brain - Jo Can Do

It’s just habit

29th June 20204th July 2020 jocando Leave a comment

In the previous post I explained that, in order to conserve energy, the brain turns things we do repeatedly into habits, so we can do the actions without having to think.

It’s worth pausing here and learning a bit more about habits, as so much individual and organisational change involves us changing our behaviour and habits in some way.

Researchers have shown that 40-45% of the decisions we make every day are actually habits – we don’t make a conscious decision at all. And anyone who’s tried to start a new positive habit (like exercising, healthy eating or meditating) or change an existing habit, will know just how easily we can slip back into our usual way of doing things.

Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit explains how researchers have identified the habit process as a 3-step loop:

A cue, that tells the brain to go into automatic mode, and which habit to use
The routine – which can be physical, mental or emotional
A reward – which helps the brain decide if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future.

Diagram showing loop of cue, habit and reward — © Charles Duhigg

In this example, the cue could be ‘arriving at work’, the routine is you ‘go to the cafeteria to get a coffee’, and the reward is you get to chat to your colleagues in the cafe before you start the working day. (In the brain, the actual reward is the dopamine that is released.)

Over time, and with repetition, the loop becomes more and more automatic. And over time, the brain begins to anticipate the reward, releasing dopamine at the thought of it, and therefore there is a craving for the reward, which keeps the habit going.

Change requires people to concentrate until they have adapted to new cues and routines, and this takes energy. So knowing about habit loops can help us change our habits or develop new ones.

Don’t Make me Think!

24th June 202022nd June 2020 jocando Leave a comment

Our brain works against when we go through change. It’s not just that change feels threatening. Change also takes extra effort. Changing requires us to overcome our usual habits and learn and do things differently. This means we have to stop and consciously think about what we’re doing, which requires the brain to use more energy.

Our brain uses a lot of energy; about 20% of the body’s energy requirements are taken up by the brain. In particular, the pre-frontal cortex (the ‘thinking’ part of the brain) needs a lot of fuel. So, in order to save energy, the brain takes what we do regularly and stores them as habits in the basal ganglia, which is more energy-efficient.

Take a look at this video for a brief explanation:

Much of what we do every day is habit – we do things automatically, without thinking. It’s easy – we don’t have to think. Even complex things, like driving, or riding a bike. Remember how much you had to concentrate when you were learning? And now you can do it so easily, you often get to where you want to go without realising how you got there.

At the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic as we went into lockdown, many people seemed to be complaining about tiredness and about not being able to get much done as they did before. But this is not surprising. Our daily routines were interrupted and we all had to use our thinking brains more to figure out what to do and learn new routines.

We need to remember that, and give ourselves and others a break, when going through change.

Don’t forget your SCARF

14th June 202014th June 2020 jocando Leave a comment

As I’ve explained in previous posts, the brain treats interpersonal rewards and threats as if it was a matter of survival. So knowing about how the brain works can help us recognise when and why our threat response is triggered in social situations. It can also help us figure out how to move more towards a reward state.

And more than this, if you lead or manage people, it can help you to understand why others react in the way they do, and help you empathise, because you appreciate that it’s just the brain doing its job to protect us.

One useful model to help you remember the social situations that trigger the threat and reward response is David Rock’s SCARF model. Rock (2008) identifies 5 domains, which are:

Status – we feel good when we have higher status, when people look up to us. Conversely if someone puts you down, you feel bad as you have lost status in the group.
Certainty –the brain wants certainty and we feel threatened when things are uncertain
Autonomy – we like to be in control and make our own decisions, and we dislike having that taken away
Relatedness – we like to feel like we belong, and it hurts if we feel excluded
Fairness – we react strongly if we feel things are unfair, and feel good if we think things are fair

If we look at each of the five domains, it becomes clear just how threatening an organisational change can be, and therefore potentially how stressful or damaging to employees.

Consider a reorganisation or restructuring, for example. If your job is under threat, your status may be threatened. Perhaps you might lose your job, or be demoted. Restructuring introduces uncertainty which can continue for some time. Decisions are made from above, meaning you feel you have no autonomy over what’s happening. Your work group may be broken up, meaning you lose your colleagues and sense of belonging. And perhaps decisions are made that we deem are unfair – why has this person got the job, not me?

But conversely, the SCARF model can be used to help managers make the whole process less stressful and easier for all involved. Consider each domain and how you can reduce the threat and increase the reward. How can you reduce the uncertainty? Give people some autonomy? Ensure that things are fair? Help people connect with each other and improve the sense of belonging?

Whatever the organisation is doing, you as a manager can support your team when going through change, to make the experience less threatening, and more rewarding.

References:

Rock, D. (2008) ‘SCARF: A Brain-Based Model for Collaborating With and Influencing Others‘, Neuroleadership Journal, 1, 1-9.

The need to belong

10th June 202010th June 2020 jocando Leave a comment

I mentioned in the previous post that humans are social creatures – belonging to a group was necessary for our survival as a species. And our survival mechanism – the threat and reward response – is therefore also triggered by social interactions.

You may have been taught Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at some point. It’s usually shown as a pyramid, with basic needs such as food and shelter at the bottom, and higher needs such as esteem nearer the top. The suggestion is that the lower needs must be satisfied before you can attend to the needs further up the pyramid.

maslow's needs pyramid — ©SimplyPsychology.org

In the pyramid, ‘belonging’ and social needs comes half way up, after physiological needs and safety needs. However, neuroscience is telling us that ‘belonging’ is a fundamental human need. When people feel excluded, the same activity in the brain is seen as when people experience physical pain. It hurts. As David Rock (2009) notes:

“…people who feel betrayed or unrecognized at work — for example, when they are reprimanded, given an assignment that seems unworthy, or told to take a pay cut — experience it as a neural impulse, as powerful and painful as a blow to the head.”

Organisations are social systems – we belong to teams, departments, branches, professions and whole organisations. If your manager thumped you, you’d rightly demand compensation! Yet, the way we treat each other can also cause pain. (Or, of course, make us feel good.) We need to be more mindful of that.

References:

Rock, D. (2009) “Managing with the Brain in Mind”, Strategy+Business, Issue 56, Autumn 2009

It’s not fair!

6th June 20206th June 2020 jocando Leave a comment

In previous posts I explained that the brain is geared to seek reward and avoid threat, and the threat response is both stronger and lasts longer.

The amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for initiating the fight-flight-freeze response) is very sensitive and triggered easily. The trouble is, the brain can’t tell the difference between a genuine life-threatening situation and something more benign. These days, we’re pretty safe from most natural predators. But humans evolved to be social creatures and belonging to a group is important to us. We’re more likely to have the threat response triggered in social situations – being put down in a meeting, for example, or someone offering to give us ‘feedback’.

Fairness

We’re finely attuned to when things are ‘fair’ – if we feel we are being treated differently to other people in the group. When we perceive things to be unfair, there is a strong reaction in the limbic system. (And conversely, dopamine is released if we feel something is ‘fair’). Take a look at this 3-minute video to see how our cousins (monkeys) behave when things aren’t fair:

The monkey was keenly aware he wasn’t being paid the same as the other monkey and reacted accordingly! So just think how this plays out in organisations. And you wonder why the gender pay gap makes women angry?

And at times of organisational change, there’s plenty of opportunity for situations to arise that employees may deem as ‘unfair’. Why did that person get the job and not me? Why am I being laid off or demoted? Why can’t I have the desk next to the window? It’s incredibly important to ensure processes are fair and objective, to explain how decisions were made, and to enable conversations to be had when things are perceived as unfair.

Uncertainty is scary

3rd June 202029th May 2020 jocando Leave a comment

Our brain is trying to protect us and it likes to be able to predict things. If it can predict what will happen, it can help us avoid harm.

Being able to predict things is also efficient – we can make decisions quicker without having to think every situation through. We can do things on autopilot and save mental energy.

In times of uncertainty, our brains cannot predict what will happen and we feel uncomfortable. Our brain uses energy trying to go through all the possible futures there may be. The Covid19 pandemic has raised the threat/stress levels for most people, not just because of the real physical dangers, but because of the uncertainty it brings. Will I still have a job next month? Can I survive financially? When can things get back to normal?

Studies have shown we feel better having a certain negative future than an uncertain one. For example, a study by Wiggins et al (1992) showed that people with parents who had Huntingdon’s disease, and who therefore might have inherited it themselves, were better off having the test and finding out for sure, one way or the other, rather than live with the uncertainty of not knowing.

And this is one of the main reasons organisational change can be so threatening. When a change is announced our expected future is disrupted, our brains become unable to predict, and this sends us into the threat response. In times of change you need people to be working at their best, making good decisions and finding the best way forward, but the threat response means their minds are distracted and their thinking is impaired. Scarlett (2019) describes it like this:

“The adult brain in a threat response is much like that of a teenager – quick to get angry and emotional, hard to reason with. So an organization going through change is like an organization being run by a group of teenagers.”

Organisations can counter this by creating as much certainty as possible. Give a clear timeline for what you’re planning to do and when, for example, and stick to it. And make the process quick, to lessen the time people are in this uncertain state.

So if you’re a leader, be empathetic to the problems uncertainty causes for the human brain and do what you can do to create more certainty for those around you.

References

Scarlett, H. (2019) Neuroscience for Organizational Change: An Evidence based Practical Guide to Managing Change, 2^nd ed., London: Kogan Page Ltd

Wiggins, S et al (1992) “The psychological consequence of predictive testing for Huntington’s disease”, New England Journal of Medicine, 327 (20), pp 1401–05

Why change is stressful

1st June 202025th May 2020 jocando Leave a comment

To understand why change can be stressful, I first need to give a brief biology lesson about how the brain works.

Our brain’s purpose is to keep us alive. To do that, it predominantly relies on two systems: seek reward and avoid threat.

You probably already know about these. The reward system makes us feel good, and includes the release of chemicals such as dopamine and oxytocin. A mild change can be rewarding. We like a bit of novelty – to explore and learn new things.

Our threat or stress response is known as the ‘fight-flight-freeze’ response. Adrenalin and cortisol are released, triggering physiological changes such as increased heart rate and focussed vision. Take a look at this video for more.

Threat is more powerful than reward

The threat response is far more powerful than the reward response. This makes sense from an evolutionary point of view. We can survive without finding food for a while, but it just takes one threat to kill us.

So in order to avoid threats and gain rewards, the brain is constantly on the lookout for changes in our environment. If things are as expected, we feel calm. But if our brain detects change, we are wired to go on alert and assume the worst until proven otherwise.

So it’s frustrating when leaders say their employees should be more resilient when faced with change. They’re human, and our brains are hardwired to see change as threatening. We need to remember and be empathetic to that.

Fairness

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