VIA View: Brains inspiring business
It’s usually best not to get me started on neuroscience. It’s a topic I love and so a 5-minute chat easily becomes an hour. But to me it’s been an absolute gamechanger learning how the brain works and using that knowledge to try and make sense of all areas -of both my life and work. I’d heard about “Brains inspiring business” before it was even published from my former coach, and now friend, Soraya Shaw who is one of the contributors to this multi-author book. So yes, I was already a little biased, but this book got me thinking on so many more levels than I expected.
All the chapter authors spoke about business and neuroscience from different perspectives. There were some I expected, such as trust and bias, and others that provided new ideas such as mindfulness and excitement at work. But when read alongside each other they created a strong collective case highlighting the importance of understanding the brain from multiple business angles.
The first highlight feels fitting, as it’s the work of Dr Paul Brown who brought all the authors together for this book. His visualisation of the 8 basic emotions, known as the London protocol of the emotions, really shone a light on how emotionally driven we all are. Whilst we might like to think of our professional selves as rational; remaining ‘cool, calm and collected’ at all times, the reality is that emotions are inherently part of being human. Brown describes them as “the basis of energy creating behaviour and the capacity to make sense of situations through the emotional and feeling system”. His visual shows the emotions spread as a fan with no emotions being either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but rather all emotions being there to experience and manage. He compares them to the weather. Heavy rain might inconvenience an outdoor party but is vital for earth’s wellbeing. But then without proper management, heavy rain may also flood the environment. The same is true of emotions where they might overwhelm an individual but with proper management even a so-called ‘negative’ emotion, such as stress, could be used to create focus and prompt action. Brown’s work has greater links to neurochemicals which add further to the London protocol of emotions, but it was this ‘’weather’-like approach that stayed with me most and provided the ideal foundation for the other learnings.
I could wax lyrical about all those learnings from this book, but have tried to narrow it down to my ‘top 5’:
1. In her chapter “Brain-powered confidence”, Caroline Brewin’s in-depth look at confidence was hugely thought-provoking for me. Her research has shown that a lack of confidence creates such a powerful fear of failure that it leads to inaction. This procrastination means that whilst an individual might prevent a feeling of failure, in actual fact they fail by not even attempting to succeed. I have often coached people who aim to increase their confidence and so this really rang true. So often I see individuals shy away from taking seemingly simple steps forward citing a lack of time, whilst simultaneously having worked on tasks within their comfort zone. I can now see that the brain’s pleasure-seeking behaviour is to blame here. Despite the growth that could arise from tackling areas where someone lacks confidence, instead time is invested where success is as near as guaranteed. The brain has prioritised tasks based on wanting to feel ‘good’ not where the most gains can be made. This knowledge can mean that in supporting someone that lacks confidence, we may also need to address time management, priorities and procrastination.
2. Leanne Drew-McKain’s chapter, “Thinking of others” created a different, but complimentary view to Brewin. This chapter focuses on fear which is described as the “greatest threat to one’s sense of self-efficacy and self-control”. “Fear” can feel a strong word when viewed through a business lens, but I believe we do see fear in the workplace, often manifesting as a fear of failure and leading to inaction and stunting personal growth. Drew-McKain starts her chapter with a story (a useful vehicle for engaging the brain in itself!) of a man with a fear of heights as he attempts to climb a tall tower. Overwhelmed by his own senses, his first attempt sees him turn back only halfway through the climb. Determined, he tries again, but hits a barrier at the same junction. Or that is, until he meets someone else full of fear but also attempting the climb. He supports this man, encouraging him to continue with the climb and in doing so makes it to the top of the tower himself. What’s the learning here? The man when thinking only of his own emptions found himself overcome with fear and unable to move beyond the halfway point. When given an opportunity to support others he conquered his fear and completed the climb. Fear had created a heightened sense of self. An over-activation of the insula (a part of the pain that also plays a huge role in both physical and emotional pain). By caring for others created a new focus, and a way to overcome the fear himself. Fear can be an isolating experience, and this is a reminder that we are social animals at heart, and our brains respond to connection.
3. Given how stress impacts individuals both at work and home, I was intrigued by Soraya Shaw’s exploration of the neuroscience principles. Stress is almost always spoken about in negative terms – as something we should minimise and avoid. But stress can also be a force for good. Stress in the lead up to a deadline can create focus for example. It’s where stress is experienced as distress that we can have a resulting negative experience. In neuro-terms distress is the product of an imbalance between the appraisal of the environmental demands (or stressors) and the individual’s resources (stress response). Faced with uncertainty (arguably more common in today’s fast-changing landscape) our brains are flooded with chemicals putting us in a state of high alert, scanning for signs of danger and preparing us for ‘flight or fight’ With an element of irony, our prefrontal cortex is also impacted as we reserve energy at the expense of the area of the brain that leads decision making, judgement and planning (just when we may need it most). However, biochemistry can be altered by an individual’s mindset. Shaw’s research into building resilience in the communications industry has shown in introducing the context of stress and prevention from a neuroscience perspective, the participants gained the knowledge and tools to view their stress with more positivity. It strikes me that that organisations who fail to discuss stress may also hinder opportunities to minimise distress. Giving individuals the tools to identify their own stressors and how best to respond links to greater wellbeing, and productivity in the workplace – both compelling reasons to tackle this issue head-on. Perhaps it is time for stress to get some new ‘PR’?
4. At first, I’ll admit I was surprised to see a chapter on the joy of mindfulness in a leadership book. Although I shouldn’t have been surprised at all really. In Nandini Das Ghoshal’s own words “Mindfulness is a state of mind where one is present, in the moment, and able to engage non-judgementally with whatever is arising”, and isn’t this exactly what we’d want from our leaders? This chapter also introduced me to the concept of ‘mindful snacking’ where rather than a more dedicated commitment to meditative practice, individuals consistently engage in bite sized approaches – perhaps via apps like ‘calm’ and ‘insight timer’, and even these ‘snackers’ swear they see benefits from their practice. The concept of ‘mindful leadership’ comprises resilience (seeing a leader become more aware of themselves, their emotions and how to regulate them) and better attention (increasing the ability to focus on tasks and adopt a calm demeanour with an emphasis on response rather than reaction). Studies have repeatedly shown that after just 2 weeks of meditative practice individuals can benefit from increased focus and working memory. And after just 30hours of practice the brain is already starting to show fewer markers for inflammation in the amygdala in response to stress. It was not ‘new news’ to me that mindfulness can have such an impact, but the ability to introduce small elements of practice and see such clear links to better leadership practice even in the short-term has already triggered me to re-consider my own habits!
5. Gerrit Pelzer’s chapter starts with a phrase that I’ll admit is a bug bear of mine! “Soft skills through the lens of hard science”. I’ve always felt that by describing these skills as ‘soft’ we undervalue them hugely as they are often far more complex and difficult to grasp than so called hard skills. But in reading Pelzer’s chapter there was no under-valuing of these skills. In fact, Pelzer speaks of how we often seek clear, almost mathematical, approaches to solving problems. “If we do A, B will follow”. But this is an illusion. We are not able to control our lives to this degree. As someone who enjoys theory, this can be a difficult lesson, but one I need to remind myself of often. Our ‘uniqueness’ means we respond to situations in our own way based on our own experiences with no 2 brains the same. But this complexity is one of the intriguing joys of human behaviour that drew me to neuroscience in the first place. Pelzer describes our brain as an organ of adaption – our neuroplasticity enabling us to learn both new skills and ways of thinking. Being comfortable in uncertainty, especially in an age of fast-paced change fuelled by emerging technologies might actually be more vital than ever.
These are just a handful of the takeaways I took from this book. I may have been hooked on neuroscience already, but this was so insightful and made me think about the brain even more broadly. And luckily, you don’t have to be a brain geek like me for this book to resonate either! Our brains are our most valuable resource – let’s try and fine-tune them so we can use them to their full potential.
