Is your team feeling overwhelmed by constant change? Are you struggling to keep your workforce focused and productive? Join renowned neuroleadership experts Dr. David Rock and Dr. Emma Sarro for an insightful webinar on harnessing the power of the brain to drive exceptional team performance. Discover how to navigate business challenges and social disruption while fostering a high-performing, resilient culture. Learn practical strategies to: Optimize focus and reduce burnout Build trust and collaboration Enhance creativity and innovation Drive employee engagement and retention This webinar is a must-attend for CEOs, CHROs, managers, and L&D professionals seeking to unlock their team's full potential.
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.020 --> 00:00:15.459
Dr. Emma Sarro: Welcome back to another week of your brain at work. Live! I am not Shelby, but today I'll be your host. My name is Emma Saro, and I'm the senior director of Research at Nli for our regulars. We're happy to have you back, and for our newcomers we're excited to have you here for the 1st time
2
00:00:15.480 --> 00:00:25.610
Dr. Emma Sarro: in this episode, we'll dive into harnessing the power of the brain to navigate business challenges and social disruptions while fostering a high performance, resilient culture.
3
00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:37.890
Dr. Emma Sarro: Now I'm going to quickly share some housekeeping notes. Please drop in the chat where you're coming in from and make sure to change your dropdown to everyone. I'm coming in from just outside New York City.
4
00:00:38.290 --> 00:00:50.649
Dr. Emma Sarro: We are recording today's session. So if you're interested in the replay, be on the lookout for an email. Later today, this email will also include a survey for feedback for us and a number of resources that are aligned with today's conversation.
5
00:00:51.660 --> 00:01:06.720
Dr. Emma Sarro: We suggest that you put your phone on, do not disturb and quit your email and messaging app so you can get the most out of the show today, and it does help with the quality of audio and video. And you know we love interaction. So please continue to put your your thoughts and comments in the chat.
6
00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:19.130
Dr. Emma Sarro: So let's get started, and I'm going to introduce my one guest today, and he is no surprise to anyone. He is an Aussie to New Yorker who coined the term neuro leadership when he co-founded Nli over 2 decades ago.
7
00:01:19.210 --> 00:01:34.300
Dr. Emma Sarro: He's got a professional doctorate and 4 successful books under his name, and a multitude of bylines ranging from the Harvard Business Review to the New York Times, and many more a warm welcome to our co-founder and CEO of the Neuro Leadership Institute, Dr. David Rock.
8
00:01:34.990 --> 00:01:39.904
Dr. David Rock: Thanks, Emma. Good to be here with you. Yeah. Everyone might clean my camera for a moment. There we go.
9
00:01:40.810 --> 00:02:01.089
Dr. Emma Sarro: Perfect, awesome. Alright, so it does seem like we keep hearing new ways of describing the same thing, change terms like volatility, permit crisis, instability, uncertainty, and just the number of times we're hearing. These terms used in reference to the workplace seems to have increased over time.
10
00:02:01.330 --> 00:02:10.189
Dr. Emma Sarro: But really, how much has changed changed. And that's actually what I wanted to start with and start to bring you all in to the conversation early.
11
00:02:10.330 --> 00:02:15.600
Dr. Emma Sarro: and just to ask you a question. What would you predict if you were to take a guess
12
00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.729
Dr. Emma Sarro: at the pace of change? How much it's increased
13
00:02:18.740 --> 00:02:24.459
Dr. Emma Sarro: in the past few years, and I'd love to see what you all think in the chat. I'd love to hear your.
14
00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:26.049
Dr. David Rock: Like 4 years, 5 years. That kind of.
15
00:02:26.050 --> 00:02:33.909
Dr. Emma Sarro: 4 years, let's say, because that's what I'm going to. I'm going to give you an answer. I think you know the answer, David. But what would you have predicted before
16
00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:35.160
Dr. Emma Sarro: we actually had.
17
00:02:35.160 --> 00:02:44.109
Dr. David Rock: To see people's number. It definitely feels like it's increasing, right? It's it definitely feels like it's increasing. But it's hard to know the feeling right.
18
00:02:44.110 --> 00:02:45.960
Dr. Emma Sarro: Exponentially. I like 10 min.
19
00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:53.849
Dr. David Rock: More than like 10%. And it's more than probably 20. It feels like it's to me it feels like somewhere between 20 and 50.
20
00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:57.169
Dr. David Rock: Over. Say, 4 years. Interesting. Yeah. Look at the numbers coming in.
21
00:02:57.480 --> 00:02:58.170
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah.
22
00:02:59.980 --> 00:03:00.850
Dr. Emma Sarro: yeah.
23
00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:03.889
Dr. Emma Sarro: a lot of 50%,
24
00:03:04.410 --> 00:03:08.590
Dr. Emma Sarro: maybe 75. So we had, Darlene suggested. A 100.
25
00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:11.300
Dr. Emma Sarro: Too much
26
00:03:13.830 --> 00:03:15.650
Dr. Emma Sarro: wind might be the closest.
27
00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:16.740
Dr. David Rock: The data. Say, Emma.
28
00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:28.430
Dr. Emma Sarro: Well, I think I may surprise you. So, according to a 2,024 accenture pulse study, the rate of change has risen steadily since 2,019183%.
29
00:03:28.540 --> 00:03:36.649
Dr. Emma Sarro: And this is just 33% has occurred in the last year alone. Now this is taken from a survey of over 3,400 C-suite leaders.
30
00:03:36.970 --> 00:03:46.810
Dr. Emma Sarro: and it's super powerful. And I'll just pull a quote that they they had in their report, because I think this is even the most powerful is change has never been this fast.
31
00:03:46.980 --> 00:03:57.609
Dr. Emma Sarro: It will never be this slow again, and I think this is pretty powerful. Now, I'd love to hear your your just initial reactions to this and implications. David.
32
00:03:57.610 --> 00:04:00.729
Dr. David Rock: I think I speak for everyone, including Yolanda. When I say, Wow.
33
00:04:01.641 --> 00:04:23.360
Dr. David Rock: that's that's the 1st response, like, Wow, that's a big number. It's bigger than you know expected, but it makes sense, especially 4 years. So you look at the the amount of change you know, from before the pandemic. Then through the pandemic, then post, and then AI, and but you know everything over that time. But that's that's really amazing. And yes, we've never had this much change, but it'll also
34
00:04:23.960 --> 00:04:24.999
Dr. David Rock: we've also.
35
00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:29.440
Dr. David Rock: you know, it's probably going to get faster. It's probably going to accelerate. That's the other thing. So it's
36
00:04:29.540 --> 00:04:31.684
Dr. David Rock: it's really something to
37
00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:36.250
Dr. David Rock: kind of. It's it's really a wake up call in many ways.
38
00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:57.530
Dr. David Rock: I I think it makes me think about 2 things. I see, you know, I see this incredible prevalence of burnout in organizations. You know, Burnout seems to be one of the 5 biggest topics that leaders are struggling with themselves and others, and I see, you know instances in my social life of you know, people just changing careers and checking out all sorts of things, you know. I see my own
39
00:04:57.805 --> 00:05:16.564
Dr. David Rock: like a stamina, and and maybe I'm just getting older. But just see the intensity of work, and it makes me think maybe it's because it's Olympic season. It was a beautiful Olympics to to be part of but it makes me think of like, you know, for years, like as an executive in particular. Think of sort of the top 3rd of managers as executives. Right?
40
00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:17.840
Dr. David Rock: the
41
00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:30.720
Dr. David Rock: as an executive. We've always said we just executives sort of have to be a corporate athlete. Right? You gotta like be a bit of a a professional athlete. Well, I think what's happened is now that executives need to be a corporate triathlete.
42
00:05:30.830 --> 00:05:41.940
Dr. David Rock: that they actually need to be really fit and able to do incredible things at both swimming and running and cycling, and many other things right that they've got to not just be super fit
43
00:05:42.259 --> 00:05:55.879
Dr. David Rock: but super capable in all these new domains. So it's it's really like a corporate triathlete that leaders have to be now. And you know, we've been looking at sort of the skills that they need, and certainly dealing with burnouts. One dealing with hybrid is one
44
00:05:56.166 --> 00:06:05.050
Dr. David Rock: dealing with. Obviously, AI changes is a big one, the divided workforce. But you know these are all things you need to be really, really good at at handling in a in a very big way.
45
00:06:05.100 --> 00:06:06.660
Dr. David Rock: The second theme, I think
46
00:06:07.320 --> 00:06:20.630
Dr. David Rock: that this sort of connects to that is, I think leadership used to be, you know, maybe maybe more than 5 years ago, but maybe 10 years ago, maybe 20 years ago, but certainly even 5 years ago leadership used to be this sort of skill set. You'd pull out.
47
00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:29.339
Dr. David Rock: you know you, you do your work, and then it's a skill set you pull out you use now and then. You know you could learn it. Apply it now. It's more like fitness.
48
00:06:30.017 --> 00:06:37.790
Dr. David Rock: In the sense that you need to constantly be be honing it like your leadership capacity
49
00:06:37.880 --> 00:06:48.389
Dr. David Rock: can't kind of diminish in any day, because you it's the the pressure so high. And this complexity so high, so leadership's become more like fitness, like something that you constantly are working on to maintain
50
00:06:48.410 --> 00:06:59.819
Dr. David Rock: as opposed to something you go and do for a week, a year, and, you know, do a course and then come back. So we really need these. Now, we need like support structures, whether it's coaches or communities, or cohorts, or
51
00:06:59.880 --> 00:07:08.270
Dr. David Rock: an AI coach like Niles, or all sorts of things just like, keep us in the right frame of mind and the right quality of decision making. And I think we're going to see
52
00:07:08.320 --> 00:07:10.180
Dr. David Rock: some AI tools coming up.
53
00:07:10.430 --> 00:07:16.649
Dr. David Rock: That will that will help. But ultimately it's more than just the the technology. So those are, those are a couple of things that come up for me. What about for you?
54
00:07:16.650 --> 00:07:46.209
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah. Well, I would argue that maybe it's more like a Heptathlon where you might have at least 7 skills to continuously maintain. And the only way to win at this is to is to, you know, continue to practice all of those skills. Right? It does seem to be getting, you know. And and with every change in the workplace there's something new that you have to learn. So it might just be like an ever evolving set of skills. So one of the big things that was pulled from this study was that the biggest area of change was in technology and AI, and that
55
00:07:46.210 --> 00:08:10.079
Dr. Emma Sarro: completely makes sense right? And it's a huge skill set that that we're that we're needing to kind of dive into and build. And it might even mean that we have to go back to some skills that we've kind of forgotten about, and to pull back out again. So that's maybe part of it as well is pulling up some of those skills. We thought we didn't really need as much, or that we thought we were good enough at and pull them back out and practice again. So it is absolutely like
56
00:08:10.397 --> 00:08:25.630
Dr. Emma Sarro: like a fitness, you know, athlete metaphor, which might help us when when thinking about how to kind of maintain these skills. You know what to do when you're trying to build your fitness skills, you have to continuously work at them. You can't. You can't be complacent.
57
00:08:25.790 --> 00:08:26.910
Dr. Emma Sarro: necessarily.
58
00:08:27.840 --> 00:08:56.479
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, definitely. Lots of good comments in the chat as well, and your leadership in in Olympics. Yes, it's it's it's a constant I think there's a there's a necessity to just keep working on, you know, being able to make good decisions right? Being able to have insights amid chaos. Right. That's 1 that you've got to keep working on. And and interestingly, some ways physical fitness helps with those things. I, you know, really accelerated my physical practices in the last 6 months to kind of try to balance. And and I think
59
00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:17.799
Dr. David Rock: so so. But it's not just that. It's it's all different things that you need to do to kind of be able to be able to, you know, think, well, make good decisions, and and also stay optimistic and stay positive because your threat state is additive to your teams and your organizations. So yeah, big thing. And this is this is something we worked on. I know a lot. When the pandemic hit we brought out
60
00:09:17.800 --> 00:09:30.800
Dr. David Rock: some research we've done. About 10 years earlier we worked with a company of about 70,000, who were reducing to 40,000, like really fast, and shutting down whole countries and shutting down whole functions and completely transforming.
61
00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:42.590
Dr. David Rock: And we did this work with them about a decade before the pandemic, like looking at the like, the critical skills for being able to think well, make really good quality decisions during, you know, literally a crisis.
62
00:09:42.912 --> 00:09:58.659
Dr. David Rock: We developed a bunch of research on that idea. One of them was the 3 levels of threat which came out of some deep research. Brain research that was done, and a whole other things. And then we brought that back in the pandemic and interestingly, I think it's
63
00:09:59.050 --> 00:10:05.109
Dr. David Rock: it's become just as relevant, maybe even more relevant. Now, it's just like sort of the frog boiling, you know. It's like
64
00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:09.230
Dr. David Rock: boiling slowly, you know we don't. We don't realize just how much sort of
65
00:10:09.521 --> 00:10:15.819
Dr. David Rock: chaos is around us, because it's been sort of a slow incremental increase. But in many ways. It's more challenging right now than the pandemic.
66
00:10:16.800 --> 00:10:31.240
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so given that this acceleration of change can actually be felt as a crisis, you know, needing to increase your agility. And you know, why is it that we have so much difficulty focusing in the face of this kind of crisis?
67
00:10:32.280 --> 00:10:34.626
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, I mean, there's a there's a fundamental
68
00:10:35.150 --> 00:10:50.260
Dr. David Rock: challenge that AI is trying to address, which is just basically, we have very limited cognitive capacity to make, you know, complex decisions like our ability to make decisions is limited to how much we can hold in mind at any one time. That's actually a very small amount.
69
00:10:50.687 --> 00:11:14.679
Dr. David Rock: And so you know, humans can barely do long division of, you know, 3 numbers in their head. But many, many decisions involve much more data and many more steps than that. Right? You think about a decision to choose strategy, A or strategy. B. Far more information and far more steps in the process to make that decision accurately than there is in, you know, multiplying 4 digits right?
70
00:11:15.037 --> 00:11:44.209
Dr. David Rock: And so so we just don't have the capacity. And we've talked about this a lot. But basically your cognitive capacity, which is equal to working memory capacity, it's equal to all sorts of things. But this cognitive capacity we have is is really in a seesaw with with the threat with threat level. So it's not. It's not directly seesaw, because there's, you know, if you're if you're sort of neutral, and then you get slightly anxious, you might increase your capacity a little right? So you can be more focused, you'll feel more focused.
71
00:11:44.460 --> 00:12:08.299
Dr. David Rock: But you won't notice that you're missing a lot of information as well. So it's it's a little complex. But it's it's okay to, you know, simplify and say, look the the stronger the threat level we're experiencing, the less cognitive capacity we have. And that's for both conscious decision making, and even more for that unconscious problem, solving that we need more and more of now the the inside problem solving. And this is one of the reasons everyone's so excited by AI. You can. It could just
72
00:12:08.330 --> 00:12:14.739
Dr. David Rock: process the most incredible amount of things so incredibly quickly, so much complexity and kind of spit out an answer. But we have to
73
00:12:14.870 --> 00:12:18.249
Dr. David Rock: be very careful. The data we put in and the questions we ask
74
00:12:18.591 --> 00:12:25.920
Dr. David Rock: because it could go in the wrong direction very quickly, like a, you know, like a racing car versus a, you know, a horse and cart. So
75
00:12:26.278 --> 00:12:32.399
Dr. David Rock: so so basically, what we're struggling with is the ambient threat level that people are waking up in the morning is higher.
76
00:12:32.755 --> 00:12:38.549
Dr. David Rock: maybe higher than any time, except like the start of the pandemic when we were, you know, really exploding.
77
00:12:38.945 --> 00:12:47.680
Dr. David Rock: But the the this ambient threat level, this sort of sense of uncertainty is very high, which just reduces our capacity to think well increases
78
00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:51.623
Dr. David Rock: what's called allostatic load, which is a threat response. So lots of
79
00:12:52.798 --> 00:12:58.510
Dr. David Rock: yeah. Lots of you know. Lots more to say about that, but that's kind of a summary of you know what we're experiencing now.
80
00:12:58.660 --> 00:13:27.330
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah. And I mean the crisis in general, or just the the fact that most of these things are changes. I mean, they kind of pull your attention away from what you're working on, too. So there's an element of this that every time there's a new change announced. You know this is a new tool. This is a new crisis. This is a new emergency. It's pulling your attention away from what you need to do. So there's also this element of how do we like continue moving forward and continue focusing in the face of all of these distractors that are that are built to
81
00:13:27.330 --> 00:13:33.540
Dr. Emma Sarro: pull us away, and to imagine that now I have to focus on this. But really it detracts from our work.
82
00:13:33.540 --> 00:13:54.480
Dr. Emma Sarro: And so in the face of this, we do have to continue to do the work and reach our goals. And so we also need strategies to help us to like, maintain focus, which is kind of the the, you know solution that we put together in the face of the pandemic as well. And we and I think that these behaviors that we built, using the science of understanding how to work in the face of crisis. They work
83
00:13:54.480 --> 00:14:08.500
Dr. Emma Sarro: for this purpose, too, to allow you to prioritize and focus. And so if we were to synthesize all of the research that we put into that that's still very applicable today. What would you say? Are those like primary behaviors.
84
00:14:08.640 --> 00:14:13.140
Dr. David Rock: I think I think there are 3 sort of slightly non obvious
85
00:14:13.350 --> 00:14:14.950
Dr. David Rock: habits overall.
86
00:14:16.110 --> 00:14:35.100
Dr. David Rock: and you know, the the sort of reflex response in a crisis is go is is to sort of go on adrenaline. Right? Like, let's lift our adrenaline level. Let's really focus. Let's push ourselves right now. That's okay for for a sprint. Right? You see the sprinters this year it was another Olympic story. I'm clearly a fan.
87
00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:58.560
Dr. David Rock: I I got to watch lots of it with my mother while I was in Australia. It was like our bonding activity. So we watched days and days of Olympics. But you know the the the Olympics are very, very close together, that 100 meter sprint right now. If they were, you know, an 800 meter sprint, it would be you know, there'd be more gap between. But it's a hundred meters, and and what's happening is is like this is, you can't go on adrenaline
88
00:14:58.930 --> 00:15:16.510
Dr. David Rock: for 800 meters. You can't. You can't go as fast for 800 as you do as 100. Right? It's a it's a much more of a marathon. And literally, if it's a 42 kilometer marathon, you definitely can't go as the hundreds. But what we do is we we sort of push that strategy in like, let's just go right. That works for that sprint
89
00:15:16.590 --> 00:15:31.730
Dr. David Rock: does not work now. So you you that's the sort of reflex response. Right? Let's just go on, adrenaline. Let's pump up. Let's go right. The not the non intuitive strategies 1st of all, is to actually take care of yourself better than you might imagine, better than you ever have
90
00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:34.180
Dr. David Rock: right, and that's taking care of
91
00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:38.110
Dr. David Rock: a bunch of things. But in the service of being able to think well.
92
00:15:38.390 --> 00:15:41.339
Dr. David Rock: right, and it's it just takes a lot of intentionality
93
00:15:41.350 --> 00:15:54.130
Dr. David Rock: to be able to think well, when the world around you is on fire. Right? And we'll dig into that. So that's the 1st one is, take care of yourself. Right? We literally just called that habit. Take care of yourself. The the second one
94
00:15:54.936 --> 00:15:56.869
Dr. David Rock: is look after each other
95
00:15:57.190 --> 00:16:07.290
Dr. David Rock: right again. That's not necessarily sort of the obvious thing to do. Like in a crisis like focus on yourself. Go and adrenaline. Just do what you have to do right. No, take care of yourself. Look after each other.
96
00:16:08.020 --> 00:16:19.220
Dr. David Rock: Because it turns out that in a crisis. We need each other. And feeling like we have, you know, other people around us really calms the nervous system and really creates that
97
00:16:19.486 --> 00:16:27.179
Dr. David Rock: that more positive state. So we need to kind of go through this together. We need each other, and the 3rd one is, deliver what we call deliver what matters
98
00:16:27.320 --> 00:16:35.390
Dr. David Rock: which is which is about prioritizing. And it's it's a hard thing to do. It's really hard to say no to things right. Some people are good at it. Most people really struggle
99
00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:37.200
Dr. David Rock: to say no to things
100
00:16:38.190 --> 00:16:39.000
Dr. David Rock: like.
101
00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:59.659
Dr. David Rock: How do you take these off the plate? You know we struggle with that in our organization as well like, Oh, we want that. We don't elect things. But sometimes you just have to say, Okay, I I can only do 3 things this month. What are those 3? I've got less time. I've got less focus. I've got less energy. Or what do I have to do? And that's the 3rd habit. So we can dig into one of those one, you know, each of those one at a time. But I think
102
00:16:59.890 --> 00:17:07.949
Dr. David Rock: it's it's sort of the automatic reflex in a crisis is just work harder. Go at it. Focus on yourself and try to do everything.
103
00:17:08.440 --> 00:17:15.759
Dr. David Rock: And those strategies fall apart really quickly in a long-term crisis. Now you've got to take care of yourself, look after other people and really
104
00:17:15.800 --> 00:17:20.369
Dr. David Rock: prioritize. Really, really, really, in a really disciplined, intentional way.
105
00:17:21.069 --> 00:17:44.659
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah, no, absolutely. And and I would say, the reason that you'd want, even if these habits make sense. The reason we need to build them is because when we're faced with some kind of emergency or crisis, we're not going to do them. We're going to react. We're going to run away. We're going to avoid the situation we're going to, you know, survive. But that's not even necessarily the right, and under the the
106
00:17:44.659 --> 00:18:08.399
Dr. Emma Sarro: the habit of taking care of yourself, so we wouldn't even necessarily take care of yourself in the right way if you're reacting to a crisis. So that's why, even if these make a lot of sense. It's really important to build them. So that when you are facing this crisis you're able to react in the right way and taking care of yourself is the most important one to start with, even though it is a bit counterintuitive, especially if you're a leader facing some kind of change, and you need to
107
00:18:08.399 --> 00:18:23.879
Dr. Emma Sarro: kind of take care of your team as well. But you're going to. We talked about many times. We talked about this in our lead program as well. And that's how the whole program is designed is the very 1st piece of it is managing yourself and being better for your team, so you can manage them better.
108
00:18:24.520 --> 00:18:32.299
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, I mean the look, the science of this. Let's dig into takeover yourself. The science of this that we we thought was the most helpful, most sticky was it started with
109
00:18:32.788 --> 00:18:48.649
Dr. David Rock: understanding 3 levels of threat. Because it's not that all threat is bad, right? You've heard of use stress and positive stress, this kind of thing. So we we looked. This is over 10 years ago. We looked at the research and saw that that there are quite different brain systems involved in different intensities of of threat level
110
00:18:48.925 --> 00:19:12.659
Dr. David Rock: and we simplified that to 3 levels, the 3rd level, the strongest one is the classic amygdala hijack. That's where you you know, you can't think straight at all. You can't make any good decisions, barely open your computer, you know. You just really just, you know, can't do anything but doom scroll and you know, and and stay up all night. So so that that's 3 level. That's clearly unhealthy. But there's a level 2 threat that people often don't know they're experiencing.
111
00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:25.979
Dr. David Rock: which is also unhealthy. It's basically preparing your body and your brain for level 3. So level 2. Threat is this like sort of bullion prediction that happens in your brain where you say, look, threat is likely enough
112
00:19:26.060 --> 00:19:39.620
Dr. David Rock: that I should be ready for it, so I should reduce all the oxygen and glucose from my prefrontal and my stomach, and the 2 things that are very energy intensive, I should, you know, activate my motor cortex, my premotor cortex. You know all this stuff. So
113
00:19:39.980 --> 00:19:42.519
Dr. David Rock: so the level 2 threat is a danger zone
114
00:19:42.770 --> 00:20:11.959
Dr. David Rock: and a lot of people spend way too much time in level 2 threat. And essentially, you're you're quite alert and quite alarmed, but you sort of feel like you can still work. But you're doing really bad work. You're like reading things over and over, you know. You just can't think well, right? So it's sort of like the, you know, Friday afternoon, trying to, you know. Write something new versus Monday morning, after a refreshing weekend, right? Anyway, the level one threat is actually a little bit of threat. Where you're alert, you're more alert, but you're not really alarmed at all.
115
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:20.069
Dr. David Rock: So you don't have the heart racing that's reducing resources to prefrontal. But you're more alert, right? Like a strong cup of coffee.
116
00:20:20.580 --> 00:20:30.939
Dr. David Rock: and it's it's interesting you in this state, you you you actually feel more focused, you feel more productive. You can get a lot done. You won't tend to be really creative.
117
00:20:30.990 --> 00:20:32.849
Dr. David Rock: but you'll tend to be productive.
118
00:20:33.297 --> 00:21:01.140
Dr. David Rock: And that's a fine state to be in. But you want to balance that out with positive states. Right? You want to balance that out with, you know, quality connections with other people that calm your nervous system, including your heart. Your heart's very much part of your nervous system. Right? You want positive interactions that have none of the threat in them to balance that out and to balance out the you know the effects, the harmful effects on your nervous system, and and your body overall your immune system. But you never want to be ideally. You never want to be more than level one threat
119
00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:14.610
Dr. David Rock: right? That was the message for leaders in particular, because their threat level is additive to their teams. Right? The leader wants to be really deliberate that they're never at level 2. They're never more than level one threat which is like alert but not alarmed.
120
00:21:15.073 --> 00:21:29.999
Dr. David Rock: And so and it takes a lot of intentionality for a leader who's being seen by everyone, and you know everything's on their shoulders. And you know all this to to actually do that. So that was sort of the 1st piece. 3 levels of threat. We've continued to kind of build on that. I think it's a really helpful piece of language
121
00:21:30.363 --> 00:21:48.240
Dr. David Rock: to just detect so you know, so level one threat is is alert, but not alarm. Level 2 is, you know, quite alert and and quite alarmed. A level 3 is is extremely alert, extremely alarmed. It's it's the full, you know, shutdown. And what we saw is the further you go down in organizations, the higher those threat levels.
122
00:21:48.536 --> 00:22:05.660
Dr. David Rock: So the top leaders might be at level one into level 2 middle of the organization level 2, and the front lines 2 and 3 which is, is is something. So so this is a you know. It's an interesting phenomena. Any comments on that, Emma, before we talk about sort of how to offset those things. What, what we learned.
123
00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:18.349
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah, no one thing that was coming up a bit was just the the idea that we're talking about this this rapid rate of change. I mean that that might actually create like a baseline level, one threat right from the start.
124
00:22:18.350 --> 00:22:43.339
Dr. Emma Sarro: So it might mean that everyone is just just more primed to enter a level. 2 threat or a level. 3 threat a a bit easier. So maybe they're entering the workday. Any day of the week. Kind of at a level one, because they they wake up with this like baseline level of threat. And so that's why this kind of habit is so important to kind of manage yourself in a way to prepare yourself for for work and kind of reducing that threat level while we say level
125
00:22:43.340 --> 00:22:58.419
Dr. Emma Sarro: threat can be incredibly productive. If you're kind of starting out the day that way. You're more likely to respond to something, anything, you know, some weird social interaction. It'll just jump you into a level 2 threat, and then you're not productive at all for your team.
126
00:22:58.630 --> 00:23:13.440
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, no, that's right. Interesting. So it's yeah, interesting. So it's that's like a foundation like for leaders gives them kind of a measure like, how do I feel? Am I? You know? Where am I in the scale? How do I manage it now? How do you manage it? So we've been looking at
127
00:23:13.450 --> 00:23:36.899
Dr. David Rock: this from a couple of different directions. And you know, we talk a lot about the brain, even though the brain is part of the body is part of the nervous system. It's all inter, you know, interconnected. And we, you know, we talk about the brain because it's a it's it's it's. It's like a a safer entry point to have a very similar conversation to talking about other things, but happens to be a more concrete way to explain certain things, and also just
128
00:23:36.900 --> 00:23:56.240
Dr. David Rock: kind of a more safe way to explain things, particularly to a a leadership audience. So if you're talking to a leadership audience. Who are, you know, Mba, trained, legally trained, accounting, trained engineering trained. They're all one of those right? Very, very basically academically trained, right? And you're talking soft.
129
00:23:56.250 --> 00:24:02.558
Dr. David Rock: You know, you're talking about soft human skills. It's it's really helpful to use the most scientific
130
00:24:02.930 --> 00:24:30.869
Dr. David Rock: frameworks you can right? The most scientific schemas, most scientific explanations. It's just gonna get give less resistance. So you know, we could explain a lot of this through other schemas altogether. But you, you know, anchoring on what we know from the brain about these functions just happens to be a helpful language, particularly for, for you know, managers and leaders at all levels in in organizations. So that's you know, that's kind of why we focus there. But anyway, what what we saw is that level one threat.
131
00:24:31.080 --> 00:24:40.090
Dr. David Rock: You can turn that down. And this is an approximation. It's not a perfect model, but it's helpful level. One threat you can address with with labeling skills and labeling is basically
132
00:24:41.710 --> 00:24:44.720
Dr. David Rock: labeling is is putting words on emotions.
133
00:24:45.397 --> 00:24:56.519
Dr. David Rock: Putting putting words on emotions like identifying like, why, you're feeling a certain way, and what we see is that turns down threat responses, but only only small ones right small to moderate
134
00:24:56.730 --> 00:25:09.780
Dr. David Rock: reappraisal is what you need for stronger threats like a level 2, right? So level one threats you could label, you know. Why? Why am I feeling that? Oh, it's cause it's Thursday. My brain's full. I'm really fine, right? But reappraisal you need, for like.
135
00:25:09.810 --> 00:25:13.389
Dr. David Rock: you know, when you're feeling a much stronger threat response. So what you're doing is you're looking at
136
00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:17.330
Dr. David Rock: the the appraisal or the the interpretation you've made
137
00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:32.679
Dr. David Rock: right. And then you're altering that interpretation because emotional responses come from interpretations, not from raw data. There's data. We experience. Then there's interpretations. Then there's emotional outcomes, right? And often, mostly those interpretations are very unconscious to it to us.
138
00:25:32.740 --> 00:25:52.050
Dr. David Rock: But you're you're you're getting more conscious the kind of labeling about the interpretation you've made, and you're changing it. That's reappraisal. And it's such a such a powerful and critical tool for for health in life, but particularly health as a leader that becomes your power tool for those level. 2 threats, the the level 3 threats. You need what we call a biological intervention.
139
00:25:52.230 --> 00:26:07.680
Dr. David Rock: which is a long word for a nap or a meal, or a run, or, you know, a workout of some sort, just like your whole nervous system is so activated that you don't have the resources cognitively to, to reappraise, to label.
140
00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:31.519
Dr. David Rock: to do much else. You need to do something kind of biological in that moment. And that. So so as you're sort of noticing different threat levels, we we said, look th, these are the ways to intervene. That was one thing, and and I'll hear in a moment. Be interesting to ask the audience. Don't put it in yet, but it'll be interesting to ask the audience, kind of what strategies are you using? Because I you know some people have been putting some ideas in. But just hold for a moment. What strategies are you finding really helpful? Let's get that all at once
141
00:26:31.560 --> 00:26:35.660
Dr. David Rock: at the moment. But just wait for a second. The the overarching
142
00:26:35.700 --> 00:26:40.669
Dr. David Rock: thing that we find beyond just the regulating emotions is is buffering yourself
143
00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:47.239
Dr. David Rock: right is creating more of a buffer. So you're in more of a positive state, right? So that you have less chance
144
00:26:47.320 --> 00:26:52.439
Dr. David Rock: of those threats happening. Right? So you want to put in, you know, positive buffers.
145
00:26:52.798 --> 00:27:12.200
Dr. David Rock: Now we go to the scarf model. Right? You're thinking about, how do we create a positive sense of certainty? For example, right? How do we increase our sense of certainty in the world. You know, I've gone back to cleaning up systems. I hadn't cleaned up for a while to just like create a greater sense of order and certainty in my local environment? Right? How do we create a greater sense of autonomy
146
00:27:12.380 --> 00:27:21.230
Dr. David Rock: in our environment? Right? How do we create a deeper sense of relatedness, with deepening our friendship, spending time with loved ones right? Really connecting on that on that level.
147
00:27:21.607 --> 00:27:37.172
Dr. David Rock: To increase that real sense of relatedness that calms us. So those are some examples, you know. Certainty. Autonomy, relatedness are probably the 3 that you can like really buffer yourself. We call those scarf buffers. So I think, putting in place those scarf buffers helps you to
148
00:27:37.770 --> 00:27:45.229
Dr. David Rock: to really be more in that positive state. And then the 3rd idea, sometimes we're introducing is is the healthy mind platter which looks at
149
00:27:45.524 --> 00:27:59.779
Dr. David Rock: you know, making sure you're getting the sleep you need, making sure you're getting the the downtime that you need the reflecting time. You know those kinds of things, and those are also a kind of buffer in that way. So that that's how we're thinking about taking care of yourself, levels of threat.
150
00:28:00.164 --> 00:28:09.279
Dr. David Rock: and then sort of the different self regulation strategies. And then these different buffering strategies overall. So yeah, let's let's get in the chat. What do you? You know? What do folks?
151
00:28:09.440 --> 00:28:13.890
Dr. David Rock: If you had to pick one thing that you're doing that's really helping you the most. What would that be?
152
00:28:14.406 --> 00:28:16.289
Dr. David Rock: I'm going to put mine
153
00:28:16.760 --> 00:28:18.718
Dr. David Rock: mine right now is gardening.
154
00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:27.959
Dr. David Rock: Gardening is helping me. I've got a big garden up where I'm staying, and gardening is helping me every day to really calm it, just like completely calms my nervous system.
155
00:28:28.642 --> 00:28:32.090
Dr. David Rock: Regular exercise, meditation, sleep walking. My pups.
156
00:28:32.380 --> 00:28:33.770
Dr. David Rock: Crossfit.
157
00:28:33.820 --> 00:28:36.059
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, for some people. It's like intense, workout
158
00:28:36.570 --> 00:28:39.900
Dr. David Rock: moments of gratitude, moments of gratitude.
159
00:28:39.930 --> 00:28:44.460
Dr. David Rock: The gym exercises some common themes, you know, social tends to be
160
00:28:44.520 --> 00:28:48.700
Dr. David Rock: the thing for some people, but really not others. So you can't tell people what to do here. Right?
161
00:28:48.900 --> 00:28:52.629
Dr. David Rock: Exercise really amazing for some people, really, not for others. Right?
162
00:28:53.124 --> 00:28:56.359
Dr. David Rock: So there's no like silver bullet. Everyone go and do this.
163
00:28:57.610 --> 00:28:58.480
Dr. David Rock: so
164
00:29:00.090 --> 00:29:07.610
Dr. David Rock: got a few things coming in coloring. Yeah, those amazing coloring in books, adult coloring books. Yeah, lots of interesting things
165
00:29:07.970 --> 00:29:14.649
Dr. David Rock: coming in horseshoe videos. And I'm a fan of I'm I'm a fan of of stand up comedy.
166
00:29:15.073 --> 00:29:30.190
Dr. David Rock: Just because it's so intelligent, clever, and depends on the the comedian and stuff. But it's just great for novelty and humor and lightness, and just kind of bringing some positive energy in your day. And it's it's a it's yeah fascinating.
167
00:29:30.660 --> 00:29:36.549
Dr. David Rock: Yeah. Any any themes that you see in the chat there about sort of taking care of yourself, and then we can maybe move to to Chapter 2.
168
00:29:36.550 --> 00:30:01.539
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah, I love that. I mean, I love the idea of humor, and we we don't talk about that enough. The the power of humor in in our ability to work. I think that's amazing. But yeah, I what I'm seeing here is everything on our healthy mind. Flower is coming up, and I think one of the one of the pieces that you pulled out is that it doesn't have to be the same for everyone. It's just finding that one thing, and when in the day that you can do that. But I think one of the other things we were talking about today was.
169
00:30:01.540 --> 00:30:15.869
Dr. Emma Sarro: you know. Why is this so hard now to do so? All of this makes a lot of sense. I think that this is no surprise to anyone here that we need to incorporate these pieces to our day, to to be healthier. But why is it? Is it harder now.
170
00:30:15.870 --> 00:30:17.070
Dr. Emma Sarro: you know, and why is that.
171
00:30:17.070 --> 00:30:30.960
Dr. David Rock: I don't know. Yeah, I think I think it's harder now. I think just the increased, you know, pressure the the less time and all sorts of things, I think, is harder. But I think also we just need to meet that with just a higher degree of intentionality. And that means, like, you know
172
00:30:31.140 --> 00:30:50.300
Dr. David Rock: things like, if if walking the dogs is, is your thing right like, how do you make sure that happens 1st thing in the morning, you know, before you get there's it's a lot about systems. How do you? How do you put in a sort of foolproof system, or almost foolproof system, so that these things really happen. It's really interesting how variable these things are like you've got, you know, one person.
173
00:30:50.645 --> 00:31:03.490
Dr. David Rock: you know, says researching. And the next person says, walking the dog right? And it's it's really unpredictable. And so you you can't sort of prescribe this to someone, but you can support people to kind of make the decision and put in a system.
174
00:31:03.837 --> 00:31:15.710
Dr. David Rock: In in that way. So I think I think it's it's a time to sort of. Look at your calendar and say, how do I make sure that there's me time? And if you're super super busy, maybe it's about combining like we talked a lot about walking meetings.
175
00:31:15.790 --> 00:31:25.539
Dr. David Rock: you know, during the pandemic, like, maybe it's time to go back to walking meetings every day 5 days a week, you know, you're getting that full on Cardio while you're having meetings on the phone.
176
00:31:26.020 --> 00:31:31.909
Dr. David Rock: so I think it's it's it's it's a matter sort of combining some of those things to make sure that they happen as well.
177
00:31:32.380 --> 00:31:46.040
Dr. David Rock: Let's go to Chapter 2. Let's talk about taking care of each other. And again. It's sort of counterintuitive, you know, when it feels like it's a constant crisis. It's like, well, I don't have space for anyone else. I don't have space for anyone else. Right?
178
00:31:46.170 --> 00:31:48.996
Dr. David Rock: Reminds me of some some research by
179
00:31:50.033 --> 00:31:54.726
Dr. David Rock: It's it's Richard. His name will come to me in a second, but he he
180
00:31:55.040 --> 00:32:04.190
Dr. David Rock: boyates Richard Boyatsis. He studied what happens when really, really busy, overwhelmed, stressed leaders start coaching other people.
181
00:32:04.300 --> 00:32:16.339
Dr. David Rock: And what he found is it actually reversed the the stress response in their bodies and gave them the the right sympathetic nervous system response. Right? So to really calm the nervous system, it actually made them more sustainable.
182
00:32:16.639 --> 00:32:22.149
Dr. David Rock: So like taking an hour out of their week to coach someone, even though they're insanely busy and didn't have an hour spare
183
00:32:22.310 --> 00:32:28.990
Dr. David Rock: actually gave them more time, gave them more energy. It's an old paper now, but it's an interesting paper. It's the 1st time someone's really studied
184
00:32:29.080 --> 00:32:51.049
Dr. David Rock: like in a real biomechanical way, what happens when busy people sort of add giving to others and add compassion and add, sort of giving. And so it's it's, you know, it's really easy to sort of in a crisis. Want to shut down and shut out people. But but actually giving to people is, is a really really powerful way of of
185
00:32:51.050 --> 00:33:03.740
Dr. David Rock: activating reward networks in yourself, right of calming your own nervous system of creating that sense of connectedness, calming nervous system, all of that. So so I think, you know, conceptually like taking care of others.
186
00:33:04.045 --> 00:33:06.430
Dr. David Rock: Is really important. Now, if you lead a team.
187
00:33:06.940 --> 00:33:17.640
Dr. David Rock: yeah, you want to really be checking in with people much, much more especially if you're not seeing them. The one thing is, people won't tell you when they're really, really struggling. They don't want you to know good at hiding it.
188
00:33:18.041 --> 00:33:20.560
Dr. David Rock: So you've got to really ask a lot of questions.
189
00:33:21.129 --> 00:33:22.149
Dr. David Rock: Was reflecting.
190
00:33:22.340 --> 00:33:24.680
Dr. David Rock: was reflecting on the empathy model this week
191
00:33:24.690 --> 00:33:26.730
Dr. David Rock: that we developed. And
192
00:33:26.870 --> 00:33:27.910
Dr. David Rock: you know, like.
193
00:33:28.500 --> 00:33:34.189
Dr. David Rock: you know, we think about like you know, helping other people, we think. Oh, we need to have empathy for them right?
194
00:33:34.740 --> 00:33:36.508
Dr. David Rock: The research and empathy.
195
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:45.440
Dr. David Rock: you know, it's got to start with really tuning in with really having, you know, a wide open channel to collect data from the person with a mindful moment.
196
00:33:45.750 --> 00:33:53.889
Dr. David Rock: That's important. But then, trying to understand people is a terrible idea you end up not understanding them any better, just feeling more confident that you understand them.
197
00:33:54.258 --> 00:34:03.160
Dr. David Rock: What we've got to do is learn to ask really good questions, right? We've got to inquire. I've got to really ask good questions. So so taking care of each other is not just like, Hey, how are you?
198
00:34:03.583 --> 00:34:14.549
Dr. David Rock: How's it going? Are you okay? You know you've really got to learn to ask good questions, to dig in and understand how people are doing. Sometimes scaling questions are great on a scale of one to 10, you know. Where's the water line for you? Where's
199
00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:21.090
Dr. David Rock: so? So questions to really understand how someone's doing is is important. And you know, really showing you showing you care.
200
00:34:21.110 --> 00:34:33.959
Dr. David Rock: So so there's a there's a let's let's flip it around. Let's hear from the audience 1st this time. What are some of the things that you're doing with your teams, families? What are some of the things that you're doing to to take take care of? You know people around you better.
201
00:34:34.505 --> 00:34:37.270
Dr. David Rock: What are you finding is working really well.
202
00:34:39.389 --> 00:34:52.369
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah. And I'll just say that I think it makes sense how we've kind of set this up. Because obviously, if you're going to take a mindful moment, which is one of the things we put into the empathy model. And you can only really do that if you've already kind of taken care of yourself
203
00:34:52.399 --> 00:35:04.209
Dr. Emma Sarro: can only quiet things down if you've already kind of managed your own threat levels and it's so important to do that before you start asking questions, and if you're really able to listen, you really have to tune everything else out.
204
00:35:05.600 --> 00:35:10.750
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, you you've got to be really, really connected. Some lovely comments coming in, taking figs to the neighbors.
205
00:35:13.190 --> 00:35:30.000
Dr. David Rock: more family dinners, all sorts of great things. A lot of people focus on family community service, all sorts of things. But you know, what are you doing to take care of each other more. It's a really important thing, you know, to feel a sense of community, one of the things that your biology is doing. It's sensing all this uncertainty.
206
00:35:30.200 --> 00:35:38.169
Dr. David Rock: You you unconsciously know you can't do much about it. It's sensing this feel of out of control, which is autonomy right? Can't do much about that a little bit.
207
00:35:38.190 --> 00:35:39.540
Dr. David Rock: Can't do much about it.
208
00:35:39.550 --> 00:35:42.830
Dr. David Rock: Status isn't really affected right now. Fairness, not so much
209
00:35:43.030 --> 00:35:46.210
Dr. David Rock: relatedness is the one thing you can do something about.
210
00:35:46.260 --> 00:35:49.790
Dr. David Rock: So you can meaningfully increase your sense of relatedness
211
00:35:49.970 --> 00:36:14.099
Dr. David Rock: right? And that actually balances out the drop in certainty and autonomy to some degree. And this is what we do in a crisis, in a crisis when we have no idea what's going on in the world. We gather with our friends, and we try and work it out together because we feel safer, and it will actually help in many instances. So this is, you know, this reaction of kind of wanting to support others, be there for others, build more community. These are healthy reactions. And I think.
212
00:36:14.343 --> 00:36:26.739
Dr. David Rock: you know, really good things to to focus on and build in this time? You know, really creating a community around you, of supporting, of supporting people, I think, is is a big one. What do you. What do you do, Emma? What do you find is working for you?
213
00:36:26.740 --> 00:36:27.370
Dr. Emma Sarro: Play.
214
00:36:27.510 --> 00:36:53.619
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah, no great question. I actually what I was just thinking about when you and this is something that I think I've I've tried to apply in the teams that I'm on is there's some recent research out around empathy and building empathy and connections in in the face of change, let's say, or in the face of of difficult times. And what they found is that those those connections built during difficult times, if they're fostered during those difficult times are much more sustainable over the long.
215
00:36:53.620 --> 00:37:14.159
Dr. Emma Sarro: long term, and they see that in the way the brain responds over time watching them kind of like how their brain responds as they're watching their. I guess teammates over time experience different things. That empathy network is more engaged for the long term. So it's incredibly important to like maintaining those those connections when especially when you're going through difficult times.
216
00:37:14.540 --> 00:37:20.490
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, yeah, interesting. So yeah, lots of lots of interesting things. So just to, you know, summarize this one, you know, crisis comes along
217
00:37:20.860 --> 00:37:32.349
Dr. David Rock: really intense amount of change going on, really tempting to shut down and kind of, you know, focus on your world and what you've got to do get panicked. What you want to do instead is really take care of yourself. So you have lots of resources
218
00:37:32.350 --> 00:37:53.410
Dr. David Rock: and actually give to others as counterintuitive as that feels create community. Have those bonds with people, have that supporting infrastructure around you? It's going to be really, really helpful for you and for them in this time, and you know the scarf model gives you a framework to think about that. We we talked about scarf buffers before right certainty, autonomy
219
00:37:53.410 --> 00:38:13.219
Dr. David Rock: and relatedness being big ones, but scarf signals like sending positive scarf signals to others around their status, around fairness and around relatedness. So sending those positive scarf signals is how we how we think about that. But let's go to the 3rd one. The 3rd one's really hard in some ways. The 3rd one is about like, deliver what matters?
220
00:38:13.240 --> 00:38:29.180
Dr. David Rock: And it's it's it's hard to prioritize. I I think, like, maybe 5 years ago, you know, it was like, we've got to check on priorities, you know, twice a year, maybe every quarter. Now, it's like, Hey, we gotta rethink about priorities every few weeks.
221
00:38:29.620 --> 00:38:44.890
Dr. David Rock: it's like priorities are changing, really, really fast as we get more data. And the the you know, technology is moving so quickly, opportunities moving so quickly. We've got to be really thoughtful about these priorities has been a that's 1 of the areas where change has really affected things, just an acceleration of
222
00:38:44.950 --> 00:38:55.690
Dr. David Rock: of priorities and setting priorities in a really really big way. What do you find, Emma? What's easy or hard about setting priorities for you? What do what do you find about this in your your experience?
223
00:38:55.890 --> 00:39:17.601
Dr. Emma Sarro: Yeah, I mean, I I mean, I I understand the importance. I think that sometimes even having the conversation of let's we, we have to go back in there and change our priorities, that in and of itself sometimes can be a bit. Okay, we have to do this again. We have to be agile. So it does require us to be a bit cognitively flexible, right? And so this is kind of building that muscle which is really important for continuous change.
224
00:39:17.860 --> 00:39:42.839
Dr. Emma Sarro: But it also leads to a bit of a relaxation. Right? So once we reset priorities, we can definitely deprioritize some of those things that we don't need to anymore. And you can. You can kind of move forward with less on your plate, less of that cognitive capacity. Full I think it's a really important activity for your team to go through, especially as change is happening. It allows you to get more done. You can, you know, be
225
00:39:42.840 --> 00:39:52.189
Dr. Emma Sarro: bit healthier in your mind as you're moving forward, just taking some of those things. And I think with that, with the reprioritization. Sometimes it does mean taking things off.
226
00:39:52.820 --> 00:39:56.850
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, take things off. And it's hard. We have a safety bias, right? We don't like to let go of things.
227
00:39:57.177 --> 00:40:05.430
Dr. David Rock: We don't like what happens if we take something off the list. But then we just feel overwhelmed and sort of go nowhere. The interesting thing about priorities is, everyone sort of.
228
00:40:05.650 --> 00:40:16.069
Dr. David Rock: you know. You see a list of 12, and you go. That's too many. I'm gonna take it to 9 right, and you don't feel much better. What you got to do is sort of flip that around and say, Look, what if I only had 3? What are the top 3
229
00:40:16.190 --> 00:40:27.420
Dr. David Rock: and and like, focus on those top 3. Get those top 3 done like the things that really matter. And then see if you get to the others right. But but look at like the things that you can actually do. And what happens is, your brain will like
230
00:40:27.810 --> 00:40:39.019
Dr. David Rock: calm down, your nervous system will calm down, and you'll see how to focus on those 3. So with prioritizing rather than you know, reduce the list. It's like, turn it around and say, look, I'm just going to deliver what matters
231
00:40:39.080 --> 00:40:43.889
Dr. David Rock: right? And and that's the that's the habit we said. Like, let's just deliver what really matters
232
00:40:44.225 --> 00:40:52.809
Dr. David Rock: rather than trying to deliver everything. And you know, really turn that down. It's it's it's an interesting challenge in in my book, your brain at work.
233
00:40:54.170 --> 00:40:59.950
Dr. David Rock: the the sort of 1st 3rd of the book is about our limited, cognitive, cognitive capacity, and what to do about it, and
234
00:41:00.110 --> 00:41:04.959
Dr. David Rock: the importance of prioritizing, and one of the the ironic things about prioritizing is, it's
235
00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:06.989
Dr. David Rock: we need to prioritize because of
236
00:41:07.160 --> 00:41:16.390
Dr. David Rock: how much cognitive load we get under and how limited our capacity is. So we need to prioritize. But the trouble is prioritizing is a very cognitively taxing task.
237
00:41:16.726 --> 00:41:33.809
Dr. David Rock: It's 1 of the hardest tasks to do, because you've got to imagine all the tasks and list you know, order them and structure them. And basically, you have to prioritize prioritizing. You, you have to do it when you have a clear, relaxed mind or it just doesn't happen. And this is what a lot of people find. They get up.
238
00:41:33.810 --> 00:41:50.149
Dr. David Rock: you know, download their emails and just do one thing after the other without being really clear what really matters. And so you sort of have to do that the night before or 1st thing in the morning before you start. And I think you know, as a general rule, like 2 things I think, are really helpful right now. Minimal meeting mornings.
239
00:41:50.672 --> 00:41:57.870
Dr. David Rock: So you've got time to really work on your own things and leaving your your email and and other, you know, connections off
240
00:41:58.373 --> 00:42:01.999
Dr. David Rock: for as long as you can in the morning. So you can actually do your own thinking.
241
00:42:02.010 --> 00:42:10.507
Dr. David Rock: I think those are 2 things that are really really helpful for for just sort of getting your things done. What are folks online finding? And then we'll
242
00:42:10.860 --> 00:42:19.250
Dr. David Rock: we'll we'll we'll take some questions. What are folks finding is helping you with prioritizing, or what questions you have about prioritizing, or, you know, really delivering what matters.
243
00:42:20.830 --> 00:42:25.940
Dr. Emma Sarro: Michelle has a great question, too, in the chat. The role of AI in this, because AI could help right.
244
00:42:25.940 --> 00:42:55.249
Dr. David Rock: It's interesting. You know, we've been through all these kind of crazy cycles with AI from from Oh, my God! It's gonna destroy the world to. Oh, my God, it's gonna put everyone out of work to. Oh, actually, it looks really fun. What we're seeing now is a lot of people, particularly knowledge workers. I mean, there's certainly people who are not happy with it that you know. If you're a translator or something else, your AI is coming for your job. But most people, particularly knowledge work. Basically, they can have more fun with their work
245
00:42:55.250 --> 00:43:18.265
Dr. David Rock: and move faster through things. So we're starting to see some some research coming through that AI is helping people basically do more interesting work, more fun work helping you sort of move faster through work removing some drudgery. And it's really true, you know, if you're a researcher, you can get tremendous help from from AI, and there's all sorts of powerful things that you can do
246
00:43:18.590 --> 00:43:27.309
Dr. David Rock: as as it you know, it's still, it's still really, really early days, but it's it's it can save you a tremendous amount of sort of annoying work and get you to the more
247
00:43:27.310 --> 00:43:36.640
Dr. David Rock: fun work in many ways. We've you know, we've built an AI. We've built an AI on top of Chat Gbt. That is trained in all our models
248
00:43:36.640 --> 00:44:01.640
Dr. David Rock: and all of our staff using it. It's just gone into a few partners a few client partners as a test. But basically, it's a it's a tool you can use for all of your work. But including all your interactions, right? So you could ask, Hey, I'm having, you know, conflict with this employee. What should I do? And it actually understands all of scarf and seeds and all our models, but we also trained it in brain based coaching. And it's spooky. How powerful a coach it is. I've been testing it. It's actually I had
249
00:44:01.640 --> 00:44:11.980
Dr. David Rock: insights. It's a really really powerful coach just blown away that we were able to teach it thinking questions and like really follow the thread. So
250
00:44:12.080 --> 00:44:39.420
Dr. David Rock: there's a module coming where you can switch on that. It reads your emails for you and tells you where you might have bias or be creating a threat accidentally all sorts of things. But we've we've created that. It's called Niles. Maybe one of my team can put a link in the chat if you're from an organization. And you want to, you know, talk about that. We are putting some putting Niles into organizations already. And it's it's it's pretty amazing. How often do you use Niles, Emma? What? How many times a week would would you say? Use it.
251
00:44:39.420 --> 00:45:04.420
Dr. Emma Sarro: I try to use it like once a day or every other day when I can. But you know what's interesting is. So we're we're thinking and talking about AI a lot. We're bringing it to our summit this year in a couple of different ways. And I think this is an important piece. One of the discussions we're be having is really how AI or the time of AI, how that is going to impact creativity and innovation in general. So what are what are the ways that AI can maybe help, and open doors for creativity.
252
00:45:04.420 --> 00:45:28.079
Dr. Emma Sarro: can it? Is that, you know? Is that the answer? Or you know, in the other kind of side of this is, you know, what does this mean for humanity by, you know with us using AI and and a lot of the experts are really suggesting. We really need to continue to practice it and use it. Don't be afraid of it. Understand its limitations. Understand. You know how you go in and check its answers like, continue to be the human in this
253
00:45:28.327 --> 00:45:37.230
Dr. Emma Sarro: and understand. You know where the boundaries are. So I think you know, those 2 discussions will be what we'll be diving into if you know people are interested. But we're thinking a lot about it.
254
00:45:37.230 --> 00:46:04.590
Dr. David Rock: Yeah, no, it's you've just jog me about something that like we had this amazing team member join us when we 1st started it in the States. We were probably 20 people in North America, and Christine Chesmash is straight out of college. So smart, unbelievably smart, had studied cognitive science and things. And and she she worked with lots of capacities. She was in in sales and consulting and research different areas and and then she left us to do her Phd, she just finished, and she got heavily involved.
255
00:46:05.045 --> 00:46:08.229
Dr. David Rock: In the neuroscience of creativity and insight.
256
00:46:08.567 --> 00:46:21.340
Dr. David Rock: And I. And she's just published a book, or she's 1 of the editors of a book on this academic book, and she's now come back in as a consultant to help us think about you know all the applications of neuroscience and creativity.
257
00:46:21.390 --> 00:46:32.390
Dr. David Rock: and particularly how it relates to AI. So she'll be doing one of the sessions at the summit. I think, with you and some others on like really how to think about AI as a creativity enhancing tool.
258
00:46:32.867 --> 00:46:34.240
Dr. David Rock: Not just a
259
00:46:34.534 --> 00:46:38.350
Dr. David Rock: you know, performance enhancing tool. But I think I think it can make people actually much more.
260
00:46:38.450 --> 00:46:40.209
Dr. David Rock: much more creative
261
00:46:40.220 --> 00:47:03.310
Dr. David Rock: when used right. And and I think that's a you know. That's a really interesting plus, you know, outsourcing creativity to it. You're using it to, you know, increase your creativity in in so many ways. So I think. Yeah, we're speaking at. I think she's also speaking at fast company. You, you, Emma, you and and Christina, speaking at at fast company. I think I'm speaking there as well in at their festival coming up in in September in New York.
262
00:47:03.568 --> 00:47:10.799
Dr. David Rock: So yeah, any other questions coming up on deliver. What matters otherwise? We're almost. We're almost at time any other questions you want to jump into, Emma. There.
263
00:47:11.570 --> 00:47:39.609
Dr. Emma Sarro: Well, you know, I I think what's interesting about this is. So you know, we we've built these habits into that focus program. It's still incredibly applicable. Today. We've also built the same idea in our lead program, which is why it's so important for leaders to understand how to kind of thrive in the face of uncertainty and change. This whole idea we're covering again at Summit is, you know, how do we? How do we thrive and continue to evolve. Let's say, in the face of this constant, like exponentially increased
264
00:47:39.992 --> 00:47:48.407
Dr. Emma Sarro: level of change, that we're experiencing. And maybe it's just that we have to build this massive flexibility, cognitive flexibility, muscle,
265
00:47:48.790 --> 00:48:12.819
Dr. David Rock: I think it's really is, I think it really is. Take care of yourself, look after each other, deliver what matters just if you're interested in in the focus solution that we built. Just put the word focus and your company name in the chat. Someone will follow up. There's a poll in another, you know minute or 2 as well. We mentioned lead. I think some of you probably heard about lead. Lead is a 6 month deep dive into the brain and leadership. It's a completely asynchronous digital program includes Niles.
266
00:48:13.099 --> 00:48:34.640
Dr. David Rock: It's an amazing experience. We've we're building a transformational leadership experience in a digital world. So just put lead in the chat and your company name. If you're interested in that, there's also open enrollment for that, so you can sign up for lead anytime. My team can put that in the chat. So focus you can put lead in the chat if you're interested in exploring Niles. You can just put Niles in the chat.
267
00:48:34.964 --> 00:48:46.639
Dr. David Rock: As well. But really you know, really, interesting interesting time. In leadership development. And I'll I'll just summarize, you know, at the the summit coming up, which is October 29 and 30
268
00:48:46.963 --> 00:49:05.379
Dr. David Rock: the summer coming up. You know, we're gonna be talking a lot about these these themes. But one of the themes we keep seeing is just the need, just the pressure on leadership and leadership development. You know, leaders have to do things so differently. We we have to find breakthrough ways of accelerating their development. And we've we've got some really fascinating innovations.
269
00:49:05.692 --> 00:49:22.549
Dr. David Rock: One that we're launching in the spring. We've got a CEO, a brain lab that we're doing in partnership with an amazing scientist of 4 days of like being wired up and doing leadership tasks and learning about your brain. At a university. So there's some really fun things that we're doing
270
00:49:22.899 --> 00:49:42.059
Dr. David Rock: and the the CEO brain lab is is is you? You know, senior executives can start to apply for that. Now apply for a place. We just opened applications there, but I think we can wrap up there. Emma. Thanks so much for the conversation. Great dialogue. My summary is, it's never been more important than ever to take care of yourself.
271
00:49:42.120 --> 00:49:48.900
Dr. David Rock: look after each other and deliver what matters? And and 170 something percent. Wow!
272
00:49:48.900 --> 00:49:49.440
Dr. Emma Sarro: 3.
273
00:49:49.440 --> 00:49:51.140
Dr. David Rock: 100 and 83
274
00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:55.809
Dr. David Rock: change. Wow, wow! We we all got to be.
275
00:49:56.020 --> 00:50:09.060
Dr. David Rock: you know, triathletes to to get through this. So, thanks so much. I'll hand back to you and thanks everyone for being here. We're taking a couple of week break for the summer. We'll be back after Labor Day. But thanks everyone for being here today.
276
00:50:09.980 --> 00:50:26.140
Dr. Emma Sarro: Alright. Thank you all so much for being here. We appreciate your time and everyone joining us. We love these sessions. So now for closing. We've just dropped a poll in. Let us know how we can help you in the future. It'll stay up for a few more moments, as I continue to share some announcements. As you all drop off
277
00:50:26.437 --> 00:50:53.190
Dr. Emma Sarro: summit. 2,024 is on its way. We're all pumped about it. We're all diving in. We actually just had our kickoff meeting with more of our company jumping in to build these amazing sessions. Fully virtual this year. It's going to take place on the 29th and 30th of October, so make sure to take advantage of the early bird Special discount code. You'll see a link drop in the chat. And you can jump to summit neuroleadership.com to find out more
278
00:50:53.842 --> 00:51:20.880
Dr. Emma Sarro: for your senior executives. If you enjoy your brain at work, live. You'll love our Nli insider program. We invite you to join this exclusive opportunity where you can enjoy benefits such as 1st looks at new research Round table discussions with leading executives and researchers and help us craft new innovations at work. So we really really appreciate your feedback there. So to apply for this, you'll see the link just dropped in the chat. So follow that
279
00:51:21.110 --> 00:51:36.949
Dr. Emma Sarro: we also want to continue to partner with our community. If your organization would be interested in hosting an event with us in the future. Nli, please check out the link in the chat. We look forward to any opportunity to continue to build all of our positive relationships with organizations globally.
280
00:51:37.490 --> 00:51:57.780
Dr. Emma Sarro: So if you enjoyed today's conversation, you'll love, the podcast show. So make sure. You subscribe. You can hear past Friday webinars on demand. So look for your brain at work wherever you enjoy listening to podcast and if you're listening to the podcast you can use the discount code your brain at work 24 to get 10% off. And you see that link drop in the chat now.
281
00:51:58.170 --> 00:52:10.359
Dr. Emma Sarro: So it's now where we all officially say farewell on behalf of me and David and the rest of the Nli team behind the scenes. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you back here in 3 weeks.