Understanding how your brain works to help or hinder the collaboration process is critical to any successful co-creative meeting or discussion. Recent scientific discoveries give us clues on how to access collaborative thinking. You can use this information to better understand how to create the conditions that will maximize access to higher brain abilities and minimize the chances of the amygdala taking over “fight or flight.” What is the difference?
Collaborative activities require the use of your prefrontal cortex (PFC), the part of your brain that distinguishes humans from all other animals. The PFC is located at the top of your brain, just behind your forehead, and is the part of your brain responsible for choice, foresight, and emotional balance.
Another part of the brain known as the amygdala, associated with your primitive brain, can have a negative effect on your ability to think and act collaboratively. The amygdala acts as a switching station, constantly evaluating incoming signals and triggering protective reactions to real or imagined threats. Many of us think of this as the “fight or flight” response, when we perceive real or imagined danger.
View from the tonsil
- Tell us if we’re safe or not.
- Automatically activate survival thoughts and behaviors.
- He alters his behavior to protect him and look after his own interests.
- Focuses on self-preservation, saying and doing things without thinking of the effect on others.
- It triggers guilt, judgment, defensiveness, hostility.
- Use the information to calculate and analyze.
- Protect your current “safe” position
- Trigger automatic “fight or flight” responses
View from the prefrontal cortex (PFC)
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- It makes possible a wide variety of options for thinking, feeling, and behaving.
- Make decisions to balance what you want with what others want
- You are aware of and concerned about the impact of your behavior on others.
- Open yourself to empathy and compassion.
- It helps you tune in to your intuition and insight.
- Helps your ability to imagine a different future
- It monitors your fearful thoughts and helps maintain emotional balance.
It’s important to create an environment for your collaborative conversation or meeting that makes people feel comfortable and at ease. When people feel safe, they are more likely to access ways of thinking that support and encourage collaboration.
- Welcome everyone warmly as they arrive. This sends a message that they are important and helps reassure them. Provide name tags.
- Have signs posted and clear information available as people arrive to help them find their way around. Have background information available as brochures. It is important that everyone has access to all information.
- The more people who can see each other’s faces, the better. This will help build connection, trust, and camaraderie. Minimize barriers between people, including tables.
- Make sure everyone can hear what is being said.
- Oxygen and temperature in the room are very important. Watch for signs of drowsiness or closed body posture and adjust the temperature as often as needed. A slightly cold room is better than one that is too warm.
- Sharing food together is a wonderful way to build bridges and create connections. Always have water available, even for short meetings, as well as a variety of snacks that include protein (cheese or nuts), carbohydrates (donuts, pretzels, or crackers), and sugar (fruit juice, whole fruit, or chocolate).
In Successful collaboration and our brain: what do we need to know? Part 2 There are problem-solving techniques for recovering from “fight or flight” situations in collaborative conversations and meetings.
