Our unconscious brain runs our body. It breathes us, pulses us, digests for us, and each day manages and keeps in balance thousands of processes. It does that so successfully that most of our bodies survive for eight decades or more.
When that same unconscious is stressed by perceived threats it arms the body for fight or flight.
It does that with a battery of potent chemicals:
• adrenalin to open up the blood
vessels and crank up our heart
rate;
• dopamine to increase both heart rate and blood pressure;
• norepinephrine to heighten our attention, narrow our focus,
release
glucose for energy and channel blood from internal
processes such
as digestion to the skeletal muscles for running or
fighting; and
• epinephrine heart stroke volume, dilate the pupils and
elevate
blood sugar.
Add in a few pain killers and euphorics so that we'll go the extra mile when being pursued by a sabre tooth tiger and you can start to understand why some of us do pretty crazy things when we're stressed!
The
Cost of Stress
So, what
happens to your business when you create a work environment
that stresses people most of the time?
The short answer is "not much that's good".
To quote David Rock once more, "the threat response is both mentally taxing and deadly to the productivity of a person - or of an organization. Because this response uses up oxygen and glucose from the blood, they are diverted from other parts of the brain, including the working memory function, which processes new information and ideas. This impairs analytic thinking, creative insight, and problem solving; in other words, just when people most need their sophisticated mental capabilities, the brain's internal resources are taken away from them.
"The impact of this neural dynamic is often visible in organisations. For example, when leaders trigger a threat response, employees' brains become much less efficient. But when leaders make people feel good about themselves, clearly communicate their expectations, give employees latitude to make decisions, support people's efforts to build good relationships, and treat the whole organization fairly, it prompts a reward response.
"Others in the organisation become more effective, more open to ideas, and more creative. They notice the kind of information that passes them by when fear or resentment makes it difficult to focus their attention. They are less susceptible to burnout because they are able to manage their stress. They feel intrinsically rewarded."
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