AMYGDALA

Amygdala

Wow! I am very excited by the current political situation in downtown UK, with our coalition government espousing a tribalist mentality for a pluralist philosophy. Granted it’s not a voluntary amalgamation and the compromise will be seen by some party activists as diablerie. I believe though that we must all put aside our fears and old allegiances and see how these two well educated men and their experienced teams go about coblin’ (it’s an anagram of Con / Lib) a solution together for our economic woes. So, a good result … unless you are a labourist or a latterday Celt.

Speaking of fears, I have recently been privileged to hear Anette Prehn dipping into the neuroscience toolbox to give some fantastic insights into ways that we lead teams, or indeed work in general; please indulge me whilst I bore you with an exerpt. The limbic system is a group of subcortical structures (the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala) in our 1.4 kilos of brain that are concerned especially with emotion and motivation. In particular, the amygdala is an area which triggers the sequence of events that lead to the fight or flight response and which destroys concentration, problem solving rationality and productivity along the way. Understanding the amygdala response allows us to use this knowledge to change habits, reflect on ones own (and others’) behaviours, and mitigate gnarly situations.

Overlaid on this brief description we have to know that

(i) we all have different triggers and levels of reaction for the amygdala threat response (although there is some commonality eg fear of spiders, fear of public speaking etc.) and

(ii) 20% of the population have an oversensitive amygdala

Right, for those of you still with me rather than reaching for the Mandies (oops, showing my age!) you can perhaps see where I’m going (or rather where Anette was going when she shone a torch into the dusty corners of my mind).

Concrete examples of the amygdala hijacking analytical thinking and impairing problem solving and creative insight are when you dry up (public speaking), fail to answer questions fully (job interview), babble incoherently (appraisals), face change in the workplace or your mind goes blank in exams. The important overriding principle is that these responses to perceived threat are autonomic (not under your conscious control) chemical responses designed through millennia of evolution to suppress everything but your ability to flee or fight. You really don’t need to rationalise with a charging mastodon nor to put a lucid case for a pay rise to the towering tsunami – just make like a sheep and get the flock out of there!

There are apparently only two ways to minimize dribbling your way through the scary parts of your life

(i) the limbic system learns by practice and repetition, so reduce the amygdala response by exposing yourself (steady tiger, I haven’t finished yet!) to those situations and practicing a more reasoned response, and ...

(ii) work for a nice boss who understands that conflictual situations destroy concentration and productivity.

If you are a boss - so that’s all the women in the Western world and the proportion of blokes who have ‘Manager’ (anagram Rageman often is a more apt descriptor) as their job title - you have to understand that the level of cortisol rises when you offer ad hoc ‘one-off’ feedback, send out those negative non-verbal communications (a fair proportion of the 2-4000 per day I suspect) or set overwhelming targets. If you bark orders rather than engaging someone with the necessary task, and conversationally compare people unfavourably with others, is it any wonder that they will not only consciously spend time having imaginary conversations with you using words you might not like, but also that they may be physically incapable of performing their job due to the amygdala response?

Phew, lesson over. But this is a topic which I recommend you involve yourself with if you are a manager (especially a HR manager) or indeed a harassed worker with a boss deficient in emotional or social intelligence. Google Anette’s web site ( www.where2next.dk ) or amygdala, hippocampus, limbic system; read it and just put it all into your work context – I guarantee that there will be mileage in it for you.

Now, where did I put those Mandies …?

Anne