…today’s secret…Brain brakes.

In the beginning rainfall was a self-organizing system.

A gazillion years ago, before man, rain that fell to the earth carved out streams that formed rivers that stretched into lakes, that created oceans…

Without man around, rainfall developed its own pattern on how future rain would be collected and organized.

And, like pre-man rainfall, our brain is also a self-organizing system.

As we age and experience life we develop unique neural networks in our brain that allows us to organize incoming information into numerous patterns.

When information comes to us our brain automatically directs it to one of these recognizable patterns…which enables us to better handle the situation in front of us.

This is good. Every day would be day one all over again if our brain didn’t do this! It also explains why some people live in a world with a different colored sky.

Fortunately, our brain alerts us when incoming information doesn’t fit any of our pre-developed patterns. “Whoa dude. Red flag. Something is not right here.”

This is also good. It helps us reject information that is contrary to our life experiences If our brain did not do this we would give our Social Security number to any stranger who asks.

The downside to our ‘brain brake’ is that it curbs our risk taking. We are hardwired and hesitant as individuals AND organizations to pull the trigger and ride the bullet of new ideas.

When things are going good, we don’t generally look for ideas to make them better. When things aren’t so good we simply look for the cause and a way to eliminate it.

Organizations committed to helping people find meaningful work are awash with problems today…one being that everybody is hiring and nobody is applying.

Statistically, there is a huge labor pool daily leaving the criminal justice system that could help solve this labor shortage problem.

Yes, there are bad actors in this world and (fill in the adjective here) politicians bent on putting the incarcerated back on the streets before they bottom out behind bars.

Words like crime, criminals, criminal justice system have never been so distasteful in our culture as today.

That’s why ‘brain brakes’ across the country are screeching as if someone suggested that we put square wheels on cars or land airplanes upside down.

This might be one of those problems where we could take our foot off our ‘brain brake’…and maybe explore, even if for just a smidgen, how we could safely bridge some ex-offenders from the criminal justice system to those businesses hesitant to hire them.

If your ‘brain brake’ says “No way Willie” then you now have experienced how your self-operating system works.