Part One - Recent Discoveries about the Brain
The author took an interest in neuroscience about ten years ago, and asserts that a great deal of progress has been made in this area. He began to consider how it applies to management in organizations, and observed how the principles are implicit in some of the more effective leadership training programs.
(EN: neuroscience is an emerging field, and many of the leading researchers are very reluctant to suggest that their early work has proven anything - they're just beginning to make observations and hypotheses - and they caution against enthusiasm and premature application.)
The Brain Is a Connection Machine
Much of modern science proceeds on the theory that the function of the human brain can be distilled to making connections: it receives, stores, and analyzes sensory data and attempts to organize the collection by finding similarities and differences, associations and correlations, and cause-and-effect relationships to make sense of it all.
Our sensory abilities take in every detail of every human experience: the size, shape, color, scent, and texture of every thing as well as the way that each thing relates to and interacts with every other thing. In any given second, the human brain is creating a map, and the number of impressions and connections is theorized to be millions in every second.
For example, the simple word "car" represents a mental map of every vehicle we have ever seen that fits the criteria of being a car and every experience we have had or witnessed where a car was present - even things that are remotely associated, such as a conversation we had with another person while riding in a car, and even experiences related to a car in which no car is present (searching for your car keys).
Experiences and mental maps become compounded over time. Any time we encounter a new idea or new stimulus, it is compared to and correlated with the existing mental maps, and this occurs in a fraction of a second, even before we can consciously think about it. It is the way in which the human brain creates order out of chaos.
And our brains thrive on order: we feel more comfortable when things are understood and orderly, and a sense of panic when they are not. Human intelligence is reckoned to be a measure of how well the brain puts things in order, and human activity depends on it: until a person makes sense of things, he is unable to act.
Returning to the creation of mental maps: consider the way in which people react to new things: they begin by taking in sensory data, then associating the information they receive to other things. Eventually, there is the "eureka moment" where the data is fitted to a framework and they get the idea.
Expression, gesture, and tone of voice often reflect this mental process: you can see when someone is trying to make sense of things, and even notice the exact moment when it comes together for them.
Leaders are often in a position where they are introducing a new concept to others, but go through the same process when faced with solving a problem. We may recognize a desire to increase sales of a product, spend quite some time gathering and analyzing the data to find a solution, and eventually arrive at the "eureka moment" when it all comes together - then comes the work of formulating a plan and getting others to share the vision.
Thinking requires the expenditure of considerable mental energy, but the "eureka moment" is also the release of energy (consider the legend of Archimedes, whose "eureka moment" sent him dashing out of the bath and into the streets of Syracuse). For some, the pleasure of the moment of discovery is a strong motivation for action.
Some conclusions/observations:
- To be committed to taking action, people need to think things through for themselves (EN: I'm not sure if this logically follows)
- During the thinking process, people exhibit inertia because they are focused on their thoughts
- The "eureka moment" when an idea is formed gives people the energy to take action
Translating this to leadership: an effective leader helps people to make their own connections. They are most enthusiastic and committed to an idea they have discovered than to orders given to them by others.
As such, an effective leader is one who helps others to think, which requires specific tasks: to create a physical and mental space that is conducive to thought, to task them with thinking, to give them the resources and authority to act. These are some of the most central skills to becoming a quiet leader.
Up Close, No Two Brains Are Alike
As scientists embark on the studies of the brain, they have been confounded by a organ of unimaginable complexity: the brain has around 100 billion neurons, each neuron may have up to 100,000 dendrites, and the paths through which electricity and chemical communication can flow are seemingly incalculable. At one time, it was theorized that a single brain could have more than 300 trillion constantly changing connections (EN: The number has since been increased significantly as understanding of even the basic mechanics has expanded.)
It's a fairly common observation that two people can be exposed to exactly the same stimuli and emerge with completely different perspectives. The author gives the example of using someone else's computer: it may have the very same software and the very same data, but it is arranged differently, according to the distinct patterns and preferences of the individual user.
The author acknowledges that experience has a great deal to do with the way that new information is interpreted - this remains true, but it is also true that the human brain is also physically unique, even from birth.
The irony of it is that we often act as if this were not true: we presume that everyone thinks the same way. When we communicate to one another, we do so with the assumption that presenting another person with the same facts will lead them to the same decisions we have made - failing to recognize that they will interpret and process the information in a completely different way. "It is a rare person indeed who doesn't try to help another human being on the assumption that their brains are basically the same."
The conclusion to this: attempting to "do the thinking" for another person is not merely a waste of energy, it prevents other people from thinking. This saps their morale and prevents them from contributing a perspective that might have resulted in a better answer.
The Brain Hardwires Everything It Can
Recent findings from neuroscience support the notion that our past experience shapes our perception: connections are "hard wired." This hard-wiring is evident in the connections made quickly by a traumatic event, or connections that are made slowly by means of repetition, that cause us to have a knee-jerk reaction to certain stimuli and to process new information according to our existing mindset.
(EN: By some theories, this hard wiring is the basis of human emotion. Our immediate gut reaction is based on connections made in past experience, and as such emotions are not the inexplicable and mystical phenomenon they are often considered to be.)
It is theorized that hard-wiring is done for the sake of efficiency: the conscious brain can focus on only so many concepts at a given time, and while the rest cannot be ignored, they must be dealt with in a manner that does not crowd the conscious mind. It is further considered that hardwired connections are relegated to the neural subcortex, which has far more capacity, but which also operates without a deliberate though process.
The author draws an analogy to geography, particularly the way that water flows across a landscape. Where water regularly flows, it makes a depression in the land, which makes it more likely that any water that flows across the landscape in future will follow the same path as it has in the past. The Grand Canyon was created in this manner. In the same way, when stimuli are processed in the mind, neural pathways are created that become more ingrained over time, making it less likely the same stimulus would follow the same pathway, and less likely other connections will be made.
When you learn something new, your skills improve very quickly at the onset, because you are discovering the skill and forging connections rapidly - and the process of learning a new phenomena remains experimental, such that the pathways are not firmly established. The more you practice, the more you fall into patterns.
Brain scans of athletes suggest that they use significantly less of their brain while playing the sport at which they are accomplished when compared to less skilled athletes. Their brain has become trained to automatically choose the most optimal motions, with less effort and concentration, and they are able to focus on more subtle things.
The same is likely true for other activities: the way we interact with others, express ourselves, and manage staff becomes hardwired and habitual. Habits themselves are automatic responses, we don't need to ponder what to do, but follow the established patterns. This is why experienced workers are more efficient.
But in some instances, a habitual behavior becomes counterproductive, and improving performance requires us to avoid habits that, because of changes in external factors, no longer contribute to success and sometimes work against it.
Our Hard Wiring Drives Automatic Perception
Neuroscience has found evidence to support a theory that philosophers have pondered for thousands of years: that the conscious mind creates its own reality. That is to say that the brain creates a "map" of hardwired associations, and any new sensation that it encounters is fitted against its existing mental map.
Giving that millions of pieces of sensory information are fed to the brain each second, it is not possible to consciously consider them all. There is a filtering process by which any new piece of information matches this map, it is connected automatically. Where a new piece of information doesn't match the map, the brain tries very hard to make it fit. And only when that fails is the information brought to our conscious thought process which, as it turns out, is simply another way of fitting the information to the map.
This can be demonstrated by the game of similes: when the first half is uttered, the second half is instantly retrieved: "as quick as," "as wise as," "as sly as" immediately stimulate the results (a wink, an owl, a fox). The mind does not need to ponder what the answer might be.
(EN: A couple of points come to mind: first, not all people have the same response to the challenge - whether you answer "as quick as" with a cricket, a rabbit, lightening, or a wink depends on how the connections have been made in the past. Second, people experience a sense of delight in unfamiliar similes - when they hear or come up with a better comparison, it takes their attention and they may adopt it, which seems to suggest that the hardwiring is not indelible.)
The author shares an anecdote that seems a bit oblique: he asked his assistant to order a SIM card for his phone so he would not pay international rates while traveling abroad. She did so, but did not install it in the phone itself. As such, he noticed that his "normal" number was showing on the device, which should have cued him - but instead he assumed the SIM was installed and that the phone's internal software was mistaken. That is, in spite of what his senses were telling him, the belief he held (the card was installed) overrode what he saw.
There's also a brief mention of self-fulfilling prophecies: when a person expects to encounter hostility, they are mentally prepared to react to it - but also mentally prepared to perceive it. In such a state of mind, a person may perceive a comment or gesture as threatening that they might otherwise have dismissed as insignificant.
That's not to say that hardwiring is not always a bad thing - while the instances in which it misleads us stand out, it most often serves its purpose. Where our expectations match reality (which is expected), we are spared the metal effort of assessing all the data, and can act efficiently. And in terms of self-fulfilling prophecies, there are instances in which positive expectations lead to positive outcomes.
He also notes that the hardwiring can be short-term or long-term and that this influences the mental map against which we consider sense data. A short-term hard connection may be the result of a mood, which passes after a relatively brief period of time. An attitude or belief that shifts our perceptions, meanwhile, may last a very long time.
To drag this back to the topic of leadership in an organization ... people's routine performance of routine tasks is strongly influenced by their hardwired connections. This is not only true of employees, but also of managers, whose interactions with others map against the hardwired connections we have made. More significantly, when a manager seeks to change behavior, he must recognize that his desires conflict with existing hard wiring.
- Changing the way that people think is a tough challenge for leaders, as they will perceive new information through their existing mental maps and even perceive attempts to change their maps as threats.
- People's internal reality does not change as quickly as external reality. Change management is a deliberate process, and to successfully promote a change, you must get people to alter their own wiring.
- Given that mental maps are individualized, getting people to work together as a group requires them to adjust substantially different perspectives to support a common vision. Leaders must work to build teams out of individuals.
- Some peoples' mental maps are outdated or contrary to what is necessary for success in a group environment. Changing long-standing patterns of behavior likewise is a difficult but important skill for leaders.
While psychology and neurology have established as fact that people are self-directed and idiosyncratic individuals, the business world has never seemed to come to terms with that fact. In the business environment, people are expected to follow orders mindlessly and automatically conform to group norms - a successful leader must recognize that this is contrary to their nature, and must work to adjust their perception in order to effect a change in behavior.
It's Practically Impossible to Deconstruct Our Wiring
Given that connections are firmly embedded in the subconscious mind, how then can leaders change these connections in order to improve performance? The short answer is, we can't.
That is not to say that the brain has no ability to change, just that it is nearly impossible for an external force to change the wiring. Going back to the earlier example of water and landscape, trying to change a person's connections is like trying to change the course of a river ... to dam up the grand canyon and make water flow a different route across Arizona is no small proposition.
A person can change their habits and perspective, but it's a difficult process. It's generally theorized that this requires a person to understand the connections they have. So when we want to learn why we do things, we begin by looking into our memory to search for the roots of our habits, to understand the connections.
Given the complexity and interconnectedness of the human brain, a person can go down this rabbit hole for a long time, examining the strange universe of connections, perceptions, memories, and reasoning. A question as simple as "why am I uncomfortable with public speaking" leads to a mass of possible explanations and a discovery of others we were not previously aware of. Simply understanding things such as they are is a daunting task.
Moreover, the practice of examining the connections many times leads to the affirmation that those connections are proper and justified. Rather than change all these connections, we reconsider whether the goal was worth pursuing. It is much easier to accept that "I am uncomfortable with public speaking" than to attempt to rewire all of these connections. So when it comes to breaking bad habits or adopting good ones, it is a fight against a lot of hard wiring that is firmly implanted.
But there is al alternate path to success: while the tangle of wiring may seem a Gordian knot, we can leave it where it is and instead focus wholly on the creation of new wiring, which will be discussed next.
It's Easy to Create New Wiring
An opening quote: "Whenever you read a book or have a conversation, the experience causes physical changes in your brain." (EN" Ascribed to "George Johnson.")
Until just a few decades ago, it was speculated that the human brain was completely wired up in early childhood, and then slowly declined over the years as neurons died away over time. Following that believe, it was considered that we are unable to make new connections - or at the very least we had a significantly reduced capacity for learning in later years.
However, this was contradicted by the theory of neuroplasticity, which began with the observation of patients who suffered injury to the brain, and in whom the ability of the brain to rewire itself became evident. Clearly, the brain has the ability to make massive and dramatic changes in any stage of life. The same occurs on a smaller and less dramatic scale any time a person acquires new information. It happens every second of every day.
Travel as used as an example: when you visit a place you've never been before, you slowly begin to learn the lay of the land - the location of your hotel, relative to other places you visit. If you stay there long enough, you begin to memorize the layout of the major streets and develop the ability to navigate confidently, even automatically. Even more amazingly: if you return to the same place five years later, you will still have the map in your mind.
Every experience we have influences the map of connections in our brain, whether it is to reaffirm existing pathways, refine them, or create entirely new ones. We have an immense capacity for creating new pathways and changing older ones - though there is a distinction to be made between ta thought in working memory and a connection made in long-term memory.
The author uses the example of reading: how the person reading this book is making hundreds of millions of new connections, but most of them won't be hardwired into long-term memory: a person who reads a book can likely recall the major points afterward, but the precise words of each sentence will not be preserved.
While the assumption is that the mental maps and framework become fixed and the brain seeks to maintain, rather than change, its topography, science presently suggests that it's not that difficult to bridge the gap between thought and habit. In a way, this is similar to reinforcement: we have to be attentive to the new connection in order to preserve it.
Consider the traditional approach to teaching, which has changed little over many centuries: a student reads about an idea, then listens to a lecture on the idea, then participates in a debate or an experiment that leverages the idea, all the while taking notes. By surreptitiously reading, hearing, writing, speaking, and acting the idea becomes more ingrained because the connection is reinforced and used.
A few findings related to the topic:
- New habits take time, but not that much. Studies show that new physical branches (dendrites) form within the first hour after stimulation. This is a shift from the previous belief that it took a long period of time to learn something new.
- New patterns of behavior do not replace old ones, but they coexist with them and generally take precedence over them. It requires concentration and purposeful choice to try something different, but once the new pattern is established, it becomes natural and it instead requires purposeful choice to go back to the old way.
- Positive feedback is essential to forming a long-term connection. The brain assesses whether the outcome of an action had a positive effect in determining whether to hardwire or give precedence to a connection.
- We must remember to remember to do something differently until the habit becomes ingrained. The brain associates connections to stimuli, such that sense-data that reminds us to take a certain action, and it must be sense-data that prompts us to take a different action.
A new pattern can be formed quickly, but competes for a time with older and more established patterns until it becomes habit. It's been said that old connections are not unmade - the old pathway is still there, but it is simply not followed in favor of the new route. There is some suggestion that an old connection will become disconnected and disappear if it is not used, but while it takes less than an hour for new dendrites to form, it takes many years for old ones to disappear - if they can be said to disappear at all. An adult who has not ridden a bicycle since childhood finds it very easy to reopen pathways that they may have assumed to have been lost, just as a fleeting scent can revive a decades-old memory.
Tie implications for leadership in organizations should be clear: people are capable of changing and learning, no matter their age or experience; getting them to adopt a new pattern of behavior requires them to place effort on trying the new way and remembering to use it; and their old patterns are never erased, merely set aside while a new pattern is favored.
Of particular importance is that we should accept getting people to stop doing something is very difficult unless you can give them something else to do in its stead - and the "something new" must be compelling, must provide positive feedback, and must be consciously adopted until it replaces (not erases) the previous behavior.
Summarizing the Recent Discoveries about the Brain
The present body of practices for improving performance includes techniques that are largely ineffective: second-guessing what is happening in other peoples' minds and fiving them advice or orders to take different actions.
To increase our effectiveness as leaders, we must consider that behavior is driven by through, and that thinking is an individual activity - therefore to be effective as a leader, we must refrain from doing the thinking for subordinates and instead encourage and empower them to think for themselves.
The best way to do that is to help them to envision a desired outcome rather than providing a directive and demanding mindless obedience; to help people identify new habits they can develop to bring the solutions closer; and to help them to remember to apply themselves to these new actions rather than falling into old patterns until they become ingrained. Pivotal to all of this is enabling others to have their own insights, empowering them to act accordingly, and encouraging them along the way.
This is not only more effective in solving problems and creating changes, it also strengthens morale - people are happiest when they have autonomy and the ability to apply their minds. Better still, applying one's mind is itself a habit that can become ingrained and, if the leader makes a habit of encouraging his people to think, the culture of the organization can shift from one in which people do their best, rather than merely doing what they are told.