John Kennedy was a senior executive in process and project management when, in 2007, his brother David, a USMC Master Sergeant deployed in Afghanistan inquired whether John might apply his process efficiency background to reducing injuries and deaths from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that Marines and all deployed forces were facing.
John applied his knowledge in creating process efficiencies for well-known companies like Abbott, Aon and Motorola to this life-changing charge from his brother. The premise was to use the developing science of neuroplasticity – the brain’s capacity at any point in your life to rewire its connections and develop new synapses across which information, memories, and knowledge can travel – coupled with a cognitive training regimen to provide Marines with life-saving insights and immediate decision-making skills in the combat environment.
From that process came Combat Brain Training. He focused on 5 critical executive function processes; anticipation, pattern recognition, working memory, focus and attention, and processing speed.
A unique element of John’s approach to brain training is that it’s paper based, although he trains most of his clients in a remote manner – even prior to the virus. There are several reasons for the paper-based approach. Among them are the capacity to train your peripheral vision to “anticipate” characters or sequences on paper vs. in the limited landscape of a screen and giving ourselves a break from screen fatigue.
Colleague Brian Chorba and I organized an introductory session for our administrators of Equal Access – a digital marketplace which SPR hosts to support the professional networking, training, and career development of students and candidates with disabilities across all industries, and our parent organization support staff from Yolobe. Yolobe is an 1871 start-up whose founder David Douglas has been a consultant for SPR for the past several years.
John invited us to a Zoom meeting, and you can tell by the photo that everyone enjoyed the session! Brian and I had both experienced Combat Brain Training at an ITKAN meeting in 2017, but I think we both enjoyed the refresher training. I find it’s a great way to bring your team together for a fun and instructive session that you can apply moving forward in your career, whether casually or in greater depth and with deeper commitment.
Feel free to reach out to me to be connected with John for a fun and effective manner to leverage our brain’s ability to rewire itself…or just go to www.combatbraintraining.com.