Michelle Teunis

You need to book time in for academia, just like you would an important meeting. You need to do the same for yourself, and your family. Check out the healthy mind platter, it gives you some good ideas around balance. And balance is important, as being in brain-body debt will impact all areas of life.

We know that projects rarely follow a straight line (even if project plans want them to), especially when the program has no control over the wider system and environment. So, just like the concept of the circle of influence and control, I'd set the expectation from the start that there may be times the team needs to sense and respond - and thats the nature of change in complex, adaptive organisations. And when there are set-backs, or the team needs to pivot, acknowledgement is key, but what's even more key, is progress in a co-created NEW direction - as we know our brain applies delayed discounting (value rewards now over later), and a reward doesn't need to be following the same path as yesterday. Build adaptability norms in.

Our brains have a love affair with the status quo. So expect “everyone” to feel varying degrees of discomfort when venturing away from it. The brains also prefers the basal ganglia’s (our habit centre) faster processing, so changing of anything habitual or ingrained needs to be done by design. The key? Have a clear purpose, and a cohesive change approach (where the why, the Change process itself and the surrounding environment are coherent), this will help to avoid the pain of cognitive dissonance. Also make it EASY for people to change habits, through co-design, and looking at habit cues and rewards. Lastly, we calculate an ROI on Change, so simplicity, relevance and significance also need to come into play.

Assess capacity, capability and work design before you increase workloads. To NOT do so is a psychosocial hazard waiting to happen. No pizzas, fruit bowls or positive reinforcement fixes these kinds of hazards and risks!

Work out loud, and collaboratively communicate. Working out loud helps to show progress for everyone and sets the social norm (as long as leaders are leading by example as well). Our brains love progress, so it’ll also increase motivation. And keep up the social connection, because it creates positive social synchrony even virtually. As long as it’s not one way. Ensure that routines, stand-ups and show cases are participatory. Multi-way, involved communication recruits more areas of the brain for understanding, empathy and memory to name a few.

We live in a world that's often unpredictable due to its brittle and nonlinear nature (look up BANI). Keep an eye on emerging trends and ensure that you are focusing on your mastery journey and continued learning, rather than feeling you must meet a destination. If you keep learning and see yourself as being on a mastery journey, you'll likely feel more confident when it comes to a sudden need to pivot. If you stay stagnant, and stop learning, you're more likely to get stuck.