Less than 1/10th second to trust or not

19 January 2016 by Anne Riches Leave a Comment

Do you make snap judgments? Do you jump to conclusions?

When you’re at a party, a bar, deciding where to sit on a bus, serving a customer, interviewing someone, meeting your new boss, meeting staff as their new boss, watching new neighbours move in – how long does it takes you to ‘sum someone up’? What if you see the face of an alleged criminal on the television? And how long does it take when you meet your daughter’s new boyfriend or your boyfriend’s new girl? Two minutes? Ten minutes? Think again.

I am sure you would say you make a considered decision and don’t rush to conclusions. You might say: ‘I always give someone the benefit of the doubt’. But we all know it doesn’t work like that – and the science appears to back up what really happens.

What the science says

According to some research published in the Journal of Psychological Science by Professor Alex Todorov of Princeton University, it takes us less than 1/10th of a second to decide if we trust someone or not. We respond intuitively to faces so rapidly that our reasoning minds may not have time to influence our reaction. And our intuitions about attraction and trust are among those we form the fastest.

“The link between facial features and character may be tenuous at best, but that doesn’t stop our minds from sizing other people up at a glance,” says Todorov, “We decide very quickly whether a person possesses many of the traits we feel are important, such as likeability and competence, even though we have not exchanged a single word with them. It appears that we are hard-wired to draw these inferences in a fast, unreflective way.”

Trustworthiness and fear are connected

Why does this happen? Can we change our reaction? [Read more…]

How to change from school kid to adult

12 June 2015 by Anne Riches Leave a Comment

I just read this wonderful blogpost from Shawn Hunter.

It is the speech he gave to students completing school. In the USA it’s called a commencement address.

Shawn shares terrific insights and thoughts.

I took a lot from it. I wish someone had said these things to me much earlier in my life – especially the bit about thinking you can have anything you set your mind to.

Worth a read.

The best strategists use their hearts and as well as their heads

22 May 2015 by Anne Riches Leave a Comment

The science confirms the interaction between the executive brain and the emotional brain during decision making and strategy.

It’s a short and easy to read. It affirms what experience and intuition have always told us – that the best change leaders take into account not only what the plan should be and how it can be executed and but as importantly, how people will respond.

When Emotional Reasoning Triumphs IQ

Are you getting enough sleep?

8 April 2015 by Anne Riches Leave a Comment

Ever considered that the amount of sleep you get is a key factor in whether you lead and retain your staff?

Researchers tell us that sleep is critical for our children’s capacity to learn. If they don’t get enough sleep, their ability to make new connections and their ability to concentrate is impaired.

Typical daily sleep requirements for children by age are:

Infants (3 to 11 months): 14-15 hours

Toddlers: 12-14 hours
Preschoolers: 11-13 hours School-age children: 10-11 hours
And as importantly, what about you?

Why does it matter?

High performing brains, especially the pre-frontal cortex areas (PFC), require heaps of energy in the form of glucose. The PFC is responsible for our executive functioning like planning, decision-making, analysis, comparisons and behaviour control i.e. complex cognitive activities.

Just like children, if we are haven’t had enough sleep then our bodies prioritise the available energy just to keep us physically functioning. That means our brains, especially the PFC, lag behind in the race for glucose.

Result: tired brains find it hard to come up with new or the best answers.

So, for example, we may end up repeating what we have done before even if we know we should find a new approach. We find it hard to focus, we procrastinate or we hastily make decisions that we should have slept on!

Negative memories and bad decisions prevail

Dan Ariely at Duke University (check out his TED talks) wondered if decisions made in negative emotional circumstances in the past influenced future actions when the original emotion was no longer present. He did some experiments and concluded that they did.

Reason: when we make decisions, we tap into the memories of decisions we made in the past that can be linked in some way to the present situation. That’s easier for our brain than having to come up with new neural connections (a new decision).

Now, negative memories (and their associated decisions) will always come to mind first because our amygdala is always on guard to protect us. They will, as Ariely puts it become part of the blueprint’ for future actions.

And it’s when we use this blueprint and respond inappropriately, that’s what I call The Almond Effect®.

And if we are tired…

If we are tired our PFC is too exhausted to reflect back on the emotional circumstances in which the original decision was made and consider whether the decision is still the correct one in the fresh situation.

We are then likely to make the same poor decision even though we may not be feeling the same negative emotions we felt when the original decision was made!

Is this why feuds/office politics/bad feelings continue?

I wonder if that’s why office feuds and politics, silo battles, home arguments, even wars, go on for so long – long after the original cause has been defused. We just haven’t stopped to challenge the pattern in our brain and so keep repeating decisions and behaviours because that’s the way it’s always been.’

Ask your people what it’s like working for you when you are sleep deprived?

So, for most of us lack of sleep means snap decisions, procrastination, repeating bad decisions, inability to concentrate and bad moods. And because we are tired we eat the junk food our bodies crave for an instant sugar (glucose) hit. We are too weary to do any exercise and so the exhaustion cycle continues – just adding to the load on our bodies and the depletion of energy.

Do your people love working for you when you are like that? Are you a good leader? Do they feel engaged’? They might put up with it for a few days, a few weeks, even longer but in the end, they’ll walk away and find someone who is easier to work with.

What to do about it

I’m not going to tell you to go to bed earlier, take a break, get some exercise, eat proper food, cut down on the alcohol – you can work that out yourself.

But at the very least, acknowledge when lack of sleep is impacting the way you lead. Consider whether, if you were in your people’s shoes, you are providing the kind of leadership that will encourage your best employees to perform and stay?

If the answer is no and lack of sleep has something to do with it, then maybe you should let your kids put you to bed, read you a bedtime story and kiss you goodnight!