The Stats - Turnover & its staggering costs:
•Employees with the highest level of commitment perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to want to leave the organization (Corporate Leadership Council, 2004).
•Companies that communicate most effectively are 50% more likely to report turnover levels below the industry average compared with only 33% for the least effective communicators (Watson Wyatt, 2003).
•18% of the variation in sickness and absence rates across the company was due to variations in communication practices (Brown, Duncan & MacDonald, 2003)
Neuroscience
Want to start an upward spiral of happiness in your life? UCLA neuroscience researcher, Alex Korb explains:
Everything is interconnected. Gratitude improves sleep. Sleep reduces pain. Reduced pain improves your mood. Improved mood reduces anxiety, which improves focus and planning. Focus and planning help with decision making. Decision making further reduces anxiety and improves enjoyment. Enjoyment gives you more to be grateful for, which keeps that loop of the upward spiral going. Enjoyment also makes it more likely you’ll exercise and be social, which, in turn, will make you happier.
· Barker, Eric (2017 May 19). New neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happy. The Ladders. Retrieved from: https://www.theladders.com/p/21219/neuroscience-4-rituals-happy
Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience help us thinking about organizational transformation in insightful ways. We are learning the critical importance to account for the physiological nature of the brain, and the ways in which it predisposes people to resist some forms of leadership and accept others. Successful organizational change with scientific evidence of support include:
· Organizational change is difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort.
· Change efforts based on incentive and threat (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run.
· The conventional empathic approach of connection and persuasion doesn’t sufficiently engage.
· The act of paying attention (focus is power) creates chemical and physical changes in the brain.
· Preconceptions have a significant impact on what people perceive; thus, expectation shapes reality.
· Repeated, purposeful, and focused attention can lead to long-lasting personal evolution.
· Rock, David & Schwartz, Jeffrey (2006 May 30). The neuroscience of leadership. Strategy+Business, Issue 43. Retrieved from: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/06207?pg=all
Want to know what your brain does when it hears a question? Questions hijack the brain. The moment you hear one, you literally can’t think of anything else. And that can be a powerful tool.
· Hoffeld, David (2017 February 21). Want to know what your brain does when it hears a question? Fastcompany Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.fastcompany.com/3068341/want-to-know-what-your-brain-does-when-it-hears-a-question
Here is an astonishing statistic, people spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they are doing. So, we need to be present. Imagine if we and our teams were able to increase our attention by just 5 percent… being in the moment can increase the happiness and quality of life each of us experiences. Being present in our daily activities and interactions allows us to be more empathetic in our approach to customers, colleagues and personal relationships. Being present – more attentive – allows us to become empathetic. And empathy at work leads to a more compassionate workplace. Helping each other to focus is a winning business strategy. Empathy in the workplace definitely influences customer experience and, ultimately, revenues.
· Gregor, K & Wallis J. (2017 May 3). The power of empathy in business, Part 1. eHotelier.com. Retrieved from: https://ehotelier.com/insights/2017/05/03/power-empathy-business/
· Gregor, K & Wallis J. (2017 August 3). The power of empathy in business Part 2: Is it really this easy? Huffington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-power-of-empathy-in-business-part-2-is-it-really_us_59831eece4b094ff5a3f0c09
Contact Dr. Andrea, to learn how to increase the following into your organization:
Take a moment in reflection…
Most often it’s not that our team is unskilled, uneducated or lacks knowledge, it’s typically that we cannot get along! Yet, icebreaking or team building exercises haven’t seemed to work. Employees must learn how brain and body chemicals work for and against them, as well as when to trust those internal chemical and electrical impulses, and when and how to override them. Imagine if you could be freed up of the energy you expend intervening in relationship squabbles?