Brain Research and Your Recognition and Reward System
How often have you wondered, “Why can’t that person just change”?
I mean, if someone really wants to, can’t they just immediately begin to act/think/speak differently? New research indicates it’s not so easy. Technological breakthroughs have enabled scientists to gain greater insight into how the brain works – for our purposes the most relevant data has to do with how the brain responds to change. Recognition and Reward Systems largely exist to serve as change agents that reinforce right behaviors. With that in mind, the new research provides some insight that can help create high performing RRS.
The work that I think is most relevant has been done by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz. Over the next few days, I’m going to communicate some of their findings and add my thoughts on why that information matters to anyone involved in people strategy and/or the creation and operation of RRS.
So, interesting finding number one:
At the level of individual neurons, brains are built to detect changes in the environment and send out strong signals to alert us to anything unusual – which pushes us to act more emotionally and more impulsively.
Basically, our “animal instincts” take over (Seth Godin refers to this as our “lizard brain”).
Now, given that all of us are built slightly different and will respond in slightly different ways, we all are hard wired to react to a change in our environment – and for most of us, that hard wired response feels like a voice screaming “NO!” inside our heads.
If a RRS exists to communicate and support right behaviors, what must it include to allow for a significant portion of the audience that feels immediately threatened when confronted with a situation that asks for a change in behaviors? I’ll share my insight in full at the end of the series, but my answer to this question involves time, communication, training and leadership.
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