Making Shift Happen New Year's Resolution Series: Managing Your Inner Chimp for Successful Relationships and Performance in 2024

Welcome to the Making Shift Happen New Year's Resolution Series! The New Year brings new possibilities and promise, not just for personal growth, but for the flourishing success of your business. Join us in this series where we unravel strategies, insights, and resolutions for organisational success in 2024. In this article, we consider the inner workings of our minds and how we can manage our "Inner Chimp" for improved relationships and performance in 2024.

The mind is an extraordinary machine. While it fuels the pursuit of aspirations and goals, the mind also holds the power to undermine our efforts, hindering us from both achieving our dreams and becoming the person we want to be.

From business and education to Olympic sport, psychiatrist Professor Steve Peters is a specialist in optimising the human mind for performance. This article focuses on his bestselling mind management book ‘The Chimp Paradox’, and how its key principles can be applied to the business context.

What is The Chimp Paradox?

Grounded in neuroscience, The Chimp Paradox is a powerful mind management model that can help you become a happier, more confident, healthier, and more successful person.

Have you ever found yourself acting in a way that was so far from the person you want to be that you're left bewildered, asking "Where did that even come from?" The Chimp Paradox is an excellent place to start when it comes to explaining this internal struggle that takes place in your mind.

Steve Peters explains how the human brain works in three basic parts -the emotional Chimp Brain (Limbic System), the logical human brain (Prefrontal Cortex), and the computer brain (subconscious). For example, during a team meeting, a colleague criticises your recent project and you immediately feel a surge of frustration and defensiveness. The emotional Chimp Brain reacts emotionally and impulsively, feeling threatened and responding with a strong emotional reaction. However, if engaged, the logical human brain would have engaged in rational thinking, evaluating the criticism objectively and deciding on a constructive response. Perhaps you would have taken a moment to analyse the feedback and consider whether there were valid points for improvement.

The subconscious computer brain draws on stored information and learned behaviours to guide your response to these types of situations. This means that you can pre-programme your subconscious computer brain to automatically tell the Chimp Brain to respond calmly and constructively the next time a stressful situation arises.

How does this relate to business?

Business leaders are aware of the importance of self-management when it comes to getting the right outcome in their daily activities. In leadership and business, we deal with various high-stress situations where the Inner Chimp can make an appearance. Understanding the Chimp Paradox enables you to recognise how the mind works and provides actionable wisdom to help you manage emotions and remain effective.

What can I do today to start managing my Inner Chimp?

The Chimp Paradox teaches us how to set up warning signs; how to overcome our sense of self-importance; and how to avoid the emotional Chimp Brain from taking over. Leaders can benefit from developing self-awareness to recognise when the Chimp Brain might be taking the lead. When this happens, it is important to know how to soothe the Chimp, be kind to them, make them feel safe, and calm them down. To begin managing your Inner Chimp today:

1. Start by reflecting on when and why your Inner Chimp takes over. What are some signs that show you that your Chimp Brain is in the driver's seat and not your human brain? Some common signs include emotional reactivity, impulsive behaviour, black-and-white thinking, defensiveness, self-criticism, an inability to compromise, or even physical symptoms such as tense muscles or increased heart rate. ?
2. Identify these automatic responses and replace them with more empowering autopilots to influence how the Chimp sees a situation and hence how it chooses to react. Journaling can help you to identify when you're likely to jump to negative conclusions, to reflect on why this might happen, and to replace it with another belief. Like building muscle memory, the more you challenge these automatic beliefs and responses when they arise, the more likely it is that these positive reactions will become part of your subconscious computer brain. In turn, these positive reactions will become your 'default setting', leading to longer-term success in managing difficult behaviours and emotions.

‘One of the secrets of success and happiness is to learn to live with your Chimp and not get bitten or attacked by it. To do this, you need to understand how your Chimp behaves and why it thinks and acts in the way that it does. You also need to understand your human and not muddle up your human with your Chimp’.

- Dr. Steve Peters

What if the Chimp takes over anyway?

If the Chimp decides to take over regardless of your human brain knowing better, the Chimp can be managed in three ways:

• Exercise: You need to help the Chimp release the emotion it is struggling to deal with. Exercise is a safe and healthy way for the Chimp to healthily channel this pent-up emotion and can take as little as 10 minutes.
• Box: Acknowledge the emotions that are arising, name them, and allow yourself to feel them. When you look the Chimp squarely in the eye it’s almost always less scary than when it’s an unseen beast you’re hiding from. Having allowed the Chimp some controlled space, it may be open to accept a more considered, calmer conversation and go back to its box.
• Banana: The third way is to feed it bananas. Bananas are metaphorical rewards or treats that you give to your Inner Chimp as a way to manage its behaviour. Examples of bananas vary from person to person, as they are individualised rewards that bring satisfaction and calmness to the emotional part of the brain. These could include a nature walk, a coffee break, positive affirmations, or a leisure activity.

As we journey into 2024, 'The Chimp Paradox' sheds light on mind management for better relationships and performance. Dr. Steve Peters' neuroscience-based model helps us navigate the dynamics of our emotional Chimp Brain, logical human brain, and subconscious computer brain. By spotting signs of Chimp Brain takeover and adopting positive habits, we set the stage for improved self-management and success in the new year.

Thank you! Thanks to my Making Shift Happen?colleague?Louise Coombes , for?her?help in creating this article series. Thanks also to you, the reader for tuning in. Share your thoughts in the comments!

Here’s a link ?to Optimising the Performance of the Human Mind: Steve Peters at TEDxYouth@Manchester 2012.

Here’s a link to the book : The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters.

Other References:

https://chimpmanagement.com/

https://www.kingstowncollege.ie/the-chimp-paradox-by-professor-steve-peters/

https://www.leapleadership.ie/great-business-leadership-learn-to-control-that-inner-chimp/

https://www.listeningpartnership.com/insight/optimise-business-mind-harness-chimp-paradox/#:~:text=The%20trick%20is%20to%20be,in%20charge%2C%20not%20the%20chimp

https://slooowdown.wordpress.com/2015/11/21/the-chimp-paradox-the-mind-management-programme-for-confidence-success-and-happiness-by-dr-steve-peters/

https://medium.com/@Getaheadlife/understand-your-chimp-and-get-that-monkey-off-your-back-e8924ec9b4ef

?