Applying Neuroscience to Leadership | MIT Sloan Executive Education

Deborah Ancona is the Seley Distinguished Professor of Management, a Professor of Organization Studies, and the Founder of the MIT Leadership Center at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Her pioneering research into how successful teams operate has highlighted the critical importance of managing outside, as well as inside, the team’s boundary. This research directly led to the concept of X-Teams as a vehicle for driving innovation within large organizations. Ancona’s work also focuses on the concept of distributed leadership and on the development of research-based tools, practices, and teaching/coaching models that enable organizations to foster creative leadership at every level.

She is the author of the book, X-Teams: How to Build Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed (Harvard Business School Press) and the related article, “In Praise of the Incomplete Leader” (Harvard Business Review). In addition to X-Teams, her studies of team performance have also been published in the Administrative Science Quarterly, the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, and the Sloan Management Review. Her previous book, Managing for the Future: Organizational Behavior and Processes (South-Western College Publishing), centers on the skills and processes needed in today’s diverse and changing organization. Ancona has served as a consultant on leadership and innovation to companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bose, Takeda, Li & Fung, OCP, Accenture, ASA and has served on the Board of the Penn Graduate School of Education and the working group of the Canadian Council of Academies.

Ancona holds a BA and an MS in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in management from Columbia University.

Tara Swart is a neuroscientist, medical doctor, author, executive advisor and Faculty at MIT Sloan. She is passionate about teaching practical neuroscience-based messages that change the way people work and sustainably translate to tangible improvement in their business and their lives.

She holds a BSc in Biomedical Science and PhD in Neuropharmacology from Kings College, London and an MD from Oxford University.

Tara is lead author of the award winning book 'Neuroscience for Leadership' and her new book ’The Source' is a UK best seller. It is available in the USA from October 2019.

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Learn How Neuroscience Can Impact Leadership

Tara Swart: Lessons from neuroscience can help you become a better leader.

Participant Testimonial

"Excellent program with valuable content, applicable in you professional and personal life. Good balance between theory and practical. Mix of international participants was great!" -Daniella S.

Podcast

Are Leaders Born or Made?
Dr. Tara Swart is at the forefront of the application of neuroscience in business. In this podcast, she discusses the importance of neuroscience in business today, how it can benefit companies, and its application in developing the current and next generation of leaders.

Pablo Rodriguez C: Excellent program. A great experience masterfully carried out by the professors Ancona and Swart, totally recommended to know better the capacities to carry out an intensive leadership from the point of view of the neuroscience.

Overall:
Application:
Content:
Experience:

Owen M: Great overview on prior material and how to apply it to changing tech landscape.

Sanjay B: Excellent course. Loved the presentations by Tara and Deborah.

Abdoul F: The program lives up to my expectations.

Gabriela M: It was an amazing experience!!! Learn how to take care of your brain and how it works to benefit yourself from it and also to help others. An excelente opportunity to challenge your patterns and biases to reframe the way you think and behave! Enjoy!

Ricardo A: I was gladly surprised of the content of the course. New tools to help me perform better personally and professionally.

Ralph S: Thoughtful insights on personal creativity as well as how to create a learning , high creativity environmnet.

David M: This class really helped me examine how i can be the best version of myself which in turn reflects in my leadership style at work

Christina S: Provided a lot of information not usually talked about when looking at leadership. Very helpful and enlightening.

Zorana B: Tara is very good in what she is doing and she shares her experiences and her expertise with the audience very widely. From the MIT side I have expected a course to be more science oriented.

DAY 1 SAMPLE
7:00AM - 8:00AM	Optional Yoga Class
8:00AM - 8:30AM	Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30AM - 9:00AM	Introduction: What is Neuroscience for Leadership?
9:00AM - 12:00PM	Neural patterns and immunity to change; Mindsets; Neural personality
12:00PM - 1:00PM	Networking Lunch
1:00PM - 5:00PM	Neuroplasticity: Resilience When Facing Challenges
5:00PM - 6:00PM	Reception
DAY 2 SAMPLE
7:00AM - 8:00AM	Optional Yoga Class
8:00AM - 8:30AM	Continental Breakfast
8:30AM - 12:00PM	The role of the environment in shaping development and new neural patterns; Creating positive organizations; Creating Growth Mindsets; Mind-Brain-Body Relationships
12:00PM - 1:00PM	Networking Lunch
1:00PM - 4:00PM	Neuroscience for the Future: Creating Agility; Thinking fast and slow--instinct, logic, and effects of stress, sleep, volition; Exercise for future planning

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Neuroscience for Leadership

Deborah Ancona

Seley Distinguished Professor of Management
Professor of Organization Studies
Founding Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center

Tara Swart

Senior Lecturer

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Learn How Neuroscience Can Impact Leadership

Participant Testimonial

A Yoga Session in Neuroscience for Leadership

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Seley Distinguished Professor of ManagementProfessor of Organization StudiesFounding Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center

Senior Lecturer

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Learn How Neuroscience Can Impact Leadership

Participant Testimonial

A Yoga Session in Neuroscience for Leadership

Podcast

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Seley Distinguished Professor of Management
Professor of Organization Studies
Founding Faculty Director of the MIT Leadership Center