THE BRAIN’S USER MANUAL FOR LEADERS AND THEIR TEAMS
Hello there, fellow leader,
I have been an entrepreneur for 30 years. To be honest: I spent much of that time "winging it". I often felt "overwhelmed, unsure," and my main philosophy was simple: "treat people how I want to be treated." But here's the catch: I thrive on chaos and last-minute energy, and I had to learn the hard way that my way isn't everyone's.
Personally, experiencing "Wired to Lead" was a lightbulb moment. This is the "brain's user manual" I wish I’d had for the last three decades.
Martijn Boomsma Founder & CEO Hatch
Contents
About Wired to Lead
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Programme structure
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Posible topics for Masterclasses, Keynotes & Workshops
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Potential offsite flow
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Programme elements
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About Hatch
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Meet the team.
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Clients
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How we work.
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Why Hatch is a great fit?
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Article: Wired to Lead, Part 1: Wired to Connect
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The Stroop Test
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challenge... Here's the
Organisations want leaders to do more than keep things running. They want them to inspire trust, communicate clearly, handle pressure, and appear emotionally intelligent and future-ready.
However, the honest truth is that most leaders are simply winging it when it comes to soft skills. They feel overwhelmed, unsure, and secretly wonder if they missed the day everyone else learned how to lead with empathy.
The result? Teams become burnt out, siloed, disengaged, or reactive, especially in hybrid and dynamic environments. Despite all the tools, technology, and models available, not much actually changes.
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When your team shuts down, or that “quick sync” turns into a passive- aggressive power struggle, the last thing we need is another pretty leadership model on a slide.
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What we do need is to understand what our brain is doing under stress and how to rewire it on the fly. rewire on the fly.
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Lead Forward
for Deutsche Telekom in Bonn Lead Forward
Built on the this programme activates the when things get chaotic from building trust and making decisions under pressure to navigating complexity without overloading your circuits. behaviours that matter most latest neuroscience
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It's
user manual,
your brain's
finally decoded.
Wired to Lead is a complete system covering Connection through Self-Awareness, Psychology of Team Behaviour, and Embodied Communication. It addresses Influence through Executive Presence, Psychology of Persuasion, and Neuroscience of Motivation. And it builds Adaptability through Emotional Regulation, Neuroscience of Resilience, and Cognitive Flexibility.
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Lead Wired to
Self-Awareness
Psychology of Team Behaviour
Wired to Connect
Embodied Communication
Executive Presence
Wired To Lead
Psychology of Persuasion
Wired to Influence
Neuroscience of Motivation
Emotional Regulation
Wired to Adapt
Cognitive Flexibility
Neuroscience of Resilience
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Adaptable to your specific context and available in multiple formats, including: keynotes, full-day workshops, three-day workshops, lectures, and online learning experiences.
Keynote Workshop
Masterclass
Wired to Connect
Wired to Influence
Wired to Adapt
The Reflective Brain: Unlocking Self-Awareness for Smarter Leadership
The Motivated Brain: Creating a Team Culture of Intrinsic Motivation
Dealing with Ambiguity: Building Resilience and Cognitive Flexibility
Neural Presence: The Science of Embodied Communication
Building the Collective Brain in the Room: The Psychology of Team Dynamics
The Resilient Brain: How Growth Mindset Fuels Performance
Hardwired for Safety: The Neuroscience of Trust and Teaming
What is “Executive Presence”? Conveying Confidence and Credibility to Inspire Action
Leading from the Prefrontal Cortex: Mastering Emotional Self-Regulation
How to Win Friends and Influence People: A Neuroscience Update on Carnegie’s Classic
Rewiring Bias: Leading With Brain Awareness in an Unconscious World
How to Leverage Your Brain Under Stress for Innovation and Performance
The Social Brain: How We Evolved for Connection and Collaboration
The Psychology of (Ethical) Influence: 7 Principles of Persuasion
Modern World, Ancient Brains: How Our Evolution Predicts the Future of the Workplace
Offsite Flow
Energy Level ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️ ⚡️
Programme Elements
Experiential Learning
Even online, we make sure that what we do at Hatch is immersive, experiential learning. It won’t be just theoretical but it will be deeply engaging through exercises, live simulations with actors, breakouts, Q&A’s and interaction.
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Bringing in Creativity
We believe in the importance of bringing in creativity into our experiences, not only from a scientific perspective as it fosters learning, but also because it sparks inspiration, creates new experiences and connections while learning.
Asynchronous Learning
We enjoy supporting asynchronous learning by offering a variety of non-scripted recorded conversations with peers, role models, and leaders from your company, along with on-the-job tasks and learning materials tailored to your needs.
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Hi, we are Hatch
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Hatch is an learning lab for leaders experiential
Backed by research, we enable human collaboration in the complexity of today’s work, embracing innovation, change and the unknown with empathy , creativity and accountability for action . We deliver immersive experiences, sharp insights, executive coaching, and skill-scaling workshops that bring a fresh, human element to our complex, overrationalised world.
We work with hi-tech, project-driven and global engineering organisations.
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Wired to
Lead
Dr. Skyla Herod, Ph.D. Behavioral Neuroscientist & Chief Science Officer @ Hatch
Dr. Skyla Herod, Ph.D., is a behavioural neuroscientist and Chief Science Officer at Hatch, where she applies her 20+ years of expertise into neuroplasticity, resilience, and well-being to leadership development and 21st century workplace transformation.
Her mission? Making the hard science of “soft” skills relatable, practical, and fun.
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Team
Joris van Heukelom Wired for Organisational Therapy Joris, an organisational therapist, applies the 'Wired to Lead' framework to help leaders and teams realign with their vision. He focuses on addressing the root causes of energy leaks that are often misunderstood or ignored. "Intelligent emotion is not emotion tamed by intellect, but emotion illuminated by understanding."
Hermina Soric Wired for Learning Design
As a learning designer for Wired to Lead projects, Hermina's role is to translate complex brain science into creative, adaptable, and hands-on learning experiences that provide leaders with practical, actionable tools they can immediately apply.
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Aafke de Groot Wired for Experiential Learning
Norman Vladimir Smith Wired for Creative Facilitation As a creative facilitator, Norman’s role is to energise the group by making the complex science of soft skills feel approachable and enjoyable, combining scientific clarity with a touch of irreverence to create a space where leaders can connect with the material on a more human level.
As a senior trainer specialising in experiential learning for Wired to Lead, Aafke’s role is to facilitate creative, hands-on experiences that make complex neuroscience feel less like a textbook and more like a mirror.
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Proud to have worked with...
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Success happens when Skills , Attitude and Behaviour shake hands. How we work
We learn best through experience . Research shows that hands-on, experiential learning can lead to retention rates as high as 90% , while traditional learning marks only 5-10%
Attitude
Behaviour
Skills
Inner Development Goals Framework
Psychology
Neuroscience 21st Century Skills
Why Hatch is a your organisation? great
fit with
We specialise in working with large global cross-cultural organisations , understanding participants with this background and mindset . (e.g., Unilever, Cofra Holding, Vanderlande, Toyota Industries, Deutsche Telekom & IKEA / INGKA Group
We have extensive experience (100+ programmes) in developing successful & high impact training programmes based on renowned theories and models with our in- house facilitators.
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We are able to deliver plug and play with minimal time investment for you. Our team is able to independently take care of program design, communications, planning and delivery.
We reject a ‘one-size-fits-all' approach by tailoring each program element to the specific context, culture, and challenges.
Experience in international roll out with implementing localisation and cultural differences across continents . (eg Project Managers Bootcamp for Vanderlande, offered in China, US, EMEA)
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The Hatch DNA
Unconventional
Curious
User-Centered
Connect
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Spirited
Inventive
Action-Based
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Wired to Lead, Part 1: Wired to Connect
DR. SKYLA HEROD, PH.D.
Let’s be real: what makes a team unstoppable isn’t just what they know - it’s how they click. And no, we’re not talking about forced fun or motivational posters in Comic Sans.
In today’s workplaces, where change is nonstop and everyone is collaborating across apps, org charts, and time zones, the ability to build trust and shared understanding isn’t optional. It’s what powers momentum, creativity, and actual human collaboration. But here’s the twist: The skills that help us connect - empathy, self-awareness, active listening - often get labeled as “soft,” even though they’re some of the hardest-wired, most biologically baked-in features of your brain. So the next time someone calls them “soft,” tell them your neurons would like a word.
We’re Wired to Connect: The Neuroscience Let’s take it back to your evolutionary roots. Your brain didn’t just evolve to solve math problems or win arguments on the internet. It evolved to survive through connection - to decode facial expressions, manage status, and keep the tribe tight-knit. From an evolutionary standpoint, social cognition wasn’t a bonus skill. It was survival. In fact, our default brain state, when we're not actively solving a problem, is what's called the "social brain network”. It turns on when we daydream, imagine others' perspectives, or reflect on our own actions.
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Here’s the wiring at work: The medial prefrontal cortex: the brain’s “me + we” center for self and social reflection. The temporoparietal junction: Your empathy GPS helping you to imagine someone else’s point of view. The anterior cingulate and insula: Emotion radar and conflict detectors. Aka, your brain’s social smoke alarms. And mirror neurons: Your internal resonance system, letting you feel with others, not just observe them. So when talk about building “soft skills,” what we’re really saying is: Start using your most human hardware to power your team. 3 Critical Capabilities of Wired-to-Connect Leaders To plug into that social circuitry (and actually use it to lead, adapt, and collaborate), focus on 3 essential and trainable skills: 1. Self-Awareness: Know Your Inner Signal You can’t steer what you don’t sense. Self-awareness means noticing your moods, triggers, and micro- reactions before they hijack your meetings. It’s your internal feedback system for leading with intention instead of autopilot. Learning how those social smoke alarms work in the insula and anterior cingulate - and how to rewire for speed, strength, and connection - helps us spot when bias might be influencing a decision, or when our stress is spilling into how we give feedback. 2. Empathy: Feel With, Not For Empathy isn’t a personality trait. It’s an active process of tuning in, reading cues, and adjusting accordingly. Empathy (and its more rewarding neighbour,
Compassion) builds connection, alignment, and trust - but only if it comes with boundaries. Too much empathic overdrive? Say hello to burnout. Practicing real-world scenarios in an environment of trust and vulnerability finds the neuroplastic balance between the empathetic mirror neuron system and the compassionate prefrontal cortex that strategises action within realistic boundaries. 3. Active Listening: Signal Safety, Build Trust This isn’t just smiling and nodding. It’s strategic, skilful attention. The best listeners create space for real talk, clarify assumptions, and make people feel seen. That kind of listening activates a complex dance between the auditory cortex, language centres, and social brain circuits, especially when we focus on both what is said and how it’s said. It’s a form of interpersonal precision - mirroring tone, checking emotions, asking questions, and leaving space for others to think. Done well, it signals psychological safety and opens the door to honest feedback and innovation. From Evolution to Execution When leaders build these brain-based skills, teams don’t just get along - they align faster, adapt more fluidly, and challenge one another more constructively. Working from brain-behaviour insights helps us move from generic advice to targeted, high-impact practice. The science gives us more than buzzwords. It gives us tools. Because when teams are wired to connect, they’re wired to power up.
Want to Lead from the Brain Up? Wired to Connect is the first pillar in the new Wired to Lead series by Hatch. A neuroscience-backed, human-based approach to building the soft skills, attitudes, and behaviours that today's leaders need.
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Can your brain do this simple task?
Your brain loves a shortcut. Try naming the colour of each word as fast as you can (not the word itself). Time yourself for 10 seconds.
Purple Grey Teal
Blue Green White
Red Black Orange
Pink Yellow Brown
It’s harder than it looks, right? What you just experienced is called cognitive interference - when your brain’s automatic reading pathway overpowered your conscious control.
That’s how bias works, too. We think we’re making sound, rational choices, but a lot of the time our brain’s automatic wiring is really what’s driving the decision.
Leadership growth begins when we start to recognise that bug in our brain’s wiring - and choose awareness over assumption.
Ready to stop white knuckling leadership? Get plugged into the science of real, sustainable behaviour change. Start leading with some voltage.
Let’s chat!
Skyla Herod Chief Science Officer skyla@iamhatch.com + 1 (626) 223-6580
Isabel Mora Le Moyne Account Director isabel@iamhatch.com +31 (0) 6 20312247
iamhatch.com
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