the future of the Human Mind, April 2011

Club of Amsterdam

Videos

Credits: Andreas van Engelen, Sound Design

Maurizio Zollo, Bocconi Dean’s Chaired Professor in Strategy and Corporate Responsibility, Bocconi University; Program Director, Neuroscientific Foundations of Strategic Decisions

Presentations

Luc Sala
Personality types and your brain

Humberto Schwab, Philosopher
Human mind is more body – page 1
Human mind is more body – page 2

Maurizio Zollo, Bocconi Dean’s Chaired Professor in Strategy and Corporate Responsibility, Bocconi University; Program Director, Neuroscientific Foundations of Strategic Decisions
Strategic management and neuro-sciences

Ever since humans became aware of their mind, they have been questioning its origin. Is the mind part of the physical body, or does it exists by it’s own? New developments within the neurosciences address this matter in a way that will very likely change our view on ourselves and the world for good. The discovery of mirror neurons provides a neurological basis for social behaviour and it might even give an explanation for the explosive evolution of culture amongst human beings. Will these developments lead to the conclusion that we are all nothing but very complicated computers in the end, which can be replaced by robots? And where does this leave philosophical concepts as consciousness, free will, morality and art for instance?

Concept by Janneke van Leeuwen & Humberto Schwab

The speakers and topics are:

Luc Sala
Personality types and your brain

Personality typing using MBTI – Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Big Five, Enneagram is a great tool for HR professionals, psychologists and therapists. A brief outline of the systems is given, and correlated with neurlogical findings. The popular typologies however lack a good theoretical model and most have little relevance for understanding or guiding the development of an individual. Privacy is becoming a major issue, as our digital shadow on Facebook and in datafiles of many kinds could be used to “type” automatically and for “profiling” for judicial, medical and commercial use.

Humberto Schwab, Philosopher
Human mind is more body

What is a person within a context of a group or a society, do we have a unique will and character that steers our behaviour, and our body? This is probably untenable regarding the neuroscience revolution. We are more interwoven with our environment , our brain is not a fixed walnut, nature and nurture discussions are obsolete: our neurosystem is in continuos dialog with the environment. We can change ourselves by changing our interaction!

The program of the Center for Research in Organization and Management (CROMA) on the Neuroscientific Foundations of Strategic Decisions aims to open new research horizons in the strategic management field by leveraging, for the first time, recent developments in the neuro-sciences. The basic idea is to explain the characteristics of managers and entrepreneurs’ activity measuring their mental processes as they make decisions through brain imaging techniques. This allows researchers to obtain unbiased and extremely detailed observations, critical to explain the performance of innovation decisions as well as the impacts of social responsibility and sustainability-related choices. I will present some of the most interesting results of the neural correlates of explorative decisions by managers and entrepreneurs, and reflect on how we can help decision-makers develop their capacity to make complex decisions in a creative, responsible and sustainable way.

Exhibition
by Maartje van Buuren

“My work is about attraction and repulsion. Contradictory thought and also behaviour. A battle between extremes, tension, how something unpleasant can also be beautiful at the same time. It’s my window into a world and mind, full of contradiction.”

19:00 – 20:00
Introduction by our Moderator
Adda van Zanden, Actress

Part I:

Luc Sala
Personality types and your brain

Humberto Schwab, Philosopher
Human mind is more body

20:00 – 20:30
Break with snacks & drinks.

20:30 – 21:15
Part II:
Open discussion

Luc Sala

Luc Sala is a physicist and economist by training, but worked all his life in the media as entrepreneur, television maker, writer, journalist and publisher. He has written thousands of articles and a dozen books about many subjects, from ICT to the esoteric. His fancy is understanding information and how humans use information.
www.lucsala.nl

Humberto Schwab
Philosopher
Owner, Humberto Schwab Filosofia SL
Director, Club of Amsterdam

Humberto Schwab is owner of Humberto Schwab Filosofia SL. He studied physics and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and was for years teaching at Montessori Schools, Rietveld Art academy and Hoogeschool of Amsterdam. He was the frontrunner in innovating secondary education with a complete new philosophy curriculum. He designed a new method and wrote 6 books for this method. Her also designed a complete new format of teacher training and executed this training.

As an innovation philosopher working in Spain and Holland, he is involved in innovation processes in education, cross media, business and ngo’s. He developed the eurolab method, which is a value and philosophy based futurelab. Students from different universities participate in these labs, mostly situated in Spain. The students work in a think tank simulation and produce real advices for governments or business.

The lab formula is used for companies to reflect on their philosophy or to redesign their philosophy regarding the future roads. Business is always related to ethical values because needs of persons are related to values. The Socratic dialogue is a strong contextual method to foster collaborative brainstorms. Humberto Schwab designs new tools for innovation and reflections together with several other philosophers and trainers.

He also participates in several innovationlabs with i.e. Mediaguild and other organisations.

His main goal is getting individuals and groups into the collective thinking mood, using philosophy as the treasure of strong ideas and concepts.

He is active in creating an optimistic approach of the European challenge.
www.humbertoschwab.net

Maurizio Zollo
Bocconi Dean’s Chaired Professor in Strategy and Corporate Responsibility, Bocconi University; Program Director, Neuroscientific Foundations of Strategic Decisions

Bocconi Dean’s Chaired Professor in Strategy and Corporate Responsibility at Bocconi University and Director of the Center for Research in Organization and Management (CROMA). He is also the editor of the European Management Review, the official journal of the European Academy of Management (EURAM). Professor Zollo serves on the Executive Committee of the European Academy of Management and of the European Academy of Business in Society (of which he was one of the co-founders). He is also the Program Chair of the Innovation and Knowledge interest group of the Strategic Management Society and a past member of Executive Committee of the strategy division of the Academy of Management, In addition to his editor role for the European Management Review, he also serves as associate editor or on the editorial board of four other leading academic journals in the strategy and organization studies fields. Before joining Bocconi University in September 2007, he served for 10 years on the faculty of INSEAD in the strategy department.
http://faculty.unibocconi.eu/mauriziozollo

Maartje van Buuren

Maartje van Buuren holds a Bachelor of Fine Art and Design in Education and graduated with honours in Fine Art. Her graduation project with mold landscapes and furniture was nominated for the Piet Bakker award. Maartje has worked as a creative therapist and as a teacher. She has also contributed to several industrial design projects and works as a freelance graphical designer. Maartje uses images, poetry, sounds and sculptures in her work to portray her continous search for tension.

“My work is about attraction and repulsion. Contradictory thought and behaviour. A battle between extremes, tension, how something unpleasant can also be beautiful at the same time. It’s my window into a world and mind, full of contradiction.”

Adda van Zanden
Actress

Adda van Zanden works as an actress in training for different organizations such as Leeuwendaal, Delta Loyd, Philips, Healthcare and Governmental Institutions.

She works as well as a trainer for CEL; Center of Evolutionary Learning. CEL is specialized in identifying the most effective learning approach to improve personal development processes.

Adda also teaches drama at the Nirmala Arts Academy near Milan.

And was a host/moderator at several cultural events.

Because she practices meditation she is interested in the transformation power of the experience of mental silence.

Impressions