Fujoli Labs are science-based blending the following sciences: 

The Science of Teams
Team Performance and The Positivity / Productivity Equation

  • Our work at Fujoli Labs is greatly influenced by our work and association with Team Coaching International, pioneers in team development, and their data from assessing the BEFORE / AFTER effectiveness of 5,000+ teams worldwide. 
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  • The data and results show the compelling relationship between team positivity and team productivity.
    • Productivity = the capacity to perform the function required of the team. ​
    • Positivity = the relationships required to perform as a team.
  • High team performance requires both.
    • Teams with low positivity are ultimately unsustainable because relationships falter.
    • Teams with low productivity falter because they can't get enough accomplished. 
    • Fujoli Labs helps teams improve both. 
    • Most business teams tend to over focus on productivity at the expense of positivity. 
    • High positivity is a MUST to sustain high productivity.

The data also shows that high performance can be trained and sustained. ​Here is what it takes:  

  • Team Awareness: For the team to see itself as a team, with a common purpose, and a need to work together to achieve it. "A company and a team is a living organism". - Jeff Wiener, CEO LinkedIn
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  • ​The mindset and habit of continuous improvement and growth through deliberate practice. "The best teams are those that work on being a team". - H.R. Hasler, FIFA Director of Development and World Champion coach.
 
  • Intentional focus on increasing connection and engagement to deepen trust and psychological safety in service of having richer and more meaningful discussions. ​Slow down to speed up.


Research confirms that creativity and productivity flourish when people are in a more positive mindset and feel more connected. It is proven that greater trust and positivity lead to greater performance and sustain it. 

Research on positivity / productivity published in Harvard Business Review: 
  1. Proof that positive work cultures are more productive by Emma Seppälä and Kim Cameron
  2. Research is clear. Long hours backfire for people and for companies by Sarah Green Carmichael ​
 
  • FUN FACT: Boston University, School of Business research shows that managers can NOT tell the difference between their  teams that actually work 80 hours a week, and those who just PRETEND to work 80 hours. 
  • Overwork and constant high productivity is not just neutral, it HURTS people and their company. 
    • Costs to employees: 
      • Lower sleep quality, more drinking, memory goes down, MISTAKES get made, anxiety and depression lead to absenteeism.
    • Costs to company: 
      • Negative impact on bottomline, RETENTION ISSUES as employees leave , absenteeism, higher health care insurance costs.
Neuroscience of Learning 

“Whenever you shift from passively absorbing material to actively engaging with it, your learning accelerates” Dr. Barbara Frederickson
 
Dr. Pooja Agarwal PhD. Author of Powerful Teaching and cognitive scientist specialized in how people learn and remember. Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

Research shows across disciplines the following strategies are basic and work:
  1. PRACTICE! Practice is using what you know. The way musicians learn and remember as musicians. We know that to get better we need to practice your knowledge. Musicians have to practice their instruments. To learn a foreign language you need to practice. In the MEDICAL field, diagnosing patients, doing CPR… you get better at it when you practice. But when you ask people to “practice your knowledge” people are perplexed. At Fujoli Labs, each Lab ends with a Mini Action Plan of the things that the team just learned and will practice between sessions. 
  2. SPACING. Instead of putting a team through a day or two of learning, spacing out the learning and returning to previous content and ask what did you learn since last time is proven to increase learning and retention. 
  3. The higher your retention, the better your ROI on learning.

    ​Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLRezTY7rIU
Neuroscience of Positivity
- Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, PhD, Professor of Psychology and. Neuroscience, University of North Carolina

Dr. Fredrickson shares research on how positivity has the clear effects on performance, including:
  1. Increases trust and connection
  2. Students starting their exams in positive states perform better than those that are not as positive.
  3. Positivity opens minds and helps people see the big picture.
  4. Positivity makes us more creative 
 
Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7dFDHzV36g

Neuroscience of Change
- Dr. Richard Boyatzis, Case Western Reserve University

Negative Emotional Attractors versus Positive Emotional Attractors 

  • Shows that people and teams change much faster by connecting them to positive visions and outcomes and  shifting them into positive states.
  • Shows the neuro-chemical reactions that happen in us when we connect with Positive Emotional Attractors (PEA) and how that increases effectiveness. 
  • Talks about how stress limits our field of vision and how positivity opens us up and makes us more connected and creative.
  • Talks about emotional contagion among people. Do you know how quickly we pick up on someone else's emotion? Micro-seconds. It's deeply sub-conscious. This awareness helps team members take greater responsibility of taking care of themselves - and each other.​
Beyond Intellect: Visceral Learning and Connection

Conceptual versus Embodied Awareness 
​Alan Fogel, PhD, University of Utah 

Dr. Fogel shows the importance of "getting out of our heads" and "into our bodies"  for greater well-being and sustained, optimal performance. Actually we need to be able to switch between those two states to be at our best.
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  • Conceptual Awareness - is helpful when we need to focus, solve problems, think about the past and the future, run through 'What-if' scenarios. 
  • Embodied Awareness helps us be present, includes our emotions and feelings, connects us to our bodies, heart, 'gut-feel', intuition and deeper wisdom. 
  • Different neurochemical states. Fogel's research shows that each state of awareness generates a different neurochemical state in us. And in order to sustain us, and be at our best, as individuals and in relationship with others, we need to be able to shift forth and back between them. 

Learning and Connection are Biological
Play Time, Down Time, Connecting Time 
​- Dr. Dan Siegel, UCLA School of Medicine. 
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Dr. Dan Siegel's MIND PLATTER highlights the importance of Down Time, Play Time and Connecting Time in order to sustain well-being and performance. 

  • Down Time. Relax, chill out, do nothing in particular. Let's the brain recharge (!) which is needed to sustain high performance.
  • Play Time. Be playful, allow novelty to fill your experience. Be spontaneous, often with a sense of humour and delight. Play creates safety and a willingness to expand beyond the familiar. This helps people deal with and open up to change.
  • Play keeps the connections in the brain growing which supports cognitive abilities. 
  • Connecting Time. When we connect to other people our sense of well being is greatly enhanced

Reference: 5 minute YouTube
Science of Play
- by Dr. Stuart Brown, M.D.  

  • "There is nothing like true play to promote social cohesion at work" (relationships)
  • We need newness of play, a sense of flow and being in the moment. 
  • We need the sense of liveliness and discovery play provides. 
  • Fosters a sense of connection.
  • Work and play, both have CREATIVITY in common. 
  • Humans have a biologically programmed need for play. 
  • Play can bring back excitement and newness to work. 

WORK AND PLAY
  • Play at work is essential. When the going gets tough, the tough play. Talk to firefighters, police officers and appreciate the need they have for joking around, razzing each other and crack practical jokes when times are tense. It helps them cope with the dangers of work. 
  • Most people, from time to time, have a fear of looking bad, being bad-mouthed, being fired or making mistakes, all of which create anxiety. When that happens, people are not at their cognitive or creative best. Play, connection and humor are antidotes.
  • Play has proven to give people the necessary emotional distance to rally when times are tough and challenges are big. 

TED Talks: The Neuroscience of Play by Dr. Stuart Brown www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrw68eID4Zk

"Play is the highest form of research"
Albert Einstein
"Almost all creativity involves play."
Abraham Maslow