The Age of the Brain
The 21st century is fast becoming what could be termed the “Age of the Brain.” The management world is flooded with ideas about winning talent wars, managing knowledge workers, and boosting innovation, but most of this boils down to a single aspiration: gaining a competitive advantage by adding to and leveraging the collective brainpower of organizations.
It’s a relatively recent trend. In the past, business organizations didn’t need as many highly educated employees. They mostly required unskilled and semi-skilled workers who were directed by tiers of managers. Businesses needed strong backs and nimble fingers as much as or more than they needed large numbers of good thinkers.
These days, we take for granted employers’ concerns that they won’t be able to find enough smart and educated employees. Three-fifths of 209 HR professionals say a “war for talent” is underway right now, and “talent retention” will be the single most important HR challenge over the next two years, according to a recent survey of conducted by Human Resource Executive and ERCDataplus (“Taking,” 2006). Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor reports, “Professional and related occupations are projected to grow faster and add more jobs than any other major occupational group, with 6 million new jobs by 2014.”
In this Age of the Brain, there will likely be greater attention paid to research on training and cognition. In recent years, for example, there’s growing evidence that certain types of training and exercise can enhance cognitive function. Past studies suggested that – probably beginning around middle age – people tend to take a little more time to process information, make judgments, and jump from one mental task to the next (Begley, 2006b). Not long ago, most scientists viewed this as part of an inevitable biological decline. New studies suggest, however, that training can go a long way toward improving the cognitive abilities of older people.
A seven-year study recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that older people can gain long-term benefits from five weeks of training that included ten 90-minute sessions focused on improving memory, reasoning ability and speed of processing. The study looked at the performance of 2,100 Americans ages 65 to 94. It found that, even five years after the initial training, participants were still able to outperform their untrained age cohorts in various cognitive tasks. “Our findings clearly suggest that people who engage in an active program of mental training in late life can experience long-lasting gains,” said University of Florida Michael Marsiske, one of the researchers (Nohlgren, 2006).
Other studies have analyzed brain activity of adults 55 and older. One, for example, looked at how computer training can make older brains work more like younger ones. “This suggests that the brains of older adults remain relatively flexible, able to alter brain circuits in response to training,” says Dr. Kirk Erickson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Begley, 2006b).
But mental gymnastics are not the only way of boosting brain function. Other research focuses on the mind-body connection, showing that aerobics training improves cognitive function after only a few months. In fact, such exercise actually increases the production of new neurons, something that scientists didn’t consider possible as recently as the late 1990s. “It suggests that aerobic exercise can stave off neural decline, and even roll back some normal age-related deterioration of brain structure,” said Dr. Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois (Begley, 2006a).
There is also growing research into “brain boosting” drugs. Much of it is focused on improving the memory ability of aging brains, with the goal of one day finding more effective therapies for coping with Alzheimer’s. But some experts also foresee a time when such drugs will be used to improve the functioning of normal brains. “Companies won’t tell you this, but they are really gunning for the market of non-impaired people – the 44-year-old salesman trying to remember the names of his customers,” asserts James McGaugh, a neuroscientist of the University of California at Irvine (Vlahos, 2005). If such drugs were to appear, they’d raise a number of ethical quandaries in the workplace, as described in a previous TrendWatcher.
Another area of research is the development of what some are calling “surrogate brains.” Microsoft Research Labs’ Gordon Bell is involved in a project called MyLifeBits, in which he has “captured a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally” (“MyLifeBits,” 2006). A recent article in Fast Company describes Bell as wearing a “tiny bug-eyed camera” that records photos every 60 seconds and having a “a small audio recorder at his elbow.” In essence, a huge piece of Bell’s recordable life is stored in computer memory, where it becomes part of a searchable database. “I can offload my memory. I feel much freer about remembering something now,” he states (Thompson, 2006).
What makes much of this possible is that the cost of computer memory has plummeted in recent decades. In 1956, the cost of a gigabyte of computer memory cost $10 million. By 1990, it was down to $7,700, and today is just $1. The trick is to be able to actually tap into all this recorded material in a useful way, perhaps using artificial intelligence to discover useful patterns to spur innovations (Thompson, 2006).
For employers, the growing body of research into cognition suggests both opportunities and risks. The most obvious implication is that health-promotion programs could provide benefits beyond relieving stress levels and keeping down healthcare costs. Employees who engage in aerobic exercise could be enhancing the cognitive abilities that they bring to bear on their work. What’s more, in the near future, employers might be able to provide some workers with specialized training that improves their reasoning ability, speed of decision-making and other cognitive functioning.
Further down the road, researchers will likely be able to provide more empirical data about how specific management practices and work environments affect brain function. There might also be more drugs and information-technology tools designed to address deficits or aid normal cognition. Of course, this would raise all sorts of issues. For example, would the company or employee own the “digital memories” accrued in the workplace? And, in an era where stored e-mail is used in some court cases, would the risks outweigh the benefits of such records?
The Age of the Brain will, in the end, require some careful decision-making. But the prospect of a “smarter organization” will be a powerful motivator for employers to keep thinking hard about cognition.
For more on the “Long-term Effects of Cognitive Training on Everyday Functional Outcomes in Older Adults,” click here.
For projections about future jobs in the U.S., click here.
For a Fast Company article about Gordon Bell and MyLifeBits, click here. For further information, click here.
Documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include the following:
Begley, Sharon. “How to Keep Your Aging Brain Fit.” Wall Street Journal, ProQuest. November 16, 2006a.
Begley, Sharon. “Old Brains Don't Work That Badly After All, Especially Trained Ones.” Wall Street Journal, ProQuest. March 3, 2006b, p. B1.
“MyLifeBits Project.” Microsoft Research. 2006.
Nohlgren, Stephen. “We Can Sharpen and Keep Our Wits.” St. Petersburg Times, December 20, 2006, pp. 1A, 14A.
“Taking the Pulse.” Human Resource Executive, November 17, 2006, pp. 8-10.
Thompson, Clive. “A Head for Detail.” FastCompany, November 2006, pp. 72-79, 110-112.
U.S. Department of Labor. “Tomorrow’s Jobs.” Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006-07.
Vlahos, James. “Will Drugs Make Us Smarter and Happier?” Popular Science, ProQuest. September 2005.
It’s a relatively recent trend. In the past, business organizations didn’t need as many highly educated employees. They mostly required unskilled and semi-skilled workers who were directed by tiers of managers. Businesses needed strong backs and nimble fingers as much as or more than they needed large numbers of good thinkers.
These days, we take for granted employers’ concerns that they won’t be able to find enough smart and educated employees. Three-fifths of 209 HR professionals say a “war for talent” is underway right now, and “talent retention” will be the single most important HR challenge over the next two years, according to a recent survey of conducted by Human Resource Executive and ERCDataplus (“Taking,” 2006). Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labor reports, “Professional and related occupations are projected to grow faster and add more jobs than any other major occupational group, with 6 million new jobs by 2014.”
In this Age of the Brain, there will likely be greater attention paid to research on training and cognition. In recent years, for example, there’s growing evidence that certain types of training and exercise can enhance cognitive function. Past studies suggested that – probably beginning around middle age – people tend to take a little more time to process information, make judgments, and jump from one mental task to the next (Begley, 2006b). Not long ago, most scientists viewed this as part of an inevitable biological decline. New studies suggest, however, that training can go a long way toward improving the cognitive abilities of older people.
A seven-year study recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that older people can gain long-term benefits from five weeks of training that included ten 90-minute sessions focused on improving memory, reasoning ability and speed of processing. The study looked at the performance of 2,100 Americans ages 65 to 94. It found that, even five years after the initial training, participants were still able to outperform their untrained age cohorts in various cognitive tasks. “Our findings clearly suggest that people who engage in an active program of mental training in late life can experience long-lasting gains,” said University of Florida Michael Marsiske, one of the researchers (Nohlgren, 2006).
Other studies have analyzed brain activity of adults 55 and older. One, for example, looked at how computer training can make older brains work more like younger ones. “This suggests that the brains of older adults remain relatively flexible, able to alter brain circuits in response to training,” says Dr. Kirk Erickson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Begley, 2006b).
But mental gymnastics are not the only way of boosting brain function. Other research focuses on the mind-body connection, showing that aerobics training improves cognitive function after only a few months. In fact, such exercise actually increases the production of new neurons, something that scientists didn’t consider possible as recently as the late 1990s. “It suggests that aerobic exercise can stave off neural decline, and even roll back some normal age-related deterioration of brain structure,” said Dr. Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois (Begley, 2006a).
There is also growing research into “brain boosting” drugs. Much of it is focused on improving the memory ability of aging brains, with the goal of one day finding more effective therapies for coping with Alzheimer’s. But some experts also foresee a time when such drugs will be used to improve the functioning of normal brains. “Companies won’t tell you this, but they are really gunning for the market of non-impaired people – the 44-year-old salesman trying to remember the names of his customers,” asserts James McGaugh, a neuroscientist of the University of California at Irvine (Vlahos, 2005). If such drugs were to appear, they’d raise a number of ethical quandaries in the workplace, as described in a previous TrendWatcher.
Another area of research is the development of what some are calling “surrogate brains.” Microsoft Research Labs’ Gordon Bell is involved in a project called MyLifeBits, in which he has “captured a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings and stored them digitally” (“MyLifeBits,” 2006). A recent article in Fast Company describes Bell as wearing a “tiny bug-eyed camera” that records photos every 60 seconds and having a “a small audio recorder at his elbow.” In essence, a huge piece of Bell’s recordable life is stored in computer memory, where it becomes part of a searchable database. “I can offload my memory. I feel much freer about remembering something now,” he states (Thompson, 2006).
What makes much of this possible is that the cost of computer memory has plummeted in recent decades. In 1956, the cost of a gigabyte of computer memory cost $10 million. By 1990, it was down to $7,700, and today is just $1. The trick is to be able to actually tap into all this recorded material in a useful way, perhaps using artificial intelligence to discover useful patterns to spur innovations (Thompson, 2006).
For employers, the growing body of research into cognition suggests both opportunities and risks. The most obvious implication is that health-promotion programs could provide benefits beyond relieving stress levels and keeping down healthcare costs. Employees who engage in aerobic exercise could be enhancing the cognitive abilities that they bring to bear on their work. What’s more, in the near future, employers might be able to provide some workers with specialized training that improves their reasoning ability, speed of decision-making and other cognitive functioning.
Further down the road, researchers will likely be able to provide more empirical data about how specific management practices and work environments affect brain function. There might also be more drugs and information-technology tools designed to address deficits or aid normal cognition. Of course, this would raise all sorts of issues. For example, would the company or employee own the “digital memories” accrued in the workplace? And, in an era where stored e-mail is used in some court cases, would the risks outweigh the benefits of such records?
The Age of the Brain will, in the end, require some careful decision-making. But the prospect of a “smarter organization” will be a powerful motivator for employers to keep thinking hard about cognition.
For more on the “Long-term Effects of Cognitive Training on Everyday Functional Outcomes in Older Adults,” click here.
For projections about future jobs in the U.S., click here.
For a Fast Company article about Gordon Bell and MyLifeBits, click here. For further information, click here.
Documents used in the preparation of this TrendWatcher include the following:
Begley, Sharon. “How to Keep Your Aging Brain Fit.” Wall Street Journal, ProQuest. November 16, 2006a.
Begley, Sharon. “Old Brains Don't Work That Badly After All, Especially Trained Ones.” Wall Street Journal, ProQuest. March 3, 2006b, p. B1.
“MyLifeBits Project.” Microsoft Research. 2006.
Nohlgren, Stephen. “We Can Sharpen and Keep Our Wits.” St. Petersburg Times, December 20, 2006, pp. 1A, 14A.
“Taking the Pulse.” Human Resource Executive, November 17, 2006, pp. 8-10.
Thompson, Clive. “A Head for Detail.” FastCompany, November 2006, pp. 72-79, 110-112.
U.S. Department of Labor. “Tomorrow’s Jobs.” Occupational Outlook Handbook 2006-07.
Vlahos, James. “Will Drugs Make Us Smarter and Happier?” Popular Science, ProQuest. September 2005.