The CISI Professional Refresher on neuroscience draws on definitions from the British Neuroscience Association and Medical News Today, summarising them to define it as "the study of how we react as individuals in certain (possibly stressful) situations at work – eg, how we cope with changes as a result of redundancy or workplace restructuring, or under the pressures often created by a decrease in resources and an increase in work pressures, and the frequency and number of deadlines".

The module says it is "a trainable technique and tool that can be learnt and implemented in the workplace" and, when properly understood, "can help us better manage ourselves in terms of output, cooperation with colleagues, attitude and productivity, so that, when we are faced with increased workloads and deadlines, we can still work optimally without loss of efficiency or focus, and without harming our mental or physical health and wellbeing".

Looking at how our brain interacts with the decisions we must make on a day-to-day basis gives some answers as to why we may feel tired or drained at the end of the working day, and even why we crave a sugary snack. The module references work published in Thinking, fast and slow by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, which says that the mental effort and energy that is required to exercise self-control and quash feelings of frustration or anger consumes a lot of glucose.

Those whose jobs require considerable mental effort have an increased 'cognitive load', says the module, which lessens their self-control and makes them more susceptible to using offensive language, with "behaviour outside the performance of the all-absorbing task [becoming] less inhibited".

If you do feel tired, or crave sugar, "it is likely that you have had to battle inner conflict and, therefore, used up a lot of glucose when exercising self-control appropriate to the situation and suppressing a more natural tendency".

Fight or flight

The Cambridge dictionary describes the adrenaline-induced state of fight or flight as "The reaction that people have to a dangerous situation, that makes them either stay and deal with it, or run away."

Not all people respond in the same way to challenges. "In some, it can bring out the best, while others will visibly become withdrawn and shy away from the challenge or change," the module says.

Understanding neuroscience will help you recognise why people react differently to situations, and help you implement techniques and methods to get the most out of everyone. This is particularly helpful for "project managers and those who manage, lead or coordinate teams of multidisciplined and diverse teams that are made up of individuals who might be situated in a variety of geographical locations".

The module describes a method of how to figure out the needs and competences of your team. Work up a simple graphic with four quadrants to plot individuals' abilities and attributes, using confidence and ability as the identifiers. Using unable/unconfident, able/unconfident, unable/confident and able/confident, you can split your team into these categories to identify who needs support and direction. "Those that fall into the latter two categories may be prone to over-confidence, bordering on arrogance, which may require careful managing and tempering from time to time. Unable/confident types could even pose potential harm to the team, the organisation and even to customers or clients if they are left to their own devices too often".

"Therefore, neuroscience can be applied to the workplace to help build more effective team dynamics, as well as improving and strengthening relationships between colleagues," it says.

Decision-making and dealing with change

How and why we make decisions and react to change can be key to understanding people in the workplace better. According to the module, the brain can be split into three distinctive parts:

1. The reptilian brain – believed to be the oldest part. Oversees basic functions such as metabolism and breathing.
2. The mammalian brain – believed to have developed later, partly in response to the evolution of mammals as they began living together in groups and families. Responsible for emotions, memory and behaviour.
3. The cognitive brain – the most recent development of the brain, and the most well-developed in humans. Relates to language, logic and conscious, and deliberate decision-making.

Neuroscience shows that whenever changes are detected in a person's environment, it is the mammalian part of the brain that is the quickest to respond, the module says. This will always be an emotional response shaped by the individual's experiences.

However, the brain is also an "associative learning system" that can build itself through neural pathways developed by repeated simulation – these tend to make people respond to things in a way that's consistent with their experiences.

When something changes, our brain can see this as a major threat, and therefore making or responding to changes can be hard and use a lot of energy. New neural pathways can be developed though, and this is how we adapt to change.

"Consider, for example, the initial trepidation you perhaps felt when told that your role would be changing, or the tiredness you might feel a few weeks into it. If this news of change had perhaps been delivered in a more personalised way, would it have been more likely to alter your perception from trepidation to anticipation?" asks the module.

Going with the flow

There is a state of mind that neuroscientists refer to as 'flow', and if our brain is in this state, we can adapt to change more easily, or not object to it. "During these periods, parts of the cognitive brain temporarily shut down, allowing the individual to be more courageous and less critical. Chemicals related to 'reward' (dopamine) flood the brain, producing a 'feel-good' feeling." Flow is experienced when you're "in tune" with yourself.

Flow can be learnt, but it demands attention and skill, and requires you to "focus intensely and to relax at the same time". Could this technique be applied to a team? In order for this to be successful, the manager would have to create non-prescriptive conditions that enables their team, regardless of their competencies and confidence, to remain wholly focused, with their minds at ease. "This means encouraging emotions of trust, enthusiasm, enjoyment and excitement in them and removing all factors that may trigger fear, anxiety, anger, resentment, self-doubt and negativity," the module says.

"This is always challenging if there is pressure to deliver. As a result, managers should, whenever possible, use quick and simple creative thinking exercises to better understand what makes colleagues tick, how they think under pressure and, perhaps most important of all, how they might all work better together," it concludes.

Seen a blog, news story or discussion online that you think might interest CISI members? Email bethan.rees@wardour.co.uk.