A User Guide for Attendees of Our Events
It explains...
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How we become more machine-minded than human;
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How we can identify when we and others exhibit more machine-like qualities than human; and
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How we become more human than machine.
How We Become More Machine-minded Than Human
When we think the brain is a machine we put all our attention onto looking for ways to better control what needs to be controlled to achieve optimal performance. We pay little attention to the dynamic, organic flow of relationships surrounding us. We lose the most essential aspect of our humanity. We become more machine-minded than human. We think Artificial Intelligence is a superior substitute for our brains.
Our human tendency for this machine-mindedness, also referred to as left hemisphere dominance, has arisen from the remarkable insights of Dr. Iain McGilchrist. Iain believes that for humanity to survive we need to embody ourselves outside of machine-mindedness. To feel more human than machine.
Our founder, Jon Thorne, has spent most of his career helping some of the world's top engineers, as well as many young individuals with autism, to enhance their awareness of the relationships around them. Jon has discovered how to impart practical skills that help individuals switch off machine-mindedness, allowing them to join the organic, fluid flow of relationships that surround us. To share experiences of feeling more human than machine.
How we can Identify when we and others Exhibit more Machine-like qualities than Human
When machine-mindedness is activated, our attention is solely on a goal, and we only perceive obstacles that impede our direct path. Picture walking down a bustling street while engrossed in your phone; we typically only notice someone right before a collision. When machine-mindedness is activated we hold back from taking action until we are entirely sure we can execute it perfectly. We rely on instructional language to automate and reconstruct a scenario in pursuit of a singular, predictable outcome. We view everything as either functioning or malfunctioning. We simplify complex situations, attributing them to a single cause, categorizing individuals as either right or wrong, and distinguishing everything between truth and falsehood. Once we believe something is true we only pay attention to what confirms our truth.
How we become more human than machine
We become more human than machine by stopping ourselves looking for ways to better control what needs to be controlled. By recognizing ourselves and others as distinct, unique individuals. We perceive the relationships between everything around us, allowing us to maneuver around obstacles in a fluid, zigzagging stream of actions and thoughts, open to the possibilities that may arise. We discover shortcuts and embrace innovative, non-linear leaps. We surpass our previous expectations. We co-create relationships rather than merely striving to control them; we elevate performance beyond optimizing control; we tackle roles that demand more than just operating machinery; and we develop solutions for interconnected problems. By turning off our machine-mindedness, we become more human than machine.
Our teaching members offer 3 types of events for everyone to share experiences of being more human than machine.
Sports
(Weekly sessions are open)
We stop ourselves from using our physicality to attempt to control opponents and leverage our physicality to build relationships that help us navigate around opponents. This strategy not only provides us with more time to apply our technical skills for improvement, but it also emphasizes our goal of relationships so that we feel more human than machine.
Ideas cafe
(opening in 2025)
We stop ourselves discussing what is broken in our machines. We discuss solving our problems by strengthening and weakening relationships. We share an experience of feeling more human than machine. To improve by being more human than machine.
Art, poetry, and music
(opening in 2025
We stop ourselves from using the language of an instruction manual and use music, poetry, and art - regardless of skill level - to communicate our relationships with ourselves and others. We share an experience of feeling more human than machine. We improve our relationships by being more human than machine.
Our Inclusion Policy is that we delight in humanity's diverse abilities and ways of seeing and doing.
Below is how we govern ourselves
Visit our youtube channel.
About Jon Thorne - founder of SkillsofWow.org
Twenty years ago, my focus was on designing innovative processes to cultivate high-performing virtual teams. I utilized technology-driven communication to enhance the value of less frequent but more dynamic and creative in-person interactions. After a 15-year break spent home-educating my neurodivergent children, I returned to find that technology-based communication has often led to the opposite outcome of what I aimed for. It seems to be fostering a machine-mindedness that diminishes our humanity's unique qualities.
How can I resist this machine-mindedness? My journey with dyslexia posed reading challenges until I was about 11 years old. This experience allowed me to form relationships without depending heavily on written communication. As I started reading, I selectively chose content that either strengthened or weakened my relationships. In contrast, many people look for material that supports their reasoning, and once they find it, they tend to trust those authors. They often express skepticism towards ideas that do not align with their views, making them susceptible to machine-mindedness. Meanwhile, I remain largely unaffected by its impact, I find it difficult to create content that explains machine-mindedness to those who are deeply entrenched in it.
Recently, Dr. Iain McGilchrist has offered profound and thought-provoking insights into the perils of our increasing machine-mindedness. Although he has written several influential books, particularly "The Matter with Things," my focus is on creating practical relational experiences that help people go beyond the constraints of machine-mindedness. These experiences cannot be fully expressed in words; they must be experienced and felt. To provide more people with these relational opportunities, I founded SkillsofWow.org and utilized my expertise to highlight the key elements from Dr. Iain McGilchrist's substantial work.
The governance team
We make sure members follow their peer review process
LOUISE HOSKING
30+ years experience working with business leaders in organisations of all sizes and a range of sectors to achieve positive culture change using my professional skills as a positive driver to add value enabling organisations to achieve their operational aspirations and beyond.
An unconventional entrepreneur, influencer and transformational leader adept at working across all levels. I’m motivated by the potential our profession has to unlock the abilities of people to support one another to, in turn, create a healthy world to live, work, do business and create communities which thrive. By releasing people to be the best they can be we will create psychological safety with teams and supplychains who trust one another. From here, we achieve true sustainability via local, national and global networks. Together we will step up to meet the very many, and very real, challenges we are currently facing around the world today.
I thrive in a business environment. I know what it means to juggle distractions, complexities, conflicting priorities; and manage/plan resources. I’m adept at creating high performing teams to achieve transformative objectives which evolve into smarter working solutions that empower people to be the best they can be. In turn, culture is transformed to create a vibrant organisation with the energy to achieve its goals and go further.
Currently Executive Director of Environmental Health at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health creating visibility via our members for a profession which spans health protection in and out of work. I’m also Director of the OneWISH coalition a social enterprise supporting Women & Inclusion
In Nov 2021 I was elected as the 55th #IOSH President & Chair of IOSH council. I used my skills to transform the elected council, working closely with the board and executive teams to create new foundations in a post pandemic world and culture change. My theme was #People #Sustainability and putting ❤️ into #Health & #Safety.I’m proud of the professional approach now established across council. This means the member voice is being heard more clearly than ever before with much closer board working relationships. What we do is more than process it’s about people and compassion. As only the 7th woman to hold the role I also hope I have inspired others.
I am persistently consistent and consistently persistent practiced in starting from the start and achieving positive transformation in an exciting and engaging manner, at the right cadence, to achieve lasting change starting with just one conversation at a time.
STUART MARSHALL
Stuart is an experienced outdoor instructor with over 30 years of commercial outdoor teaching experience. He is a national instructor for scuba diving and also a cave leader, bushcraft instructor, and river guide with a particular interest in exploring the remote rivers of Scandinavia. He spent many years working at the Leadership Trust when it was the UK's foremost management training centre.
He is also a company director of his own First Aid Training business with clients as diverse as the Forestry Commission, Imperial College, Birmingham University, and the Natural History Museum. He has used neurodivergent thinking to develop a unique one-day blended First Aid at Work course (plus two days of eLearning) that massively frees up staff time (compared to a traditional 3-day classroom-based course).
Stuart also chairs the Advisory panel for the First Aid Industry Body, the UK’s foremost governing body for independent First Aid training companies. He has also held national positions with the Sub-Aqua Association one of two British Scuba Diving Governing Bodies.
Stuart’s qualifications are diverse from an academic PhD in Microbiology to H&S and leadership qualifications plus video production, animation, etc
Stuart has been working with Jon Thorne for many years and being neurodivergent himself understands the aims of the awarding body and the benefits to those who take part.
IAIN BOWLER
Iain qualified as a lawyer in 1988 specialising in M&A, stock exchange and complex commercial and joint venture work. Between 1998 and 2002, Iain was Director of Corporate Finance at a corporate industrial developer headquartered in the UK and USA. He joined one of the world’s largest law firms in 2002 and was global Co-Chair of the Commercial Contracts and Franchise and Distribution Groups for 10 years before joining Freeths as National Head of Commercial in 2019.
Freeths is a UK top 50 law firm with offices in 12 cities in the UK. The firm employs over 1,000 lawyers and support personnel and in the last financial year had fee income in excess of £110 million.
Professional expertise
Iain’s work involves commercial transactions of all descriptions, including outsourcing, offshoring, manufacturing, consultancy, services and service level agreements, procurement of goods and services, supply chain management, logistics, international trade and capital asset procurement, and maintenance. Iain also advises clients in relation to the many different ways of delivering goods and services to market, both within the UK and internationally, including direct sale, agency, distribution, e-commerce, and business format franchising.
Iain also advises in relation to domestic and multi-jurisdictional structured joint ventures, partnerships and strategic alliances, providing advice on appropriate deal structures and delivery mechanisms relating to national and multi-jurisdictional transactions.
Iain is ranked as a “leading individual” for commercial and franchise work in The Legal 500 and Chambers, is listed in the global Who’s Who Legal for franchise work and is an Acritas™ Star Lawyer. Iain is an Affiliate Member of the British Franchise Association and contributing editor of Global Legal Group’s “International Comparative Legal Guide: Franchise”.
Other information
Iain lives in Hertfordshire, is married to Victoria (also a Partner in an international law firm) and has 4 children. He is a keen sportsman with interests in rugby, snowboarding and all forms of motorsport. He is an RFU accredited junior rugby coach and referee.
SkillsofWow.org is the governing body for those who coach the skills of Wow.