Your Brain@Work: Post #11--Change

Making Change: Change is hard! Only 1 person in 9 changes their lifestyle after heart surgery. Further, the carrot-and-stick approach doesn’t work because we view people trying to change us as a threat, not a reward. A key concept neuroscience offers is that “attention itself changes the brain.” When we change our attention, we are rewiring our brains. Thus, Attention = Change. Unfortunately, when you sense someone is trying to change you, your threat response triggers. Real change, actually changing the brain (neuroplasticity), requires the following: 1) Create a safe place/environment to minimize any threat response; 2) Help others focus their attention on a new direction; 3) Get people to repeatedly pay attention to the new direction so the change gets hardwired.