Building thinking, feeling and knowing teams

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present fresh insights into the development of business teams. It aims to set out principles for taking teams through “thinking, feeling and knowing” into a state of advanced and confident performance and aligned behind a common vision. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on insights only recently available through emerging neuro-scientific research, especially via functional MRI scanning technology. These principles are well embedded in the clinical world but rarely translated to business. The Think Feel Know model addresses this through its representation of the three layers of the brain (cortex, limbic and basal) and makes understanding accessible and practical. Findings – By using the insights available through neuroscience and adapting these to the building and development of teams, people can foresee opportunities to take teams to completely new levels of performance. This is about creating confident teams. Research limitations/implications – This paper is based on a mixture of the author's own experience in senior business roles over a 30-year corporate career and underpinned by the emerging neuroscience. It is intended to offer radical insights as well as to be put to practical use. Originality/value – The key value is the representation of complex neuro-scientific principles on human behavior and performance into a simple but powerful model called Think Feel Know. The model represents the three layers of the brain – the cortex, limbic and basal layers. It shows how the interaction of these layers directly influences behavior and performance, how it gives meaning to experiences and how it makes people the individuals that they are.