Our Approach
Training the Brain Through Explicit and Procedural Learning
Mental and Emotional Skill
IOSM is grounded in a simple but consequential insight from modern science: learning about a skill is not the same as developing the brain’s capacity to perform it—especially under pressure.
Conventional education and training systems are designed to transfer knowledge. But today's challenges increasingly require mental and emotional capabilities developed through embodied neural experience
Neural Training as a Learning Discipline
Neuroscience has confirmed that many human capabilities, once considered immutable traits are, in fact, trainable mental skills. Intentional activation of specific cognitive and emotional systems leads to measurable changes in mental health, cognitive performance and emotional intelligence.
IOSM refers to this emerging discipline of intentional, Self-Directed Neuroplasticity (SDN) as neural training.
Neural training does not replace knowledge or expertise. It integrates embodied experience to retrain important neural reactions—most critically in complex, fast-moving, or emotionally charged environments.
Our approach integrates:
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Clear scientific understanding of key neural systems
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Structured experiential practices that directly engage those systems
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Learning designs that deliberately combine explicit and procedural methods
"Mindfulness is no longer mysterious nor mystical; rather it can be reliably measured, linked to an array of individual and organizational outcomes, and induced through meditative and non-meditative processes, at the individual and collective levels"
Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt Universities
The Role of Mindfulness
Mindfulness practices are some of the earliest and most-studied forms of neural training — and have been extensively piloted over the past decade across progressive organizations.
Research demonstrates that mindfulness exercises produce predictable, trainable outcomes. When applied correctly, they are effective for reducing stress, strengthening attention control, activating emotional intelligence, shifting perspectives, and adapting to change.
Mindfulness is a foundational neural toolset that trains important cognitive and emotional skills, but it's not the universal solution for today's leadership, workforce, and organizational challenges. It is one of an emerging series of integrative body-mind solutions that use procedural learning to retrain the brain.
Old Models and New Demands
Leadership and workforce programs still reflect assumptions rooted in industrial and early knowledge-economy models – where workers were expected to absorb information, follow prescribed processes, and execute known tasks under stable conditions.
IOSM refers to this emerging discipline of intentional, Self-Directed Neuroplasticity (SDN) as neural training.
Today’s reality is very different. As AI systems increasingly outperform humans in knowledge acquisition, data processing, pattern recognition, and logic, training priorities are shifting toward mental and emotional capabilities that machines cannot easily replicate.
These capabilities were never central to formal education – but are now urgently required at every level of the organization. We're addressing this gap by translating neuroscience research into practical workplace solutions. We help organizations and institutions reskill leaders, workers, and students through procedural neural training.
FAQ
Why is neuroplasticity a paradigm shift for human capital?
Neuroplasticity demonstrates that core human capabilities – mental and emotional skills – are trainable at the level of neural circuitry. This moves human capital beyond memorized information or concepts, into systematically trained brain systems that govern mindsets, behaviors, and resulting performance.
It reframes large segments of leadership, workforce, and workplace development as neural challenges in capability building that dramatically expand the scope of trainable implicit skills.
What is Self-Directed Neuroplasticity (SDN)?
Self-Directed Neuroplasticity is the structured use of attention, repetition, emotional engagement, and deliberate practice to strengthen or reshape neural pathways. SDN enables individuals to intentionally build mental and emotional skills in the same way physical training develops the body—through targeted, consistent practice that produces measurable changes in how people think, feel, and act under pressure. IOSM programs use SDN to help people develop the capabilities required for high performance in demanding, rapidly changing work environments.
Is all-science mindfulness considered neural training?
Yes. All-science mindfulness trains brain systems responsible for awareness, attention control, and emotional regulation, through repeatable, evidence-based practices. When these practices are applied consistently and without spiritual or philosophical framing, they function as neural training, strengthening specific neural networks, improving cognitive and emotional stability, and building capabilities that translate directly into performance under pressure.
In IOSM’s approach, mindfulness is foundational, but only one component of a broader training methodology that integrates additional practices from neural and behavioral science to develop the most important human skills required in modern work.