Now I want to say some more about the primitive brain because again, it's our survival mechanism. It's wired into us for a very good reason. And yet it complicates work relationships, interpersonal relationships. We basically in that pervert breed have the same structure physiologically as a lizard. That's all they've got to work with. They're constantly prepared for fight, if they have to flight, which they probably prefer, or freezing.

And so human beings have the same immediate reactions if they perceive danger if they believe they're being criticized, for instance, and so whoop lightning This is the fastest part of the brain, we'll go into defensive behaviors, whatever our tendencies are, if you tend towards fight, then you will be oppositional. You will be able to shoot holes in whatever the other person is saying, whatever you're hearing from the leadership in your organization, you will be able to put the worst spin on it, and probably convince yourself that you're right. That's one of the tricky things about it. You have to both respect what you think, but also be willing to look at it from a different angle. You may be trapped at times we all are by habits of how we perceive others. So if fights your habit, you may be very vocal.

Some people some of your peers may really appreciate it and encourage you to keep Fighting. But ultimately to resolve things you have to work through things with others and not stay stuck in fight. If flight is your habit, and this is the primary behavior in an organization where there's too much tension, people will be really careful about what they say they will be reluctant to raise issues, they will keep their mouth shut. And the openness about work issues is killed, stifled. And so high performance is highly unlikely in those circumstances. You as a leader have to work to help your subordinates be open with you.

So that is where how you receive things. If you receive things with fight or with your own flight, then people are going to be less likely to bring things up to you and you're going to create a condition where information doesn't flow and where you're not able to work out properly. So you have to catch these primitive brain reactions. Don't get stuck in fight, don't get stuck in flight. And you can overcome both of those. So you feel like fight.

So why you can take a deep breath, calm yourself, and make sure you understand what the other person means. You feel like flight. So while you can still speak and say, you know, I'm worried about this or I'm concerned about that. You don't have to stay stuck in it. Even if you've had conversations that went poorly in the past. That doesn't mean that you aren't capable in the present, of having a more productive conversation.

Freeze is like a deer in the headlights. You're in a meeting, somebody says something and the first reaction is a moment of silence. That's a freeze moment. And then people transition if they're just in their reaction. They'll transition into fight or flight. So those are the primary two, freeze is transitory.

And then they seem like it keeps going if it goes into flight, because you're not going to hear from those people or you're going to keep your mouth shut. You have to work to calm yourself, and to help others overcome these primitive brain reactions if you want to have a high performance organization. Now, the primitive brain likes a predictable environment. Imagine that your primitive brain is sitting on a rock by a pond, sunning itself happy reptile. Something changes in the environment maybe as small as you go into a meeting and someone is sitting in the chair that you normally occupy. Your primitive brain goes on alert.

Now your tents freeze. Now you go into Whatever behavior is your most primary habit. See, it's not that you have a personality that is stuck. It's that over the course of your life, you have acquired habits through experience without thinking about it. Without thinking for the first 20 years of life, people don't begin to become objective about themselves until they get to young adulthood, and even then, only if they've had good guidance in this regard, or if they have learned from experience to not just blame others. Some people just carry that habit through the rest of their lives and are stuck in it.

You don't have to be even if that's been a habit up until this moment. There you are, again, on the rock. There's a rustle, you freeze, you go into fight or flight, the environments change Of course, you're human. The same is true of everyone else in your organization. Whenever there's a change, people are going to go into their reactive behaviors. Don't blame them.

Don't say you don't know how to manage change, that's just going to fuel their defensiveness and their fear of you. Take a deep breath. Find out what people are thinking. Pay attention, respect how they're feeling, and then move forward with them have dialogue about the circumstances. What's the best way that we can handle this circumstance, come up with a plan, have them create plans, move through the primitive reaction. Don't get stuck in your own fight.

Many organizations go into change and start blaming the people instead. stead of just figuring out how to join the people and move forward together overcoming this initial reactivity which is perfectly predictable. Okay, so there you go. That is emotional intelligence and neuroscience mixed together into one. I've enjoyed delivering this to you, and I hope you have a fabulous day. Take care