How Your Brain Reacts To Change
What drives our
behavior during moments of change and how best to handle it.
Dealing with change can
be incredibly unsettling, especially in the workplace. But understanding the
neuroscience behind our behavior—how and why our brains work the way they
do—offers insight into just what's happening in those moments of uncertainty
and how best to handle them.
"If we want to be performing at our best, our brains need
certain things," says Hilary Scarlett, U.K.-based author of the new book Neuroscience for Organizational Change.
What are those necessities? Fast Company spoke with Scarlett about what drives our
behavior during moments of change and how best to handle it.
From before we can even
remember, we possess a strong need for social connection. In fact, that drive
toward connection is so real that in the presence of social pain or discomfort,
our brains have been shown to react similarly to the way they do when we're in
physical pain, according to research by neuroscientist and social psychologist
Matthew Lieberman.
What's more, the brain's default network, which is made up of
various regions of the brain that interact with one another during moments of
wakeful rest-–that is, daydreaming, thinking about others, or contemplating the
past or future-–is not only the thinking mode we divert to most, it's also
closely tied to our social relationships and understanding of others. "The
default network directs us to think about other people’s minds—their thoughts,
feelings, and goals," Lieberman writes in his book, Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect. Deny your brain that sense of connection, be
it at home or in the workplace, and you're denying yourself a fundamental need.
That extra reassurance
from our social network is especially important in moments of change and
uncertainty. "We've hugely underestimated our need for social connection,
our need to feel part of the group," says Scarlett. "We know that in
our personal lives, but somehow expect that at work, we suddenly drop it."
We've all heard the adage: Bad news is better than no news.
There's science to back that claim up. Take for example, the seminal 1992 study that looked at the fear levels of test subjects who had been told
they'd be given an electric shock. The researchers found that those people who
knew they were getting a shock but didn't know if it would be mild or intense
exhibited more fear than those people who knew for certain they were going to
receive a more intense shock.
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"The desire for clarity is consistent with an underlying
drive for simplicity and sense-making," write Carnegie Mellon researchers Russell Golman and George Loewenstein. "The aversion that people feel towards
uncertainty is reflected in neural responses in the anterior cingulate cortex,
the insula, and the amygdala. It manifests in physiological responses as
well."
Seeking out information
in the face of uncertainty is therefore a crucial way in which we can better
adjust to change, says Scarlett. "It's these little missing bits of information
that are distracting," she says. "If you give people that
information, it settles the brain."
One simple way to do
this on a daily basis is making a list of what you know you need to accomplish
in your day. "One of the key things we can do at the beginning of the day
is to just say, 'What are my priorities?'" says Scarlett. "It gives
you a greater sense of control, rather than getting caught up in the flow of
other colleagues."
Decision making goes in tandem with moments of change in our
lives. And with decision making comes a drain of energy that it's all too easy
to underestimate. But there are simple things that can be done to help improve
our ability to handle such moments of uncertainty. "Executive function can
be restored and mental fatigue overcome, in part, by interventions such as
viewing scenes of nature, short rest, experiencing positive mood, and
increasing glucose levels in the body," researchers write in an influential study that looked at what factors played a role
in how judicial decisions were made.
"If you've got a
big decision to make, sleep is really important for the brain . . . It's that
ability to stop, pause, and respond, rather than just reacting very quickly to
things," says Scarlett. "We forget how much energy making decisions
takes out of us. The impact of not having sleep is the equivalent of going to
work drunk, yet we don’t see it that way."
JANE PORTER
http://www.fastcompany.com/3057733/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/how-your-brain-reacts-to-change?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=2&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=03192016
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