Fairness
The last in the series of drivers is fairness. If fairness is your biggest driver, you’re happy if beaten by someone who is better than you but hate those that cheat the system. People who butt in line get under your skin.
A threat response can be triggered very quickly when someone perceives an unfair situation. You’ll hear your employees say things like “He has a different set of rules for Jim than he has for the rest of us”; “They talk about values but it’s business as usual at the top”; “She is the favorite… Continue reading
Relatedness
Relatedness involves deciding whether others are “in” or “out” of a social group. People are divided into friend or foe. Relatedness is a driver of behavior in many types of teams, from sports teams to organizational silos; people naturally like to form “tribes” where they experience a sense of belonging.
If relatedness is your biggest driver, you find it easy to remember things about other people. You make the effort socially and don’t understand when others don’t. You find it easy to connect with others and like doing things that make others feel important and special.… Continue reading
Certainty
We’re continuing to explore the five major drivers of human behavior. The brain is a pattern recognition machine that is constantly trying to predict the future. We crave certainty so that prediction is possible. Without prediction you’re using dramatically more resources to process moment-to-moment experience.
Small amounts of uncertainty generate an ‘error’ response in the brain taking attention away from your goals and forcing attention to the error. If someone is acting out of character or not telling you the whole truth this can create uncertainty and cause an error response. Until this is resolved,… Continue reading
Status
Status is about relative importance, “pecking order” and seniority. Think about a time when you’ve met someone you really admire and look up to. You may have built them up in your mind. When you meet them you may experience being tongue tied, not knowing what to say. Your brain shuts down a bit. This is what happens when your perceived status is lowered, a threat to your status.
It can be easy to accidentally threaten someone’s sense of status. It can occur when giving someone advice or instructions, or simply suggesting someone is… Continue reading
Your #1 Asset
I happened upon some interesting studies regarding how the brain reacts to different situations. In particular, about our capacity to make decisions, solve problems and collaborate with others. The information has a profound impact on the performance of a team. When individuals have a threat response, capacity to perform and reason diminishes and it is increased under a reward response.
Our brain is constantly evaluating whether a situation is a threat or a reward. In social settings (working with others) there are five areas of human experience: status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness. These… Continue reading
Connect with Me!