J. Edward Deming, the American who taught the Japanese how to manufacture high quality goods in the 60’s, knew it well before there was scientific proof. What Deming knew and brain science is proving is the negative effect of fear.
Deming listed 14 points in his book Out of the Crisis. Number 8 was “Drive out fear”. Deming saw fear as counterproductive, driving workers to focus on their own self interest rather than the good of the greater organization.
Scientists, who can now precisely pinpoint brain activity, are now confirming that when frightened, our brain activity moves from our prefrontal cortex to the amygdala. The amygdala has been dubbed our “primitive” or reptilian brain. Its function is to save us from great harm or danger. It’s an awesome thing when you must survive an attack or remember not to touch a hot stove. It’s not so great when you want to use logic, rational decision making or other higher level thought processes.
The problem is that our brain is not so smart at figuring out what fears should be processed where. Whether it is being trapped in a burning vehicle or fretting about what to do about a work problem, our brain wants to route the processing of fear-related thoughts to the place where action is immediate (fight/flight/freeze).
Notice that actions like reflect, consider, plan, explore, create, evaluate, think, or reason are painfully missing from any options considered by the trusty amygdala. The frontal area of our brain, the neo-cortex, is much better suiting for dealing with most of the fear-based situations we find ourselves in today – yet too often we find ourselves dealing with our own (or others) inappropriate responses to the fears we face.
Take global warming – a fear that is present, real and calls for our best thinking. Do you see the patterns of fear-based thinking in these responses?
- Fight – Let’s loudly argue that all the research, data and evidence is false and misleading
- Flight – Let’s pretend that this is not a threat
- Freeze – Let’s not do anything because the problem seems too big and unsolvable
As a leader, your ability to drive out fear is not as easy as it was in the 1960’s when Deming exhorted you to do that. Our current fears are real and present. You most likely cannot drive out the fears that exist in today’s environment.
What you can do is to insist that fears get dealt with in the part of the brain that is best suited for the situation. When there is clear and present danger – call on the amygdala – and take immediate action. With other fears – find ways to name them, work through them and use higher level thinking in response. Keep moving people to more rational and clear thinking – beginning with yourself.
Here are some great questions that will help you and those you lead move your fear responses from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex:
- What are some of our biggest fears?
- Just how big are they?
- How likely are they to occur?
- What is worst case scenario if our fears were realized?
- What does the best case scenario look like?
- What do we know for sure about the situation?
- What might we be making up or exaggerating?
- What are we denying or ignoring?
- What is the cost of inaction?
- What is the cost of denying that the situation exists?
- What are 3 possible options we can take in response to this fear?
- What is one small step we can take immediately to reduce the likelihood of this occurring?
