Latest / The Pausecast / Ep 82: How your triune brain navigates the corporate landscape

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Ep 82: How your triune brain navigates the corporate landscape · The Pausecast

• 0:02
  I got a lot of feedback that talking about the brain was
• 0:05
  pretty neat. Pretty cool.
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  People like learning about how and why I do something.
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  When we had the heart based leadership has cast, I decided
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  great. Let's do more of that because I
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  think it helps to explain our behaviors, and then we are more
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  aware of it. And if we can learn that we can
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  change it, right? So today I am talking about a
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  couple other ways, the brain functions.
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  And I think this is really important to know as a leader
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  because it might explain behavior patterns that You
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  experience or someone people in your team experience, you can
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  understand what it means. It doesn't mean they have to
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  stay that way might be more about what their default is or
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  what yours is but know that it's just how we are wired and we can
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  change it but we're designed to transform the first topic.
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  I want to talk about is the Triune brain so the Triune brain
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  if you know this is essentially try and try meaning there's
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  three parts of the brain. It came from Paul MacLean who
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  was a Our chair of physics physician and neuroscientist
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  back in the back in. Mid-century 1950s 1908 later
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  later on in the 1900s and basically spent six Decades of
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  work, he researched the brain and basically hypothesize that
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  the skull holds not one. But these three interconnected
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  brains. He called them interconnected
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  biological computers, which I think is a pretty good term.
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  They all represent. Isn't an in evolutionary stratum
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  as his exact words from his books and each one came later as
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  humans evolved. So that's why he called the
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  Triune brain. There's these three prominent
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  parts and each one contains more can progressively complex
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  infrastructure of nerve cells. So the first of the three parts
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  and you might have heard about these.
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  There's The Reptilian Brain that came first like that's when we
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  were really primal. It's and and then mammalian
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  brain, which is later, which is mammals.
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  And we are starting to care for young and we have families and
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  hunter-gatherers and things like that.
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  And then paleo meal. Paleo man million, which is
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  really now the modern neocortex, the the frontal lobe thinking
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  brain which came as we had, we were able to evolve and have
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  decisions made and Creative aspects and Building Things, and
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  things like that. So all of these actually
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  developed from The evolutionary side of that.
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  So reptilian that first Primal part is when we're in that part
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  of our brain, we are basically in fight or flight mode.
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  Imagine the think of a little reptile, like an iguana sitting
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  on a branch, right? And that, that iguana, what is
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  that going to like cuddling up to cuddle up with another
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  iguana? And when I click it slips lick
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  its face. And okay.
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  Hey here I am know, like, like that, that all that lizard
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  thinks about is getting in the sun, maybe eating a couple
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  flies, maybe some veggies and going to sleep and then doing
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  the same thing and fighting off any Predators.
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  That's The Reptilian Brain. So when we get pissed and we get
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  mad, or we are fight, or we feel fear at work, which is really
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  anxiety when we feel that we get into this brain.
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  It's really, really hard to switch out of it because we're
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  usually in an amygdala hijack or usually like hijacked out of our
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  minds and our emotional responses are four hundred times
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  faster, by the way, then our thinking brain, because this was
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  developed first. It's like, it's like reflexes
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  for us, right? It's and we all know, we've all
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  experienced this when we were in that brain and it just like a go
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  to me, I got to know why I get so angry.
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  Well, something sets you off to be in that reptilian mode
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  because you just, you're just fighting and fighting Or
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  freezing. So that is when we are stressed
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  out at work and we cannot access these higher parts of our brain
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  because this is where we're literally fighting for our
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  lives. And the thing is is our brains,
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  don't know if we have a quarterly quarterly Business
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  Review to hand in or we're getting eaten by an elephant I
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  don't think it all for me to maybe maybe a tiger.
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  Yeah everyone uses tiger I'm so bored of that one.
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  How about like Like a panda or that?
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  Eat somebody. I don't know.
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  Maybe it maybe. Like, I'm really angry panda.
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  You get my idea. They could, they could.
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  Well, now we're getting into more complexity because that's a
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  mammal, but you know what I'm saying?
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  Like it's just a fight or flight response.
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  The other thing to know is that, yeah, there's also these neat.
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  These needs that go along with each part of the brain, but I'll
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  get into that in a minute. So, let's continue to the
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  mammalian brain. So, the mammalian brain is this
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  mammal brain, right? So, think of all the mammals on
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  the planet, lots and lots of mammals, right?
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  These are the breathing animals and, and there might be more I'm
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  not in biology expert, but they can be cute and cuddly, like
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  think of a bear and a koala bear, Maybe.
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  Or do you think of little your dog, you think of your pets?
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  Usually, the ones with /, the furry friends, right?
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  So, the mammalian, one of their traits like what are they like
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  to do? Well, they love to, like, saddle
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  up to you and like, like rubbing, like rub their nose,
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  and in your, in your skin and just be like, hey, I'm here.
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  And they want attention, they want to be pet, they want to,
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  they want to be cared for. They are like maybe stroking
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  their young and just like Harlow's monkeys.
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  Right, like the monkeys. I'm going to get cared for by
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  the mom. That was a previous podcast that
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  I talked about. With the monkeys, the resmoke
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  rhesus, monkeys with Harlow's experiment.
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  Yes. So you got to tune into that one
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  to learn about that in the heart base leader episode.
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  So some emilien is, when we are at our circuits for emotions are
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  really turned on, right? So our emotional Center is lit
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  up and we want to be loved. We want to be cared for, we want
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  to, we want to To reach out and connect.
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  We want to really feel like we belong somewhere in those.
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  So this part of the brain of all the second stage and is a really
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  important part of the brain to, because we need this part in,
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  this is the Cuban aspect, right? Like humans are big into that
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  connecting and like groups, and engaging, and care.
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  And all of that is mammalian brain.
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  So, at what I think about as a leader, you know, when you are
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  caring for your team and you're giving somebody a high five I
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  have and you're excited to share a win with them.
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  Like that's our mammalian brain, I'm a million.
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  Brain is designed to like express our emotions.
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  It's a big part of our brains huge part of our brain and, and
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  think about all the mammals, like, that's how they really
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  operate and everyone, all the man will stop there.
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  And then what happened was, the humans, develop this third part
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  of the Triune brain, the neocortex and the neocortex came
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  last. It's the least developed part of
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  our brain. It's, it's your temple.
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  So if you put your Fingers. Right.
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  Where your frontal lobe is, you know, just give it a little
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  little rub little massage. That's, that's your thinking
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  brain. And this is the least active
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  part of our brains because 95% of our brains are unconscious.
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  If you just tap it gently, this is our conscious brain.
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  This is where we make decisions. That's where creativity happens.
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  That's where we are strategic. That's what we're thinking, big
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  picture we have visions. We goals all the all of that is
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  from that brain. So we use it a lot.
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  It actually, it actually takes a tremendous amount of energy to
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  use this part of our brain. That said, it's also a very
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  small part of our overall functioning of our brain.
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  So we need all three of these parts, right?
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  Reptilian 1 million and the neocortex.
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  So just know that you have all of these at excess, but you need
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  to use them all as a leader. And you might be more index on
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  the neocortex, which makes a lot of sense, right?
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  But don't forget about the mammalian part of your brain.
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  Which is designed and really wired for emotion and connection
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  and then The Reptilian Brain, where you might decide to
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  abandon a project, right? Are you might, you might notice
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  there's someone who's Frozen like literally cannot do
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  different cannot make decisions out of fear, okay?
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  That doesn't mean they have to stay there.
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  But potentially, you could also understand that that could be
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  something you could help with. And if that happens to you all,
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  it means is, you're in The Reptilian Brain and you can
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  change. Change that and get out of it,
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  but we need to turn on these other parts of our brain.
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  The one of the best ways to do that is to name a feeling, it's
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  the journal. It's to get out of that state so
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  that you can move into something different and for super, super
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  stressed. If you're chronically stressed,
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  that's not going to be easy but that's okay.
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  That's how I can help you. That's how we can create the
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  tools so you can move into other parts of your brain.
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  So the last part I wanted to mention are these needs that we
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  have for each part of the brain, right?
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  So the reptilian part this, you know, the fight or flight mode,
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  it needs audio-visual communication.
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  Like, we need to hear things and we need to see things and that
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  makes sense, right? Like, am I scared?
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  Am I not like? Is there a shadow?
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  Or is that just the trash can, right?
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  Like we're just consider constantly scanning for threats
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  and that can work, right? And then we also have the
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  optional emotional system is tied into that, but really, for
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  this for this mammalian stage, which is the second stage we
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  are, we are, we are really wired for that nurturing, and that's
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  that limbic system, emotional system.
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  That's also linked to our heart and that neocortex brain, right?
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  So the neocortex, brain that what those needs are as
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  creative, intellectual stimulation.
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  That makes sense of course, because that's our thinking
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  brain or conscious side. And it can really work well to
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  have all of those as part of our integrated work life.
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  And that's kind of cool, right? I mean, like do we ever think of
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  it like that? Like, no, but they're all
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  important. So, if you're only looking at
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  spreadsheets for eight hours a day and maybe your brain is used
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  to that which is fine, it's that can happen.
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  You may notice that you are feeling, maybe a little drained
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  or you're not getting nurturing in your system, that's when you
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  can go home. And you, when you turn, Like if
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  that's your job and that's what you to do also.
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  And then your job later will be to get nurturing and get the the
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  crane of intellectual stimulation.
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  If it wasn't already in the spreadsheets things like that,
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  right? So this is why we burnout is
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  when we're really over index and maybe one of these parts of the
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  brain and we're just not nourishing and nurturing
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  ourselves in a way that really feels holistic and helpful, we
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  need all three of these things and it I think it's worth saying
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  that the play works in the safe. Space created by the audiovisual
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  communication to a nurturing that when all our needs are met.
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  So just know that, you know, when you when your play is
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  there. Like if you're engaging in the
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  act of play is joy and can be fun and a stress, reliever it
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  can really help us get out a lot of these things in the
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  audiovisual communication that can get us out of The Reptilian
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  Brain. So, add more play into it,
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  right? Like, duck out for a game of
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  ping-pong. If you have paper, if you don't,
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  what could you do? What would be fun for you?
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  What would be play full? We have to play more as adults.
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  Maybe I'll talk about that again.
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  Is another time. Yeah.
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  And what else? I think that's a good amount of
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  information. So at that point I am going to.
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  Yeah, I'm going to sign off pause and for now.
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  And thank you so much for listening to this fun and
• 12:14
  informative podcast about the Triune brain and how it helps us
• 12:18
  be a better leader. I think that's a good amount of
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  information. So at that point I am going to.
• 12:07
  Yeah, I'm going to sign off pause and for now.
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  And thank you so much for listening to this fun and
• 12:14
  informative podcast about the Triune brain and how it helps us
• 12:18
  be a better leader.