Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

From the moment your alarm goes off at the crack of dawn … until lights go down the next night … you shape your brain for benefit or bust. The amazing plasticity of the human brain rewires it overnight, depending on what you did the previous day.

Have you ever wondered, though, about how the human brain can reshape itself daily by the tyranny of the majority?

Each day, for instance,  you make ethical choices based on beliefs and on how you understand the world. But what happens when personal ethics threaten to get you fired? It happened to Joe a couple of weeks ago – when he reported inconsistencies with the quality management reports that were changed to cover flaws in a new manufactured product at his firm.

Joe stood alone, took the heat, and lost his job. It was a time of boom for his bosses and they defended fudged papers – regardless of Joe’s proof to support the flaws.

The average brain is most comfortable with ideas and conclusions that come from people we perceive as most like ourselves. That includes people of similar color, class and beliefs. Opportunities for people like Joe will appear –only when we learn and use the benefits of diversity that values independent thought.

Until diversity development improves at work – we continue to develop a mindset against  freedom to differ - or to stand up for what is ethical. While many, like Joe,  complain that current diversity training where they work, stinks – is it any wonder that people rise up and fight back – only to get trampled by bullies who act as spokespersons for self-serving practices.

Challenging the tyranny of the majority can be painful and yet the human brain is capable, simply because it rewires itself stronger each night for the ethical approaches you acted on the previous day.

Ethical renewal starts with a reflection about one’s role as an employee, and ends with a question that can reboot your brain, about how you plan to fulfill that role in an effective and responsible way. What do you think?