Elite! E-Book

Floyd Woodrow

• Herausgeber: Elliott & Thompson
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 331

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

For more than 20 years, Floyd Woodrow MBE served in the SAS. Inspiring his men in the most demanding of situations, Floyd drove his team to the highest levels of success. Awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery, Floyd operated at the level of the elite. Since leaving the SAS in 2008, Floyd has brought the motivational lessons and techniques learnt in the world's toughest environments to businesses, governments, sports teams and police forces around the world. Guaranteed to boost productivity, team cohesion, individual motivation and overall leadership, Elite! contains Floyd's deeply practical, innovative and highly sought-after teachings. His inspiring approach is united with a detailed understanding of the theories and psychology that underpin cutting-edge motivational training. By harnessing this potent combination, whether you are seeking self-improvement or looking to get the best out of a team of hundreds, Floyd Woodrow's inspirational new book contains the only approach that will place you amongst the Elite!

Leseprobe

Elite!

Elite!

The Secret to Exceptional Leadership and Performance

Floyd Woodrow and Simon Acland

First published 2012 by Elliott and Thompson Limited 27 John Street, London WC1N 2BXwww.eandtbooks.com

ISBN: 978-1-908739-45-2 EPUB ISBN: 978-1-908739-46-9

Text © Simon Acland and Floyd Woodrow 2012

Extract from British Defence Doctrine (pp. 234–5) reproduced by kind permission of the Ministry of Defence

The Authors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this Work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY

Typeset by PDQ Media

Illustrations by Tilly Crawley

Extract on page 145 © Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A leadership fable (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2002)

Extracts on pages 201, 203,205 © Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap ... and others don’t (New York: Random House Business, 2001) Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders for extracts used within this book. Where this has not been possible, the publisher will be pleased to credit them in future editions.

I have always been fascinated by individuals, teams and organisations that truly perform at the highest levels. I have worked alongside some extremely talented people, and there is no doubt in my mind that there are core principles that weave their way like a golden thread through the minds, bodies and behaviours of those exceptional individuals. As I have discovered these principles, I have wondered why they had not been taught to me at a much earlier age. In this book, I highlight the elements which have had the most impact on my life and which remain a constant feature of the teams and organisations that truly perform at an elite level.

Floyd Woodrow

PRAISE FOR ELITE!

“Floyd offers an insightful and inspirational guide to leadership and team building at the highest levels.”

Sean Fitzpatrick, former New Zealand All Blacks captain

“Floyd is a game-changer, able to create successful teams and environments that pursue excellence. I value the advice he gives and commend this book to you.”

Andy Flower, England cricket coach

“Having had the privilege of getting to know Floyd Woodrow over the past eight years, I am not surprised that he and Simon Acland have written such a superb book, which will help others understand the skills and attitudes that are needed to be a great leader and team player. I was gripped with the fictional tale, based on Floyd’s experience working in the SAS, and appreciated how the writers skilfully wove relevant personal experience into the text, to help the reader grasp the underlying concepts of elite leadership. The book’s greatness lies in its authenticity: there is a complete match between Floyd the man and what he is writing about. I have no hesitation in commending Elite as an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the secret to exceptional leadership and performance.”

Dr Neil Hawkes Founder, International Values Education Trust (IVET)

“A compelling read that is a mirror image of the author – insightful, imaginative and, without a doubt, inspirational.”

Bernard Hogan-Howe Metropolitan Police Commissioner

“Floyd Woodrow hasn’t just talked the talk, he’s fought it. These are real life lessons drawn from the heat of the moment, prepared for in advance. That’s what makes this book special.”

Roger Lewis Group Chief Executive, Welsh Rugby Union

“I have come to know Floyd Woodrow well through the valuable work he has undertaken with me and my leadership team in BT Global Services UK. As a Gartner Magic Quadrant player in global telecommunications markets we can only maintain our position of global leadership within our industry by being the best at what we do. This also means leading ourselves, each other and our people, not just to be the best, but to redefine what being the best means. This is what Floyd helps us to do. Like Floyd and Simon Acland, we also come from contrasting backgrounds and have followed different paths on our journeys to where we are now. With Floyd’s help we have learned to understand ourselves and each other and to harness our strengths as individuals and teams to both achieve and stretch our objectives. This book is not a replacement for having Floyd beside you; but for those interested in his unique approach, it provides a clear understanding of the critical link he draws between personal performance and leadership. I recommend the book highly and would encourage both senior and middle managers to learn the lessons it offers in how to lead and contribute to high-performing leadership teams.”

Emer Timmons President, BT Global Services UK

“Combining front-line experience and detailed research, this is an excellent guide on leadership and building successful teams.”

Gregor Townsend MBE Head Coach, Glasgow Warriors

Acknowledgements

There are a number of people I must thank in the writing of this book:

Dr Rob Kennett, one of the world’s best negotiators; Richard Cross, who has helped me understand the entrepreneurial side of leadership; and of course Simon Acland, who has been a great foil to test my theories on leadership.

I would also like to thank KM, BM, SJ, VO, MC-S, RP, JS, CT, AF, MV, ST, GL, SW, NH, and RL, who are outstanding examples of military, police, sporting and business leaders.

Finally, of course my family: my wife Sue and our wonderful children, Joe, Rhiannon and Rosie, who have been there to support, challenge and inspire me, and continue to do so.

I would also like to add an extra thank you to my son Joe, who has been instrumental in making sure I stay in the red zone.

Floyd Woodrow

Contents

Introduction

Floyd Woodrow and why you should read this book

Chapter One

The magnificent workings of the human brain

Chapter Two

Personality types

Chapter Three

The North Star: understanding your own priorities, aims and objectives

Chapter Four

Communication and negotiation

Chapter Five

Training yourself: getting into the flow

Chapter Six

You as part of a team

Chapter Seven

You as a team leader

Chapter Eight

You as an organisational leader

Chapter Nine

Conclusions

Appendix I

Personality profiling questionnaires available online

Appendix II

The British Army’s Principles of War

Appendix III

Further reading

Introduction

FLOYD WOODROW AND WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

This is Floyd Woodrow’s book. It is built on his wisdom and experience. His are the stories that illustrate it, his the anecdotes that enliven it. My role has been to pull some of the words together, but I will have failed in that task unless it is Floyd’s voice that comes through in those words.

Except in this introduction, that is, because here this is me speaking, Simon Acland. There are two reasons for this: first, because I can introduce Floyd and say things about him which his natural modesty would prevent, and, second, because I want to explain why my own career would have been more successful if I had known thirty years ago what I now know from working on this book.

When Floyd was a boy he developed an unswerving ambition to join the Paratroopers. He could have excelled as a professional sportsman in many fields: boxing, rugby, rowing and others too. He has the necessary physique, the determination, the desire to win, the ability to practise relentlessly in the pursuit of excellence. If he had chosen this course, I am sure that he would now be a household name.

Instead he chose the Paras, for the simple reason that he believed that this was the career that posed the greatest challenges. It was more dangerous, more demanding and more arduous in many different ways. He felt that it would stretch him most. Aged eighteen, he did so well in his entrance tests that the Army tried to persuade him to join in a different role – as an officer or an engineer. But Floyd was true to his ambition and remained determined to join the Paras at the bottom.

Four years later, after tough tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Floyd became one of the youngest recruits to the elite of the elite, the Special Air Service. During his time in the military, Floyd has had many adventures and has been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, one of the highest possible awards for bravery – second only to the Victoria Cross. He has also been made a Member of the British Empire. The military story that runs as a thread through the chapters which follow is not the story of those events; we do not want to breach confidences or to break trust. But it is a realistic fable of what might happen ‘behind enemy lines’, and is tailored to illustrate the points we are making in this book.

Whilst in the military Floyd obtained a law degree and later studied psychology. Since leaving the SAS in 2008 with the rank of major, he has been sought after as an adviser to governments, police forces, sports teams and companies large and small. His extremely practical experience of self-motivation and team leadership combines with a detailed understanding of the theories behind it, and it is this special combination that we seek to pass on in this book.

I first met Floyd in the salubrious surroundings of the Lanesborough Hotel at Hyde Park Corner. We come from contrasting backgrounds and have followed very different paths in life. I took to him immediately as an individual. Of course, one has stereotypical expectations on meeting a decorated Special Forces war hero. Floyd fits some of those expectations well – he is tall, muscular, with a steady direct gaze, obviously very strong and fit. But once those hackneyed reactions are over, the main characteristics you notice about Floyd are his aura of extreme calm coupled with a deep reservoir of latent energy. He is easy to imagine as the eye of the storms which so often swirled around him in his military career.

After that first meeting I worried that our personalities were far too diverse for us to be able to work together successfully on this book. After all, I had been one of the boys at school who had always tried to skip games because I disliked getting muddy, cold or hurt. My judgement of Floyd and our different personalities was based entirely on gut feeling, because I had always been sceptical about more scientific approaches to assessing personality. My amateur approach and innate hostility to training, mentoring or advice made me fear that I could not begin to empathise with the book he wanted to write.

My second meeting with Floyd came at the Heathrow Sofitel, where he had just delivered the keynote speech at the annual sales conference of a large gas company, keeping some five hundred delegates spellbound for an hour. There, after his talk, he demonstrated to me scientifically that our personalities were indeed at opposite poles. In the Jungian personality type terminology, which Floyd explains in Chapter Two, he tends towards extroversion, intuition, feeling and perception, and I towards introversion, sensing, thinking and judgement. Then he convinced me that, precisely because his ‘ENFP’ balanced my ‘ISTJ’, we could make a great team. He wanted someone, he said, to challenge his thinking and put it to the test. ‘You have to have feedback,’ he said with a smile, ‘Nobody gets to the top of their profession just by being told how good they are. I know you are slightly sceptical, which can only help.’ I agreed to do the book. His professionalism had trumped my amateurishness. I had experienced at first hand Floyd Woodrow’s motivational skills.

I have spent most of my career as a venture capitalist, investing in early stage technology businesses and helping them to grow. I have sat on the boards of over forty companies. A key part of my job has been to work with the teams running those companies to help them towards their goals. I’ve been pretty successful in that. Many of the companies that I backed floated on the stock market. Two went pretty much from scratch to being counted among the UK’s 250 most valuable quoted companies. Many others were successfully sold. My book Angels, Dragons and Vultures is widely regarded as one of the better guides for entrepreneurs to the arcane world of venture capital.

But I am sure that I would have had more success if I had known at the start of my career what I have learnt from Floyd whilst working with him on this book. I now know that if I had taken the trouble to learn more systematically to understand how my mind actually works, how to comprehend my own character, how to recognise other people’s personalities, and how to harness that knowledge to achieve my objectives, I could have gone further. You have no excuse, because you now have this book.

This book is relevant for anyone who has ambitions in their chosen field and wants to do well. It should help you understand better how you and other people work. After arming you with that knowledge, it aims to help you to use it to perform better yourself. Based on Floyd’s theoretical understanding and practical experience, it will help you to operate better as a member of a team, and as a team leader, and as a team leader of other team leaders. It will equip you with the motivational skills that you need to take your performance to an elite level.

And now a warning: this book is not for anyone who does not want to get any better at what they do.

CHAPTER ONE

The magnificent workings of the human brain

You can’t make a head and brains out of a brass knob with nothing in it.

Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit

‘Behind enemy lines’

Floyd leaned forward in the Lanesborough Hotel’s comfortable wing chair and rested his elbows on his knees.

‘Simon,’ he said, ‘let me tell you a story about a couple of teams that I have come across in my time in the Army.’

He paused. I waited in the silence of the pause, expectant and rather excited. The intent expression in his eyes held me a captive audience. Floyd cocked his head slightly to one side and I now saw that the intensity was touched with humour, prompted partly by the anticipation he had sparked in me.

‘It didn’t really happen like this, but it might have. I think this story will show you what I want to get across in the book. I do like the title Elite!, by the way, and I will tell you why in a moment.

‘I should probably start with a background word or two about the SAS and how it is organised as this is where I really began to learn the skill of leadership. There is no doubt in my mind that we are the best in the world at what we do. We grew out of the group founded by David Stirling in the Western Desert in 1941 during the Second World War to carry out sabotage missions behind Afrika Corps lines. It is said that in the desert war his group accounted for more German aircraft by destroying them on the ground than the RAF managed to shoot down in the sky. The name Special Air Service came a bit later, in 1942. Temporarily disbanded as a full-time unit after the war, the permanent brigade now known as 22 SAS was reformed in 1952. Those of us in 22 SAS generally just refer to it as ‘the Regiment’. The Regiment has fought in almost every conflict in which Britain has been involved since the Second World War. We have also been responsible for a myriad of actions that have had a significant impact on world events. The best-known was perhaps the breaking of the siege of the Iranian Embassy in 1981. You must remember that. It was splashed across the media – even live on TV. Men from B Squadron saved nineteen out of twenty hostages, eliminating or capturing six terrorist kidnappers in the process. Most organisations would have seen it as brilliant publicity, but the Regiment doesn’t much like being in the limelight. Most of the things we have done have never been made public, and probably never will be.

‘Since our formation many individuals have been decorated for bravery. One of those awards, I am proud to say, is mine. But – and this is not false modesty – I would not have that medal were it not for those people around me who performed at a truly elite level. I am just the lucky one who gets to wear it. The same can be said for my MBE.

‘Today, there is still the one regular Special Air Services brigade. Nobody is quite sure why it was given the number 22. Someone’s lucky number, perhaps. There are also two territorial units, 21 SAS in the south of the country and 23 SAS in the north. The Regiment itself is made up of a number of squadrons. Each squadron is commanded by a major – the rank I attained.

‘It is a highly select group; many more apply for the Regiment than pass the extremely demanding and gruelling selection process. What is more, it is the most entrepreneurial business I have ever come across – more entrepreneurial than most of the companies you backed as a venture capitalist, I’ll bet. What do I mean by that? Well, it is constantly looking at ways of staying ahead of the competition. One of the exciting things about being part of the SAS is that you are constantly learning new skills. It is truly elite. And, although I will use the word elite throughout my stories, all I actually mean is continually pushing the boundaries of our potential. That is within the reach of all of us and why I like the title of the book.

‘Like anywhere in the Services, in the SAS you are expected to obey orders. In action, survival, let alone success, often depends on a rapid, instinctive reaction to what you are told to do. But there is a subtle difference to orders in the SAS. Wherever possible, orders are not narrow and prescriptive. Officers, commissioned and noncommissioned, are encouraged to make sure that their men take responsibility for their own actions, so that insofar as possible how a task is carried out is decided by the man or men doing it. When we plan an action, everyone to be involved in it is expected to make a contribution to that process. Ultimately, the senior officer will take the decision about how it will be done, of course; but all the participants will have had the opportunity to offer input. Even in the field of action, in the heat of battle, we will consult with our comrades if possible. Because we are so well trained to cope with the situations in which we are likely to find ourselves, and have deeply ingrained specialist skills – like some of the parts of the brain that we need to describe in the book – we can make those decisions very rapidly.

‘Most people probably have the idea that there is just one type of person in Special Forces units across the world. I bet you had me down as a stereotype before we met. Of course it’s true that everyone who attempts to join a Special Forces unit has some common characteristics: you have to be tough, mentally as well as physically; you have to enjoy physical activity, and to relish a challenge, in spades. You have to be able to undertake tasks both as an individual and as a member of a team. But these organisations would not be the formidable fighting forces they are without embracing a diversity of personalities. In any great team, you need different types of people. You need the extroverts, the introverts, the people who analyse the hard facts and those who rely more on their instincts. In the Regiment you will find examples of every personality type.

‘I have also been fortunate to be involved in most operational deployments the country has undertaken since I joined the Army in 1981. I can remember each conflict with great clarity, although there are slight differences in my reactions to those events as I became more experienced as a leader.

‘The first conflict I can remember was when I was flying back from a three-month training assignment and heard on the radio the news of an aggressor moving their army over the border into the territory of a neighbouring British ally. It immediately sounded like war. Our defence treaty with the country stretched back to goodness knows when. This country was one of our most loyal allies and in a strategically important position. All of this was significant of course, but the most important element of all was that there was a principle at stake. Allow the success of the sort of naked aggression shown by this state, permit the infringement of the rights of a peaceful, independent sovereign state, and the whole world order could begin to totter.’

I found myself nodding vigorously in agreement.

‘Obviously at that early stage it was not clear what role I would have in the conflict. What was crystal clear, though, was that I would have a role. The team and I knew we would be assigned the toughest, the most dangerous jobs going. That was what we were there for. What’s more, we wanted them.

‘Briefings for any deployment pulsate with excitement. But I remember this one better than most. All of us feel some element of trepidation on the eve of a major conflict. But most importantly we look forward to doing what we were trained to do. When I was deployed for that first time on a major conflict, most of us had never taken part in a full-on war.

‘I have been fortunate to learn how to operate in the most demanding of environments, whether that was in the bush, in the desert, in the jungle, in Europe or even in the Arctic. But I was particularly excited about fighting in a desert war. I have always been proud of the Regiment’s roots in the thin sand of the Western Desert and David Stirling’s daring missions behind Afrika Corps lines. And I had heard stirring stories about the key role played by some of our forerunners in the Omani desert in the 1950s.

‘I’d passed into the SAS at the first attempt and four years before that I had been in the Paras. The selection course had been every bit as tough as I had expected and I have no doubt that I passed not because I was the finished article but because the people who selected me thought I had some potential. They were willing to give me a chance. I was intensely proud, at the age of twenty-two, to be one of the youngest soldiers ever to make it. In my superstitious moments I thought that my age matching the name 22 SAS could be a lucky sign. Every soldier who joins the Regiment has to start at the bottom, as a trooper, which for many means a step down in rank. Because I was so young, I was only a lance corporal in the Paras.

‘Most of the other people I served with were older than me. But in terms of rank I was in the upper half. However, rank matters less in Special Forces than in some other units. The hierarchy is less strict. The key element is that every member is expected to be a leader or a follower depending on the situation. In any arena I was likely to be a follower of others, but if those more senior to me were to fall in battle then I would de facto become the leader. Or I might be put in charge of some specific task.

‘In the late 80s and early 90s I considered myself highly professional, but, frankly, I was pretty brash and full of myself. I refused to cut any corners at all. I worked exceptionally hard at my training and expected others to do the same. I judged others too quickly and did not listen well. I was not afraid to let people know if I thought they were underperforming. It was not until later in my career that I learned to smooth off some of the sharp corners of my personality and use empathy more effectively. I now know this is critical to effective leadership, and that you have to take into account the characteristics of the individuals with whom you are interacting in order to achieve the optimum result. That’s another point I want to get across in our book.’

It’s all in the brain

Every thought I have, I create. I am in charge of my mind. Probably one of the most important moments in my life was when I realised that everything I do begins with a single thought in my mind and that I control it. Please take a little time to understand this chapter as it is the foundation block of everything you will ever undertake. As I will often say in this book, there is a price to pay to be successful. Understanding how your mind works is part of it.

If you look at your arm, you can get a pretty good idea of how it works. You know what most of the parts are called – elbow, wrist, biceps, triceps, tendons, knuckles and so on. You know that if you tighten your biceps, you raise your forearm at the elbow. You know that if you tense your triceps, your hand will form a fist, and you know why, because you can see the tendons moving in your forearm and on the back of your hand. It may not be simple, but it is clear. It is a comprehensible, mechanical process, cause and effect.

Actually, of course, that is not quite right. In reality, the way you perceive the sequence of events is that you raise your forearm at the elbow and your biceps tighten. You make your hand into a fist and feel your triceps tensing. The effect seems to come before the cause.

Welcome to the workings of the human brain. You think ‘I want to pick up that object’. That triggers the act of raising your forearm. You think: ‘That person is going to attack me; I’d better defend myself.’That triggers the act of clenching your fist. You don’t think: ‘I want to raise my forearm, so let’s tighten my biceps’ or ‘I want to clench my fist, so let’s tense my triceps.’ The unconscious element of the human brain is at work.

Your brain’s black box

Most people can name the different parts of their arm. Far fewer can name the different parts of their brain. To many of us, our brain is a black box. It produces a result, creates an effect – of some sort, usually – but we do not necessarily understand why. We may have some vague idea that some people are right-brained and left-handed, or vice versa, and that different parts of the brain perform different functions. But unless we have gone out of our way to learn about the brain, we don’t really begin to understand the workings of what most people (apart, perhaps, from certain teenagers) would count as their most important organ.

We also know that if we wish to develop the muscles in our arm we can exercise it, do press-ups and lift weights. After a few days, we can see the physical difference, as the muscles have become larger and more toned. We can also sense the difference because the exercises become easier; after a while we can do more press-ups and lift heavier weights. It is far harder to discern the direct effect of exercising or training the brain.

One reason for this lack of understanding is that we cannot see our brains at work. We can see how our arms work; we can watch those muscles get bigger from exercise. As I said before, it is a complex but comprehensible mechanical process. The brain is closed away in its box. We cannot watch it work.

Another reason is the extraordinary complexity of our brains. And the third reason is that, until relatively recently, scientists were unable to study accurately the workings of the brain. It is only in recent years that rapid advances in medical technology and sensing techniques have made it possible for scientists to understand more thoroughly the functions of different parts of the brain and their complex interactions.

MY HEAD’S A BRAIN BOX AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S INSIDE

What’s going on in my head?

In the course of my career in the Paras and the SAS I have done many, many hours of training. Much of it of course has been physical training, or training in special skills – weapons training, unarmed combat and so on. But I have also spent many hours in leadership training, learning about how to lead groups of soldiers and improve motivation, teamwork and capability to achieve success. Some of those training courses have been immensely valuable, others less useful. But I often felt that there was a missing element, a lack of explanation about what was actually going on inside my mind. I had to learn the practice without the theory because the understanding of the theory was not available at the time. Subsequently, I have had the chance to learn about the theory. The advantage of doing it that way round is that it means you know which parts of the theory really work in practice. This is one of the pillars of this book, which ties together the theory and the practical applications of leadership skills.

Everything we do, every action, every behavioural pattern, starts in our brain. Our brain is our command centre, and it is a command centre that our body cannot disobey. That is why I want to start this book with a brief explanation of how our brains work. I remember once talking to my twelve-year-old daughter about what she was going to do in life. She told me firmly, ‘I will make my own decisions about my future, not anyone else.’

‘Remember that statement, whatever you do, as you grow older,’ I said. ‘It is one of the most important things you will ever tell yourself.’ It took me until I was in my thirties to understand fully that I am in control of the decisions I make.

My favourite book on this subject is The Little Book of Big Stuff about the Brain by Andrew Curran. It is one of those rare books which explain a highly complex subject in a clear and entertaining way. The ability to pull this off always says to me that the author really understands his subject. Andrew Curran draws on a significant body of primary and up-to-date research for his book. I commend it to you if you are interested in delving into this subject at greater depth than I can do here.

In the rest of this chapter I am going to attempt to summarise the aspects of the brain, based on the latest available understanding of it, which are most relevant to our purposes in this book.

There are three main parts to your brain: the reptilian brain, the limbic or paleomammalian brain (both part of your subconscious mind) and the neomammalian brain (part of your conscious mind).

The reptilian brain

The reptilian brain is a fairly basic piece of equipment. It does not care about your children. It does not care about your friends or your comrades. It does not even recognise concepts such as children, friends and family. It sits close to the top of your spinal cord and deals with self-preservation. It makes sure that your heart keeps pumping and your lungs keep breathing, and channels basic senses like sight and smell. And it carries some very simple selfish reactions. Research on the Mexican green lizard suggests that the reptilian brain is capable of twenty-seven different behaviours: whether to move from the shade into the sun, whether to give way to a larger lizard, whether to grab that ant — all things pretty vital to a lizard’s survival. It’s important, but as I say, it is a fairly basic piece of equipment.

The paleomammalian brain

As mammals evolved from reptiles about 150 million years ago, our paleomammalian brain began to develop. This is a more sophisticated piece of machinery which began to increase animals’ ability to live together in social communities and to nurture their young. With this brain, they started to behave in more complex ways that are not just linked directly to their own survival. These behaviours – nurturing, caring for others, interacting with members of the same species in a social way – are emotion-based. So this is the part of the brain – also known as the limbic brain – which is the seat of your emotions.

The neomammalian brain

Then, a mere four million years ago or so, came the neomammalian brain. This dramatically increased the number and complexity of possible behaviours, and brought the capacity for self-awareness and analysis. This part of the brain is known as the cortex.

To put these different brain mechanisms into context, it is estimated that a human’s reptilian brain has fifteen to twenty million nerve cells. Your paleomammalian brain contains perhaps 100 million nerve cells. But in total, the human brain is made up of an astonishing 150 billion brain cells. So the neomammalian brain is around 1,500 times bigger than its more basic predecessors. The number of brain cells you have is one of the things that makes you capable of thousands of different complex behaviours. But, for all of that, wrapped inside your large, recently evolved, rational human brain is that much more primitive emotional early mammalian brain, and, deeper inside still, that very basic selfish reptilian brain. Of course, this layered structure and the way the different layers communicate has important implications for how your brain works and how you can train it. How often are you aware of which part of your brain is operating at any moment? Are you focused on what is actually happening or are you lost in previous behaviour patterns and reacting without thinking?

Wiring your brain

When you are born, most of your brain cells are blank. What is more, they are mostly not really connected with each other. Bit by bit they learn to communicate, building links and connections. Effectively, they wire themselves together. Brain cells do actually grow extraordinarily thin connections from their cell walls towards other cells that are firing at the same time as they are, to form a connection known as a synapse. The synapse is how two brain cells communicate with each other; at the synapse is a microscopically small gap between the cells over which a chemical signal passes.

Brain templates

These patterns of connections in the brain are often known as templates. Once a template is formed, creating a particular thought or action, it can be used again to recreate that thought or action. These recreations are stimulated by memory and may be sparked off by a smell (famously powerful in evoking memories), by a remark or simply by making a movement.

Another word for the formation of templates is learning, in the broadest sense. Interestingly, the creation of templates (in other words, learning) in your brain is controlled by the paleomammalian, limbic emotional brain. Chemically, this happens because the substance that is mainly responsible for forming the synapse connections is dopamine, which is released primarily by the limbic – paleomammalian – brain. So templates are essentially formed by emotions, and the stronger the emotion that creates a template, the stronger that memory is likely to be. The stronger a memory, the more easily it can be accessed. Clearly this has important implications for training, teaching and communication.

Teaching your brain

Understanding how to release dopamine effectively is key to good teaching and learning. Stress releases dopamine but in such large quantities that it tends to flood the nerve cells indiscriminately rather than forming the specific synapses necessary to create optimal templates. This helps to explain why memories that are created when you are under stress can be very powerful; a bad or frightening moment in the past, for example, can come back to you repeatedly when it is triggered by a specific word or smell. Over time continuous stress can damage the brain and its ability to learn, and may account for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

The parts of the brain that deal mainly with memory formation are called the hippocampus and the corpus striatum. The hippocampus handles conscious memory; the corpus striatum deals mainly with unconscious memory. You have a pair of each – one on either side of your brain. The corpus striatum is part of your reptilian brain, while the hippocampus belongs to the more sophisticated world of the limbic brain. Each one is about the size of your thumb.

The amy-what?

Also on either side of your head, just in front of each hippocampus and corpus striatum, sits another, even smaller bit of brain, the amygdala. This is your most basic emotional structure. In primitive creatures the amygdala is primarily responsible for ‘fight or flight’ reactions and for sexual arousal. In you it also has a key role to play in the creation of memory. This is how it works.

The two amygdalae sit just in front of your reptilian brain close to the top of your spinal column. They contain receptors for one of the stress hormones, noradrenaline. They are also stimulated directly by the vagus nerve, which connects your brain with your main visceral organs – your heart, lungs, kidneys, intestines and so on. This helps to explain that sinking feeling that you can get in the pit of your stomach when you are nervous or frightened. At times of stress, the visceral organs release adrenaline into the bloodstream, which excites the vagus nerve and stimulates the amygdalae. The two amygdalae in turn flood the two corpora striata and hippocampi with dopamine, creating powerful templates. Memories created like this, at times of great stress, are often your most powerful but can be too intense to be useful.

I AM IN CONTROL OF WHAT GOES ON INSIDE MY HEAD

Conscious and unconscious memory

One interesting feature of memories created like this under conditions of stress is that they tend to reside in your corpus striatum – the unconscious part of your memory – rather than in the more conscious hippocampus. They are therefore difficult to retrieve in a conscious way without real self-awareness.

Dopamine can be released in a much more controlled way through reward and an anticipation of reward. The controlled release of dopamine is how we form the most desirable templates in our brain – or in other words, how we learn most effectively.

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New tricks

I once gave a talk to a group of police firearms trainers. A few weeks later I bumped into one of the most senior guys. I remembered that he was one of the people who had sat stony-faced and cross-armed throughout the course. So I was a bit surprised when he came up to me with a broad smile on his face and his arm outstretched. He shook hands with me warmly and patted me on the shoulder.

‘Thanks, Floyd,’ he said. ‘Your talk put me into turmoil.’

I did a bit of a double-take but continued to listen. He saw my surprise and suddenly looked serious.