encoding and Search Signals

Think about the functional meaning of the information, what context you will apply it to, or what it fits into. And it will help you remember it when you need it. “The main reason startups fail is not cash flow, but the fact that people don’t want the product.” Where to put this knowledge?

Take care of nutrition

Vitamins, macro, microelements and antioxidants help the brain work better. In particular, taking vitamin D in one of the tests helped people perform much better on the task. Some foods trigger the production of certain hormones. And antioxidants prevent the brain from aging and support its efficient functioning. Which certainly improves brain function and cognitive flexibility, in particular. Learn more about products that improve brain function.

Write it down and do it

Clear out the brain dump. You didn’t finish this, and you didn’t finish that, and you didn’t do that. All this is kept in memory. Research says that even if we get rid of household chores, it will free up more space in our brain and we will be able to think about other things, promoting greater cognitive flexibility. Write down everything you need to do and don’t keep it in your head. In addition, unfinished tasks are remembered better and you replay them in your head. This is based on the Zeigarnik effect.

If you understand it, then you will remember it

Often we find it difficult to remember concepts and objects because we have not fully understood them. They have other properties and characteristics. Use a dictionary and read about a subject when you forget a word and suddenly remember it. You will definitely understand when you can explain the essence to another in a few sentences or words. Try to formulate it.

Take a break and relax

Many well-known companies allow their employees to take time off from work. Lie down and relax. Research shows that this contentment is effective. Or spend some time doing a hobby. And here it would not be amiss to remember the Zeigarnik effect, because the interrupted action is remembered better. A properly designed regimen promotes the release of normal levels of hormones. For example, cortisol is released at night. And it affects memory and feelings of happiness.

Get some exercise

During physical exertion, blood flows to the brain in the same way as during mental exercise. But your brain is resting. After twenty minutes of intense exercise, your brain releases dopamine, serotonin, opioids, endorphins, neurotrophic compounds, and endocannabinoids—feel-good chemicals that allow the body and brain to learn and grow. For evolutionary reasons, the body learns through exercise. Bottom line: Cognitive flexibility, brain power, and mood improve. Learn more about why exercise affects brain activity.

Gain new skills and information from a different perspective

Learning new skills promotes mental flexibility. Try learning to play a new musical instrument, start learning a new foreign language, brush your teeth with the other hand, read literature or a website you are not used to, learn a new board game, etc. Sometimes communicate with people who are completely different from you, who think differently, do differently. This is also a good way to encourage your brain to make new connections and also removes the effect of subjective confirmation.

Change your routine

If your life is constrained, your ability to think creatively is diminished. Break up your routine. Take different routes home, get up later or earlier. When vacuuming, washing dishes, or cleaning, play different music. Travel (you can start from a neighboring area or the nearest city or village). New stimuli promote mental flexibility, which teaches your brain to adapt quickly.

Develop a sense of humor

Smartness is a sign of cognitive flexibility. When we joke, it means we can take a step back and see the bigger picture. Finding humor in different situations is an exercise in flexible thinking.

Reduce Anxiety

Try to calm down. If you are very nervous or afraid, your brain works much worse. Moreover, this is connected not only with the environment, people, but also with the task you are performing. You can drink soothing infusions, engage in meditation or practices that reduce stress and fear.