"Understanding topics such as Cognitive Dissonance may benefit us in comprehending how we are wired to work".

Understanding how cognitive dissonance operates is an essential learning for all of us. It enables us to connect well with others, have a deeper control of our thinking patterns and also restructure our beliefs for a more meaningful life. From my personal perception of dissonance, it is a battle that we all have inside us all the time when we conflict with our values, beliefs and lifestyles that we confirm to. We get prone to making excuses to feel that rush of good feeling chemicals in our brains for our own satisfaction without realizing if it serves us any better.

In the era that we live in, having a healthy psychology and insights is more a "Hard Skill" that we need to nurture. Its a inner game when played well executes the outer game congruently.

Cultivating and nurturing our minds better can be collaborated through Self Awareness , building stronger EQ/ Agility, and getting better at Resilience. The fact of life is that we only develop these cognition at "Will" and that's the space where it activates at its best.

I have been a Learning & Development Specialist for more than a decade, and what I really adore today is how our personal learning, unlearning to relearning, up-skilling and growth transforms from one level to another at very intervals.

As an L&D enthusiast, I believe that gone are those days when one use to enforce learning from the "Bad News Perspective" , but rather research has shown that humans are more prone to learn and transform better from the "Good News Perspective". Allow me to use a example to give you an experiential taste of this. The common practice I have noticed in some organizations is that they enforce their corporate governance or culture through being the "Rule Book Orientation", e.g. "If you don't adhere to all these company policies and procedures - this warrants a disciplinary procedure".

However, please allow me to challenge you with this question. Dont you think this only drives a culture of fear and anxiety rather than a productive culture?

What if we change and cultivate a reverse psychology on this? What I have recently learnt is applying social incentives, immediate rewards and progress monitoring may be a healthier and effective way to drive this.

Without being prescriptive, I reckon that L&D platforms, forums, should induce elements of Self Awareness, Self Mastery and openly introduce topics such as Cognitive Dissonance, Behaviorism, Compassion, Empathy as a vital form of learning, this truely compliments or rather justifies all the Training budget that gets spent on technical skills and transits workforce to be People Obsessed or Centric- and I strongly feel this is that we need in the Post Pandemic World that we breathe in today!

Altaab Khan - Inspiring to be future Cognitive Behavioral Therapist.