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The Central Nervous System (CNS) receives and transmits information, influencing emotional and intellectual functions. It also presents a great variety of cells, such as neurons and glial cells, which are essential for its activity (GOMES et al., 2013). The CNS's function depends on the interactions of these cells, which are fundamental for neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to adapt and reorganize. External stimuli enhance neural connections, while the absence of stimuli weakens the connections between neurons, impairing brain function (Kandel et al., 2012).
The brain has evolved to be highly adaptable, modifying itself based on experiences (Carlson, 2000). This plasticity occurs throughout life, not only in cases of trauma but also in situations of learning and emotions (RELVAS, 2009). Neuroplasticity reshapes the brain in the short, medium, and long term, especially in individuals exposed to new challenges and diverse environments, such as those who develop creativity.
Understanding how the brain adapts and learns is not just a scientific curiosity; it is essential for leaders aiming to foster innovative environments. Neuroplasticity directly affects teams' ability to adjust to new challenges, learn from experiences, and thus become more creative and productive.
Creativity is a key process in organizational innovation and is managed in three stages:
A conducive environment is essential for innovative ideas to transform into products or services (Caniëls et al., 2014). In the context of digital transformation, companies face collaborative and multidimensional challenges (Cortellazzo et al., 2019). Leadership must be flexible, capable of managing rapid and complex changes, and possess a strategic vision along with hybrid skills in business and IT (KPMG, 2017). Collaborative leaders should encourage the creation of interorganizational ecosystems, fostering mutual trust, information sharing, and consensus-driven decisions.
Digital transformation requires leaders who embrace change, leverage technology to drive organizational growth and competitiveness, and manage transformation across the collaborative network (EY, 2014). These leaders must promote a digital culture, enhance team collaboration, and inspire changes that lead to innovation.
Collaborative and transformational leadership is crucial in a rapidly changing environment, requiring agility, a focus on innovation, and creative solutions to manage complex ecosystems (Horney et al., 2010). The ability to balance risk and innovation, along with fostering an entrepreneurial culture, is one of the pillars ensuring organizations' competitiveness and survival.
Key Short-Term Leadership Skills for Emerging Scenarios Leaders must explore topics such as:
Measuring and improving performance, reducing time spent on operational activities through automation, using statistics to outline possibilities for the new year, anticipating market movements, and identifying behavioral trends of increasingly connected audiences.
Within this vast world of data, People Analytics plays a crucial role. It enables the use of centralized people management data to define movements, restructurings, recognitions, and other relevant topics in an employee's journey within the organization.
Neuroplasticity will be a greater differentiator than ever as we increasingly work with multicultural teams across multiple time zones. While Latin cultures naturally start meetings with casual conversation about weekends, family, or vacations, other cultures are known for their direct and objective approach.
These diverse cultures, with stable or evolving economic models and distinct relational skills, can illuminate previously unimaginable areas of innovation—provided there is a cohesive link that gives meaning to the team's existence in the short, medium, and long term.
One emerging work model in the post-pandemic era is project-based teams—groups with predefined demand alignment, refinements, and deadlines, often composed of individuals who may never work together again. These professionals hone their neuroplasticity through projects in various industries, challenges, and business dimensions, from startups to large enterprises.
A similar and well-established market model in which ilegra is recognized for excellence is Outsourcing. In this model, professionals are allocated to clients for a fixed or indefinite period, working alongside direct employees in various areas such as ideation, architecture, research, design, development, and management.
In this format, an employee can participate in multiple projects within the same client, specializing in a sector such as finance or transitioning to other industries or project formats—leaving the original client while maintaining a relationship with the initial employer.
In the context of multicultural and multidisciplinary teams, there is no room for command-and-control leadership styles. Career advancement should be defined collaboratively, based on employees' aspirations. Leaders must understand the available movements within the organization, provide tools to support employee growth, and offer challenging project opportunities to foster development. However, the execution of action plans and interest in career growth should be employee-driven, not imposed by leadership.
There is no magic formula, as we are constantly evolving and experiencing rapid technological changes that impact how we communicate and live. However, some key factors contribute to good brain health and development, regardless of the global context:
Engaging with younger generations provides exposure to unique communication styles, slang, social media trends, and the challenges of a hyperconnected world. Conversations with more experienced individuals offer deep insights into work-family relationships, expectations, and frustrations.
Do you always sit in the same place for breakfast? Do you always eat the same breakfast? Humans naturally resist change, but we can prepare the brain for the noradrenaline surge that occurs when something deviates from the plan. This way, we can understand our emotional control process in a safe environment, accelerating the release of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
Have you ever felt mentally exhausted while learning something new or troubleshooting a coding error? This happens because the brain has a daily information absorption limit. Beyond a certain point, we enter "autopilot" mode, losing full focus on the task at hand and requiring a stimulus to "wake up." Simply stepping away from the computer for five minutes can help shift the brain from focus mode (a single neural pathway) to diffuse mode, where information is retrieved from multiple sources—similar to a vast computer with different file folders.
I highly recommend reading Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville.
Leading for the future means actively engaging in creating this new world. Understanding how you think and react to external stimuli will provide a significant advantage in your development as a transformational leader, fostering the empathetic understanding needed to guide new navigators through this sea of possibilities.
By better understanding people and integrating this knowledge into your management approach, you will be well-equipped to define strategies for the future, with more resilient, innovative, and mature teams.
