The Brain-Performance Continuum

There’s a myth that we only use 10% of our brain at any one time. It’s not true, of course. But even though it’s been debunked time and time again, it still persists out there in the ether.?

Why is that???

There could be many reasons, but the one that comes to my mind most readily is that it taps into our intrinsic desire for something better when it comes to how well our brains perform. It allows us to believe there is some hidden potential there and just waiting to be unlocked.??

And if we knew how to access it, it could make all the difference to our life and work.??

And although this specific myth is just plain wrong, what we do know is true from the science is that the brain isn’t fixed in how it operates. There is a continuum of brain performance, and on any one day or at any one moment, you can be operating at any point along this continuum.??

Take what we know happens to our performance when we feel tired or stressed out. Many of us will have experienced the momentary memory blank that comes from being put on the spot in a high-stakes situation or finding our attention drifting off when we feel fatigued. Both are clear examples of our brain not performing at its best when operating at the lower end of the continuum.??

Similarly, we’ve all (hopefully!) had those moments when we feel like we are operating on top form. When our thinking is sharp, we can power through tasks to completion and still have energy left to enjoy time out in the evening after work. In those moments, we are definitely operating at the upper ends of the continuum.??

But stress and fatigue are only two factors that influence where we are from moment to moment along that continuum. There are many other factors that neuroscience tells us are important to how well our brain performs.?

In fact, just about everything about our internal state of mind and body - our internal context - or our environment - our external context - makes a difference to our brain performance. But because we are often so preoccupied with what needs to get done, we don’t always take the time to decide whether we are in the best possible context for our brain to perform at its best.??

But we really should.

Time and again, I’ve seen what happens when organizations make minor tweaks to the context - the work environment - the culture - in which people work. When done right, it’s incredibly powerful at shifting people up that continuum.?Similarly, I’ve come across organizations that, usually not intentionally, have systems that work against people’s brain potential and are unknowingly keeping them at the lower end of the continuum.??

Here are a couple of big-picture examples of what organizations can be doing to make sure that their people are consistently operating at the higher end of this spectrum:

• Coaching & Feedback. The brain is an experience-dependent learning machine, and that means it is highly responsive to the information it receives from its environment, whether that be experiencing something new or receiving feedback or coaching on something. Although many organizations know that coaching and feedback are important, it’s not always ingrained properly into their culture and therefore doesn’t have as much impact as it could. Creating a culture where coaching and feedback are the norms, rather than the exception, is critical for ensuring that people are constantly moving upwards along that continuum.?
• Change Readiness. Everyone finds change hard, and it’s a classic example of when people are at real risk of sliding down the continuum simply because they are in a phase of upheaval and uncertainty. There are many things that organizations can do to prepare people for change, in terms of encouraging people to embrace a curious mindset, being transparent so that uncertainty is minimized and proactively boosting resilience through easy-to-implement initiatives. All these can help to keep people operating at a higher position along that continuum through the process of change.?
• Belonging. Everyone likes to feel like they belong. In fact, the social pain of being excluded is experienced by the brain in a similar way to physical pain, and belonging is considered to be a basic human need. It’s, therefore, not hard to see how easy it would be for someone who feels like they don’t belong to slide down that brain-performance continuum. But with everyone being so different, it is often hard to find a collective identity that can bond people together, and conflicts can easily arise when diversity isn’t accepted and embraced. Identifying the shared beliefs that are important to the people in your organization, creating a culture of psychological safety where everyone feels able to be themselves, and acknowledging the importance of cognitive diversity for creativity and innovation are all examples of how organizations can help people feel like they belong.?

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