Dot to Dot

We discuss the psychology of bias, why we have it and some of the impacts. We chat about the biases you may have, what impact they could have and how to really put yourself in the position of what it’s like to have those preferences toward or prejudices against you. We also discuss ways in which companies could approach conscious bias training in order to provide more lasting outcomes on behaviour. And what you can do to help turn down the volume on your own biases.

For more from us follow these links: 

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

Connect with us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

Or for Lou

Instagram:www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter:https://twitter.com/louisejones78

To take the implicit bias test follow this link:

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

We’re used to the rituals of athletes such as tennis player Nadal, who places his hair behind his ear, pulls his nose and adjusts his shorts while bouncing the ball before every point.  People have accused him of using this as a way to break the momentum of his opponents. But Nadal says that these routines are for his psychological benefits. And the research would suggest that this is true, for many of us, not just athletes. Rituals give us a sense of control when we’re facing uncertainty. Research by Harvard psychologists Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton suggest that engaging in rituals mitigates grief caused by both life-changing losses (e.g. such as the death of a loved one) through to the more mundane ones (e.g. losing a lottery).

For more from us follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Connect with us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

Or for Lou

Instagram:www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter:https://twitter.com/louisejones78

Read more about Why Rituals Work

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-rituals-work/

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

According to psychologist Dr Jeffrey Arnett (whose work I also refer to in Defining You) these three areas define it:

1. Taking responsibility for yourself which "generally means accepting the consequences of your actions without expecting anyone else...to protect you from those consequences."
 

2. Making independent decisions - "It's finding out who you are and how you fit into the world, and there is a range of decisions that go into that."
 

3. Having financial independence

There's a period between 18 and 29 that Arnett described as Emerging Adulthood which has since been backed by neuroscientific research showing our brain continues to develop until our late 20s. For some though being an adult never seems to come. Lou and I discuss this and much more too in this week's episode of Dot to Dot. 

For more from us follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Connect with us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

Or for Lou

Instagram:www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter:https://twitter.com/louisejones78

Thank you to Giles Paley-Phillips for the production of this episode. 

Insider article referred to in this episode: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-3-things-that-make-you-an-adult-2016-1?r=US&IR=T

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

George caught my attention on twitter with his brilliant tweets (see below for his handle). Every day he posts so many questions – all so thought provoking that I often don’t even answer them - I'm just left pondering. George who lives in Philadelphia USA has a brain that won’t stop whirring which is where all of these fabulous, thought provoking posts come from. He explains how he started off just posting a few and began to love the positive and interesting comments and discussion that they provoked, bringing people together from all over the world.

More about George - in his own words, ‘there are not enough books on sh*t disturbers. Hence, Dr. Styles endeavours to write on this topic, which sits next to his heart. "Somebody has to go against the grain... ...what would the world look like without a 2nd opinion?" he says. 

Despite his propensity for foolery and antics, he was able to get it together and obtain his PhD in Biochemistry in 2016.  He is also an avid composer of music, and is a fan of a wide variety of music genres.’  

To follow George go to:

https://twitter.com/geostylegeo

For more from me follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Connect with me on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

We discuss the parallels between Olympic preparation and organisational leadership – but how in many ways organisations often know what to do but don’t ‘walk the talk’ in the way the teams who surround athletes do.  Lou explains why it’s never a comfortable experience watching an athlete you’ve trained, why athletes have experienced and understood more things about themselves leading up to a Covid Olympics than any other and why we are set to see some incredible performances.

Connect with us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter:https://twitter.com/louisejones78

Or for Fi: 

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

In the UK "we look back on the 2012 Olympic Games through gold-tinted glasses, 'Super Saturday' and an inspiring celebration of British athletics uniting the country. For a then 20-year-old Green, the suffocation of 80,000 fans and personal expectations became the starter pistol to understanding and dealing with the mental health struggles he had always known were there.” 

"If one thing got past my armour, I couldn't manage it because I'd say 'I'm not meant to feel this way because I'm meant to be a superstar, I'm meant to be this robot'. That's when I'd really struggle and when I'd break down.”

"As soon as I accepted that I'm a human being and human beings feel things, as soon as I said 'OK, I can feel this way, I'm going to sit with it, embrace and accept it', it kind of took the power away from them. A big part for me that probably saved my life was accepting and embracing vulnerability,"

We talk about the pressures put on athletes across all disciplines, how it can feel like you’re not seen or supported until you’re contender for a medal, and once you’re not you’re just as quickly forgotten. Jack now coaches athletes, including Tokyo-bound Italian sprinter Gloria Hooper. He explains how he uses a different approach with every person, working hard to understand not just their physical needs but how they interact with their psychological make-up. He also held the position of Head of Wellbeing at BBC Studios before joining Champion Health UK as head of Performance, taking and using his own learnings to help others. 

“My purpose is to help as many people be the best version of themselves because that is truly what high performance is all about. My philosophy is a very simple one: a happy athlete is a fast athlete. And I use this philosophy in all of my well-being work.” 

For more on Jack:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Green_(hurdler)

For more from us follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Connect with us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

Or for Lou

Instagram:www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter:https://twitter.com/louisejones78

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

On this episode among other things we explore the importance mentors and role-models and how one small comment at the right or wrong time can send a young person's life off in a completely different direction. 

We also discuss Christine's upbringing and how she chose not to go to Oxford or Cambridge despite being destined - not through her upbringing - but her academic capability to go there. She decided it wasn't what she wanted and followed her interests instead of being drawn into the expectations of those heralded institutions.  I didn't know until we did this podcast that she has 8 A levels including the sciences. And yet she is open to hearing how other people view the world, listening to their take and perspective and offering her guidance. 

Christine Cross is a Chair, Independent Non Exec Director, Business Advisor and Mentor.

She holds  Non-Executive Directorships with Coca Cola European Partners plc; Hilton food group plc; Clipper Logistics Plc and Zooplus AG and acts as Advisor to the Board of a number of  plc, private equity and private companies .  She has  served as NED on the Board of Next plc; Woolworths Limited (Australia);  Sobeys (Ca) plc; Plantasgen (Nor); Sonae plc (Portugal); Brambles plc (Australia); Kathmandu plc (New Zealand); Fenwick Ltd (UK):   Fairmont Hotels Group; Premier Foods and Taylor Wimpey. She was Chief Retail Advisor to PWC for 5 years. 

She particularly enjoys working with small growth businesses too and Chairs Oddbox, a sustainable produce business growing fast in the Uk; acts as Advisor to My First Years;  plus devotes time to being a Fellow at the RAU Enterprise Unit.

Prior to ‘going plural’  Chris had a 15 year Executive career at Tesco having carried out a number of roles at Director Level.

Latterly, as Group Business Development Director, she was involved in a programme of acquisitions. Prior to this her primary focus at Tesco was the establishment of a global direct sourcing operation  and the leadership of  Tesco’s UK and International clothing business. She was also instrumental in developing and launching  the Tesco private label product range. Recruitment to Tesco was from a successful career in academia as Principal Lecturer and Course Director  at Bath and Edinburgh Universities.

For more from Fiona follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Connect with me on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

We chat about how it’s interesting that now that we have research around psychological theory - whether it's through neuroscience or more applied research studies - we're seeing that many of these ancient approaches work.

But remember that every technique will not work for everybody - so definitely give them a try, practice them with an open mind and see what works for you. There will be something that does but you have to try to be able to know for sure. Here’s a summary of the 8 rules: 

1) It’s not events that cause us suffering, but our opinion about events.

2) Our opinions are often unconscious, but we can bring them to consciousness by asking ourselves questions.

3) We can’t control everything that happens to us, but we can control how we react.

4) Choose your perspective wisely.

5) Habits are powerful. 

6) Fieldwork is vital.

7) Virtue is sufficient for happiness. 

8) We have ethical obligations to our community.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/creating-in-flow/201311/8-ancient-rules-life-we-should-still-follow

For more from us follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Connect with us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

Or for Lou

Instagram:www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter:https://twitter.com/louisejones78

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

From Utah to LA, a band member to a Silicon Valley founder, a return to Utah and becoming an extraordinary guide to leaders on public speaking and beyond John has had and continues to have such an interesting journey. This week I make a few bad jokes about my height and being the pinnacle of John's career (if you know me, you also know this is the last thing I'd ever think but it I worry it may get lost in the English sarcasm). Unlike me John tells some genuinely funny stories and even shares his brilliant impression of Snoop Doggie Dog. 

John quotes back something he was told years ago -  "John if you get up on stage and you have your attention on yourself then you have your attention on a minor ball of petty concerns that have no real interest to anyone but you. However you get up onstage and you have your attention on your audience and the difference that you're going to make for them and the difference they are going to make with the people in their lives because of it well now you have your attention on something worth thinking about." 

We chat about a wonderful guy who John works with and I've got to know a little - a Senator who has flipped his belief system following a number of years helping out in a juvenile detention centre.  Howard is now deeply passionate about enabling kids from all backgrounds with the skills to reach reading age before they come into school, helping those who are disadvantaged to start on a more even playing field. For more on this amazing initiative go to:

https://www.waterford.org

John relays the experience of not only training astronauts at NASA but also getting a 40 min phone call from space and his time spent helping Dolph Lundgren. I'm so chuffed to have met John and I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy him too. 

For John's book go to:

https://www.amazon.com or https://www.amazon.co.uk

And for more about him:

https://executivespeakingsuccess.com

For my book which we refer to a couple of times go to:

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

And for my other book: 

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

Connect with me on:

Instagram:www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter:https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook:https://facebook.com/fionamurden

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com 

For more from us follow these links: 

My book Defining You - How to Build Your Unique Personal Profile and Unlock Your True Potential can be found at via these links and in all good book stores:

https://bit.ly/DefiningYou2ndEd

https://amzn.to/2lFMwOr

If you are curious about who you are, your brain and the influences in your life then please dip into my more recent book  Mirror Thinking – How Role Models Make Us Human available at the links below and in all good book stores. 

https://bit.ly/MirrThink

https://bit.ly/MirrorUSACan

https://bit.ly/2ylrc7H

Follow us/ask us any questions on:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/fiona_murden

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fionamurden

Facebook: https://facebook.com/fionamurden

Or for Lou

Instagram: www.instagram.com/loupylou78

Twitter: https://twitter.com/louisejones78

For more on Fiona visit www.fionamurden.com