By the time you finish this article, your brain will be different.

The reason for this cerebral shift is neuroplasticity _ the brain’s ability to change and restructure itself. Every time the brain processes new information, neurons fire, new pathways form, and the malleable brain alters its shape and structure.

In recent years, several researchers have posited that it’s possible to consciously direct neuroplasticity to optimize brain function, improve work performance, and even influence team performance.

What is neuroplasticity?

In a nutshell, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to learn and adapt. Until relatively recently, experts believed that our brains were fixed by the end of adolescence and that, in terms of neurons, it was all downhill from there. But the latest research has proved the opposite: that our brains can actually grow and change throughout adulthood. That is, if we treat our neural pathways right. 

“The main point of neuroplasticity is that you can actually form and reorganize connections in your brain,” says Dr. Marsha Chinichian, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychotherapist and the brains behind acclaimed mental fitness app Mindshine.    

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“For a long time we thought that humans were born with a ton of neurons, synapses, and connections, and as we got older, they simply died off. But now we’ve learned that isn’t true. We can actually make changes to further develop our brains. We’ve learned we can actually rewire our brains.”  

Dr. Chinichian’s enthusiasm is echoed by other leading cognitive experts around the world, including Natalia Ramsden, a business psychologist and founder of SOFOS Associates in London, the UK’s first and only brain optimization clinic.

“There’s something hugely empowering about the idea that we, as individuals, can actually change the structure of our brains for the better,” says Ramsden. “There’s so much we can do to develop their function, which in turn can dramatically increase our productivity in the workplace.”

Make better decisions and prevent cognitive fatigue

So how do we put neuroplasticity into action in our day-to-day working lives?

Imagine your brain as a colossal power grid. Billions of pathways light up every time you think, feel, or do something. Putting neuroplasticity into action means carving new pathways, while strengthening the best of the existing ones – and not reinforcing the pathways you’d rather avoid.

Neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart, a senior lecturer at MIT and author of bestselling brain bible The Source, recently compared this process to road building. 

“Think of it as going from a dirt road to a motorway,” Dr. Swart told European CEO. “I could say, ‘I’m going to work on that pathway, which is currently a dirt road. The more I use it, and the more I repeat activities, I can build it up to a motorway.’”  

That newly-built motorway will not only able to help you process information faster, it will also be better equipped to stave off mental fatigue. That means less stress and fewer mistakes.

“It can help to think of your brain in terms of a muscle,” says Dr. Lynda Shaw, a chartered psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist who is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. “If you do enough bicep curls you’ll increase the size of your biceps. It’s the same process with your brain. If you exercise your brain correctly and often, neuroplasticity means it will become more powerful.” 

From a remote working perspective – especially with companies like Atlassian deciding to make the arrangement permanent – experts say that neuroplasticity is an even more valuable tool, as daily office stimuli dramatically decrease, and new routines and rituals come to the fore. 

“We need, as bosses, to encourage our people to embrace change and adapt by being innovative and creative,” says Dr. Shaw. “Neuroplasticity is a great way of doing that, and of teams staying ahead of that curve.”    

Below, our experts suggest their top tips for harnessing the power of neuroplasticity for yourself. 

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9 techniques to “rewire” your cognitive pathways

1. Feed your brain

Your brain makes up only a tiny proportion of your total body weight, but it uses up a quarter of everything you eat. If you want enhanced neural pathways, you’ll need an enhanced diet. According to Ramsden, that means grabbing snacks like walnuts, blueberries, and avocado during the day. Vitamin D and magnesium are top priorities if you want to promote neuroplasticity. 

2. Take naps

Obviously a good night’s sleep (ideally between seven and nine hours) will always set you up for a better brain day. But a short afternoon nap of around 20 minutes will elevate your neuroplasticity potential even further. A short nap encourages the growth of dendritic spines, which act as crucial connectors between the neurons in your brain. 

3. Don’t let the work day linger

Like muscle-building, neuroplasticity needs downtime in order to do its work properly. According to Dr. Chinichian, managers should embed and enforce a “close the day” ritual that prioritizes reflection and gratitude for small wins. An end-of-day Slack message saying “Thanks for the great ideas in the brainstorming session today, everyone. See you tomorrow,” can help the team feel valued. Putting a hard stop to the stresses of the day in a way that also boosts endorphins creates perfect conditions for neuroplasticity.  Bonus: it also sends the signal that it’s OK to “leave” work and unplug for the evening.

4. Expand your vocabulary

Try to learn one new word every day. According to experts, this simple act will spark a multitude of new neural pathways, both visual and auditory. (Give it a few months and it’ll make you unstoppable at Scrabble too). 

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5. Use the “wrong” hand

Non-dominant hand exercises are excellent for forming new neural pathways, as well as strengthening the connectivity between existing neurons. For instance, if you’re right-handed, try brushing your teeth with your left hand – and then try it while balancing on one leg for a double neuroplasticity bonus. 

6. Learn to juggle

Juggling is frequently cited as an excellent means for improving neuroplasticity. Keep a small set of balls in your work drawer for a brain boost whenever you have a few spare seconds between tasks. The better you get, the bigger the benefits. 

7. Play chess

Indulge your inner Beth Harmon by embracing chess – a game that has endless potential for neuroplasticity. Chess players have significantly more grey matter in their anterior cingulate cortex than those unfamiliar with en passant and castling. And you don’t even need another player or a board in order to reap the mental benefits. Simply log onto chess.com for a quick blast whenever you have a few minutes. (You don’t need to finish a game to get the neurological boost.)    

8. Do mnemonic drills

Teaching yourself mnemonic devices, like formulas or rhymes, can enhance connectivity in your prefrontal parietal network, paving the way to new, positive pathways in your brain. Get started here.   

9. Be mindful, as a team

Chinichian says that one of the best things you can do to promote neuroplasticity in a workforce is to incorporate regular group meditation. There are multiple online options available to get you started, like this and this. Not only does it help with the positive brain rewiring process (while expanding several useful parts of the brain), it also results in team members reacting to problems with an increased sense of calm, passion, and awareness. Neuroplasticity at its finest.     

The post 9 neuroplasticity exercises to boost productivity appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Here on Work Life, we kinda live and breathe the practices and strategies that make teams happier and more productive. And music, in its various iterations, has long been known as a key instrument, if you will, of that coveted flow state we’re all after.

We pored over the research on which sounds are best for productivity, busting some myths and adding tracks to our playlists in several genres. So plug in your headphones we have a feeling you’re about to find your next favorite productivity playlist.

Research and productivity playlists by genre

1. Classical

Maybe you’ve seen the countless “Mozart for babies” CDs claiming to make your newborn a genius. What’s with that? It’s known as the “Mozart effect,” a term that took off during the ’90s thanks to a single study published in the Nature journal in 1993.

In the research paper “Music and spatial task performance,” Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Catherine Ky reported modest findings from their experiment with 39 college students: After listening to a Mozart sonata (K.448) for 10 minutes, the students scored significantly higher on spatial tests (they were asked to look at folded-up pieces of paper and guess how they’d look when unfolded). The effect—which the study authors did not call the “Mozart effect”—lasted 10 to 15 minutes.

These findings triggered a slew of inflated claims about Mozart’s music’s ability to increase intelligence. And while that’s a bit of a stretch, subsequent related studies do appear to show some promise. 

For instance, a 2001 review of the literature found supporting evidence that listening to music by Mozart can improve short-term spatial-temporal reasoning, but not general intelligence. The researchers concluded that “an enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning performance after listening to Mozart’s music for 10 minutes has been reported by several, but not all, researchers.” Further, patients with epilepsy have been shown to benefit from listening to Mozart’s K.448.

Mozart may not make you a genius, but it’s worth trying his genre of music next time you want to boost brainpower:

• Mozart – Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K. 448:The sonata that started it all. This is the exact piece played to participants in the original “Mozart effect” study. 
• Mozart for Productivity: If you tire of K.448, this playlist broadens it to even more sonatas by Mozart.
• Classical for Productivity: Why limit yourself to Mozart? This Spotify playlist includes more of the greats, from Vivaldi to Beethoven to Bach.

2. Coffee shop sounds

If classical music isn’t your jam, tap into the power of the coffee shop effect. While the visual novelty that cafe-hopping provides can boost productivity, some research suggests the gains also have to do with sound.

How? Through a process known as stochastic resonance, a certain level of background noise can enhance performance—but at too loud of a level, it can decrease it.

A 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that a medium-level of ambient noise from a roadside restaurant improved creativity, but low or high levels of it decreased it. The study authors note:

“Our findings imply that instead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking out of one’s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment (such as a cafe) may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.”

The right levels and types of sound vary widely depending on the person, but it could be the reason you find that background hum of chatter and clanging cups at a cafe so enticing. 

Ready to find your happy medium? Give each of these coffee shop playlists a shot!

• 8 Hours of Rainy Night Coffee Shop Ambience: Light rain, smooth jazz, and an aesthetically pleasing scene combine to make this one of my favorites to listen to (and watch!).
• Coffee Shop Sounds for Study and Concentration: If you prefer a more lively atmosphere, this eight-hour track of real audio recorded from coffee shops is for you. Listen closely, and you might just catch humorous gems—like the guy at 4:29:50 who orders a “cold brew with nothing in it but 18 shots of espresso.”
• Coffee Shop Ambience Cozy Rainy Day: Soft chatter, raindrops falling, and the occasional clattering of cups make this one-hour audio enjoyable without being overwhelming.

3. Ambient music

The relaxing beats and soothing tones of instrumental ambient music make it a favorite pick for people who need to focus. In a 2021 Spotify survey of 4,000 adults in the U.S. and UK, 69% of respondents chose ambient music as the best for studying, with 67% saying that the key ingredient is the slower beats. 

At the time of writing, these are the three most popular ambient music playlists in the Spotify Focus Hub: 

• Deep Focus: “Ambient and post-rock music” to help you block out distractions and concentrate.
• Lofi Beats: Moderate beats that are both relaxing and engaging with few words (if any).
• Chill Lofi Study Beats: The name says it all. Instrumental easy-listening to keep your brain focused on deep work.

4. Upbeat tracks

Much of the research on the benefits of upbeat music centers around exercise. A 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that listening to high-tempo music (170-190 bpm) made exercise feel easier, and therefore, boosted performance.

Additionally, a 2003 study presented at an annual meeting of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation found that listening to upbeat music while pedaling on a stationary bike boosted participants’ exercise intensity; the faster the music, the faster they pedaled. 

Could these findings from the exercise realm transfer over to desk-related tasks? Only one way to find out!

• 180BPM Instrumental: If you need high-powered music to boost productivity, this user-curated Spotify playlist brings the heat with a variety of instrumental tracks.
• Damo Running 180BPM (Instrumental): Want to feel like the hero running into battle at the climax of a movie? This might be the playlist for you. It consists mostly of Spotify’s “Epic” songs that are fast-paced, intense, and grand—but no distracting lyrics!
• 190BPM for Runners: And if you really want to step up the tempo, this playlist has lyric-free songs, all at 190 beats per minute to keep you pumped up without distractions.

5. Nature sounds

Few of us are able to go forest-bathing in the middle of our workday. But thankfully, merely listening to recordings of birds chirping and leaves rustling might be enough to soothe frayed nerves so we can dive into deep work. 

A 2015 study by the Acoustical Society of America found that the sound of a flowing mountain stream boosted mood and productivity in workers in an open-plan office. The sample size was small, however, with only 12 participants.

Further, a 2017 study by the University of Sussex found that nature sounds can help you relax if you’re highly stressed. Interestingly, for participants who were already relaxed, listening to nature sounds actually increased their stress levels. So maybe skip these playlists if you already feel calm!

• Spring Morning Ambience with Lakeshore Water Sounds: A lake laps against the shore, and birds sing in the background in this relaxing eight-hour audio.
• Bluebell Woods – English Forest – Birds Singing – Relaxing Nature Video & Sounds: This three-hour track features plenty of birdsong and leaves rustling in the wind.
• Nature Sounds playlist by Spotify: This playlist has a variety of tracks with sounds from birds, rainfall, and rivers.

6. Pink and white noise

Noise colors refer to the power spectrum in a sound. White noise, for instance, plays all the frequencies at once at equal power, and it can sound more high-pitched than pink noise. Both noise colors may be beneficial for memory.

In a 2017 study published in Scientific Reports, participants who listened to white noise while learning new words had better recall than those who had learned the new words in silence. The researchers concluded that white noise might enhance the ability to acquire new words. 

Pink noise has been shown to have memory-enhancing benefits, too. In a study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, older adults who listened to pink noise while sleeping showed better word recall in post-testing. 

According to psychiatrist Dr. Suruchi Chandra, administering pink noise via transcranial brain stimulation has shown promising results for her patients. 

“Many of our patients have experienced improvements in several areas, including mood, motivation, focus, sleep, and brain fog,” Dr. Chandra writes on her blog. “Patients have often described a lifting of their mood and feeling happier and lighter, generally after the first 4-5 sessions of pink noise brain stimulation.”

Keep in mind that the pink noise Dr. Chandra writes about was delivered via electrodes placed on a person’s head. While you may not have access to that specific kind of therapy, giving pink noise a listen on Spotify can’t hurt!

• White Noise for ADHD, Focus, and Concentration: This Spotify playlist features more than just white noise. It also has brown noise (which has a deeper, rumbling quality) and airplane cabin noise (for those of us who miss travel!).
• Pink Noise Spotify Playlist: Pure and simple: Just 10 straight hours of pink noise to help you work (or sleep!)

What Deep Work author Cal Newport says about listening to music while you work

Since the term “deep work” was made popular by Cal Newport’s best-selling book of the same name, let’s find out his take on music’s effect on concentration.

“What I’ve learned is you have to train or habituate yourself to whatever the music type is,” Newport said in an interview with Author Hour. As an example, Newport spoke of an author who wrote a million words in one year while listening to Metallica.

“I’ve found this again and again,” Newport continued, “people habituate the different types of music, and then the actual content of the music doesn’t really matter. It’s the ritual they built up.”

In the same vein, music (especially a specific song, playlist, or genre) can serve as a cue that triggers a habit. As described by James Clear, a habit loop consists of:

1. Cue
2. Craving
3. Response
4. Reward

Like Pavlov’s dogs, we can train ourselves to react in a desired way to a specific cue (in Pavlov’s dog’s case, the mere sound of a bell was enough to make them salivate in expectation of food). So, in the same way that a dinging sound prompts you to check your iPhone or lying down in bed makes you feel sleepy, a song or playlist that you consistently work to may prompt you to “get in the zone” and be productive.

Productivity music: It’s in the ear of the beholder

Sorry, but there’s no magic playlist that’ll turn you into a productivity machine. Regardless, surveys show that people, by and large, enjoy listening to music while working. An Accountemps survey found that 71% of professionals believe they’re more productive when music is playing at the office, and in the Spotify survey mentioned earlier, respondents named audio as the number one productivity booster.

So while scientific research is rife with conflicting studies about productivity-boosting audio, one thing is clear: Whether it’s Mozart, Metallica, or some mix of your own making – if it works for you, play it!

The post Science-backed productivity playlists to help you dive into deep work appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Some people are born leaders, in the sense that they instinctively know how to rally others to their side. But for most of us, leadership is a learned skill.

The good news is that you can refine your leadership style with practice over time. But regardless of whether you default to a coaching style or something more directive, several leadership principles apply across the board.

Familiarizing yourself with these common values can help you hone your skills and shape your leadership instincts – regardless of your specific style.

What are leadership principles?

Leadership principles are the fundamental guidelines or values that guide your actions, decisions, and behaviors as a leader.

The truth is that there’s not one foolproof “good” leadership style (hence why situational leadership is so popular). However, you’ll find evidence of the following eight principles across all effective leaders – even if their tactics and approaches are different.

8 leadership principles to be an effective and empathetic leader

1. Finding (and living) your values

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Leadership values are one thing – but you should also consider your personal values. These are the qualities and ideals that you hold dear and that shape your identity. 

Understandably, your own values will heavily influence your approach to leadership. They’ll serve as your guideposts as you manage and make decisions for your team. Identifying your values and making an effort to always act in alignment with them can go a long way in inspiring trust from your team members.

How to do it

You need to define your values before you can follow them. That’s all about setting aside time for introspection and self-reflection. Ask yourself questions like:

• What qualities do I most admire in others?
• What behaviors do I want to model for my team?
• What do I want people to say about me when I’m not in the room?

Your answers will help you uncover the different qualities and ideals that hold deep meaning for you. Experts also recommend selecting an artifact – a simple and tangible object like a photo or memento– that serves as a symbol for what you cherish and revere.

Keep in mind that identifying your values is only the first step. The key is to integrate those into your daily work and decision-making. It’s confusing for your team if you espouse family as a core value but don’t allow people the flexibility they need to tend to their own family matters.

2. Demonstrating humility

It takes courage to be open about what you know versus what you’re working to find out. It takes courage to make decisions based on incomplete information. Heck, it takes courage just to ask for advice. But here’s the good news: humble leadership is positively and significantly associated with better creative performance, intrinsic motivation, and work engagement.

This combination of humility and vulnerability builds trust with the people you’re leading and also cultivates psychological safety on your team. That shows people it’s okay not to have all the answers and can encourage them to admit mistakes early on when they’re easiest to address.

How to do it

Humility can be hard for leaders – especially if you previously operated with the assumption that any display of “weakness” damages your reputation and reduces respect.

Fortunately, there are small steps you can take to be more honest and vulnerable with your team, including:

• Admitting your mistakes or openly discussing challenges
• Acknowledging when you don’t have all of the answers or information
• Apologizing for your wrongdoings

They’re simple enough steps, but simple doesn’t always mean easy. Humility takes bravery.

3. Embracing change

Leaders are responsible for leading their teams through inevitable ups and downs, which means adaptability is a critical skill. Rather than resisting change, it’s up to you to lead by example and show your team how to navigate uncertainty with calm, confidence, and critical thinking.

Your ability to ride those waves will pay dividends for you and your entire team. Research shows that higher levels of adaptability are positively associated with better performance, confidence, and creative output. 

How to do it

While we all like to think we’re able to roll with the punches, our brains are riddled with cognitive biases (like status quo bias or confirmation bias) that prompt us to grit our teeth through whatever conditions we’re familiar with – even if they’re no longer working for us. 

Start by determining your default mindset and behavior patterns when faced with a change. Do you start poking holes immediately? Or do you disengage from the conversation until you can no longer avoid the impending change?

When you know how you typically react and respond, you’re better able to identify those ingrained patterns, push yourself to consider different perspectives, and become more open to change.

Once you’re ready to officially roll out a change to your team, a change management kick-off can get everybody on the same page and reduce the nerves and naysayers.

4. Committing to continuous learning

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The best leaders know they’re never done learning. When you recognize and openly admit that there’s always room for you to grow and improve, you check off another important leadership principle: humility. Strong leaders keep their hubris in check.

Prioritizing your own learning also fuels psychological safety on your team and shows people that identifying their areas of improvement isn’t an admission of weakness – it’s an opportunity.

How to do it

There are plenty of ways to make sure continuous learning doesn’t get lost in the shuffle of your daily work, including:

• Setting ambitious stretch goals that push you and your team outside your comfort zones
• Regularly soliciting and implementing feedback from your team members
• Opening your mind to diverse opinions and perspectives

One of the biggest roadblocks leaders face when investing in their learning is time. So, intentionally block off space each month or quarter to develop your skills. Make it a team-wide thing to help everybody else on your team embody this principle too.

5. Displaying emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence is your ability to recognize and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. Think it sounds a little too “woo-woo” to be meaningful? Research shows a clear connection between emotional intelligence and leadership style effectiveness. 

Your emotional intelligence is what helps you deliver helpful feedback, manage burnout and stressful situations, and help each of your team members fulfill their maximum potential – while being a compassionate and trusted manager who always leads with humanity.

How to do it

Improving your emotional intelligence can seem ambiguous and daunting, but it’s another area where seemingly small steps can make a meaningful impact:

• Practice naming your feelings: For example, try saying “I feel stressed” in a team meeting where you’re discussing a major roadblock. It not only models emotional awareness for your team and gives them permission to feel and name their own feelings, but it also can reduce the severity of your emotion (a concept known as “name it to tame it”).
  
• Do a mood check-in: Start your team meetings with a quick mood check-in where colleagues can indicate their emotional state using a word, emoji, or GIF. It’s an easy and lighthearted icebreaker activity that normalizes emotions and gets everybody on the same page.
  
• Run the Work Life Impact Play: This play facilitates open communication, fosters empathy, and helps everyone understand their team members’ work experiences.

6. Listening

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By staying curious and actively listening to your team members, you interrupt confirmation bias – the tendency to see new information in a way that confirms what you already believe. The trouble with confirmation bias is that it prevents you from taking in valuable information, which impedes your ability to make sound decisions. That makes your leadership less effective.

Making space and listening to other opinions builds loyalty and engagement. That’s important when only 21% of employees strongly agree that they trust their organization’s leadership. Plus, research shows that people will be more likely to accept and commit to a decision (even one they originally disagreed with) if they have a chance to state their case.

How to do it

Listening is another one of those things that sounds simple but is surprisingly difficult in practice. Committing to active listening (meaning listening with the intent of actually comprehending and retaining information) is the best way to make the most of your two ears. You can improve your active listening skills by:

• Asking open-ended questions (and paying attention to the answers)
• Summarizing the information someone shared to confirm your understanding
• Eliminating distractions to give someone your full attention
• Resisting the urge to interrupt with your two cents

Completing user manuals with your team can be helpful too, as those manuals give you all a better idea of how each person prefers to work, communicate, and receive feedback.

7. Embracing innovation and creativity

Modern organizations are hungry for innovation, and leaders are on the hook for shaping team cultures that breed new ideas, encourage creative solutions, and allow for plenty of experimentation. 

That requires big-picture thinking from you as the manager, and doing so helps you avoid a cognitive bias known as loss aversion. Research has suggested that loss is twice as potent from a psychological perspective as gain is. Therefore, you can fall into the trap of rejecting a promising idea simply because it would involve losing something you value. By acknowledging the full scope of trade-offs, you set yourself up to make better decisions.

How to do it

Practicing humility is one of the best ways to embrace innovation – it’s easier to stay open-minded to bold ideas when you aren’t letting your own ego drive.

Beyond that, brainstorming is one of the best ways to tap into your team’s collective creativity and ingenuity. Try running a Disruptive Brainstorming session that forces your team to consider a variety of perspectives.

Still struggling to come up with groundbreaking answers or solutions? Try running a 5 Whys Analysis to get down to the root cause of a problem and generate new ideas from there.

8. Promoting diversity and embracing inclusivity

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Research routinely shows that diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones. Varied perspectives lead to richer discussions, more creative ideas, and better outcomes for your team (and the entire organization).

For that reason, diverse teams and inclusive environments aren’t just buzzwords – they’re crucial for effective leadership. It’s not a one-time initiative either. It requires consistent effort to prove to team members that they’re safe bringing their whole selves to work without fear of discrimination or exclusion.

How to do it

Inclusivity sounds nice and all, but to reap the rewards, it needs to be embedded into your team’s daily practices. Start by running the Inclusive Meetings Play to ensure every voice is heard during your team conversations. 

You can also run a Team Health Monitor to assess how your team is feeling about various topics, including whether diverse viewpoints are welcomed and whether they feel an overall sense of belonging on the team.

Ultimately, both of those plays facilitate open, honest, and respectful conversations about inclusivity – and that level of candid communication is the single best step you can take to embrace acceptance and fairness on your team.

Lead with purpose (and your principles)

Sometimes leadership is about breaking the mold and pushing boundaries. Other times, it’s about knowing exactly which qualities to embody to earn trust and inspire confidence.

Like any other leader, you have a distinct style – and, by all means, refine your unique approach. But, as you do, rely on these core leadership principles to develop the instincts you need to guide your team with the perfect balance of compassion and confidence.

Special thanks to Sarah Goff-Dupont for her contributions to this article.

The post 8 proven leadership principles and the psychology behind them appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

“Oh, I really love podcasts and audiobooks. Listening is the best way for me to learn.” 

“I’m going to take some notes during our meeting. That helps me absorb what we’re talking about.”

“Can I try it myself? I learn best by doing.”

All of these are things we’ve probably heard someone say, or even said ourselves. But it turns out this widely accepted notion of learning styles and preferences is more of a feeling, not a fact. 

In reality, fans of podcasts and audiobooks don’t necessarily learn more from listening – it’s just the easiest or most entertaining way for them to consume information.  

Our beliefs about learning styles likely stem from many factors: research from decades ago, the natural desire to define what “type of person” we are, and to feel like a unique individual in highly standardized educational settings. 

Let’s set the record straight: Learning styles and preferences don’t actually impact outcomes or performance.

Research now shows there is little to no connection between any particular learning style and how much information you absorb or retain. That means self-professed “visual learners” don’t learn better by watching, “auditory learners” don’t learn better by listening, and so on. 

So, how can we all be more successful when learning? To find out, we talked to the Atlassian Customer Education Team, who has firsthand experience supporting adult learners through their work upskilling and empowering Atlassian users to be more effective in their work.

Here’s what their team says about why learning styles don’t impact results, and how we can use more effective approaches to learning.

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The 4 learning styles – and why they don’t actually help us learn 

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Observations and theories about differences in how people learn have been around since at least Aristotle, who observed that individual learners benefit from approaches that are tailored to their prior knowledge and experiences.

Then, in the 1970s, learning styles gained popularity. The concept made some intuitive sense: Each person learns in a different way, and if we can each understand how we learn best, we can be more successful at it. This was an attractive idea for both students (or anyone taking in information) and educators (or anyone sharing information). 

Some of the most popular learning style frameworks were developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 70s, educational psychologist Walter Burke Barbe and his colleagues proposed three ways of learning: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (movement and touch) – often referred to as VAK. New Zealand teacher Neil D. Fleming later expanded on this to add “reading/writing” as a learning style, creating the VARK framework that is often still used today.

Many people interpreted the VARK model to mean that each person has one primary way of learning. However, scientists have not only proven that this isn’t the case, but have more or less debunked the entire VARK framework.

“Just because a notion is popular, however, doesn’t make it true,” says Professor of Psychology Cindy May in a 2018 Scientific American article. “A recent review of the scientific literature on learning styles found scant evidence to clearly support the idea that outcomes are best when instructional techniques align with individuals’ learning styles. In fact, there are several studies that contradict this belief. It is clear that people have a strong sense of their own learning preferences (e.g., visual, kinesthetic, intuitive), but it is less clear that these preferences matter.”

Easy learning doesn’t mean effective learning

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As Professor May points out, people often prefer to learn in certain ways. However, Atlassian Head of Customer Education Marshall Walker Lee and Senior Learning Experience Designer Ellen Walter share that ease is often mistakenly conflated with effectiveness.

“People think that if learning is easy, it’s effective. Research shows the opposite is true: Feeling challenged actually helps information stick in our minds,” Ellen explains. 

Rather than leaning on learning styles or preferences, evidence supports other methods to enhance the way we gain knowledge. “Knowing learning preferences is most helpful for getting someone’s attention, not achieving better outcomes,” Marshall says. “For example, we know a lot of people prefer learning by watching, so with Atlassian’s customer education materials, we present videos to pique their interest, then pull them deeper into the learning experience.”

By understanding the ways we learn and using scientifically proven techniques, we can get our minds more engaged and help the information truly “click.”

Understanding the ways we really learn

Even though VARK specifically – and learning styles in general – lack supporting evidence, there are plenty of research-backed models and frameworks we can use to improve the way we consume and retain information. 

For example, Bloom’s Taxonomy – which dates even further back than VARK – classifies the different levels of learning and shares that achieving higher levels of knowledge requires mastering each level below first.

“Bloom’s Taxonomy basically says the best evidence that you know something is that you can teach it,” Marshall explains. “We see this in the 70-20-10 model too, which proposes that adults learn through three primary channels: 70% from hands-on experiences, 20% from interactions with others, and 10% from formal learning.”

There are many other theories on how adults learn best, including the Kirkpatrick Model, performance-based learning, and Malcolm Knowles’ adult learning theory. Marshall says all of these have helpful takeaways to support learning. However, it’s best to think of them more as a starting point than a silver bullet. “A framework isn’t a solution to every problem,” he explains. “Understanding the learner’s unique context and challenges, including their readiness to learn, their motivation to learn, and how they will apply their new knowledge, is essential to producing the best outcomes.”

As our understanding of the way we learn has evolved, so has the way lessons are designed. In fact, a big trend in instructional design is to employ principles of user experience design and design thinking. Both concepts begin with empathizing with user needs and defining their goals for the product or experience before brainstorming, creating, and refining a solution. 

“It’s not that the ‘old way’ of doing instructional design has changed, but rather, the discipline has expanded,” Marshall says. “We can learn from the principles of UX design. And when you combine UX design with instructional design, that’s when really powerful things happen.” Marshall’s team includes both instructional designers and learning experience designers on their Content Design team.

4 tips for learning at work

No matter what role or industry you’re in, the world of work is rapidly changing. Our individual and collective success depends on our knowledge and skills changing with it. 

Here are four key tips Marshall and his teams recommend for others looking to expand their knowledge and achieve more together. 

Build a culture of learning

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Another user experience design principle we can draw inspiration from is embracing iteration and progress over perfection. We can apply this principle to professional development by working toward building a culture of learning. 

“Building a culture of learning is essential!” Marshall says. “That starts with creating a psychologically safe environment (where people feel safe to take risks and learn from their mistakes) and embracing a growth mindset. Leaders also have to support this culture of learning by modeling it and investing in it.” 

Make time and space for learning, with help from others

“Learning often happens naturally on the job, but you also have to be intentional about keeping your skills fresh and expanding your knowledge,” Marshall says. “Set aside dedicated time for training and upskilling on a regular basis, whether that’s taking a new course once a month, scheduling one-on-ones or peer feedback sessions once per quarter, or doing rituals like sprint retros. A combination is even better.”

Marshall recommends encouraging knowledge sharing through this process. “Removing barriers for knowledge sharing – and even incentivizing people to do it – can help improve the collective intelligence of the team, deepens comprehension through teaching each other, and helps people feel more connected and creative,” he explains. “When you share your knowledge, you help others avoid repeating your mistakes or reinventing a wheel you’ve built, and when ideas cross-pollinate in a team, innovation is more likely.”

Seek out relevant programs that foster connections. 

“Two learning philosophies I personally find interesting and compelling are connectivism and andragogy,” Marshall shares. 

Connectivism suggests learning is a continuous process of creating connections between information and experiences.

Andragogy highlights that adults are self-directed learners, who are motivated by intrinsic factors and prefer learning experiences that are relevant to their needs, as opposed to children, who are often compelled to learn by outside forces.

To maximize learning, Marshall recommends seeking out programs that incorporate these principles. “Look for professional development programs that are directly related to what you want to learn and that leverage online communities, social learning opportunities, and knowledge-sharing platforms to foster connections. These types of programs are more likely to be engaging and effective for adult learners.”

Use proven learning methods to your advantage – even when it’s difficult

Knowing how we learn can help teams engage, absorb, and retain more, as well as push through when the process gets hard. Atlassian Senior Experience Learning Designer Becky Mueller says, “Learning is difficult – and that’s not a bad thing. Don’t rely on what feels best. Use these strategies to validate your knowledge and skills.” 

Marshall adds, “In Customer Education, we use knowledge of preferences to grab a learner’s attention and get them engaged in learning. But our goal is to equip learners with the knowledge and skills they need regardless of rigid preference categories.”

He adds that his team is fans of the book Make it Stick, which has a chapter dedicated to moving beyond learning styles. “Don’t roost in a pigeonhole of your preferred learning style,” the authors write. “But take command of your resources and tap all of your intelligences to master the knowledge or skill you want to possess.” 

Make It Stick also includes practical tips and strategies for effective learning: 

• Space out study sessions over time.
• Experience the material in multiple modalities.
• Test on the material as part of your study practices.
• Elaborate on material to make meaningful connections, rather than engaging in activities that involve simple repetition of information.

Putting this approach into practice, let’s say you work with Jira Cloud and want to advance your skills. You could work toward the “Managing Jira Cloud Projects” Certification through Atlassian University over the course of several weeks. After taking the formal training, which includes material in many formats, you could test your new knowledge by working in a Jira test project or shadowing a colleague. Then, you’ll continue to hone your skills on the job as you experience Jira Cloud during everyday work. (This also aligns with the 70-20-10 model!)

Even after over 70 years of painting and sculpting, the great Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo said, “Ancora imparo”: I am still learning. Michelangelo may not have known about learning styles or preferences, but there’s no doubt he was immersed in a culture of learning and invested in honing his craft throughout his life. 

Whether you’re striving to be the Michelangelo of your field, working toward a promotion, or exploring something new purely for enjoyment, learning nourishes your mind and helps you become an even more valuable member of your team. The more we learn and share our knowledge, the more our collective wisdom grows, enabling us to accomplish together what would be impossible alone. 

Start applying these tips with FREE Atlassian training

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The post Why learning styles don’t work – and proven ways to learn more effectively appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

“I’m an Enneagram 1.”

“ENTJ. You?”

“It’s Sagittarius season!”

“I’m left-brained. Totally Type A.”

If you’ve taken personality tests or looked up your horoscope before, at least one of these probably rings a bell. But even if you haven’t, you’ve surely sparked a conversation with someone over a shared trait, interest, talent, or experience. 

And you’re not alone. It’s human nature to put ourselves into categories and try to connect with similar people. For example, at work, the more artsy and creative team members (often stereotyped as “right-brained” people) often hang out together, while the more analytical “left-brained people” (managers, coordinators, analysts, etc.) tend to get along well.

While donning these self-imposed labels can help us navigate the complex world around us and build relationships more easily, this process of “social categorization” can oversimplify our identities, hinder our growth, and even be flat-out wrong — as is the case with the longstanding left brain vs. right brain myth. 

The basics: how the human brain works

The human brain is an incredible organ. So incredible that we could dedicate this whole article to how it works. But since we’re teamwork experts, not neuroscientists, we’ll leave the detailed anatomy lessons to them and give you a super simple overview. 

Weighing around three pounds, the brain controls not only how we think, but also how every bit of our body works. Our mind contains about 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion (with a “t!”) connections, which send and receive signals throughout the body via a superhighway of nerves. No matter how far the message has to go, it only takes a split second to get there. (Hence why stepping on a teeny tiny LEGO or stubbing your toe sends an immediate message to your brain to let out a supersized scream )

The brain is divided into two halves: one hemisphere on the right and one on the left. Each hemisphere has four lobes, which each manage a different function – some voluntary, such as tasting and touching, and some involuntary, like breathing and blinking. And each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body (right hemisphere = left side, left hemisphere = right side).

Although each part of the brain is responsible for different functions, they all work together as a “command center” to control all of our senses, movements, behavior, and survival. By better understanding how our brains work — and how they don’t — we can not just survive, but thrive. 

Myth busting: Is there such a thing as left brain vs. right brain dominance?

There’s a longstanding belief that says one side of the brain is more dominant in each person. This left-brain vs. right-brain dominance theory first emerged in the 1960s when psychobiologist Roger W. Sperry conducted split-brain experiments. He and his counterpart, psychology professor Michael Gazzaniga, were some of the first scientists to investigate hemispheric lateralization, a fancy way of saying that each side of the brain specializes in different jobs or roles. 

Sperry and Gazzaniga found that the left hemisphere controls speech, language, and comprehension; recognizes words, letters, and numbers; and does analysis and calculations. This is why people who are more methodical and logical are believed to be “left-brained.” Meanwhile, the right hemisphere controls creativity, perception, and spatial understanding, and recognizes faces, places, and objects – hence why more creative and emotional people are said to be “right-brained.”

Sperry won a Nobel Prize for his split-brain research, and some of it still rings true decades later. Each side of the brain is, indeed, different. Certain parts also control separate functions. And both sides still work together to keep the body running like a well-oiled machine. 

However, over time, the left brain vs. right brain dominance theory has proven to be more fiction than fact. In 2013, a team of neuroscientists reviewed Sperry and Gazzaniga’s research, along with new evidence, and debunked several previous findings:

• The human brain does not favor one side over the other.
• The two sides work differently, but one side is not stronger than the other unless it’s damaged. (Likewise, despite what a bratty sibling or bully may have told you in middle school, neither brain size nor strength correlate to intelligence. Certain areas of the brain simply have stronger neural connections than others, which is what makes each of us better at certain skills – and those connections skills can be strengthened with practice.) 
• We do not only use one side of our brain at a time. Both sides work in concert. For example, our left brain may do the heavy lifting with calculations, but our right brain helps with estimates and numerical comparisons. 

So, while we can still thank Sperry for helping us understand how certain parts of the mind work, this myth about dominance has officially been busted. 

3 brainy facts that will blow your mind and benefit your work

Not only has Sperry’s theory been debunked as overly simplistic, but subsequent research also shows that the brain is even more amazing than we once thought. It’s constantly adapting to change, reorganizing, and learning based on physical interactions and life experiences. 

This bodes especially well for everyone in the world of work. No matter how old we are or what stage we’re at in our careers, science shows it’s always possible to grow and improve. 

Curious what your left and right brain are actually capable of? Here are three fun facts about the mind that you can use to your advantage at work.

Learning changes the structure of your brain

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During your first day on the job, you probably felt overwhelmed and maybe even out of your league. There are so many new people to meet, new environments to get used to, and new concepts to learn. But after a few weeks or months, you start to get the hang of it and feel more comfortable.

That’s because your brain sends messages along the body’s superhighway of nerves over and over, forming new connections and making foreign things feel familiar. It’s how we learn any new skill and absorb information. 

In fact, the literal structure of our brain changes every time we learn something new, have a new thought, or make a new memory. Even when our brain suffers major damage, it can completely reprogram itself through a process called neuroplasticity. (Wild, right?) This is how people who have experienced physical injuries or mental trauma can heal – and how we can keep learning and growing as professionals. 

Boredom can be beneficial

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Ever notice some of the best ideas strike when you’re in the shower, commuting, or laying in bed? It’s not a coincidence – it’s science!

John Eastwood, a psychologist and co-author of Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom, explains that boredom can be a huge driver of innovation. When the mind is quiet, creativity kicks in to fill the empty space. 

A 2013 study also showed that small amounts of boredom help prime our brains to do convergent thinking, like solving a problem. Another study the following year highlighted that we also need creativity for divergent thinking, like brainstorming. So either way, a little boredom can go a long way. 

The best ideas happen when we contemplate, then collaborate

Research shows that collaborative problem-solving leads to better outcomes, as well as personal growth, greater job satisfaction, and less stress. However, a 2018 study out of Harvard Business School suggests that individual brainstorming followed by collaboration can lead to superior solutions. 

In the study, three groups of participants were asked to solve traveling salesman problems. The first group worked individually, the second exchanged notes after every round of brainstorming, and the third collaborated after every three rounds. 

The results were fascinating. The first group thought of many different solutions, but quality varied. The second group came up with better solutions since they got to work together throughout the process, but they ended up influencing each other and prematurely settling on one idea. The third group performed best. They each got to explore and develop their own thoughts, then come together to build on each other’s ideas – the best of both worlds.

“When you stop learning, you stop growing.”

Personality tests and labels can make it easier to connect with each other and help us better understand how we interact with our teammates and the world around us. However, it’s best to treat them as fun, not facts, and resist the urge to put ourselves in the purely “right-brained” or “left-brained” box – or any category, for that matter.

Even if someone tends to think more logically or creatively, we contain multitudes. Both sides of our brains are constantly working together, learning, and evolving into the next best version. Let’s bust out of the left brain vs. right brain box and develop a growth mindset to give our craniums what they crave. As Albert Einstein once said, “Never stop learning, for when you stop learning, you stop growing.”

The post Left brain vs. right brain: fact or fiction? appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.