Our approach has emerged from our research into the “ideal school” and the use of the latest neuroscience to explain our findings. This approach is universal in its application to the individual, and, indeed, teams and organisations.
From research in neuroscience we have developed the concept of the Blue and Red Zones as a way of understanding this research. These zones describe two important mind/brain states (or subsystems) that vie for the brains more or less fixed amount of energy resources (“attention”).
This part of the brain is similar to a primate’s brain e.g. a chimpanzee. The Red Zone continues to operate in ways which were useful for survival in a dangerous, natural environment, particularly by trying to maintain the status quo and by triggering the fight/flight response, but that are no longer so helpful in a modern setting.
The Blue Zone represents the newer part of our brain which, being energy intensive, achieves higher blood flow via a greater surface area as the brain’s outer layer sitting above and in front of the old brain.
It is the Blue Zone that makes us human, distinguishes us from other primates. New activities take place in the Blue Zone and, if deemed by the brain to be useful to keep through their repetition, they are transferred into the older part of the brain as “habits”, activities that we can do efficiently and without paying much attention.
For example, it is an effort to learn to ride a bike but, once learned, it is never forgotten and hence forward done automatically. This ability to adapt or learn is central to being human.
One final, but important piece completes this simple picture. Our brains are designed to detect difference and this detection mechanism is connected directly into our Red Zones. Difference triggers Red Zone activation. In the past, a small movement of what we thought was a shadow might mean a predator and our Red Zones would prepare us for “fight or flight”, e.g. increase the heart rate, reduce the sensitivity of the pain centres, reduce blood flow to the skin (to reduce blood loss if wounded), drain resources from the Blue Zone to focus on the sole aim of survival. Our Red zones do not differentiate the source of threat. Standing up to speak in public can trigger the same responses, responses that are no longer useful in a modern, social context.