More Related Content Similar to The NeuroBiology of Change (20) The NeuroBiology of Change1. The NeuroBiology of Change
Working with the brain instead of against it
Change and Performance Management Conference
New Orleans, November 13, 2012
© The BestWork People 2012
2. Applying insights from Neuroscience
Good news and bad
news for those of us
looking to drive change
Sneak preview:
You can’t do anything
new while muti-tasking
2 © The BestWork People 2012
3. At its best, the human brain is capable of
extraordinary feats
To question
To learn
To invent
To create
To interpret
To communicate
To choose
3 © The BestWork People 2012
5. Our task today
What puts people in
shape for ongoing
learning and change?
To thrive in a shifting
environment?
To minimize the suffering
around change, and seize
the opportunity to
contribute more?
5 © The BestWork People 2012
6. Good news and bad news
Humans retain The adult brain is
Neuroplasticity as adults – programmed to conserve
we can learn energy by minimizing ‘new’
Neuroplasticity feels good Stress of any kind makes
The brain gets a shot of learning impossible
pleasure from new ways to We are highly vulnerable to
contribute ambiguity and social stress
We can actively promote Working memory is small:
brain fitness in corporate can only absorb small
culture amounts of new info
Nothing new can happen
while multi-tasking
6 © The BestWork People 2012
7. A BIT OF BACKGROUND
7 © The BestWork People 2012
8. Commerce is as old as
the first human community
Developed over more
than 200,000
generations
The brains of early
ancestors are about 1/3
the size of
modern humans
The brain reached it
current size about 1300
generations ago
8 © The BestWork People 2012
9. It all started with a change
in the weather…
Pressure from climatic change
made increased cooperation a
great adaptive advantage:
giving rise to language,
driving brain development
Humberto Maturana,
John Medina, Professor of Biology,
Professor of Bioengineering, University of Chile
University of Washington
School of Medicine
9 © The BestWork People 2012
10. Commerce and the brain co-evolved
Brain Body Business
Lucy 500 cc Male 5’ 100# Cooperating and Coordinating
Female 4’ 50# Primitive tools
3,200,000 yrs Walking upright, arched Language?
160,000 gens foot Communities in Africa
Sloped forehead
1,000,000 years 1000 cc Heavy brow ridges Good cutting edges
50,000 gens Less sloping forehead Communities throughout Asia, Africa, maybe Europe
25,000 years 1500 cc Male 6’ 150# Trading over thousands of miles
1,250 gens Modern Female 5’5” 120# Art
PFC
Fully modern Elegant tools
Herding
Communities in Asia, Africa, Australia, and maybe the Americas
10,000 years X X Horticulture, towns
500 gens
5,000 years X X Cities, warfare, taxes, writing
250 gens
600 years X X Italian Renaissance, banking
30 gens Can exchange without seeing each others’ eyes
230 years X X Industrial revolution, modern cities
11 gens People become ‘pairs of hands’
10
© The BestWork People 2012
11. Commerce is based in vulnerability
The roots go back more
than 3 million years:
walking upright made
birthing increasingly
difficult; babies were born
increasingly immature
Cooperation was essential
11 © The BestWork People 2012
12. We humans make our living in exchanges
Exchanging with others
is in our biology – it’s an
essential part of
being human
We’re highly sensitive
about it – a matter of
survival
12 © The BestWork People 2012
13. How is a Broken Heart
Like a Broken Leg?
=
© Matthew Lieberman, Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, UCLA, 2008
13
14. An fMRI Study of Social Exclusion
Eisenberger, Lieberman, & Williams, 2003, Science
© Matthew Lieberman, Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, UCLA, 2008
14
15. We’re easily triggered in any kind of
interactions with others
© Matthew Lieberman, Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, UCLA, 2008
15
17. We become ingenious when others appear
to be vulnerable
People mobilized
instantly in 18
degree weather
The mood of the
country changed
17 © The BestWork People 2012
18. Interactions with others is the basis of business
and the stuff of human life
Casual or formal,
monetized or not,
tangible or intangible
The brain is hard-wired
to keep us focused on
them, and on our role
and status
When we’re not engaged
in some kind of
exchange, we’re often
thinking about them
18 © The BestWork People 2012
19. Mirroring Emotions
Mirror Limbic
Insula
Neurons System
Stimulate the Feel the
facial expression emotion
Carr et al PNAS 2003
I live in the facial expression of the
other, as I feel him living in mine.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
© Marco Iacoboni, Neuropsychiatric Institute, UCLA School of Medicine, 2009
19
21. The vulnerability we face in modern life
is not what the brain is built for
Wild predators present short intense moments of
stress
For most of human history, people faced little
ambiguity – rules and roles were clear
They were accepted members of a cooperative group,
knew their trading partners all their lives - social
stress was minimal
The pace of change was very slow
21 © The BestWork People 2012
28. The brain is bilateral
The corpus callosum is a large
bundle of nerves - a very important
structure that connects the two
sides of the brain
It’s exceptionally sensitive to stress.
When stressed, the two halves
don’t communicate – we lose
mental dexterity
28 © The BestWork People 2012
29. Ingenuity, innovation, learning and
dexterity require both sides of the brain
Using a tool we know, like
a hammer, lights up an area
just above and behind the
left ear: Wernicke’s area
Devising a new way to use
it lights up just above and
behind the right ear
29 © The BestWork People 2012
30. The PFC ‘thinks’ well under optimal conditions
Not when we feel rejected,
unappreciated or unloved
Not when we assess risk or
experience ambiguity
Not unless the arousal
chemicals and neuro-
modulators are “just right”
30 © The BestWork People 2012
31. Many aspects of modern life conflict with
brain ‘wiring’
Naturally inclined to avoid uncertainty, unless it’s in
the form of play
Highly sensitive to social stress, disadvantaged
working in a world bigger than our childhood ‘tribe’
Working memory is small and easily tired
Stress reduces executive function intelligence
Multi-tasking dumbs us down
Every day, modern business demands new exchanges,
new people, new information
31 © The BestWork People 2012
32. Peoples’ concerns are continually shifting
Invariably requiring new exchanges
What does it take to sustain
curiosity?
Courage
- To question
- To take in
‘unwelcome’ news
Fitness
- To be nimble and
responsive
33 © The BestWork People 2012
34. Whatever business you may be in…
You’re in the business of generating rich exchanges
What would your world be like if exchanging with your
team and your business was the richest experience of
peoples’ day…week…?
When the PFC is not stressed, people can design and
fully partner in any challenge. In fact, they love it
34 © The BestWork People 2012
36. In our era, delivering value
often requires design
Change is an integral part of modern work
A modern productive worker is someone who does a great job in
figuring out what to do next. Seth Godin 10/15/12
13 © The BestWork People 2012
37. Designing new value is a natural pleasure
for an unstressed PFC
Interpreting
vulnerability
Identifying opportunity
Devising ingenious
ways to use resources
Driving innovation
37 © The BestWork People 2012
38. Orient your culture to brain fitness
Start meetings by sparking neuroplasticity - a kush ball, a
brain teaser, energizing music…
Rotate the job of sparking meetings…
Celebrate methods of stress reduction
Keep stakeholder vulnerability top of mind: refresh stories
about customers, users, suppliers…
Make multi-tasking and emails between 7 pm and
7 am uncool
Neutralize status with inclusive, collaborative inquiry
Include many styles of learning as part of the pleasure of
working together
38 © The BestWork People 2012
39. Minimize stress
Articulate new questions and challenges, with open
invitations to address them
Decrease ambiguity with simple terms to describe
challenges and clear metrics to track them
Role model pauses and breaks, integrating fun and
physical activity
Reduce information overload; when you share info,
use patterns, visuals
Not only will it make people smarter and ready
to learn, it will reduce your health care costs
39 © The BestWork People 2012
40. Cultivating a low-stress environment
involves some departures from tradition
Rest – 3 naps a week optimizes brain function and
overall health – create a nap room?
Social inclusion – play and questions - create a play
room! Bring in juggling and clown classes?
New forms of exercise – make stairwells interesting –
bring in Zumba, Irish dancing…?
Pauses for guided breathing?
40 © The BestWork People 2012
41. Generate the experience of belonging
Create inclusion with Create inclusion with
play sincere questions
41 © The BestWork People 2012
42. What makes a question powerful?
Provokes curiosity:
Introduces a new
interpretation, label,
or distinction
Focuses on others’
vulnerability
Opens possibilities
for contributing
Potential for a shot of dopamine
42 © The BestWork People 2012
43. A culture of inquiry powers brain fitness,
and supports learning and change
Promotes inclusion
Neutralizes status
Provokes curiosity
Encourages neuroplasticity
43 © The BestWork People 2012
44. Summary: promoting brain fitness
Enable with: Impair with:
New forms of fun, exercise
and moving Concerns for status
Sincere questions, Multi-tasking
genuine vulnerability Fatigue
Labels and patterns, Stress
repetition Danger/risk/rejection
Breaks and rest Ambiguity/change
Multiple senses: Information overload
pictures, sound…
Experience of belonging
44 © The BestWork People 2012
45. What will you do differently tomorrow?
How will you make
people smarter - more
responsive to change
and open to learning?
45 © The BestWork People 2012
46. What is possible in commerce is
determined by what the brain can do
Understanding how it all works may enable us to
navigate through another big change in the weather
49 © The BestWork People 2012
47. Remember what the brain likes
Pictures Opportunity to
Patterns contribute to others
The feeling of Fairness
belonging Novelty
Labels Feeling in control
Questions: Faces
invitation to
invent/play
47 © The BestWork People 2012
48. Remember what shuts down PFC function
Fatigue
Multi-tasking
Perception of
danger/
ambiguity/
being out of control
Concern for status
48 © The BestWork People 2012
49. What might be possible if you could
leverage the brain’s powerful wiring?
50 © The BestWork People 2012
50. With gratitude for the thinkers, teachers,
and researchers who illuminated the path
Marsha Shenk is one of the pioneers of
Business Anthropology. Her models have
empowered business leaders for more than
three decades.
Synthesizing insights from Neuroscience,
Linguistics, Somatics, social sciences and
business, her work simplifies the complex
cultural, biological, and historical forces that
determine the success of modern enterprises.
www.BestWork.biz
http://twitter.com/marshashenk
© The BestWork® People 2012
51
Editor's Notes Kush balls here