Story:
Case for Aging Staff –A Neuro-Plasticity Model to Boost Workplace Talents in Older Peers

When I see older workers at times left behind in fast-paced workplaces that appear to be increasingly speaking language they fail to understand, I see why seniors may dig in heels and refuse to support change. In an opposite approach, MITA programs support seniors who seek to learn and grow alongside younger workers. One of the basic claims of neuroplasticity shows the aging brain's need for novelty. Dr. Doidge supports the value of ongoing learning in his claim: "We must be learning if we are to be fully alive, and when life or love becomes too predictable and it seems that there is little left to learn, we become restless - a protest, perhaps, of the plastic brain when it can no longer perform its essential task."  An entire organization wins when experienced staff tap into newly discovered plasticity for innovative change and help to  advance improvements across diverse settings.

Unfortunately, in the midst of recession, older workers tend get being left behind needlessly, when they could be part of the upturn for  new opportunities at work,.

MITA draws support from life-changing stories about the wonder of the aging brain, and transforms these stories into strategies to keep both age and youth alive at work. In one such story Paul Bach-y-Rita, famous for his work in neuroplasticity,   tells of his father’s crippling stoke in New York. After a month’s therapy and little progress, mainstream medical experts assured the family that no more could be done.  Respected doctors suggested Bach-y-Rita be sent to an institution. Brains cannot repair themselves every medical leader argued, and under that flawed thinking, nothing else could help their 65 year old father to walk or talk again.

The senior scholar spiraled from well respected professor at City College in NY, into complete dependency on others for his basic needs. It made sense for mainstream experts to expect no more – if you accept the fact that older brain simply winds down. It makes no sense however,  to waste or neglect valuable experienced brainpower, if you become aware of an older brain's magical ability to reconfigure itself for innovative advances.

On that note, one son, George brought his Papa back to Mexico and began to teach him to crawl again. Using the wall to support his limp shoulder, Bach-y-Rita, inched along clumsily for months. His sons created marble games to play on the floor, challenges that required a reach and consistent movement. Cynics in medical schools warned that these repetitive games simply wasted time, and neighbors criticized the Bach-y-Rita family when their papa crawled outside, saying, “They are treating this old man like a dog.”

With every spark of progress, the boys persisted more to help their papa do activities that strengthened skills lost  because of the stroke. They found innovative games to stir stiff limbs to move and word games to coax back language.

Eventually progress began to show, as the brain reorganized itself to take over where damaged parts destroyed abilities. After many more months of crawling and learning to talk again, and through the same painful building of new neuron pathways for language to take over where damaged brain cells failed, Bach-y-Rita returned to teach at City College in New York, at 68, and three years after his stroke.

Research shows the value of mature staff who help to  resolve workplace problems, and reshape prosperity.  It’s a matter of helping older staff to recognize their brain’s proclivities for progress. When staff simply act and persist on the other side of problems – solutions soon begin to appear.

Younger son, Paul’s life was shaped by what he described as seeing with our brains and not our eyes, as his papa’s brain reorganized itself for new directions. Inspired by his papa’s progress, Paul went on to lead the research of  plasticity’s ability to rewire and find solutions. It’s harder  when cynics and naysayers shout words of doom and disaster just as it is when older workers lose confidence and they leave the workplace poorer without their presence.

MITA’s mission is to help seniors identify areas that are weakest for them at work. The question is raised, "How could an older peer's brain’s plasticity help to reorganize itself to become the innovative solution at your workplace?"