1. INDUSTRY NEWS· 31PAGE
HR VOICE DECEMBER 2017
How to help employees thrive in an age of uncertainty
Rob Jardine – Head, Research and Solutions at The NeuroLeadership Institute South Africa
It’s fairly obvious that our world is in a constant state of flux
right now. Change is the name of the game, and this state of
affairs will undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future.
From relentless technological disruption to political upheav-
als to economic instability, people are feeling more and more
uncertain about their place in this unstable world.
One of the areas that concerns people the most, of course,
is insecurity about their jobs and the workplace of the fu-
ture. The 2018 Global Human Capital Trends report, recent-
ly released by Deloitte, highlights a number of ways in which
this fear is manifesting in the workplace. For example, out
of more than 11,000 respondents, 49 percent indicated that
their companies have done nothing to help older employees
find new careers as they age. This puts a significant portion of
the globe’s population at risk, as people need to retire much
later because of our increasing life spans. In addition, by 2020,
37% of organisations expect a growth in contractors, 23 per-
cent in freelancers, and 13 percent in gig workers. This puts
job stability even more in doubt as companies can start to hire
temporary workers with specific skills on a job-by-job basis.
Delving into employees’ reactions to change
Neuroscience, which focuses on how the human brain works,
can provide a very interesting framework for interpreting why
employees feel so threatened by all these changes at work,
and what happens to their productivity and motivation when
they do. Neuroscience tells us that the central organising
principle of the human brain, which applies to all areas of our
lives, is to maximise reward and minimise danger. Believe it
or not, the brain scans for threat every five seconds, so fear
is a significant driving force in how we interact with the world
around us. It is this response that has kept humanity alive for
so long. This is a biological remnant of our caveman begin-
nings, when physical danger from other people, animals, and
the elements were a very real threat to your life.
Although these systems in our brains are now very seldom ac-
tivated by physical threat, they are still triggered when a social
threat is detected. The fear of uncertainty in our jobs creates
the same reactions in the brain and body as the fear of being
attacked by a lion in the wild. As humans, if we feel like we’re
in danger, then our brain is put into what we call a threatened
state, which can be triggered by any of the five areas of human
social experience: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness,
and Fairness (SCARF ®). Being in a threatened frame of mind
has a very negative effect on our capacity to solve problems,
make decisions, and collaborate – all vital for ensuring a prof-
itable, productive workforce.
The uncertainty around work:
• Threatens an employee’s Status, as their value in the
workplace and as a productive member of society comes
into question.
• Means that Certainty is no longer guaranteed for employ-
ees, as they wonder whether they will have a job in the
next five years.
• Causes employees to feel as though they are losing their
Autonomy because they cease to feel in control and think
that they may not have options.
• Threatens an employee’s Relatedness as they believe
that they don’t belong anymore.
• Triggers a sense of Fairness in employees as they feel as
though they may not be treated equally.
Finding the positive in change
One of the ways in which the world of work changes in re-
sponse to this unpredictable world is shifting organisational
cultures, which requires a change in behaviour from employ-
ees. When getting employees’ buy-in in terms of this culture
shift, companies should bear in mind three things:
1. The brain has an extremely limited capacity for change. Did
you know that the brain is only capable of two hours of con-
scious thought a day? Because this limited capacity is often
drained when we receive new information, many of our day-
to-day actions are governed by learnt behaviour. Think about
it – much of what we do is automatic, such as driving to work,
sending emails, and attending meetings. We simply wouldn’t
be able to survive if we had to use our limited conscious
thought for everyday actions at all times.
If you want your employees to adapt easily to changes, make
sure these changes are simple and broad, so that they can
resonate on some level with every employee and can easily be
assimilated into their unconscious. Having lengthy three-day
strategy planning sessions to discuss changes will only over-
whelm and alienate your employees, and this is often where
traditional organisational change practices fail.
A good example is the recent work The NeuroLeadership
Institute did with Microsoft in transforming their leadership
principles. Previously, Microsoft had over 100 competencies
linked to leadership, which employees were finding it hard
to relate to. We guided Microsoft to rather focus on three big
ideas as their leadership principles: Create clarity, generate
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HR VOICE DECEMBER 2017
energy, and deliver success. These big ideas are simple, can
be easily applied in various contexts and, most importantly,
are easy to recall and so can be actioned.
2. Bias helps our brains to cope. Because our brain capacity
is finite, it takes little mental shortcuts to limit its cognitive
load. This is why so many successful people have set routines
– it means they don’t have to devote a lot of thought to the
unimportant things and can conserve their brain power for
when they need it most. Bias categorises our past experienc-
es so certain types of decisions are associated with a certain
shortcut or bias. One of the most common shortcuts results
in us not valuing resources that are further away in distance
and in time. For example, in bi-annual performance reviews,
managers often consider recent performance as more signif-
icant than performance in the preceding months. Although
this mental shortcut helps to limit the cognitive load on the
manager’s brain, it can result in them making ineffective de-
cisions.
In times of change there is a greater demand on our brains,
so we are more prone to rely on biases as mental shortcuts to
help us make decisions. Therefore, change creates a hotbed
for bias. We can, however, diminish these biases by accept-
ing them, labelling them, and changing our processes to take
these biases into account.
3. Motivation is crucial to activate behaviour change. We often
get caught up in the details of what we do, the ‘how’, and ne-
glect to focus on the ‘why’. Yet focusing more on our purpose
actually enables us to be more flexible and adaptable in times
of change. This requires higher order thinking, though, which
is not always prioritised in times of change, especially not in a
threat state. It’s important, then, for employees to play to their
social triggers to create a toward state so the brain remains
focussed on purpose. This is only possible, of course, if the
purpose is broad enough to resonate with an employee’s value
system. Purposes like Coca-Cola’s “Refresh mind, body and
spirit” and Microsoft’s “Achieve more” are short and adaptable
enough for all employees to contextualise them within their
own value systems and to remember consistently.
Change is inevitable in the work environment, and it is hap-
pening at an increasingly rapid pace on many fronts. Busi-
nesses need to keep up so that they remain relevant, and to do
this they need their employees to constantly perform at their
very best. Having a sound understanding of how individuals
tend to react to change, and how to address this, is essential,
and neuroscience can prove invaluable here.
Visit The NeuroLeadership Institute, an innovative behaviour
change company, at http://neuroleadershipinstitute.org/
It’s difficult to find an organisation today that would open-
ly reject innovation. This buzzword has become the mantra
of every company seeking to provide the latest and greatest
solutions to its industry’s problems. But if a company hopes to
produce a steady flow of new and creative ideas, it must first
realize that innovation is more complex than forging ahead
with the first decent suggestion that comes along.
“Innovation requires continual evolution,” said Scott Jewett,
CEO and founder of research and development solutions pro-
vider Element-Y. “An innovative company can have an advan-
tage in the marketplace, but it must also balance the invest-
ment and cost with the potential outcome. The problem is that
most companies focus on building an innovative infrastruc-
ture rather than on teaching their team a structured way of
thinking that delivers great results.”
An innovative workplace requires a leader who can provide the
right combination of people, processes and focus. Leadership
experts offered their tips for finding and harnessing innova-
tion in any company or industry. [How to Cultivate Innovation
in Real Time]
Hire the right people
All leaders strive to bring the best talent into their organisa-
tions, but hiring employees for their innovative abilities can
be a particularly challenging task. The key is to recognize
personality traits in candidates that correlate with innova-
tion, said Rod Pyle, author of “Innovation the NASA Way” (Mc-
Graw-Hill, 2014).
“Finding individuals who embody the characteristics needed
for true innovation — imagination, inspiration, knowledge,
boldness, persistence and, occasionally, a contrarian mind-
set — has become essential,” Pyle told Business News Daily.
“Innovation is rarely easy, and these traits provide the tenacity
to excel.”
Seeking diverse candidates who are aligned with a common
mission is also extremely important in fostering an innovative
environment.
“An organization’s mission, clearly defined and articulated,
supports the inspiration that precedes innovation and in-
vention,” Pyle said. “As NASA and other organizations have
learned, diversity in hiring provides different viewpoints that,
when combined with other cultural backgrounds, can provide
a rich basis for this innovative thinking.”
Have a structured thought process for innovation
A common misconception is that structure is the enemy of
creative thinking. Jewett disagreed, noting that only through a
structured thought process can you measure tangible results.
He outlined four concrete steps to the innovative process: De-
fine the essence of the problem; embrace constraints; gener-
ate, quick-test and select ideas; and execute.
“You must do steps 1 and 2 before you start having idea fun
How different would
your life be if someone
didn’t tell you about
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