Manage episode 512815016 series 3558385
Are you trying to foster innovation in your organization, but team meetings end up feeling like an uninspired replay of previous ones? Many leaders face this challenge. They have smart team members, but unleashing their team’s creative genius seems unattainable. Fortunately, social neuroscientists like our guest, Caroline Szymanski, Ph.D., can offer us science-backed insights and strategies to boost team creativity and performance.
Caroline earned a Ph.D. focused on social neuroscience and team collaboration from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. She went on to apply what she learned in her doctorate program as part of the teaching and coaching team at the Hasso Plattner Institute School of Design Thinking in Germany.
In this episode Caroline breaks down insights and practical tips on team facilitation, activating brain circuits to help teams synchronize their brain waves for better performance, avoiding common mistakes that lead to group-think or team discouragement, the importance of building and sustaining trust, reducing the impact of stress on teams, and much more. We also touch on Caroline’s passion for helping people cultivate relationship intelligence for couples and parents of young children, and why she founded Relationship-holidays, a retreat center based in the Azores islands that offers rest, adventure, and programming for strengthening relationships and parenting skills.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
Caroline Szymanski, Ph.D., is co-founder of Kandoee Innovation and a strategic facilitator, qualitative researcher, and expert in the neuroscience of team collaboration. For more than a decade, she has helped global teams define and launch innovation by synthesizing human needs into actionable design and strategy.
Caroline honed her expertise as a lead coach, lecturer, and project manager on the core teaching team at the Hasso Plattner Institute School of Design Thinking (2012–2024). Her approach is informed by a Ph.D. in Social Neuroscience and Collaboration from the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
Carolina’s consulting experience includes leading complex remote projects for organizations such as GIZ, Kiron, and Helios Clinics. A polyglot who works in German, English, French, and Italian, she brings a culturally adaptive lens to her strategy and qualitative insight generation for international service design.
In addition to her consulting work, Caroline is passionate about helping people cultivate relationship intelligence for couples and parents of young children. She channeled her passion into the founding Relationship-holidays, a retreat center based in the Azores islands that offers rest, adventure, and programming for strengthening relationships.
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