A recent Gallup survey asserts that four out of five workers worldwide are not delivering their full potential to their organizations. Why? Because they’re disengaged. In fact, it’s estimated that the U.S. economy loses up to $350 billion every year due to the lower productivity of disengaged employees.
As project managers, we need to pay attention to this urgent issue. But more than that, we should know why it’s happening and learn how we can re-engage our teams. This is where neuroscience becomes a valuable resource. It isn't as complicated as it might seem initially, and the knowledge of our brain’s wiring provides us with practical insight into how best to motivate our team and improve teamwork.
Based on extensive reading and my personal experience, these are my top four suggestions on how neuroscience can help improve your project management:
1. Old habits are harder to break, so make new ones...slowly. We want our teams to be more productive. Yet our most common barriers to productivity are often poor work habits that need to be changed or replaced. Experts show that it is actually easier to create a completely new habit than it is to break an old one and replace it. In fact, MIT's McGovern Institute demonstrates that previously broken behaviors can quickly re-emerge when triggered.
Realize though that it will require an average of 66 days before a new behavior takes root. And if it's a complex behavior, the change may take up to eight months. So if you're trying to teach your team a new productivity habit, keep at it until the new behavior takes root. Remember: It's a marathon, not a sprint. If changing habits was easy, the whole multi-billion fitness and weight-loss industry would collapse.
2. Emotion is contagious, so manage yourself first. Have you ever been so infected by a coworker's energy and enthusiasm that a previously mundane task became exciting? Or been dragged into a friend's depression as he complains about his relationship? Emotions are contagious. They also manifest quicker than thoughts.
Research shows that within eight milliseconds of perceiving stimuli, the structures that process emotion explode into action. In comparison, it takes 40 milliseconds for the same stimulus to reach the prefrontal cortex where conscious interpretation takes place. In layman's terms, we feel first, we think later. And whatever we feel is unconsciously passed to the people around us.
Zappos is famous for its work culture and mantra that creating happy employees and clients is good for business. For instance, their finance department holds a parade in the office every week that culminates in giving out awards to employees. This action creates a positive vibe that resonates far beyond the walls of the finance division.
Keep in mind that project managers often lead with their own example. When you're angry about missed deadlines, it will rub off and negatively affect your team; when you're positive, it can help them accomplish their work. So it is important to control your own emotional state. Managing yourself could be key to motivating your team to success.
3. Micromanaged people feel threatened, so give them autonomy. Author and speaker Dr. David Rock, who coined the term “neuroleadership”, asserts that an automatic threat response kicks in when people lack control over their work. That could be panic, anger, disengagement or poor decision making.
Note that there are varying degrees of micromanagement. For example, Steve Jobs was well known for his high standards and for demanding constant revision until those standards were met, but he still provided leeway for employees to show creativity.Giving team members more freedom over their work will lead to less stress and more self-confidence, creative solutions and adaptive thinking. In short, our brains crave autonomy.
In a recently conducted online survey about work habits, we asked people what drives their efficiency and the number one answer from a group of almost 2,000 respondents was: "a sense of responsibility."So if you're ever tempted to peer over a team member's shoulder to tell him how he should do his job, for the sake of employee engagement, resist the urge!
4. New people are outsiders,so turn them into friends. When our brain sees someone similar to ourselves, someone who is part of our social group, the information on that person travels down one set of neural pathways. However, the brain perceives new people as outsiders or strangers causing uncomfortable feelings such as danger and distrust.
For your employees to truly work as one cohesive team, you have to get them to start thinking of one another as allies instead of foes. And this can only occur when there is a strong social connection between them.
Start team-building activities early on. Establish a virtual watercooler venue where people can hang out and be themselves. Project managers must create opportunities where social connections can be formed and strengthened in order to immediately turn new hires into allies.
This article barely scratches the surface of such a huge topic. And with cognitive sciences making numerous fascinating discoveries on a regular basis, there's always something new to learn. I'd love to continue the conversation on LinkedIn or in future contributions. And if you want to dive deeper, there's a lot to discover from books like The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Your Brain at Work by David Rock.
At the end of the day, project management isn’t just about managing scope and executing on deliverables--it’s also about managing people. And neuroscience holds the key to understanding how we think, react and cope under certain stimuli. I’ve found that many times, my own reactions are easier to control when I know why I am acting a certain way.
I've just showed you four project management lessons that neuroscience can teach you. Now go and build a more collaborative organization filled with engaged team members!
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