The social organ inside our head

Professional growth and development of the whole person is not something to simply be taught and understood. We don’t just tick a box because ‘we’ve done that program’ and move on. The life-long road to be good versions of ourselves personally and professionally requires us to know more than content, processes and practices. To harness not only our basic needs, we need to be fully aware of our psychological and self-fulling needs, as Maslow highlights for us.

It is here in the world of neuroscience that experts in the field have drawn conclusions that our brain is a social organ that requires stimulation and connection to survive and thrive. Creating positive experiences in any setting will increase productivity, performance, self-assurance and a social climate built on authentic relationships. Now, let’s be real here - our workplaces aren’t all smiles and rainbows all of the time. If we want to optimise cognitive flexibility however, as opposed to cognitive entrenchment, then it’s going to take patience, tolerance, resilience and  energy. Having a better understanding of who we are as individuals and teams will strengthen our relationships beyond the surface. We don’t need to know everything about each other either, simply to take the time to create a space where supportive relationships stimulate positive emotions, neuroplasticity and learning.

Experiences in our lives can shape who we are by conceptually mapping pathways and attaching these to emotions. Colleagues bring with them external factors that may affect the inner workings of the team. Responses and reactions to situations, both positive and negative, can derail the purpose and vision of the team’s focus and direction. Therefore our brain, as a social organ, needs to connect more deeply with others to understand what makes them tick, so that we can better predict, regulate and explain our emotional responses and impact outcomes. We can learn new emotional concepts and how to reframe existing ones by understanding our own emotional concepts, and then being able to calibrate these in different circumstances.

As a team member we have the opportunity to develop ourselves and support others to do the same, so that our connection to each other and the ‘work’ is provocative, thoughtful and transparent. And ultimately successful.

Kate Hinton – Consultant, Leopard Tree, April 2021