Moving Beyond “Groupthink”

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

“Groupthink” is a characteristic of overly cohesive groups. Symptoms of groupthink include overconfidence and risk taking, suppression of dissent, and collective rationalization. The old adage that “like hires like” has some truth in it. Unfortunately, any group composed of like-minded individuals is in danger of succumbing to groupthink.

Long before “diversity” became politically correct, Warren Lamb was encouraging diversity in working teams. His model of diversity was not based on age, race, creed, or gender. Rather it was based on decision-making style.… Read More

Movement and Managing Success and Failure

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In Ambition, Gilbert Brim observes that “we look for the challenges that are right for us, for what we can just manage, and in this way form and shape our lives.” For most of us, however, identifying the “right challenges” is a matter of trial and error. It involves not only assessing the situation, but also assessing our own capabilities.

The latter assessment is the more difficult, for as the novelist Thomas Mann notes, “Our consciousness is feeble; only in moments of unusual clarity and vision do we really know about ourselves.”… Read More

Movement: Becoming Versus Being

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Movement is a process of change. This seems self-evident. And yet, when the analytical brain is focused on motion and change, understanding breaks up the flowing continuity into successive and distinct positions and states. What was dynamic becomes static, what was becoming becomes an invariable being.

One of the things I most appreciated about Warren Lamb was his insistence that movement is a process of change. The dynamic qualities of effort and shape must be observed to vary. A movement is never simply strong – it is becoming stronger.… Read More

Embodiment: What Goes Around, Comes Around

Posted on July 2, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

A wise man once observed that prayers are always answered. But what comes to you is not what you think you want, but what you embody.

Movement Pattern Analysis developed by Warren Lamb provides an objective picture of what an individual embodies and how individual patterns of movement are linked to decision-making processes.

Lamb found that all of us have a preferred pattern of taking action, and we will act in accordance with those preferences whenever we can. Power comes from understanding your preferred pattern and how to use it most effectively.… Read More

Effort, Shape, and Embodied Cognition

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

In Warren Lamb’s schema, the individual can use effort and/or shape to give Attention, form an Intention, and make a Commitment. By observing a person’s movement patterns, it is possible to discern whether the individual tends to be Assertive, that is, to apply effort to get results, or whether the person is more concerned to gain Perspective by using shaping.

For example, individuals high in Assertion tend to feel that “nothing happens unless I make it happen.” Their embodied actions incorporate focusing to probe for information, applying pressure to support determination, and pacing time to implement a decision at the opportune moment.… Read More

Extending Laban’s Notions of Embodied Cognition

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

By observing that “the dancer moves, not only from place to place, but also from mood to mood,” Laban established human movement as a psychophysical phenomenon. He went on to relate the “movement from mood to mood” –manifested as effort variation – to psychological functions of giving Attention, forming an Intention, and making a Commitment to embodied action.

Laban’s protege, Warren Lamb, reasoned that there must also be correlations between the “movement from place to place” and psychological functions. He found the following associations.… Read More

The Mind in the Body

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

According to Rudolf Laban, “The dancer moves, not only from place to place but also from mood to mood.” This simple statement establishes movement as a psychophysical phenomenon. Indeed, Laban was ahead of the embodied cognition theorists, for he recognized that bodily movement happens in two domains – the physical domain of visible space and the psychological domain of thought and feeling.

Thoughts and feelings cannot be observed directly, but they can be inferred from how a particular action is performed.… Read More

The Body in the Mind

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

The notion of embodiment refers to the assumption that thoughts, feelings, and reactions that are grounded in sensory experiences and bodily states. By extension, mental processes involve simulations of physical actions and perceptions. For example, early childhood experiences moving about in the physical environment are believed to structure later understanding and representation of abstract concepts such as status, power, time, etc. 

Such notions tend to redress the position of movement professionals as a cognitive minority. As I noted in an earlier blog, we believe that movement is meaningful and may be studied in all its dynamic variations, yielding valuable insights into human behavior.… Read More

Embodiment is Hot

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Attention movement professionals – the body is now on everyone’s mind. From psychologists and philosophers to computer scientists and robotic engineers, everyone is saying goodbye to Descartes and the separation of body and mind and hello to “embodied cognition.”

Put simply, embodied cognition posits that intelligent behavior emerges from the interplay between brain, body, and the environment. Thinking is no longer the function of an isolated brain performing disembodied calculations based upon abstract concepts. Instead, the raw materials for thought are distributed over the brain, body, and environment and coupled together via our perceptual systems.… Read More

Celebrating Meaningful Movement Analysis

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Carol-Lynne Moore

Thirty-five individuals from across the nation and around the world gathered in Golden, Colorado over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate the life and work of movement analysis pioneer, Warren Lamb (1923-2014) at a seminar sponsored by Motus Humanus.

Warren Lamb began his career under the tutelage of movement theorist Rudolf Laban and management consultant F.C. Lawrence.  Their ground-breaking work provided a basis for matching the movement traits of manual laborers to the motion factors of various factory jobs. Lamb took this work much further, to relate movement patterns to cognitive processes used in decision making at the managerial level.… Read More