How neuroscience can help organisations drive meaningful change
Digital HR Leaders Podcast - EP66 David Rock, CEO NeuroLeadership Institute

How neuroscience can help organisations drive meaningful change

David Green 🇺🇦 David Green 🇺🇦

David Green 🇺🇦

Co-Author of Excellence in People Analytics | People Analytics leader | Director, Insight222 & myHRfuture.com | Conference speaker | Host, Digital HR Leaders Podcast

Published May 25, 2021
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What I would say (to HR) is 2021 may be the year that you will do your best work - go be the revolutionaries. This amount of change may not be with us for another 100 years, in terms of people's willingness to really change the paradigm for how work is done.

Last week marked the second birthday of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast. Since the first episode with Sharon Doherty, Chief People and Places Officer at Finastra, there have been 13 series, 76 episodes and over 300,000 listens. It continues to be a privilege to host the show - and thanks for listening!

To mark our second birthday and kick off series 14 of the podcast, we have a very special episode. I’m joined by Dr. David Rock who coined the term ‘neuroleadership’ and is the Co-founder and CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI), which has worked with over 50% of the Fortune 100 to make organizations better for humans through science.

David has authored four successful books including Your Brain at Work, a business best-seller, and has written for and been quoted in hundreds of articles about leadership, organizational effectiveness, and the brain.

The centrepiece of my discussion with David is his SCARF Model, which is based on neuroscience and is designed to help us work more effectively with others. When I came across the model a few years ago, it helped me better understand myself and changed the way I interact in social situations.

The SCARF model is comprised of five key ‘domains’ that influence our behaviour in social and work situations. They are:

  1. Status – our relative importance to others.
  2. Certainty – our ability to predict the future.
  3. Autonomy – our sense of control over events.
  4. Relatedness – how safe we feel with others.
  5. Fairness – how fair we perceive the exchanges between people to be

As David explains in our discussion, these five domains activate the same threat and reward responses in our brain that we rely on for physical survival. This explains why ourselves – and others – will sometimes have strong emotional reactions in social situations both at work and at home. It’s a fascinating topic, and one I know listeners will enjoy

You can listen by clicking on the image below or by visiting the podcast website here.  

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In our conversation David and I discuss:

  • What led David to create the term ‘neuroleadership’ in 2007: “I had been doing leadership development and culture work for a decade or so and I noticed that adding a real biological foundation to the leadership work was tremendously helpful for people to have bigger insights about themselves and leadership overall.”
  • How the SCARF model has grown in relevance during the pandemic: “One of the biggest variables that we came to (in the pandemic) was autonomy: the more you can let people be in control of not just where they work, but also when they work and how they work. The more you could do that, the easier it is for people to actually manage, not just their lives, but their stresses.”
  • The window of opportunity companies and leaders have to 'solve for autonomy' and 'build a better post-pandemic normal' (“A lot of what we have got to do, to build a better normal, is educate bosses and leaders at all levels, about how to interact with humans more effectively.”)
  • The role of leaders in enabling their organisations to be truly diverse, equitable and inclusive (“If someone's more inclusive, we know that they are going to find common ground with people quite deliberately.”)
  • Three things companies should do to approach performance management (“First, define what great looks like so that people have more certainty and more autonomy. Then, asking for feedback should be the driver, not giving feedback. Finally, having a growth mindset and helping people get better.”)

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested or involved in neuroscience and its role in leadership, collaboration, culture and performance so that’s business leaders, Chief People Officers and anyone in a behavioural science, people analytics or HR Business Partner role.

We have been talking about autonomy a lot in the last few months, because I think it is kind of the 'killer app' for helping people through this crazy time


LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my discussion with David, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: How neuroscience can help organisations drive meaningful change.


WATCH THE VIDEOS

As well as the podcast, there will be a couple of videos available on the myHRfuture YouTube channel highlighting two of the topics David and I cover in our conversation. In the video below, David and I discuss the future of performance management:


GET INVOLVED

If you enjoyed listening to this week's podcast episode, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:

  1. Please subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
  2. Please take the time to rate the show on iTunes. We rely on your feedback and support to make the podcast, so this is very helpful!
  3. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
  4. Lastly, don’t forget to share on social media with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!


THANK YOU

A huge thank you to David for sharing his research, knowledge and expertise. You can connect with David on LinkedIn and follow David on Twitter @davidrock101, as well as find out more about the NeuroLeadership Institute. You can also read the Your Brain at Work blog.

If you want to read more about David's work, I recommend accessing the resources below:

Thanks to Greg Harris, Luke Stritt, Natalie Wickham, Kristin Ryba and the team at Quantum Workplace for sponsoring Series 14 of the podcast, and also Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa, Caroline Styr and the myHRfuture team for creating the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.

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CATCH UP ON THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to all of the episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As Managing Partner and Executive Director at Insight222, he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 70 global organisations. Prior to co-founding Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast and is an instructor for Insight222's myHRfuture Academy. His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar, Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value will be published in the summer of 2021.

Robert Hargrove

Founder Masterful Coaching Become the CEO Your Business Needs. Build a Legendary Company. Coached Chair NYSE, Fortune 500 CEO of the Year, and top Silicon Valley Founders. Book a strategy session today.

3y

In over 20 years of consulting I have rarely seen HR be a revolutionary or force for change. HR folks usually are usually focused on pleasing the boss, and ensuring compliance not pleasing employees by helping to create a great place to work/ If you want to make HR a force for transforming an organization, the first place to start is to transform HRs, thinking and attitudes I have coached in 100s of organizations if there is one group of people to offer to coach to its HR. The problem is they don't have the guts to ask for it

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Bram Connolly, DSM

Modern Leadership Theorist | Blending Practical Leadership with Academic Research | Founder of Hindsight | 3x Best-Selling Author

3y

This is brillaint. I really enjoyed this David Green.

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Insights For Performance

3y

Improving the employee experience starts with a human approach to the hiring process and mitigating the unconscious bias that exists in the hiring decision. 🙂 What is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the phrase "Good hiring process?" Read our “State of Hiring” whitepaper to learn more. https://lnkd.in/d8f2HRA

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Utegra

3y

Thank you David, this is very interesting, particularly regarding how asking for (as opposed to giving) feedback should be a key driver in reshaping performance management. We include this point as standard in our 360 degree best practice leadership and management appraisal, so I feel most encouraged :) Have a great weekend.

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