Alistair Schofield, MyBrain International Ltd.
Workshop 2 - How Neuroscience Can Improve Employee Engagement
10 hours ago: Stone Age36 minutes ago: Homo Sapiens
4m years in 12 hours
1 minute 40 seconds ago: First house
12 hours ago: Australopithecus
1 minute ago: Earliest writing2 seconds ago: The Industrial Revolution
Miller’s Law
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information (1956)
George A. Miller Cognitive psychologistPrinceton University
Habits dominate our lives
Unconsciousincompetence
Consciouscompetence
Consciousincompetence
Unconsciouscompetence
Novel
New task
Routine
Practiced task
Novelty, routine & priming
James M Gold et al. The National Institute of Mental Health 1996. “PET validation of a novel prefrontal task: delayed response alteration”
Summary
• Human brains have limited conscious processing capacity• They are optimized for stable and predictable environments• We cope with newness and complexity by
forming rules and habits
Industrial revolution
• 90% of people in worked in agriculture
• Average manufacturing company had less than 5 employees
Basic philosophy of management
• There is a “right” way• The role of the manager
is to know that “right” way• To train people in the
“right” way• To supervise people to ensure
that they always do it the “right” way
Work tasks
AlgorithmicFollow rules for a defined outcome
Motivation
HeuristicUndefined process with imprecise outcome
First image
Cognitive Bias Task
First image ………………………………………………………………………………
A B
Source: Goldberg et al 1994
Which image is most like the
image you have just seen?
Which image do you like the
most?
Performance related pay• Professor Sam Gluksberg 1962
On average the incentivised group took 3½ minutes longer to arrive at the solution!
• “In eight of the nine tasks higher incentives led to worse performance” Ariely et al 2005
Neurological impact of financial reward
Algorithmic
Heuristic
McClure, Laibson, Loewenstein & Cohen (2004) “Separate neural systems value immediate and delayed monetary rewards”
Motivation in the modern world
Source: Edward Deci & Richard Ryan, University of Rochester
AUTONOMY COMPETENCE RELATEDNESS
COMPENSATION
REWARD
PUNISHMENT
INTRINSIC MOTIVATORS EXTRINSIC MOTIVATORS
Competence - Playing to your strengths
RANGE OF TASKS TO BE PERFORMED
PE
RF
OR
MA
NC
E
LE
VE
L
Weaknesses improved
Relatedness
Higher levels of satisfactionLower levels of anxiety & depressionLower levels of stress
Satisfaction & self-esteem no higherIncreased anxiety & depressionHigher levels of stress
University of Rochester graduate study
“Profit” goals“Purpose” goals
Top Related