Annual Letter

CLIENT STORIES: NEUROSCIENCE IN THE WORKPLACE

Processing Feedback: Brain Functioning and 360 Assessments
Seeking to enhance the management skills of a cadre of high-potential employees, a large organization asked CHP&M to facilitate a 360° performance assessment process for over 100 mid-level staff.  Our increased understanding of “how the brain works” helped us design and implement the project.  First, we were conscious that most managers’ immediate reaction to this “professional development opportunity” would be negative: What will people say about me? How will this impact my career? Will I be fired if the results are bad? These reactions are a natural and normal example of brain functioning.  We designed a series of pre-assessment briefings to address people’s anxieties, answer their questions, and describe in detail how the process would work.   During the feedback sessions, we provided plenty of time for participants to discuss and absorb the feedback, helping them move from defensiveness to openness to change.  Most importantly, we helped participants reframe negative feedback into actionable opportunities for improvement.  Too often, assessment efforts result in a list of things that get in the way of performance, but fail to describe the positive behaviors desired.  Building on their existing strengths, and understanding where new skills needed to be developed, these high-potential staff left the 360° assessment process with a new vision of their role as managers, and a clear pathway for how to get there.

Exercising Your Brain: Designing New Learning Opportunities
Several years ago, a nonprofit executive called CHP&M with an interesting, if vague, request. “I need to exercise my brain,” he said. “Design a retreat where we can learn something new and then apply the lessons learned to our work.”  That initial call led to a retreat at which the organization studied the leadership lessons of the battle of Gettysburg while walking along the battlefield in Pennsylvania. More recently, they discussed implications of working globally at the United Nations in New York, and visited George Washington’s Mount Vernon to explore the Founding Fathers’ efforts to balance the role of the federal government with that of the states as a metaphor for  balancing individual and collective interests within associations.  While we didn’t know it at the time, we have come to understand that these “learning retreats” build upon the lessons of brain science. We were exercising our brains, creating new neural pathways and opening ourselves to new ways of thinking.  Visiting these places created tangible experiences and new mental images, enabling us to “see things” in different ways.  Finally, by looking at the world differently, we found new solutions to old problems.  The information was already there – the synapses just hadn’t been connected yet.

The Organization Brain at Work: The Incessant Left Brain/Right Brain Chatter
At the final meeting of a year-long strategic planning effort, the Board and staff of a public policy organization were sitting around the boardroom table debating ways to break through the structural barriers impeding the successful implementation of the organization’s new plan. Based on their own study of innovation practices, the decision was made to add an additional goal to the plan: “identify, test, implement and champion innovative ideas that [advance our mission].”  Having written these words, the Board and staff now had to envision how to actually accomplish this.  As CHP&M facilitated that lively discussion, the “right brain / left brain” dynamics playing out in the room became clear.  Ideas were generated (some good, some not so good) and then tested.  Visions were painted and then budget implications analyzed.  The opportunity to do something bold was balanced with the natural tendency to minimize risk (particularly within nonprofit organizations where there is often a high price to pay for failure).  Our awareness of the brain science behind the various reactions and perspectives made it easier to understand the different points of view. Over the next several months, the organization developed its own unique approach to advance this initiative, successfully navigating the creative tension between the flexibility needed for innovation to thrive and the disciplined processes needed to support effective management.  Their efforts are paying off: the innovative approaches they are bringing to scale will have a major impact on their field.  While it can be challenging to reconcile the search for meaning of the right brain with the disciplined thinking of the left brain, both perspectives are critical for brain functioning – and organizational success.