What Neuroscience can teach us about business excellence

The Monday Effect.

In her fascinating book "How the Brain Changes Itself", Norman Doidge talks about a study from Harvard's Neurological department. In an experiment with blind subjects learning braille, Pascual-Leon studied their neurological activities over the course of a 10-month training. He monitored their brain activities each Monday and Friday and noticed that on Fridays, subjects' neurological motor maps increased in size and showed very rapid and dramatic expansion, but by monday the maps had returned to their baseline sizes. Monday maps showed an opposite pattern. They didn't begin to change until six months into the training: they increased very gradually and plateaued at ten months. The speed at which subjects could read braille correlated much better with the Monday maps.

At the end of the ten months, the braille students took two months off. When they returned, they were remapped and researchers noticed that their maps were unchanged from the last Monday mapping two months before. The daily training led to dramatic short-term changes during the week, with peaks on Fridays. But over the months, more permanent changes were seen on Mondays. Fast Friday changes strengthen EXISTING neuronal connectionals. The slower, more permanent Monday changes suggest the formation of BRAND-NEW structures, probably the sprouting of new neuronal connections and synapses.

Understanding this effect can help us understand what we must do to truly master new skills. As Doidge writes "after a brief period of practise, as when we cram for a test, it is relatively easy to improve because we are likely strenghtening existing synaptic connections. But we quickly forget what we've crammed - because these are easy-come, easy-go neuronal connections and are rapidly reversed. Maintaining improvement and MAKING A SKILL PERMANENT require the slow steady work that probably forms new connections."

Most business training are short: typically 1-5 days. It is important to keep in mind that significant permanent improvements in performance are only the result of dedicated, long-term commitments.