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Neuroscience and leadership

Written by: Douglas Long

Article Overview: Many of us are increasingly frustrated by the fact that today's problems were often caused by solutions that were provided yesterday – solutions which, with the benefit of hindsight, were patently inappropriate or inadequate. Mostly these are caused by people operating out of less than optimal worldviews coupled with a primarily ‘red zone’ area of brain control. In this article Douglas Long explores the issue of worldviews as developed by Clare Graves and couples this with some basic neuroleadership concepts

Neuroscience and leadership

Today, thanks to factors such as the internet, virtually everyone is more aware of the dysfunctional political situations around the world. Daily we are regaled with accounts of prejudice and intransigence in the middle east; the bullying of "comply with our demands or be punished" approaches by western alliances, the "be reasonable, do it my way" approaches by some eastern nations, of poverty and natural disasters - numbers of which are caused, at least in part, by human activity - and myriad other world problems. Many of us are increasingly confronted by the fact that these problems are caused by solutions that were provided yesterday - solutions which, with the benefit of hindsight, were patently inappropriate or inadequate. Mostly these are caused by people operating out of less than optimal worldviews coupled with a primarily 'red zone' area of brain control.

Yet, often we fail to realise that these problems - similar in type though not in scale - also exist in our own immediate environments and businesses.

Some years ago the late Professor Clare Graves suggested an open ended spiral of world views to explain why, so often, problems occur and/or people respond in an inadequate fashion to issues they encounter. (Details of Graves' work are set out in Beck, D. and Cowan, C. (1996) 'Spiral Dynamics. Mastering Values, Leadership and Change'. Blackwell Publishers Inc. and in Lynch, D and Kordis, Paul L (1990) 'Strategy of the Dolphin', Ballantine Books). Graves argued that humans move in their world views from instinct, through safety, power, order, success, people, process, and synthesis approaches. For the first 6 of these a person can see only that approach (effectively a monochromatic perspective) while they are in that world view and that temporarily limits the options they consider when dealing with any issue. Only at the process stage and beyond does a polychromatic perspective become possible so that a greater variety of options become apparent.

In several earlier articles I have discussed the issue of how our brains impact on our leadership behaviour ("The Brain of a Leader", "Blue Zone Leaders Grow Others", "Leadership: a 'no brainer'") and I have introduced the concept of "red zone" versus "blue zone" as the areas of our brains that control how we behave - an issue that is explored more fully in "The Success Zone" (2009, Mowat, Corrigan & Long, Global Publishing, Melbourne, Australia).

To recap: red zone approaches are where our brain's area of control is centred in the older sections of our brains - the basic and limbic regions, while blue zone approaches are where our brain's area of control is centred in the newer sections of our brains - the limbic and neocortical regions. Neither of these is necessarily "right" or "wrong". They simply indicate the degree of flexibility available to understand and deal with those things we encounter. The more we are 'red zone' dominated, the less flexibility available to us.

So what are some clues to "red zone" dominance as our brain's area of control?

• Instinctive rather than a considered approach - "gut response"
• Resistance to change
• Selective listening
• Conditional respect for others - "I'll respect you if you do what I say"
• Insistence on control or dominance
• Asking in order to show knowledge or to make a point
• Sarcasm
• Judging
• Unfairness
• Ambiguity and lack of clarity
• Rejection / exclusion
• Narrow-dimensional learning
• Threat aware
• Pessimism

In contrast, blue zone control allows us flexibility to determine the most appropriate response. Clues to "blue zone" dominance as our brain's area of control are:

• Planning
• Managing impulses
• Unconditional acceptance and respect of others as individuals despite their behaviour (which may not be acceptable)
• Connecting with others
• Understanding others
• Goal setting
• Goal attainment
• Visioning
• Understanding consequences
• Interpreting inputs
• Multi-dimensional learning
• Considering options
• Reflective
• Optimism

The red zone area of brain control has similarities with the monochromatic worldviews. A person is not simply "a red zone person" nor are they solely orientated around instinct, safety, power, order, success or people. Up to the highest stage of the spiral that they have reached in their overall development, they can move from one to another worldview without conscious thought and such movement is triggered by a variety of external stimuli: similarly virtually everyone exhibits evidence of both blue zone and red zone areas of brain control.

Under Graves' concepts, during their lifetime a person develops along the spiral depending on their response to things they encounter. When they realise that their current worldview is failing to provide the solutions they need, they can choose to stop where they are, pause and consider, or make the move to the next stage. At any point they continue to have access to, and to use, the earlier stages of the spiral - the important thing is to understand the strengths and limitations of each stage and, as much as possible, to access them appropriately.

There are similarities here with the "red zone" "blue zone" area of brain control concepts. As a baby grows and develops through childhood into adulthood, their overall brain develops from a purely instinctive "stimulus-response" organ to one that is capable of great learning and achievement. In a mature adult the neocortex is fully developed and accessible even if we don't always allow it to control how we think and act. In times of extreme danger such as the possibility of being hit by a bus, an instinctive jump for safety (basic brain response) is totally appropriate. However, for most situations, if we have a greater degree of flexibility in response available to us we are more likely to make an appropriate decision - and that requires blue zone activation. However some people become stuck in a primarily red zone area of control and that can result in inappropriate behaviour and poor decisions.

When you consider the indicators of "red zone" and "blue zone" behaviour listed above, where is your primary orientation? You can learn how to develop your "blue zone" - and that will also help you understand and develop your worldviews so that you can be more effective in all areas of life.

Related Articles
  Types of Business Leaders
  Sales Development isn't rocket science, it's neuroscience!
  Business Leaders and the Three Brains of Neuroscience
  Using the Principles of Neuroscience to Sustain Long Term Transformational Change
  Neuroscience of Goal Setting

Article Tags: blue zone, brain control, clare graves, leadership, neuroscience, red zone, worldviews



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