Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Who do you know who underwent a change for the good … and then helped others to change and improve at work?  

One engineering supervisor I taught in an Executive MBA class told how he came to work everyday feeling frustrated. His managers complained about projects they were asked to do and came away disappointed with their department’s results.

Engineers in the department complained that supervisors expected the moon … but rarely communicated their wishes clearly. Most talks

ended with complaints about how somebody else refused to change… refused to help … or refused to bring the skills needed for the work. 

When it comes to the brain change begins within each of us, and what results often then invigorates changes in others as a ripple effect. Before any group renews, one individual brain will usually rewire for renewal. Personal renewal is about the power of one – and yet it rarely stays in that place.

 Here are 6 tips to create change in you that ripples as a result into your workplace: 

1. Ask one question to get an idea from a colleague about a change you’d like to see at work. To question well is to grow new brain cell connectors for improved ideas and to see opposing views that open new possibilities. Rewire your brain with the answer and use your brain’s plasticity.

2. Target one clear change you’d like to see at work – one you’d enjoy being part of. Use your working memory which gathers new facts and applies them – rather than your basal ganglia – which stores old habits and comfortable routines.

3. Risk creating a doable plan to do something in a new and improved way… and when you feel others miss the excellence… avoid cortisol … and illustrate the chemical hormone .. serotonin … that comes from being part of new creations.

4. Do one routine in a different way at work today… Use another intelligence -- just for the sake of change and adventure. Start by driving a new route to work as a reminder that change begins with something we do in a new way. Tell one worker the story of the Hebbian Learner.

5. Invite one person you trust to lunch and discuss a plan to implement a change together. Make your new approach exciting enough that your colleague might be tempted to join in … but let it be known that it’s you who’s enjoying the change.

6. Laugh at yourself at least once a day … so that others can laugh with you more. Laughter releases enzymes into the brain and opens people up for risk-taking and the hard work of implementing new ideas – it’s especially useful when times are tough or when the manager’s a crank. Refuse criticism but jump in to encourage.

By now you likely have so many ideas of your own you know longer want to hear the end of my Executive MBA and Engineering supervisor’s story. Or do you?  Together with workers ... he devised a plan and told people how human brains can adapt … and asked people who complained about a problem to come in with a solution… or not to come in at all. If they came with a problem only he refused to hear their problem and repeated what was agreed upon. Soon people created solutions that gradually turned the entire department around. People laughed and loved to be there! What do you think?