About the Author and Speaker, Madeleine Van Hecke, Ph.D.

Madeleine Van Hecke,Ph.D. (Elmhurst,IL) is a licensed clinical psychologist, an adjunct faculty member at North Central College in Naperville, IL, a lecturer at Common Ground (Deerfield, IL) and a speaker, trainer, and workshop leader for Open Arms Seminars.

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the quirks of the human mind. I mean, really — how could the bank robber not only rob his own financial institution but write the hold-up note on the back of his own deposit slip?

During her tenure as a full professor at North Central, Madeleine won numerous awards for teaching excellence. Ten years ago, she resigned her full-time position in order to have more time to write, but continued as an adjunct instructor, teaching graduate courses in critical thinking and creative thinking, A creativity exercise in one of these classes led her to develop the family word game, Wicked Words, which was carried nationwide by Barnes and Noble during one holiday season.

As she continued to teach – and learn about – creative and critical thinking, Madeleine became more and more intrigued by the apparent “stupidity” of adults. “For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the quirks of the human mind,” Madeleine comments. “I mean, really – how could the bank robber not only rob his own financial institution but write the hold-up note on the back of his own deposit slip?”

She began to see apparent “stupidities” as a puzzle to be solved. “I was reading all this research that confirmed my personal observations of how incredibly astute and logical children, even preschoolers, can be. At the same time, I was aware of studies that showed adults were often illogical and made some incredibly dumb decisions. Why? What was going on here? Are we to believe that human beings reach the peak of intellectual development at age five, and go downhill after that? Not likely.”

Madeleine eventually developed the metaphor of blind spots to account for “why smart people do dumb things.” In Blind Spots, she shows how our assets as thinkers create the very blind spots that become our worst liabilities.

Most recently, Madeleine has been applying ideas from Blind Spots to solving organizational problems, especially negativity, cynicism, and distrust in organizations. In her seminars and in the You Can Do Something Different training program that she developed, Madeleine draws on basic ideas in Blind Spots to help people rise above the blind spots keep oppressive work atmospheres in place. Overcoming mental blind spots enables people to discover perspectives that can help them deal with stress, understand one another better, see more options, build trust, and lessen cynicism. read more