Address Your Unconscious Prior to Coaching but Not During It; Be Aware of Habit-Based and Goal-Directed Learning in Your Coaching; Remember That The Brain Can Forever Change – It’s Never Too Late to be Coached and To Coach!
The practice of neuroscience – the scientific study of the nervous system – has undergone so many advances over the last few years that today it can have a major influence on the delivery and content of coaching sessions as well as on who should be coached.
This was one of the key messages coming out of the 2011 Meyler Campbell Annual Lecture, delivered by eminent neuroscientist Dr Geoff Bird from the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck College, University of London. The seventh Annual Lecture was sponsored by Sherwood PSF Consulting, one of the UK’s leading coaching consultancies to professional service firms.
In a wide-ranging lecture – ‘Neuroscience & Organisational Coaching’ – Dr. Bird outlined some of the latest findings from the field of neuroscience and important applications for coaches. These included:
“The make-up and complexity of the brain is quite mind-boggling,” continues Dr. Bird. “It has 80 to 100 billion neurons, has 176,000 kilometres of white matter, and is defined by both conscious intention and unconscious brain activity.”
“What is most amazing of all, however, is that it gives rise to the mind and almost everything we as humans are defined by – from art, music and poetry, joy and laughter to pain, anxiety and sorrow. And as we increase our understanding of how the brain works, it also has implications for core human interactions, such as those which take place in a coaching session.”
“While my lecture is not about telling you how to coach, the fact remains that every coaching interaction is linked to what is going on in someone’s mind. If we can better understand how the brain works, it will have important applications for our effectiveness as coaches. It’s also very encouraging to see that key elements of coaching today, such as the GROW model, are strongly backed up by neuroscience research.”
Meyler Campbell Managing Director, Anne Scoular, continued:
“The Meyler Campbell Annual Lecture series is all about pushing the boundaries and drawing on other disciplines and teachings to improve our approach to coaching. Well, no one can accuse us of not living up to this criterion in 2011 in an incredibly thought-provoking and inspiring lecture.”
“While there is clearly so much we don’t and may never know about the brain’s awe-inspiring complexity (176,000 kilometres of white matter!), any improved insight into what makes us and others tick and how our brain distinguishes between conscious intention and unconscious brain activity can only be beneficial to us as coaches. And the fact that Dr. Bird is himself currently undergoing the Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme is also testament to the growing synergies between these different worlds.”
Anne’s words were backed up by Sally Woodward of Sherwood PSF Consulting, where a majority of the coaches are Meyler Campbell Graduates. In her closing comments to the Lecture, Sally said:
“One thing that has always driven us at Sherwood is our desire to access the best of theory and research and to translate this into something of practical use for our clients. We also aim to add to our experience of what works in practice an understanding of why it works ‘in theory’ as well.”
“From the importance of listening and eye contact to imitation, repetition, and goal-setting, the findings Dr. Bird has shared with us this evening can help coaches to use their practical skills with even more confidence and judgement – with many different clients and in different contexts. And I can never hear enough of the finding that it’s never too late to learn new tricks!”
“Sherwood PSF Consulting is delighted to be associated with this memorable Lecture, delivered in such an accessible and engaging manner”, she concludes.
In setting the scene, Dr. Bird provided an overview of the complexity of the brain – consisting of between 80 and 100 billion neurons and connected by 100 trillion synapses (the structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell).
He also explained the importance of myelin – an electrically insulating material that forms a layer around the axon of a neuron and is essential to the proper functioning of the nervous system.
Myelin increases the speed in which information can be transmitted to the brain. Myelinated neurons (which are white in appearance – hence white matter) will transmit information quickly, such as when you pick up a burning hot plate and then put it down again quickly, whereas slower unmyelinated neurons are responsible for that sick feeling you feel a few seconds afterwards.
Dr. Bird explained how we are becoming much better in understanding how we can change the way the brain works – “making people more happy through Prozac and other anti-depressants, for example.” Dr. Bird also cited hormones, such as oxytocin, that can improve people’s empathy and ability to recognise subtle changes in people’s emotions.
“There are drugs today, such as Ritalin, that genuinely make us smarter,” continues Dr Bird. “With one in five US students using Ritalin, it is improving their memories and their skills in making decisions. How long will it be before some of the high performing leaders we coach, who are always looking for that extra competitive advantage, opt for these mind improving drugs and what impact will this have on coaching?”
Central to the lecture was an overview of the different parts of the brain and, in particular, the front half of the brain that is associated with conscious thought, movement and sensation as opposed to the back half of the brain that is the ‘unconscious’.
“It is the front half of the brain which is essentially our conscious control system – it is that part of the brain which tends to be very slow compared to the back of the brain,” continues Dr Bird.
A good example of the slowness of the front half of the brain was the research conducted by Benjamin Libet in 1983 and which found that the unconscious part of the brain decides which desire we are going to act upon over a second before our conscious minds know.
“What this means is that the automatic part of our brain decides when and how to act and then lets the conscious part of our brain know”, continues Dr. Bird.
Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze & John-Dylan Haynes explored this hypothesis further in 2008, using a brain scanner to investigate what happens in the human brain just before a decision is made. The study found that it was possible to predict from brain signals which option participants would take up to 10 seconds before they knew about it.
In examining how we coach, Dr. Bird focused on the importance of trust and social interaction in coaching and how the brain works.
One example he gave was in our body language. People who tend to mimic other people’s body language are liked, trusted, considered more attractive, and are more persuasive.
Research (Van Baaren et al 2004), for example, finds that clowns who entertain children in hospital tend to receive more donations when the participants are mimicked. Furthermore, a digital avatar that replicates people’s head movements is more likely to be persuasive in conveying a health message (Bailenson and Yee, 2005). The same goes for the imitation of language and grammar with the degree to which we do this often determining the success of the social interaction.
Dr. Bird continues: “This is dictated predominantly by the back and middle of the brain – the ‘unconscious’ – which makes us copy people as opposed to the ‘conscious’ – the consequence of frontal brain activity.”
“There are practical applications and conscious decisions that we can make in advance of a coaching session, however“, he continues. “For example, it’s probably a good idea to allow the client to speak at length first rather than the other way round – that way you – the coach – are more likely to mimic the client than the other way round, ensuring that you lead the session with more positive social interaction resulting.”
Eye contact is also considered very important in social interaction, Dr. Bird stresses, with research showing that eye contact elicits fluent frequent speech with the lack of eye contact having the opposite effect. Research has found, however, that people prefer long infrequent glances rather than short frequent glances (Kendon and Cook, 1969).
It is activities, such eye contact, which activate the brain’s reward system – similar to Breiter’s research (1997) which studied the brain’s positive neural responses to infusions of cocaine. Breiter found that the two areas of the brain thought to regulate euphoria – one of which is the nucleus accumbens – were both activated when cocaine was administered. Other research (Schilbach at al, 2010 and Sabatinelli at al, 2007) also focused on the brain’s reward system and the neural mechanisms of social interaction, including eye gazing.
There may be times, however, where, if clients are overly anxious or are sharing something they are embarrassed about, that eye contact shouldn’t be so intense. As an example, Dr. Bird cited Sigmund Freud who always sat at right angles to his patients. The reason for this was that he considered that his charges wouldn’t be able to reveal their deepest secrets when looking him in the eye without being concerned about what he may think.
Appropriate dress also plays a role in social interaction. “A suit, for example, may signal that you can be trusted and part of the in-crowd”, Dr. Bird continues.
“The bottom line, however, is all this is automatic. If we think about the way we are sitting or whether we are mimicking the client, we are not concentrating enough on the actual coaching session. By all means try and harness your ‘unconscious’ in advance of the meeting but then put it aside”, he said.
“This is easier said than done, however,” he cautions “as people don’t like to surrender control and try to use their conscious systems wherever possible.”
“Coaching is about bringing about a change in the individual’s pattern of behaviour or thought in order to enable the participants to reach their goal”, points out Dr. Bird.
“In this respect, there are two learning techniques underpinned by neuroscience that can have a key role in determining coaching methods – habit learning and goal directed learning. Both are based on having a stimulus and responding to that stimulus which results in an outcome.”
For example, if you adopt a subordinate pose to a boss and he or she acts pleasantly to you (whereas alternatively if you adopt a normal pose and he is unpleasant), you are likely to opt for the former action as you learn to associate your boss with a pattern of behaviour and a particular outcome.
“Habit learning is all about the unconscious and is a system that is utilised by both animals and humans”, continues Dr. Bird. “Based on the evolutionarily-old part of the brain and tending to occur subconsciously, habits are routines of behaviour that are repeated regularly.”
Such habit learning occurs when information is stored unconsciously, through repetition and trial-and-error learning. You learn slowly, retrieve fast and forget slowly. “It’s like learning to ride a bike”, continues Dr. Bird “in that it’s something you never forget.”
In the world of neuroscience, much of this habit is driven by synapses, the structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell or neuron. The more such neurons repeatedly get activated, the strength of the connection between them increases, emphasising the importance of repeatability in habit-based learning. “Neurons that fire together wire together,” as Dr. Bird puts it.
An example cited here comes from a study by Bogdan Dragansk at al in 2004 where three months of juggling training results in new synapses being formed within the participants’ brains.
Goal-directed learning, on the other hand, is driven by the conscious, front part of the brain and is where you tend to learn fast but also retrieve slowly and forget fast as well.
Within the parameters of neuroscience, less is known about goal-directed learning. By definition, however, goals involve attention, emotion and motivation with such feelings able to change the routing of neural networks on a millisecond by millisecond basis.
Recent research from the Karolinska Institutet, Umeå University, Åbo Akademi University, and the University of Turku has also found that training can improve working memory with an increased release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in specific brain regions.
“In terms of applications as to the methods we should use for coaching, the distinction between habit-based and goal-directed learning and the conscious and unconscious parts of the brain reinforces the need for repetition as a means of ‘hard coding’ positive patterns of thoughts and actions. This should take place both within and between coaching sessions.”
Dr. Bird continues: “The fact that goal-directed learning is also extremely beneficial to participants also aligns well with the prevalence of the GROW (Goal, Reality, Option, Will) model in coaching today and shows that coaching is very much on the right track.”
Finally, Dr.Bird posed the question as to when you should coach people – at what stage in their career? At what age? Is it ever too late where the brain is unlikely to change?
“The answer, I’m happy to say, is that’s it’s never too late,” continues Dr. Bird. “Whereas previously, neuroscientists believed that the brain has been fully developed by the age of 2, recent research, particularly by Nitin Gogtay, has found that human cortical gray matter develops significantly between the age of 2 and 21.”
And it doesn’t just stop there.
In the year 2000, research was undertaken of London taxi drivers who have an average age of 44 (Maguire et al 2000). In comparing London taxi drivers to a control group, the research found that taxi drivers have a larger hippocampus – a major component of the brain that plays an important role in the consolidation of information from short-term and long-term memory as well as spatial navigation. The most important finding, however, was that the longer you are a taxi driver, the larger the size of your rear hippocompus.
“Many of us have heard of the legendary test for London cab drivers, the Knowledge”, said Dr Bird. “This research showed that passing the Knowledge and then working on the streets of London really has an effect on brain development. Another example is the juggling training study overseen by Draganski in 2004 where new synapses in the brain were formed.”
“Anything you learn can change your brain. You certainly can teach old dogs new tricks!” Dr Bird concludes.
The Lecture took place at the Royal Society of Medicine on Wednesday November 16th 2011. It was followed by a highly interactive discussion with a panel including Anne Scoular, Meyler Campbell Faculty Member, Dr Henry Marsden and Des O’Connell of Sherwood PSF Consulting. Questions covered a wide variety of areas including gender differences in how the brain operates, the effect neuroscience is having on conditions, such as dementia, and how you can ‘unlearn’ habits.
Geoff Bird is a cognitive neuroscientist, i.e. he is both a psychologist and neuroscientist and studies how the brain gives rise to the mind. He is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, heads the joint UCL-Yale University Masters Programme in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology, and is head of the Social Interaction Laboratory at Birkbeck College, University of London.
Dr Bird has focused throughout his career on understanding the neuroscience of social interaction – how it is the brain enables us to learn from others, feel empathy for them, and influence how they feel and think. As a result of this interest Geoff has been studying various aspects of the coaching process, and has two research projects getting under way of direct relevance to business and leadership coaching.
Dr Bird served as a Science Policy Advisor to the UK Government throughout 2008 and is one of the Principals of the Centre for Educational Neuroscience – an organisation dedicated to enriching education through the application of findings from neuroscience. He is frequently consulted by blue chip companies and the media to explain the relevance of neuroscience to society and business.
Meyler Campbell (www.meylercampbell.com) trains and develops senior business people to coach in demanding contexts through its fully accredited Business Coach Programme. Meyler Campbell also hosts Europe’s most dynamic learning community for business coaches and leaders.
This is the seventh Meyler Campbell Annual Lecture, an opportunity for business coaches to listen to new thinking by a world expert from a related field.
Past speakers include Professor Carol Kauffman of Harvard University and one of America’s leading academics and thinkers on coaching; Professor Paul Babiak, a leading industrial and organizational psychologist and co-author of the highly acclaimed book ‘Snakes in Suits – When Psychopaths Go to Work’ Professor Felicia A Huppert, Director of the Well-Being Institute at the University of Cambridge; and in 2010, Professor Shlomo Ben-Hur of IMD, one of the world’s leading business schools based in Lausanne, Switzerland, who discussed the importance of coaching in improving team decision-making and the dangers of Groupthink in his talk – ‘Coaching Executive Teams to Reach Better Decisions’.
Members of Sherwood (www.sherwoodpsfconsulting.com) have been working together for more than twelve years helping senior professionals to help themselves, their firms, and the people in them to become even more successful; and to get satisfaction from their work.
They have all ‘done the day job’ for many years – just like their clients; they all have postgraduate business qualifications; and they call upon a wide range of consulting, leadership development, change management and coaching approaches. The six members of the Sherwood Coaching Group coach both individuals and teams across the legal and professional services sector.
