The Talent Forge: Shaping the Future of Training and Development with Jay Johnson

Beyond Visualization: The Mind-Body Connection That Changes Everything with Dominika Staniewicz

• Jay Johnson • Season 1 • Episode 39

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Could your brain be lying to you? What if everything you thought about motivation and training is fundamentally flawed? In this eye-opening conversation with Dominika Staniewicz, we dive deep into how neuroscience is revolutionizing corporate training and personal development.

Drawing from her extensive background as an HR director, career coach, and advisor to the Polish president on education standards, Staniewicz reveals how neuroencoding—a practical application of neuroscience—creates lasting behavioral change by rewiring the brain. Unlike traditional visualization techniques that only engage the visual cortex, neuroencoding involves practicing scenarios with full body engagement before they happen, allowing us to default to optimized behaviors when faced with real-world triggers.


Whether you're a training professional looking to enhance your programs, a leader wanting to develop your team more effectively, or someone interested in personal growth, this episode offers practical neuroscience-based strategies that can transform how you approach development. Check out https://yourbraincoachd.com/ to learn more about her work in neuroencoding and brain health.

Meet the Host
Jay Johnson works with people and organizations to empower teams, grow profits, and elevate leadership. He is a Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements®, a two-time TEDx speaker, and a designated Master Trainer by the Association for Talent Development. With a focus on behavioral intelligence, Jay has delivered transformational workshops to accelerate high-performance teams and cultures in more than 30 countries across four continents. For inquiries, contact jay@behavioralelements.com or connect below!

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjohnsonccg/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jayjohnsonccg/
Speaker Website - https://jayjohnsonspeaks.com

Jay Johnson:

Welcome to this episode of the Talent Forge, where we are shaping the future of training and development. I am very excited today because we have an awesome guest and a very unique voice and perspective coming in. ,Dominika Staniewicz, I'm pretty close, we're going to call you Coach D, but welcome to the show, coach D.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Hello, thank you so much for having me, Jay. I'm super excited because it hasn't been a long time since I spoke about trainings and the corporate side, which I'm so passionate about as well.

Jay Johnson:

Amazing and let's talk about that passion and get the audience a little insight into your background. How did you get into this space and really what got you into things like neuroencoding, which we'll define and really get into a little bit more, but fire away, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Well, I'll give you the short version because the podcast is not long enough to give my whole history. But in Europe I worked as an HR director for big companies for about 20 years in different capacities, and I was also a career coach At the same time. I was extremely miserable and I was going for those goals and those KPIs and achieving those numbers and life was life and it wasn't exactly how I imagined it would be. And at the same time, I was an advisor to the Polish president, which we would create new standards for education. I was a professor for 15 years at one of top Polish universities, teaching sociology, public speaking and HR, so I really loved that space. And then I came to the US with all those experiences, master degrees, and it turned out that it's absolutely worth nothing, despite me being an American citizen. And I would hear you know, dominika, did you guys use LinkedIn? Like I was in Europe, not in the middle of the ocean, but we're going to leave that for another conversation.

Dominika Staniewicz:

So my first job was separating hangers with convicts at a warehouse, and that was a gift and a curse, because I realized how much I've strayed away as a manager for all these years from people who are, let's say, at the bottom of the structure, how much they hang on every word that we say. And that was kind of an eye-opening moment for me and I started growing. You know developing. I said I don't want to live my whole life separating hangers with all my degrees and things that I want to do in the world, so I started learning. Then one day I run into something called brain revolution. It was prepared by Dr Daniel Amen, who isa, double board certified neuropsychiatrist, and Dr Joseph McClendon III, who's a PhD neuropsychologist. And those two gentlemen Joseph works with Tony Robbins, dr Amen really recognizable names when it comes to brain health. They created this approach where we're actually working with neuroscience and with your brain and we take the approach that psychology and behavior is the result of your brain health and that changes and shifts everything, because your anger it's not you, not you is how your brain is functioning and if it's an organ and we have tools to work with the organ, we can change and make it better. And those are not really difficult things and this is a very new approach. It has, I don't know, maybe five, six years, but there are enough studies that even show that depression should be a symptom, not a diagnosis, because brain looks different in different situations but presents as a symptom the same way and the problem can be overactive or underactive, different area of your brain. So with that approach I fell in love.

Dominika Staniewicz:

And neuron coding brought the practical aspect outside of understanding. You know what's an anterior cingulate, you know how does I don't know hitting your head work and how can that change your personality triggers. Neuroencoding takes all that neuroscience and makes it very practical so we can rewire the brain, we can change how our brain functions, what connections and behaviors we have, based on triggers that come from the outside. And it includes health, blood work and other things. And that is so new because when we train with neuroscience inside companies, guess what? We're not only giving the company tools to lower the costs and we're going to get into that later but we also helps people manage, because the same tool is used in your private life and in your work life and it brings everything together where you don't have to separate that. And those tools are permanent if you practice them because they're not dependent on company culture but they're dependent on your choice how you want to live your life, just to make it very simple. So neuron coding and brain health, brain coaching. This is what I specialize in and that's how I fell in love with it, because I saw that there are other ways than pills, than stress. Even feedback, now based on neuroscience, should look different to actually lower the cost for a company and be more effective where people are looking to find more difficult challenges on their own and you don't need to ask them to do it, because it's exciting for them to find solutions. And when switching those things around, you see how people.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Motivation is BS. Okay, motivation doesn't exist. Motivation is temporary. It's a hit of, you know, dopamine especially, and dopamine addiction is actually extremely destructive and it's not helping the company. Those are those overachievers that burn and crash and usually are very emotional, not stable. So what if you could pace that? You know that excitement? What if that excitement wasn't dependent on the manager but that person was so excited to do things for the company and they would get the satisfaction because the satisfaction is dopamine and serotonin and that would just play out in their real life, in their daily life and at work life, where they would be excited to do things. No need to motivate everybody with money. There are other ways and that motivation is not important anymore because it's an internal drive that is translated into grit, that becomes wiring in your brain, influences the white matter in the brain and a whole nine yards that I can talk about forever.

Jay Johnson:

So I guarantee the audience is now aware why I was so excited about this. Because we share that passion for neuroscience and psychology and one of the things that you said. And I think this is something that's so important because I think, whether you're a trainer, whether you're a coach, whether you're an HR practitioner, motivation is not a 2D object. It's not this flat thing that you can look at and be like I'm motivated or I'm not.

Jay Johnson:

I love that you brought in the context of there's a lot of different types of motivation or things that motivate us, whether it's the dopaminergic desire circuit or even something like the oxytocin based bonding circuit, that I might be very motivated to do something because of a connection, not because I actually want to, in fact I don't want to but I still find motivation to go and help you move because you are my colleague, friend or whatever else like that.

Jay Johnson:

So motivation can be multi-contextual. When you're talking about the concept of neuroencoding, if you can help define that a little bit so I know that we've had conversation on this show about neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change, the brain's ability to sort of carve new neural pathways. I know that I've said many, many of times neurons that fire together, wire together. So, with all that being said and I know that that's actually it's sort of true, there's a lot that goes into that, but if you can give our audience no, it's not sort of, it's sort of true, I, there's a lot that goes into that, but if you can, give our audience.

Dominika Staniewicz:

It's true. You just need sleep for that to happen. That's the only thing.

Jay Johnson:

Yeah, and and a few other and a few other proteins that go along with it, as long as you're. But I like what you said the eating healthy, the making sure that you're actually taking care of yourself. That is really the fundamentals of getting to that neuroplastic stage. But let's talk about this neuroencoding. What does that mean? How does that show up? What does that look like?

Dominika Staniewicz:

So neuroencoding is basically practicing scenarios before they happen, so you can default to your best behavior or optimized behavior or chosen behavior, whichever you prefer. When it happens, you know when people act on stage. It's not like they walk in and they know all the lines and they know which movement to make based on what situation. They literally practice the same thing over and over and notice that that the first read throughs if you know anything about acting are done sitting down, but the moment you're done you read that few times. You start using your body and neuro encoding realizes, as brain coaching, as an any neuroscience based training, that rewiring of the brain and the practice of your brain is connected to your body. There is no way you can feel great sitting with your shoulders down and head down because there's oxygen flowing, there is different width of your blood vessels, there are so many biological things, so we recognize that and we hack your psychology with your biology. And neuroencoding is practicing for the moments when you're creating scotomas, so creating breaks in the circuit, so you can input something else, so the brain can take attention away from your crazy thoughts that we all have and put it on something else that gives you a breathing room so you can kind of change the direction. Because the truth is we all have crazy thoughts. Our brain runs and creates those thoughts like insanely, and most of the time it lies to us. It lies to us because we've created.

Dominika Staniewicz:

When I talk to my clients, then I go okay, can you make yourself feel worse? They sit there and go well, yeah, I can. And you probably have a whole list of things where you messed up in life, don't you? That you can immediately remember, of course, because when you remember you reignite the chemical releases from your brain that make you feel a certain way. The question is do you have the same playathra and set of events that make you feel good, that you can just go to and go? Okay, I feel like crap. Let me take this, this and remember this, because guess what, when you remember, you again discharge the chemicals and you reignite those neural pathways and you feel again a certain way. But the truth is, most of us don't remember good events because we don't practice. Remember. Bring good events.

Jay Johnson:

And our brains wired for survival. So remembering all the things that brought us pain lodges in our hippocampus and then it all of a sudden puts us in that place of let's not do that again, let's not take this chance, let's not try this, let's avoid this or whatever other barriers that comes from our generalization pattern in our brain.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Our brain deletes the source and generalizes. And the most dangerous part of that is not the delete, that we create stories that never existed we all do that but the generalization. So one event creates a whole story and sequence. Now, if you're able to grab that and say, okay, and in the same situation or similar to these great results came about and on purpose, remember them, on purpose, feel good, on purpose, then that circuit becomes stronger and you then have a choice and even if the old one kicks in, you're able to say, ah, ah, ah, ah, no, no, no, you go away. We're going to now focus on the good things. And that is being able to do, you know, automatically create a skitoma, and that is a concept of breaking the pattern of a thought. Have you ever been in a kitchen or you were sitting at a desk and go, okay, let me go and get something from the kitchen and you want to get a sandwich. You go to the kitchen like, um, what the heck did? I come here for nothing?

Dominika Staniewicz:

emotional happen every day so your brain pattern and your thought pattern and your brain functions in the connection of your body. When the body changes the position and changes the input of where you are, that memory can flee and you end up not knowing what you came for. But that is also an opportunity to bring another thought that will serve you and we can use that natural pattern of the brain to teach people, to prevent them from winding themselves up, from getting discouraged. Curiosity, which is a psychological idea, but curiosity has a special place in your brain. Or using kinesthetic ability of the brain to check in with yourself if the decision you're making is agreeing with your natural values and you're not falling out of integrity, which will then lead to self-sabotage.

Dominika Staniewicz:

There are so many things and different parts of your brain light up like Christmas tree or decide to disappear. You know when you really concentrate and you really want to remember something and you go blank. That's a brain pattern. We can rewire that so it doesn't happen. And way to do that start walking when you try to remember something.

Jay Johnson:

Yep, I love getting movement in, especially if I'm doing thinking, trying to remember or anything else like that. It just it does. It's that same concept of like you're trying to remember something and then you start walking, you start going to the store and like, oh, it comes back to you and it's just, yeah, that blood flow. That sort of interaction I want to. I want to jump in on one thing. So from the beginning, you know this sort of visualizing ourselves in a different, in a different sort of mentality, or a different outcome, or practicing, mentally, practicing.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Visualize practicing. That's very different, because visual is only your visual cortex.

Jay Johnson:

Here we're also doing physical movements, saying things out loud and using all the senses, and that's really important so let me ask you this, as we look at something like visualization, a lot of our trainers coaches they may use visualization exercises, but what I'm hearing you say is it's very different, because you're actually using not just the visual cortex but you're getting a whole body experience into that, or mechanical experience. Can you explain that just a little bit, what those nuances are?

Dominika Staniewicz:

Absolutely, and I think that's great that we're using visualization, because 50% of our brain is a visual cortex area. So you know we do need the visual input. We process a lot of visual information. The challenge with that is is that, uh, first of all, we need to know if our clients or people we work with, people we're training, actually have the ability to visualize, because about 20 percent of population is unable to do that and they experience life through sound, smell, movement and there are no pictures.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Like I have pictures when I sleep, but when I imagine things, I imagine things through feelings and shapes. There are no particular pictures. I am unable to see the ocean per se in my head. I'm able to smell the ocean, I'm able to feel the ocean, I'm able to hear the ocean. So that's the first thing we need to check. Second thing we need to make sure that when we're working with anybody and they're going to visualize, they need to feel it. Feel it to the point where, when we do an exercise, for example, imagining what you're eating, that you start salivating that is effective. Imagining pictures with no emotions attached and no physical response is unaffected. That's why you know I am rich, I am rich, I am rich and your brain goes look at your account, it's $1.

Jay Johnson:

You're not rich. Dissonance kicks in there right.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Exactly so your brain also needs logical proof. So there is a spine balance. And if you're saying, I'm walking on the beach and I feel you need to actually experience those feelings and you practice that over and over, and at the beginning it's harder than it's short than short, and it becomes something that it's a go to. It's kind of like how you pick up a cup, right, you're not thinking, oh, I'm going to extend my right hand, I'm going to take and grab it, and thinking, oh, I'm going to extend my right hand, I'm going to take and grab it, and then I'm bringing it up and closer to my mouth, I'm going to.

Dominika Staniewicz:

There is no process like this. It happens automatically. So we create images and things that can emotionally trigger you by choice. That's very important and you practice that over and over. So when the real trigger from the real world happens Over and over, so when the real trigger from the real world happens whatever that might be, I don't know somebody says you're an idiot, right, and you get upset, then you can automatically because you've trained that guy.

Jay Johnson:

Oh isn't, are going to follow that. Are going to end up following whatever the signified trigger is.

Dominika Staniewicz:

And the funny thing is that's how you live. This has your brain has been doing this since you were born, but without your choice. Now you have a choice and you get to program that however you want to, and then we will look at your blood work right, because if you're not producing enough of neurotransmitters, if you don't have enough of D3, if you don't have enough of magnesium, potassium, ferritin and iron, you will experience anxiety and depression and you will experience high stress levels. Sometimes not always that is one of the simplest ways to lower those experiences, because your emotions are basically chemicals that are creating certain responses. So if we know that and again, it's not always sometimes it's deeper.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Sometimes you know you have parts of the brain shutting down and then you get disoriented. You have memory cortex problems, or maybe your prefrontal cortex takes over too much, or maybe your limbic system overacts. There are other things we can think, but let's start with simple things, because most people never touch the simple things that are easy solutions. They immediately run to very complicated ideas and our brain is very simple. Despite what we've been told, it's the same way for the last 40,000 years. The environment is changing, but the brain keeps working the same way.

Jay Johnson:

Yeah, evolution hasn't caught up to how quickly technology shifts our actual civilization. But you know and I love what you said there because I know that you're a Huberman fan as- well as I am, and you know, I very distinctly recall, and I was like you know that makes so much sense.

Jay Johnson:

He's like if you want to improve your life, there is one thing to start with, get more sleep. And then, if you get more sleep, the next thing that will improve your life is eat. You know, eat. Eat enough fruits and vegetables to get those kind of nutrients into your body, and drink more water. Those are three things that you will exponentially improve the quality of your life and I'm like it is literally that simple sometimes.

Dominika Staniewicz:

And go outside.

Jay Johnson:

Yeah, yeah, get that sunlight into the eyes and into the skin. So, all right, let's, let's talk about this from a training perspective, right, like when we are in a. When we're in a training environment, we're trying to help somebody either upscale, maybe they're trying to shift their mindsets, and we know, we know that they can change. But and and this is kind of an interesting area, because I'm sure that you've seen this A lot of trainings are like this is your personality and this is who you are and this is how you behave, and all of a sudden, people start to go well, that's just how I am. What's the response to that? Or how do you look at that? How would you interpret that? Because there's a lot of questions on everything from personality to genetics, to epigenetics, to environment, to culture, to learning, condition, behavior, et cetera, all of these different stimuli and it feels like sometimes our participants, or our audience, or the leaders that we're teaching, are just like well, that's how I am.

Dominika Staniewicz:

What are your thoughts and this is how they perceive how they are and they're absolutely right. So, first thing, we always agree. I don't dispute that. I can see how you see that this is how they perceive how they are and they're absolutely right. So, first thing, we always agree. I don't dispute that. I can see how you see that, this is how you are.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Let me ask you a question Is that always serving you? And that's the first question I ask. And if they say yes, then we're not touching it. Why? Because they don't see the need. Nothing in anybody's people who are training, working with. If they don't see the need, they will not change and they will not take the effort.

Dominika Staniewicz:

And change requires effort. Neuroplasticity after age of 25 requires effort. Up to 25, we change with almost every experience and our brain does pruning and other beautiful stuff that it does and it creates new neural pathways stuff that it does and it creates new neural pathways after age of 25 28 depending on the study, men 28, women 25. Sorry, gentlemen, we need to designate our brain, say this is important, this needs to change, and that can be by choice or it can be by a traumatic event, and obviously we don't want to deliver any traumatic events to people, because brain literally changes itself when it goes through real trauma. That's why I'm very sensitive about where I've had a traumatic experience. No, somebody disagreeing with you. It's not a traumatic experience, that's not trauma, that does nothing to your brain, it's just your discomfort. So after we ask them, they say no, well, I you know, if I would believe more in myself, I would do this. Or if I would wake up early, I would disagree Fantastic. So do you like things to be easier or to be hard? And usually people say easy, right, okay, fantastic. How many easy things were you satisfied in with life? And they all giggle. Usually Things that are easy don't give us long-term satisfaction. That's how we're built, okay. So it's kind of taking apart their beliefs. And the truth is that we've experienced for the same situation. We have experiences that are great and came out with a phenomenal outcome, and we reacted the same way and the outcome was horrible. Now, because we forget the great outcomes, our job is to bring back saying okay.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Somebody says I'm stupid. Okay, were you always stupid? Yes, are you a hundred percent stupid? Well, was there anything you ever done that was not stupid? Notice that. I don't say that was not. That's not smart, but not stupid. Well, I've done this. When you made breakfast, was that smart? Was that a good thing? Yeah, okay. When you were nice to your boss, was it good? So are those stupid things? Well, no, no, those are not stupid things. Oh, so you're not stupid. You sometimes act stupid.

Dominika Staniewicz:

We need to put doubts in the belief system and the brain starts to search, even if you're not talking about it, brain search for examples and then we reaffirm that in different ways In training sessions. Talking is not enough and that's the challenge I see. All my training sessions require physical activity, require movement standing up, sitting down, moving around, changing partners, discomfort. Why? Because then your senses are heightened. And again, we teach people to celebrate. Right. Brain requires celebration to wire for the say positive side right, to kind of enjoy, because when we enjoy things it's easier for us to do them. But for some unknown reason, all trainers I've met they go okay, let's celebrate, pat yourself on the back. Who really feels like they're celebrating them like, honestly?

Jay Johnson:

all right, yeah, no kidding no, there's no emotional discharge.

Dominika Staniewicz:

so what we do before we do that, we teach people how to celebrate, and with men, a great example is when you guys go and watch a football game whatever sport you like and you jump, you scream, you clap and you're so engaged and you go, we won. What the hell is we? Where's the we?

Jay Johnson:

Where's your jersey? Where's your cleats?

Dominika Staniewicz:

You weren't exercising every day, 12 hours a day, whatever. But it's we won, and your expression and your joy is everywhere in your body. I've never seen a man celebrate with a calm face and a low voice and just watching, with no expression. So if you can give that much energy because it's energy and engage your brain in such an excitement for somebody else that you've never met, never will meet and never exercise, Could you do at least part of that for yourself?

Jay Johnson:

Sure, even 10% of that energy would be a massive increase.

Dominika Staniewicz:

So I show people how I celebrate and for me, celebration when I looked back in my past, it was like a little girl and I go in business setting. At the beginning people look at me like an idiot. They think I'm absolutely crazy. A grown woman goes, but guess what? That makes me feel excited and they just get used to it. I'm not saying you're going to do it in a boardroom, but the more you practice, the more you actually engage your full body. You create the experience of joy, excitement and you release those endorphins. You release all those chemicals that are making you feel amazing. Hugs Guess what? Hugs make us feel great Oxytocin and a few other lovely chemicals, serotonin being released. But you need 31 seconds.

Jay Johnson:

That'll get you an HR violation in some organizations.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Well, again, adjust to whatever is allowed, right, and why not?

Jay Johnson:

But exactly, and I think the important thing and what I really like about what you're saying is, too often we find ourselves, whether it's in the learning and development space or anything else, or even if it's in a disciplinary or even if it is in a celebration, it's like hey, team, we hit our marks this month, Woohoo, All right, Awesome. You know, here's new information about how you can get out there and sell, but there isn't that sort of mind and body interaction. There's not that full engagement of our, of our faculties. You know there's that maybe thinking, but there's not necessarily that acting or doing. And I think that you're absolutely right that recognition, that joy, that savoring even, is something that's completely lost.

Jay Johnson:

One of the things and I'm not advocating for this in any way, I'm not saying it's good or bad and I'm not advocating for this in any way, I'm not saying it's good or bad but one of the things that I am finding really interesting is because you know, if you're a trainer or coach out there, be thankful for neuroplasticity. That is what allows somebody to change and shift and so on and so forth, and I'm glad that you brought up our ability to have you know like strong, easy neuroplasticity does kind of sort of degrade as our brain gets older and you know, like strong, easy neuroplasticity does kind of sort of degrade as our brain gets older and you know it takes men longer. We know this. But I am very fascinated with some of the research that's coming out, with things like psilocybin and the impact that that has on creating the conditions for future neuroplasticity.

Jay Johnson:

But I want to go back to even some of the things that we can do to improve this, because I think if you're a trainer, a coach, an HR person, you can be thinking about okay, maybe I don't want to give a training or have my training occur when all of my people are exhausted. Maybe I don't want to do this before lunch because nobody's eaten and everybody's probably thinking about food and they don't have the protein or they don't have this. If we were to use this neuroscience, the idea of the brain, the body, et cetera, what are some things that we should be thinking about as trainers, development managers or anybody, when we're trying to get somebody to maybe shift their behavior? Should we be thinking about all of those health things first, or just the generalized thing that's going to give people the best chance for neuroplasticity? What's your thoughts on that?

Dominika Staniewicz:

So, although the company and as an HR director I know that better than anybody and people who are listening we're not responsible for people's private lives. At the same time, if we do not reinforce healthy lifestyle, we will have worse results. So it's kind of like playing devil's advocate, making sure that people sleep enough. So maybe not having, you know, a 16 hour day and then having a meeting in the morning would be a great idea. I like to post sometimes in trainings there's this big poster that they did a study it was 2000, I think on over 2000 soldiers and they, some of them, all of them were snipers and they have four groups.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Some of them, all of them, were snipers and they have four groups. First they slept, you know, for eight hours. Shooting was 98% accurate, fantastic. Then they switched it to six hours. Well, it was 75%, still not bad for snipers, phenomenally trained. But then they went down to five hours and four hours and at four hours of sleep, accuracy of those decisions and shooting the target was at 24%. Would you like your manager to make decisions about your company and your people and be 24% accurate?

Jay Johnson:

Right. Well, and that's highly trained individuals who have gone through training for sleep deprivation, for thinking under pressure, for thinking under fire. Your manager probably hasn't gone under that kind of rigorous training either. So at 24% would probably be very we're going to call that conservative in terms of you know how the manager might function under that type of pressure.

Dominika Staniewicz:

So food is another thing. If you can, please eliminate for brain health, especially, which is kind of a mandatory thing for neuroplasticity eliminate sugary drinks. Have a lot of water, have teas but do not have Coke and you know a lot of those things that are not great. Don't serve chips. Serve fruit and veggies and things on a healthier side. If they are totally not into healthy things, just avoid the most destructive, like red dye 40 and red dye three. Avoid high corn fructose syrup, all of those things in your food. The brains will thank you because the better quality of the brain of your employees, the better decisions, the more creative.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Another thing which is absolutely crucial for neuroplasticity is boredom. We cannot have neuroplasticity and create solutions and be creative and be able to come up with answers if we're always busy. Brain only becomes in the neuroplasticity state and creative state when it's bored. Now, don't get me wrong, there's a curve, so it's not like you want them to be bored for eight hours, but there has to be a downtime Because, notice, when do you come up with ideas? You're in a car, you're in a shower, you're in a bath.

Dominika Staniewicz:

This is a state of detachment where your brain is able to access deeper memories and deeper knowledge. If you want that harness for your company, make sure that it's not overwhelming with tasks. Also, if you want your brain to and your employees brains to be neuroplastic, invite them to create connections that they would never make. So phenomenal way for creativity and growing kind of that neuroplasticity, ability to solve problems and change is rotations once a week in a different department doing things that they've never thought they could do right actually bmw really really good about that in their plants.

Jay Johnson:

They actually have on their shifts. You might rotate to multiple different jobs. You're trained for different jobs, so you might be doing one thing with the doors for your first part of your shift, but your second part of the shift you're actually completely, completely different, because now you're not going to be stiff from doing the same movement for 12 hours. You're not going to be stiff from doing the same movement for 12 hours. You're not going to be thinking, you know you're not going to get lost in there. So moving around and kind of shifting, that they've really taken to that concept.

Dominika Staniewicz:

It is, and you know. Another thing is that we talk about being out of a comfort zone and companies have overdone that. Nobody's going to be productive if they're 80 of the time out of their comfort zone, out of your comfort zone. The best ratio is the pareto method. Again, it's 20 because we're effective and quick and repetitive skills and that's where we get the results the quickest. And then the creativities and the learning process and the learning curve and coming up with new ideas. That's the 20%. But if you all the time everything is new, you just shut down and you stop learning. So there has to be a ratio and putting people in their gift zones, yes, developing the things that they're not great at. But me, if you want to kill a company, get me strictly an admin job. I will make every mistake possible. I guarantee you that.

Jay Johnson:

Yeah, give me the quality control, because that's where I'm going to get just completely lost, yep.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Exactly.

Jay Johnson:

Yep.

Dominika Staniewicz:

So everybody has that thing. So let's put people where it's their gift zone, because growing that knowledge is very easy and then partially we start developing other skills. So it has to be balanced. If you overdo it. I remember I was consulting a very big international company I'm not going to say their name because they're in the US and they're huge in the US too and they've invested $300,000 in a young lady who was super gifted, super talented. She got trained, passed everything with flying colors and they offered her a promotion. She goes no. So they called me go. What do we do? I'm like, well, you should have called me $300,000 before, Sooner. It's kind of a bit late. She goes, but what do we do? I'm like, did you ever ask her if that's in line with where she wants to go? Well, no, ever ask her if that's in line with where she wants to go? Well, no, everybody wants to get promoted no, they don't.

Dominika Staniewicz:

no, they don't because that young lady was about to get married and she wanted to have kids and she was doing her job so well that everything was running smoothly. So she knew she could have a baby and keep her job and still be an effective employee. So they basically lost $300,000 and everybody got frustrated. She stayed and then she left. But it is so important to not to assume and check in more often than once every 10 years in the development plans Like what they wanted 10 years ago might not be what they want right now. Right, same.

Jay Johnson:

Well, and I think that there's something really important that I want to draw out of there too, and maybe you can help with some clarifications here.

Jay Johnson:

Right, like, one of the things that we've talked about is on the show is giving people space, right Like, if we give them new information, if we give them new content, new ideas, new tasks, whatever it is to then give them some space to not only just try practice but also to reflect on it, and that's that was a big part of one of the conversations was OK, how do we reflect on it? We actually learn more, solidify the learning, so on and so forth. But through that reflecting, one of the other things that I heard you say kind of triggered my thought process towards even something like meditation, and you know. So we're bored, and what happens when we're bored? Chatter, right? So all this chatter, we start our mind wanders, we start thinking about what we want, we start wanting this, and there's something to be said about being able to focus and also allow ourself that space for creativity. How do we balance that? How do?

Dominika Staniewicz:

we create.

Jay Johnson:

We don't just let one fly or let the other fly I mean, the truth is, balance is a fiction.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Again. There's no balance there. It's there's no life work balance. There is life, work environment and sometimes we have it's like people go, oh, 50 50 relationship. There's no 50 50 relationship. Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's all 50-50 relationship. There's no 50-50 relationship. Sometimes it's 30. Sometimes it's 70. Sometimes it's 60. Sometimes it's 50. Sometimes it's 10. At the end, we would like this to be in that area. So it's the monitoring of it, and I think the monitoring of it is the key.

Dominika Staniewicz:

So we have been brought up in a brain that was designed by men and phenomenal we love men. So there's nothing against men. But science has shown that brains of men are very different than brains of women and they're not better, they're not worse, they're just different. Men require structure and step by step. But that is not the creative process, that is not the process of learning. And everybody who trains and coaches please look up learning curve and memorize it.

Dominika Staniewicz:

When you learn something new, your effectiveness and everything drops. You're not as good. That's what happens every time you introduce new system, new methods, new things. Before people learn, before they get to the skilled level, they will be worse first. So expect that to happen and maybe have a conversation how did we mess up today? What could we have done differently? And that's the reflecting part, accepting the fact that it's not going. Oh, you did this wrong. You should check the manual. Well, guess what? Most people don't check the manuals, no, and they don't read them. And we can say all we want. Oh, people need to be self-sufficient, but they're not. People are integrated beings. We learn from practicing, talking, explaining. So why don't, if we're introducing something new, why don't we just have a meeting in the evening? Five minutes, 10 minutes. Hey, where did we mess up today? And how can we make it better tomorrow? And laugh about it, because it's guaranteed we're going to mess up.

Dominika Staniewicz:

The moment you take away pressure from being wrong and messing up, the part of feeling comfortable and creativity starts to kick in. The permission internal permission, and we know this is going to end, because most people want to be recognized. Internal permission, and we know this is going to end, because most people want to be recognized. Most people want to feel good, most want to be seen and the way to do it is to be good. It just gives us satisfaction. So trust that this will happen. Most people don't want to mess up forever, right. But it is saying well, yeah, I forgot to click that and I deleted half of my database. I did that before in my real life and it sucked and I got yelled at. But the truth is it was a new system and I did automatically with my mouse something I used to do. The programming right of an old system looks similar. I clicked, I went oh my God.

Jay Johnson:

Oops, oops.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Now we have phenomenal IT who understood that everything has to be backed up every few minutes, right? So assume the mistakes and always ask what could you do differently next time? That's all you ask. Don't give advice, don't tell them what to do. What could you do differently next time? Because when people hear themselves, our brain is designed to trust what we hear the most often. What do we hear the most often?

Jay Johnson:

Our own voice.

Jay Johnson:

Now, if I was to ask you, and maybe let me phrase it this way so if balance doesn't exist and that's perfectly fine, we can look.

Jay Johnson:

Look at that, we can strive for the outcome of balance in its eventuality. Great, how do we switch or how do we maybe transition our brain in those moments where because I I've had this personally and I guarantee everybody in the audience has experienced this, as I think it's very human we need to focus and every chatter thought is just blowing into our brain. Or it could completely be the other way is we need to not focus or we just need to relax and what's happening? Our brain is just stuck on one chamber of thought or it's really got that tunnel vision. We're not able to look outside or detach or pull back a little bit. And we're not able to look outside or detach or pull back a little bit, how can we more effectively in ourselves, be able to make that transition or make the choice of that transition, if that choice needs to be made? And then, secondly, how can we inspire, maybe, an audience to lean into one of those spaces more effectively?

Dominika Staniewicz:

OK. So those are great questions and I have to ask you to answer this. I have to ask you are our audience only listening or also looking?

Jay Johnson:

They can be both. So they can be audio only if they're listening on Buzzsprout or they can be watching us live during video with YouTube. So, audience, check out both.

Dominika Staniewicz:

Okay. So, dear audience, if you, for this part, go to YouTube, I would highly recommend. There is this exercise. When you need to finish this chatter Works magic. It's neuroscience based, it's simple, takes three seconds and what you do? I'm going to take off my glasses to make that easier a little bit for me. And what you do I'm going to take off my glasses to make that easier a little bit for me. You take a deep breath in, you hold it for six seconds, then you nod your head, holding your breath, six times, with your eyes open. Focus on one point One, two, three, four, five, six. You're holding your breath, and then you take your hands from the top and you go. You do that standing up. So it goes like this I guarantee you that after you do this, just once, your head will be empty. There'll be not one thought. That's when you make a choice.

Jay Johnson:

Interesting. So you're essentially activating both the parasympathetic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system and the body mechanics to really kind of almost short circuit the rest of the conscious brain Interesting Takes literally three seconds Well, maybe six seconds to do that.

Jay Johnson:

Love it. So, for those of you that are listening on the podcast, go check out the YouTube. You'll see it. It's very easy to do, it looks and well described. Even so, you probably could even follow that along if you are just listening on Buzzsprout. So, coach D, this has been an absolutely fascinating conversation, and don't be surprised when we're going to be looking for part two of this, because I think that I've got about 700 more topic areas that I think that we could dig into. But, in the interest of time here today, if our audience wanted to get in touch with you, where would they be able to find you?

Dominika Staniewicz:

Fantastic. I love that question my favorite one, of course. So you can find me on yourbraincoachdcom that's my website for corporations. There's corporate services and individual services, and then you can go to YouTube, Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn and you can type in yourbraincoachd and there is also two types of newsletters. One is more Facebook type and one is more LinkedIn, where it's more neuroscience. It's called Live the Life you Want and you can sign up for that and learn and discover and I am absolutely thrilled to serve and give you the simple things from neuroscience without the chatter of you know important things like neuroencoding and brain science and anterior cingulate gyrus and all this other stuff, Because you, the truth is, we all use electricity. How many of us really know how it works? We just want to flip the switch and make it work. So we can do that now with neuroscience. We can flip the switch and make the brain work for you.

Jay Johnson:

Love that. Anytime that we can get to that application stage. That's where we're going to get the shifts, the actual behavior change and the return on investment. So, coach D, this has been an incredible conversation. I really appreciate your time, your expertise and it's been fun to kind of sit back and have a conversation a little bit about deeper neuroscience than I'm necessarily used to in a lot of these cases. So I want to say thank you for being here with us today.

Dominika Staniewicz:

My honor and pleasure and thank you for having me. I had a lot of fun Absolutely my favorite subject to talk about.

Jay Johnson:

Amazing and thank you audience for tuning into this episode of the Talent Forge and stay tuned to future episodes with Coach D and myself, hopefully, but thank you for tuning into this one where we're shaping the future of training and development.

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Jay Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of Behavioral Elements

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