your brain at work

David Rock: Your Brain at Work We Read For You – November 2010

Context of YBAW "

•  Different acts featuring Emily and Paul

•  Take 1 versus Take 2

•  Real life examples

•  The neuroscience behind Emily and Paul’s behaviors

Content YBAW"

ACT 1: Problems and decisions

ACT 2: Staying cool under pressure

ACT 3: Collaborating with others

ACT 4: Facilitating change

Content YBAW"

ACT 1: Problems and decisions

ACT 2: Staying cool under pressure

ACT 3: Collaborating with others

ACT 4: Facilitating change

Working memory limitations"

Understand

Decide

Recall

Memorize

Inhibit

Working memory vs. hardwiring"

Working memory

Versus

Several pieces of information at once

Trillions of pieces of information

Working memory limitations"

1.  Energy intensive

2.  Small

3.  Serial

4.  Fussy

Working memory limitations"

Working memory limitations"

“We have a limited bucket of resources for activities

like decision making and impulse control, and when we

use these up, we don’t have as much for the next activity.”

Dr. Roy Baumeister

Three levels of thinking"

Level 1: Deleting emails

Level 2: Scheduling a meeting

Level 3: Writing a pitch

Working memory exercise"

10 + 10 = ?

15 + 15 = ?

100 + 120 = ?

550 + 550 = ?

?????

The morning email overwhelm"

•  Goldilocks inside us

•  The Stage

•  The actors

A project that hurts to think about"

•  Stage is small

•  To many maps competing

•  Chunking

•  Choose your actors carefully

Juggling five things at once"•  One role at a time

•  Impact of doing to much

•  Get audience involved – Basal Ganglia

•  Order

•  Attention

Saying no to distraction"

•  Always on technology

•  Internal distractions

•  Novelty – Anterior Cingulate Cortex

•  Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex

Half a second

Voluntary Movement Brain signal Desire to move

0.3 sec 0.2 sec

Veto power

Libet (1983)

The zone of peak performance"

Inverted U

Arousal

Per

form

ance

The Zone of peak performance"

•  Getting interested

•  To much arousal is not a good

•  Arousal is individual

•  Just right - flow

Getting past the roadblock"

•  Insights the engine of the economy

•  Going unconscious

•  Impasse

•  Distant connections

•  Awareness

Most problems arenʼt solved rationally"

In the lab, 60% of problems are solved

in a way that people can’t explain

Where do insights come from?"

“…variables that improve the ability to

detect weak associations may improve

insight solving.”

Mark Beeman,

NeuroLeadership Journal, Edition 1

CRA problems"cracker - fly - fighter

safety - cushion - point

fish - mine - rush river - note - account

water - mine - shaker home - sea – bed

force - line - mail down - question - check

Content YBAW"

ACT 1: Problems and decisions

ACT 2: Staying cool under pressure

ACT 3: Collaborating with others

ACT 4: Facilitating change

Dr Daniel Siegal Hand model of the brain"

The skittish limbic system"

Limbic threat response"•  Psychological = physical threats

•  Generalizes more

•  Errs on the side of pessimism

•  Impacts working memory

•  Derailed by drama

•  Drowning amid uncertainty (SCARF)

•  Expectations out of control

Bad is stronger than good"

Away

Threat Toward

Reward

Run away – walk towards

Friedman & Förster

Over-arousal – derailed by drama"

•  Reduction in resources

•  Director goes missing

•  Pessimism versus optimism

Uncertainty and Autonomy"

•  The only certainty is more uncertainty

•  Autonomy and the perception of control

•  Making choices - reappraisal

How to stay cool…"

1. Labeling

2.  Reappraisal

3.  Mindfulness

Expectations getting out of control"

•  What you expect is what you experience

•  Placebo

•  Neurochemistry of under-promising

•  Create the right expectations

Content YBAW"

ACT 1: Problems and decisions

ACT 2: Staying cool under pressure

ACT 3: Collaborating with others

ACT 4: Facilitating change

SCARF model"

SCARF model"

Status – The battle for status

Your brain is constantly monitoring your status in any

group. It literally assigns you a number in that group.

When you feel like you’re going up in status you start to

feel some of the ‘toward’ emotions.

SCARF model"

Certainty - Maintaining the status quo

Any time we experience some uncertainty we get a limbic

system response. In other words, we experience more of

the ‘away’ emotions.

SCARF model"

Autonomy

The brain likes to predict and have a say in the future.

When an individual feels there is some choice in a given

situation, then they’re more likely to experience ‘toward’

emotions.

SCARF model"

Relatedness – Turning enemies into friends

When you connect with people you like or can trust you

get a decrease in the stress hormone ‘cortisol’ and an

injection of the ‘feel good’ hormone dopamine. In other

words, you experience more ‘toward’ emotions.

SCARF model"

Fairness – When everything seems unfair

Everyone likes to feel that they have been dealt with in a

fair manner. When we feel that we have been treated

unfairly, for example in a pay review, we experience ‘away’

emotions.

Content YBAW"

ACT 1: Problems and decisions

ACT 2: Staying cool under pressure

ACT 3: Collaborating with others

ACT 4: Facilitating change

Attention changes the brain"

The mental act of focusing attention holds in

place brain circuits associated with what is

focused on.

The problem with problems"

Focusing on a problem hardwires it – stop

thinking about a pink elephant

Attention changes the brain"

Attention density:

Quality and quantity of attention

The trouble with feedback - CPF vs. FPC"

Constructive Performance Feedback

Facilitating Positive Change

Change is hard"

The power of focus

Safety first

SCARF

Keeping attention

Attention changes the brain"

Video Brainplacticity

Resources"Books: Quiet Leadership - David Rock (Collins, 2006)

Coaching with the Brain in Mind - Rock & Page (Wiley, July 2009)

Your Brain at Work - David Rock (Harper Business, October 2009)

Other resources: www.NeuroLeadership.org - summit, graduate certificate, journal

WorkplaceCoaching.com - brain-based coaching programs

DavidRock.net - blog, interviews, audio, articles, research

Final insights and questions"

What have been your main insights from today?

What two things will you now do differently?