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specialists in enhancement and management of human performance |
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In our fervent race to obtain the latest cell phone and handheld personal manager, we've forgotten something. In our fascination with e-commerce, B2B and the latest tetrahertz wireless bandwidth, we've ignored a very profound fact. Even with all the latest and greatest cutting-edge technology, we are still ultimately dealing with the world using about three pounds of human tissue residing just behind our eyeballs. And almost every soul in business has been oblivious to new discoveries in how we think and why we do what we do. While everyone has been absorbed with the latest Palm or mesmerized by Genome mapping, a quiet revolution in brain technology and human motivation is underway. Very soon many forms of industrial and marketing psychology, as well as, individual therapy may go the way of bloodletting and electroshock treatment. And traditional common sense about managing human behavior is about as viable as your lucky golf shirt. What's happening on the frontiers of emotional intelligence and cognitive research is a lot more useful than running a new generation of rats through mazes. Some of the new findings could have a strong effect on your productivity. They could even give you an edge in management technology. Ultimately, everything we buy, sell, or do in business we do with our own and other human beings' minds. Here's an example of new approaches. Neuro-Linguistic Programming is a fairly recent and extremely useful model of how a human brain processes information, and how that process (both conscious and unconscious) controls behavior. It further suggests a number of techniques and tools that allow someone to profoundly change behaviors almost instantly and very elegantly. Persistent bad habits, limiting beliefs and unwanted emotional states can clear up in an incredibly short period of time. The original concepts of NLP were discovered and assembled by a couple of professor-researchers about twenty years ago--one a linguist, the other a computer scientist. Hence the ridiculous moniker for this new technology of human actions. Like any set of concepts that attempt to explain a complex phenomenon, NLP begins with a number of theorems, or what are often called presuppositions. Two I have found to be of undeniable value are: "Every behavior has an intended positive outcome." and "The meaning of your communication is the response you get." It's amazing the power and flexibility I have working with executives and managers when I don't allow them to make themselves wrong or disgusted with their unwanted behaviors. Also, in any interaction I have in business (or in life), there is what I intend to communicate, and the response that my communication actually elicits in the listener. I have far more opportunity when I don't shuck responsibility for understanding onto my listeners. In my change work with individuals and corporations, I have added a new rule: "You cannot change or remove a seemingly bad or unwanted behavior without replacing it with something of immediate equal or greater value." Somewhere in that axiom lies the secret to quitting smoking or remodeling just about any of our actions. At some level, a part of us is always in control and doing exactly what it deems is most wanted and needed for survival and/or self-expression. But much of our true motivation is below conscious awareness and based on beliefs that are outside of consciousness. Therefore, it's not going to work to give up office frenzy or downing a pint of Haagen-Dazs as antidepressant just cause your conscious mind says it will do you good in the long run. Many of those unconscious motivations and resulting beliefs were created by some of the most ancient parts of our brain. The parts we have in common with many creatures like reptiles for example. But unfortunately, those parts of our brain have two nasty limitations. First, they cannot tell time. So, a behavior that worked for our survival at age three is considered to be just as useful and valid today at age 42. Second, this 'critter' part of the brain does not symbolize: it can't make language. So you cannot talk it out of a worrisome habit. This is very bad news for all those therapists we've been paying fortunes to for talking and listening us into happier, more productive lives. The above are not just wild speculations of a couple of California gurus, but the tested observations of a growing number of Neuro-physiologists, psychologists and brain biochemists employing the most recent instrumentation and scientific methods. It seems that a whole lot of what we do is the result of our gray matter absorbing and reassembling massive amounts of external and internal stimuli without us having any idea of what's going on up there between our ears. However, it also seems that the conscious part of us is always busy trying to make up plausible reasons for our behavior. Call them behavioral soap operas or psycho-fairytales. All very entertaining and not at all real. So, short of reading a tome a week like "The Emotional Brain" or "A Cognitive Description of Human Consciousness", what can you do? First, be aware that a lot has happened in the study of why-we-do-what-we-do since Sigmund Freud tried to make all our foibles the result of repressed sexual yearnings. Second, try out the above mentioned presuppositions the next time you're dealing with an employee's or your own misbehavin'. Ask yourself what might be the intended positive outcome (IPO) of this action or habit. Chances are it has something to do with protecting right to survive or protecting right to self-express. The behavior is not so much wrong as it is hopelessly out-of-date and out-of-context. And, unfortunately, many times your 'heart-to-heart talk' or 'simple, direct word instructions' won't make any change. Third, make yourself solely responsible for the understanding of your communications. That gives you all the options and opportunity to vary your communication until you get the response you want. Finally, allow yourself just one more presupposition for this week. Try it out. See how it fits and feels: "People are always doing the best they can.... Human beings work perfectly to produce the results they are getting.... No one is broken.... Given, the choices we are aware of, we each do the best we know how to do at every moment in time.... We make the best choice available given our resources, environment, conditioning, and our model of what we call 'reality'.... When people perceive that they have better choices available, they use them." Healing, productivity and success are not so much a question of getting rid of behaviors, but rather of acquiring more perceptual and behavioral choices that provide more options for useful responses in all areas of business and life. The new technology of human behavior. It's your executive edge. (NOTE: Allies Consulting offers a menu of programs that can help you become masterful at your performance skills and work, or your staff to do so. They will meet or exceed your expectations: they are designed to deliver real results. They also leverage our other programs, magnifying your ROI!)
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POBox 9635