What is Cognitive Steering?
Four Steering Biases control our Attention
In the course of our lives, our brains develop certain predispositions in how they bias their attention. We call these Steering Biases. There are four Steering Biases which we have identified: Trust of Self, Trust of Others, Self-Disclosure and Seeking Change. Fixed biases reduce our Agility.
Our Attention controls our Behaviour
The ways in which your brain focuses on or ignores external stimuli are critical in influencing which behaviours and characteristics you might exhibit. Based on large-scale psychological investigations, we have identified clear correlations between distinct patterns of steering and certain behaviours, which allows us to reliably measure, analyse and predict Agility.
Controlling our Biases is the Key to Workplace success
Steering biases need not become fixed patterns of thinking. The ability to cognitively steer your biases, adjusting them from situation to situation, is critical to workplace success. Agile steerers instinctively adopt the bias positions, and thus behaviours, that are most appropriate to the task at hand, making them more likely to achieve workplace success.
Want to find out more?
Then watch our Cognitive Steering Explained video
A Key Finding
Learning to steer the four biases results in being able to use agile Influencing Strategies
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How do we know this?
USTEER has been developed from 20 years of robust data research studies tracking 70,000 young people. We are one of the only UK organisations to have tracked national adolescent mental health prior, during and after the pandemic. More than 10,000 educators globally use our tools to track and improve the social-emotional development of students. We’ve even presented out findings at UNESCO. We lead the way in preparing the next generation for the modern workplace.
More about Steering Cognition
A national leader in psychological Tracking
For the past 20 years we have pioneered a new generation of psychological tools to replace traditional psychometrics.
Developed over studies with 1,000s of participants, within the demanding regulatory environments of national education systems, our ground-breaking tools track cognitive steering. Our data, now used by Public Health England, helps schools predict those who may develop social-emotional risks; helps them guide better learning; and results in young people who are more resilient and emotionally Agile.
As proof of our success, we are now the national leader in in-school mental health tracking, tracking 70,000 students as they develop from the age of 8 to adulthood.
Connection builds emotional A
gility
Our studies have shown that when individuals are better
connected, they become more emotionally Agile. We
compared the cognitive steering of more than 3,800 students
from schools with varying structures for social connection (houses, teams, boarding provision etc.)
We
found that the more connected students were at school, the g
reater their emotional Agility in general. These students
were better at emotionally resonating with and adjusting to
other kinds of people. T
his suggests that organisations which build better
connections between their workers will be more Agile in responding to their clients emotional needs.
Healthy cognitive steering is a protective factor
Our studies have shown that people can develop healthy and unhealthy patterns of cognitive steering. We showed that increased risks of mental health concerns - such as not coping with pressure, developing anxiety or self-harm - were strongly linked to fixed or unhealthy patterns of cognitive steering in students.
On the other hand, students with healthy cognitive steering showed protective factors against such risks. This was attributable to their Agility to make better social-emotional choices in the face of challenging situations.
This suggests that organisations which invest in their workers cognitive steering Agility may reduce the risks, and associated costs, of employee mental health concerns.
Training people to cognitively
steer improves learning and focus
Our studies have shown that cognitive steering is trainable. We compared the learning outcomes of undergraduates who trained themselves to steer with greater Agility with those who did not. Those with more Agile cognitive steering also showed improvements in academic performance. This was attributed to increases in metacognition: the ability to have greater agency and resources as a learner.
This suggests that organisations which train their workers to have more Agile steering will see improvements in workers’ general capacity to learn more effectively, solve problems and be resourceful.