When all else fails Build a Brain Based Organization · PDF fileBuild a Brain Based Organization May 25, 2011 © David Rock 2011 1 David ... Aircraft told to straighten up, fly right

Build a Brain Based Organization May 25, 2011

© David Rock 2011 www.neuroleadership.com 1

David Rock,

CEO, NeuroLeadership Group,

Co-founder, NeuroLeadership Institute

Build a Brain Based

Organization

NeuroLeadership.org NeuroLeadership.com

When all else fails…

Something loose in cockpit. Something tightened in cockpit.

Unfamiliar noise coming from No. 2 engine.

Engine run for three hours. Noise now familiar.

Whining sound heard on engine shutdown. Pilot removed from aircraft.

Aircraft handles funny. Aircraft told to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

Key focuses

The neuroscience of engagement

Getting the best from many brains

Engagement is…

A heightened emotional connection that an employee feels

for his or her organization, that influences him or her to

exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.

(Conference Board 2006)



Away Threat

Toward Reward

Minimize danger Maximize reward (Gordon) Uncertainty Interest Problem focused Solution focused Avoid Approach (Psychology) Contract Extend (Neuroscience) Dislike Like (Neuroscience) Tunnel vision Global view (Neuroscience) Data / reason focused Connection focused (Neuroscience) Disengaged Engaged

The brain’s organizing principle

Away

Threat Toward

Reward

New levels of engagement

Actively disengaged Disengaged

Engaged Deeply engaged

Neutral

-100 0 +100

Engagement networks

COGNITIVE NETWORKS: Includes PFC and lateral PFC.

LIMBIC SYSTEM: Includes striatum, amygdala, central/autonomic nervous system.

SOCIAL NETWORK: Self and social circuits including the medial PFC.

SELF-REGULATION NETWORK: Regulating both cognition and emotion, ACC.

LEARNING AND HABIT CIRCUITS: Working memory, memory, basal ganglia.

Cyberball



Social pain = physical pain

The deeply social brain

Your perception of your position,

relative to another person.

Status

The brain is a prediction machine.

Uncertainty arouses the limbic system.

Certainty

The brain likes to be able to predict

and have a say in the future.

A feeling of having a choice

dramatically impacts stress levels

Autonomy



Friend or foe

Trust or distrust

Connect or don’t connect

Foe is the default

Relatedness

Brain regions associated with primary rewards – food, pleasant touch or pleasant memories, money, a picture of a loved one -

those same regions were active when people received fair offers, compared to

unfair offers of equal level.

Golnaz Tabibnia, UCLA

Fairness

Multiplying and offsetting

Away Threat

Toward Reward

Status Certainty Autonomy Relatedness Fairness

Rock (2008)

Implications of SCARF

•  Engagement

•  Leadership practices

•  Organizational change

•  Motivation

•  Incentives

•  Managing performance

•  Teams & collaboration



1.  How attention is used

2.  How information flows

3.  How impasses are resolved

4.  How new behaviors are developed

Managing many brains

6,000 workers were asked

where they do their best thinking.

10% said ‘at work’.

39% said ‘at home’.

59% said first thing in the morning.

1. How attention is used

What is the optimum physical office environment?


‘People with control over the design and layout of

their workspace were 32% more productive’


Purpose

Mission

Strategies

Annual goals

Quarterly targets Monthly objectives Weekly quotas

Daily to-do lists Moment to moment attention



Four surprises The food pyramid

Are people treating others internally

as friend or foe?

2. How information flows

What is your ‘Insight Quotient?’

Do people have a good internal sounding

board to help them have insights?

3. How impasses are resolved

Attention changes the brain.

New circuits require ongoing attention.

Our attention goes to the social.

4. How new behaviors are developed



Four surprises

1.  The rational is overrated

2.  We’ve got emotions backward

3.  Social issues are primary

4.  Attention changes the brain

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

Contact: [email protected]

Documents

When all else fails Build a Brain Based Organization · PDF fileBuild a Brain Based Organization May 25, 2011 © David Rock 2011 1 David ... Aircraft told to straighten up, fly right