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The Neuroscience of Leadership in Systems of Care: Transform the Way We Lead Systems
Change With Insights From Brain Science
27th Annual Children’s Mental Health Research and Policy Conference
Laurie Ellington, MA, LPC, RCC, PCC
March 3, 2014
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3/7/2014
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© Copyright 2011-13 Zero Point Leadership, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Why Neuroscience
• System of care work is about thinking differently
• Growing need to understand what drives human behavior and motivation in the workplace
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© Copyright 2011-13 Zero Point Leadership, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
3/7/2014
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© Copyright 2011-13 Zero Point Leadership, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2011-13 Zero Point Leadership, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
What Science Tells Us Doesn’t Work
• Incentives and threats
• Telling people what to do
• Giving advice
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Current Leadership Paradigm
• Using principles from the industrialized age
• A need for thinking deeply
• Track record for positive organizational change
doesn’t look so good
• Outdated perception of change
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To change human behavior, you have to change the human brain.
To change the human brain, it must be engaged.
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Organizations and Systems
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From a scientific perspective, what does it mean to be
engaged?
What creates the right state for brains
to change?
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Prefrontal
Cortex (PFC)-
(Conscious)
• Thinking
• Decision
Making
• Regulating
behavior
• Planning
• Understanding
• Social control
Limbic System
(Non-conscious)
• Emotion
• Memory
• Motivation
• Mammalian
brain
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• Reduction in thinking resources
• Decrease in Prefrontal Cortex capacity
• Reduction in creativity
• More negative thinking
• Constricted field of view
• Decrease in ability to collaborate
• Increase in mistakes
• Generalize to other areas
• Increase in cortisol (stress hormone)
• Better access to cognitive resources (Amy Arnsten)
• Increase in creative ideas (Barbara Frederickson)
• More Insights (Mark Jung-Beeman) • Able to see and take in more information
(Schmitz, De Rosa, & Anderson) • Decrease in mistakes
• More collaborative
• Increase in dopamine levels
Gordon, E., 2000, 2008
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Social Needs = Survival
Our response to the need for food, water, air, sleep and safety from physical harm is the same as our response to how we feel people treat us.
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• Social pain = physical pain
• Social pain activates threat
response (disengagement)
• Brain’s solution to ensure
nurturance/attachment
(survival)
• Deep biological need for social
connection and belonging
Eisenberger, N & Lieberman, M., 2004
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Basic Survival Needs?
Did Maslow Get It Wrong?
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5 Core Social Needs
Status- importance to others, how we rank
Certainty- being able to predict what’s coming up
Autonomy- feeling of control over events, choice
Relatedness- safety with others, connectedness
Fairness- perception of fair exchanges between people Rock, D., 2008
SCARF Model
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Insights?
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“When will the way we relate to each other catch up with developments in technology?“
-Theodore Zeldon