Far
too many staff feel totally alienated by indifferent management and a lack of
belonging at work. Numerous surveys show
that most businesses are suffering from a chronic lack of staff
engagement. But understanding some basic
principles about how our brain functions, makes it easier to implement simple
strategies that can improve engagement, collaboration and productivity.
According
to the flourishing new field of Neuroscience our brains are hard-wired to
assess threats to our survival. We are 5
times more likely to notice and remember a threat than a reward. While this may have been a good evolutionary
trait in early years of human development, it now presents a dilemma for
employers. As the world and the global
economy become more interconnected, a crisis thousands of miles away can impact
a business, creating deep uncertainty.
The lack of choice many people feel in their role compounds this and the
perceived lack of fairness of it all exacerbates it.
These
issues create compounding threats that have a very detrimental effect on the
brain. Because they are often below
conscious awareness few people recognise it.
Wise managers and leaders are beginning to learn that acknowledging some
simple facts about the brain can make a huge difference in the way they Lead,
Manage and Develop their people.
A cocktail of
neurochemicals
When
the brain perceives a Primary Threat it goes into an automatic below conscious
stress response. We get a cocktail of
neurochemicals pumped into our blood stream.
It
is well known that these neurochemicals increase motor functioning, preparing
us for fight or flight. However, they
also narrow our perceptions giving us a reduced field of view so we focus on
details and lose sight of the bigger picture.
Because of the increased blood flow to vital motor muscle groups our
thinking and reasoning is impaired, this in turn reduces creativity giving us
fewer insights. Finally, and perhaps
most relevant to engagement is that this all lessens our ability to collaborate
and to work effectively with others.
So
what are you doing to reduce the underlying threats that may be undermining
engagement and productivity? What are
you doing to create rewards that make people feel part of your organisation and
want to contribute to it’s success?
In
his excellent book ‘Your Brain at Work’ David Rock presents his SCARF
model. This is a neat way to label and
remember the 5 key domains that produce a ‘Primary Threat’ or ‘Primary
Reward’. SCARF stands for Status,
Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
By reducing threats and increasing rewards wise managers and leaders are
finding staff are more able to hear what is actually being said and to respond
in a more creative and collaborative way.
The Five Domains
Status – How I rate myself
Our
brain is constantly scanning the other people we are with to assess who has a
higher or lower status. The brain
science shows that an increase in Status triggers the same reward circuits as
getting a pay rise and a drop in status makes you feel like you are about to be
hit on the head with a stick.
Status
is totally in the eye of the beholder and not necessarily influenced by level
of management, some managers are given a lower status because they are seen as
ineffective and lacking in authority or power, and some colleagues are seen as
having higher status because of specific expertise or connections.
This
constant comparison leads to a lot of bickering, office politics and jostling
for power. Just observe any business
meeting and you will see some people striving for more status by speaking more
or arguing their case even when is it flawed.
In fact we hate the drop in status that comes from being ‘wrong’ so much
so that you can sometimes witness people defending the indefensible or agreeing
to disagree, just to maintain their sense of status. In fact the science shows that many managers
don’t praise staff because it changes their status and can make the manager
feel a drop in status. In order to
praise others you need to have a healthy self-awareness and self-esteem. This is still sadly lacking in many leaders
and managers.
Certainty - Pattern
recognition
The
brain likes to feel certain; in fact it is addicted to certainty. The brain is a pattern recognition machine,
all five senses are constantly checking for patterns. We base our safety and survival on the
recognition of patterns so we can be certain about what will happen next. We don’t just hear, we are predicting what we
will hear next. We don’t just see, we are
predicting what we will see next. There
are about 40 environmental cues you can consciously pay attention to at any one
time and subconsciously there are about 2 million – that creates a lot of
predictive possibilities.
If
a lot of energy is being used to think about all the different outcomes of a
particular situation due to uncertainty, it creates a huge drain on the brains’
precious resources and degrades the Pre Frontal Cortex where we do our most
important thinking, like planning and making decisions. Any unexpected situation or sudden change
will create uncertainty and trigger a deep Threat Response, leading to
pessimistic predictions based on accidental neural connections. This response is so uncomfortable that many
Managers fail to delegate because of the uncertainty it creates.
Autonomy – a sense of being
in control
A
sense of autonomy is a primary human driver.
We feel trapped and deeply uncomfortable in situations where we have a
lack of choice. Increasing bureaucracy
and an authoritarian management style stifle people’s sense of autonomy and
create a threat response.
Far
too many managers still rely on supervision and control to increase
performance. This stifles autonomy and
people just drift along on autopilot or worse, they get stressed because the
lack of autonomy creates a chronic primary threat and everything that goes with
it.
Relatedness – a sense of
trust and belonging
Humans
are totally dependent on their parents for survival for far longer than any
other creature on the planet. The need
for relationships is literally a matter of life and death – this is hard wired
into our brains and never leaves us. The
brain responds to social needs using the same neural networks as basic
survival, like the need for food and water.
Being hungry and being rejected or ‘left out’ activate the same pain and
‘threat to safety’ responses. A feeling
of relatedness is a primary reward for the brain and if there is an absence of
relatedness it generates a Primary Threat.
In fact our default nature is to see everyone as a potential ‘foe’ until
we get some positive cues that we perceive as ‘friendly’.
It
is said that people join an organisation but leave a manager. The relationships between managers and staff
are critical to the success of a business but too many managers are promoted
for their technical expertise and being ‘good at their job’ rather than their
social and interpersonal skills.
Fairness – a sense of
equity
Recent
studies show that when we deem something is unfair it activates a part of the
brain called the Insular. The Insular is
involved in intense emotions including the response when you eat, or even think
about having to eat, something disgusting.
There is now evidence that a feeling of fairness is a critical element
of our social makeup, as important as food and safety. In fact there are numerous cases where it is
more important than money, for example where people spend vast amounts of money
to reclaim a very small amount through the courts because they feel a lack of
fairness.
The
main reason people take an employer to a tribunal is because they feel they
have been treated unfairly, and some will still insist in pursuing a case even
when they only stand a very small chance of winning.
Ineffective
mangers can lose the best members of their team if they don’t manage
underperformance. High performing people
often have a very strong reaction to situations where some people are ‘allowed
to get away with it’. The unfairness of
the situation feels so bad that they may simply go elsewhere or perhaps become disengaged
and just put in a lot less effort. Over
time this can seriously erode productivity.
Increasing staff engagement
and productivity
Strategy 1 – Raising
status:
Help
people or teams to continuously self-assess their own performance and to set
small short term objectives that they can achieve. Help them to recognise how they are better
today than they were yesterday. This
improvement gives the brain an automatic ‘Primary Reward’. This means that they
are raising their own status without lowering the status of others. This avoids creating potentially divisive
competition which can erode relationships.
Additional
recognition and praise from senior management can turbo-charge the response and
you can create an even longer-lasting effect than a pay rise if it is linked to
public recognition. The Economist Ian
Larking researched Sales People who were willing to sacrifice up to $30,000 in
quarterly commission in order to become a member of the ‘Presidents Club’ which
had no real financial benefits but earned members significant status in the
company.
Strategy 2 – Increasing
certainty
The
key to reducing uncertainty is effective communication, and plenty of it, especially
when there are changes taking place.
Clear Team, Division and Organisation Charts allow people to see where
they sit in the organisation. Giving
people a timetable of communications and mapping out a process or business plan
also reduces uncertainty, even when little certainty exists. Setting clear objectives and giving plenty of
feedback on progress increases certainty.
So plan regular updates and team meetings to communicate the big picture
and help people’s brains to feel more certainty which means they will focus on
improving productivity.
Strategy 3 – Giving more
autonomy
Autonomy,
or even a perception of autonomy, reduces stress and raises your sense of
status with all the benefits that come with it.
You
may want to consider how you can create opportunities for your people to make
decisions at a level appropriate to their role regarding:
·
The task: – You may want to consider job swapping, so people can see
their job from a different perspective and make some choices about how they can
adapt the way they work in order to help others.
·
Time: – Ask your people to estimate and measure the reality of how long
things take and ask them for suggestions to improve performance.
·
Technique: – Ask them to consider the outcomes required and to suggest
ideas about how to improve the processes and procedures to remove obstacles or
redundant steps.
·
Team: – Consider setting up small teams of volunteers from across the
business to explore problems and come up with solutions.
Strategy 4 – Facilitating
relatedness
Managing
relationships is a critical skill of a manager. Facilitating relatedness in a
team is all about helping people to feel high levels of trust and being
valued. A wise manager will put time and
effort into ensuring the team is able to play to the individual strengths of
its members, and that they can be open about their weaknesses so the team can
be supportive and achieve the common goals or objectives. In multicultural or virtual teams this is
particularly important, and sharing previous experiences and lessons learned
can be particularly helpful.
Creating
regular down-time and social activities that everyone can join in on is
increasingly important. One company
ensured that the Catering Contractor did not serve food too quickly in the
staff canteen to ensure that there was a relatively long line where people
would chat informally, make new connections and spark up new conversations and
ideas.
It
is also possible to increase relatedness by setting up clearly defined buddy
schemes, mentoring or coaching programmes and action learning sets to address
specific issues in the business.
Strategy 5 – Ensuring
fairness
The
key to fairness is transparency and being clear about the reasons for
decisions. Consistency is also vital,
underperformance needs to be promptly addressed and management need to agree
clear expectations of what is required. When
this can be facilitated so the team is involved in deciding the ground rules,
what behaviours are acceptable and what the objectives will be it is very powerful. Many of my clients agree a set of Team Values
for the next 12 months that they can use to assess their own performance and
behaviour, give one another feedback and hold one another accountable. This encourages self-awareness and
facilitates an open and honest conversation.
Brain Friendly Leadership
The
more aware we become of how the brain works, the more we can become aware of
the triggers that upset it. If we can
notice the triggers without becoming overwhelmed with the emotions that are
created by the cocktail of neurochemicals, we can respond in a more effective
way.
The
key to being able to respond, rather than merely react, is maintaining some
objectivity. But this takes practice and
a lot of leaders are now exploring the discipline of Mindfulness. This is a way of noticing what you are feeling
in any given situation and identifying the truth in it. It requires observing what you actually feel,
see, hear, taste and smell – not what you make it all mean. The brain is a meaning-making machine and it
is significantly influenced by your personal biases. Wise leaders and managers are now exploring
their biases and looking beyond them.
They are also identifying how their words and actions create Primary
Threats and Primary Rewards, so they can implement more of the above strategies
and increase engagement and productivity.
If
you have any questions about any of the above or if you would like more
information about how to identify opportunities to improve engagement and
productivity please contact Amanda at info@InspiredWorking.com.
With best regards
David Klaasen
David Klaasen is director and owner of the
niche HR consultancy, Inspired Working Ltd. (www.InspiredWorking.com)
We now have a new website packed full of
learning resources for managers for more info see www.InspiredWorkingonline.com
If you have a communication or performance problem and would like some objective advice drop him a line at info@InspiredWorking.com.
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