Dr. Brian Little received his early education in British Columbia and his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a Commonwealth Scholar at Oxford University and stayed on at Oxford as a faculty member for several years. Dr. Little has received major awards for both research and teaching. He was in the inaugural group of Fellows at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in 2000 and he currently holds joint appointments at Harvard and Carleton. At Carleton he is a Distinguished Research Professor and at Harvard an Associate, Department of Psychology. Harvard’s Classes of 2003, 2004 and 2005 have elected Dr. Little as one of their Favorite Professors and he has received considerable media attention for his engaging lecturing on both sides of the border.
Dr. Little’s signature presentation has been described by highly diverse groups as "utterly hilarious" and "profoundly moving," consistent with Dr. Little’s description by a client as a cross between Robin Williams and Einstein (to which Brian responds that the only similarity between the three is their height). Audiences come away with some very practical examples of how they drive each other to distraction and with a clearer understanding of why it is essential to their organizations that they continue to do so. The presentation is ideal as an opening or closing keynote where exciting new psychological insights are merged with an exceptionally motivating message about respect for differences between individuals — and what this means in the current business environment.
Personalities at Work
In this presentation Dr. Little explores the enormous impact of personalities in the workplace. He challenges the popular notion that personalities are composed of "fixed traits" — that our personalities are "set like plaster." Using extraversion as an example, Dr. Little shows how there are, indeed, certain stable aspects of personality that predict intriguing differences in how we communicate, perform tasks and get along with our co-workers. But he also shows that personalities don’t always work that way. People often act "out of character" by engaging in "free traits". We often act against our "first natures" in order to advance projects that are essential to our own or others’ well being or for the good of our organizations. Such behavior can be motivated by professionalism and by love. But it can also extract a cost. Unless we are afforded the opportunity to find restorative niches in which to reclaim our first natures, our psychological and physical health may suffer. We consequently need a Free Trait Agreement with those with love and with whom we work in which we are able to be ourselves at the same time as we advance our common goals. Indeed, Dr. Little concludes that we are all essentially "half-plastered" and that our professional lives are better off for it.