Negative self beliefs are thoughts about ourselves which cause us to actively filter information in our environments in such a way that we misrepresent it in a negative manner.  And, for some people, these negative self beliefs will prevent them from doing things that they have the capacity to do (and often do well) if they just tried.  As a neuroscientist, my interest is what mechanisms in the brain might result in the difference between having a mild negative self belief which you can over-ride and having such a strong self belief that it stops you from achieving your potential?  And, more importantly, if we can identify this difference, does it help us to develop better methods for overcoming negative self belief?

Several studies have now used brain imaging to look at the differences between people with strong negative self beliefs and control groups.  In one of these studies, people with social anxiety disorders were compared with non-anxious control subjects.  One possible difference between these groups is on the way that negative self beliefs are reappraised.  When I think that I might not be expert enough to speak on topics about the brain, I can remind myself of the evidence against this including my years gathering expertise, the reactions that I have had to my talks, and the amazing people that respect my opinion.  This helps me to keep the negative self belief under control.  What happens when people with social anxiety reappraise their negative self beliefs?

A recent study by Goldin, Manber-Ball, Werner, Heimberg and Gross (2009) from the University of Stanford used fMRI to look at exactly this question.  Participants were interviewed to provide information on some events in their own lives that produced negative self beliefs.   They were then taught to reappraise these events by reframing the event. For instance, if the belief was that “I am not intelligent enough to do this”, the reframe might be to remember that “that is a thought not a fact” or “there are times when you have been intelligent enough”.  Brain imaging was conducted during production of negative self beliefs and when participants were told either to react to these beliefs (increasing the intensity) or reframe the beliefs (decreasing the intensity).

Both groups showed immediate activation of the amygdala (the part of the brain that represents threats in the environment).  However, the anxious group showed greater activation than the non-anxious group to the negative self beliefs (as has been found in previous studies).  Thus, people who are anxious have stronger emotional reactions to negative self beliefs than people who are not.  No surprise there then.

What is more interesting is the differences in brain function between the groups when the negative self beliefs were reappraised. The non-anxious group showed earlier and greater brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex than the non-anxious control group.  This part of the brain is known to inhibit responses thus reducing the negative feeling associated with the negative self belief as soon as it was activated.  In comparison, the anxious group showed greater but later activity in the inferior parietal cortex.  This part of the brain is associated with attention.  Thus, it is possible that the anxious group initially tried to avoid the negative self belief but then attended to it more (this is like trying not to think about a white bear – trying to suppress the thought can make you attend to it more).

How might this help people with strong negative self beliefs to be better able to manage these?  The people with better control over negative self belief had two advantages – they responded less to the negative emotion, and they had faster cognitive control of that emotion.  One place to start would be by explaining this to people who let their self beliefs affect their lives.  Teaching them and having them practice reappraisal strategies would provide them with the mechanisms to reduce these negative feelings so that they become less intrusive (less of a white bear).  These techniques have been tried and the interesting thing is that they have been shown to reduce the response to negative self beliefs in the amygdala back to the level found in non-anxious controls.

Call to Action:

• Who do you know that has a disruptive negative self belief?
• How could you use this new information to help them?
• What reappraisal techniques do you know that might be successful?

If people would like to e-mail me (trish@kaizen-training.com) with their own favourite re-appraisal techniques, I will make a list of these and circulate to everyone who contributes to the list.

So for anyone who’s ever been in a similar situation…

• Take 9 sheets of flipchart paper and tape them together in a 3×3 grid.
• Place the paper on a large table or clear a space on the floor and use that. In the centre, write down a suitable title for the outcomes summary.
• On a flipchart at the front of the room, set up the exercise with a prompt question of:

• The name of the game is speed here! Put on some motivational music and get everyone to create a mind map of their personal outcomes. This can be done with pictures or words. The objective is to fill every piece of white space with outcomes. As they scribble away, give an instruction for them to become curious about their neighbour’s outcomes and draw new inspiration.
• After a few minutes, call a halt and review progress. Then ask the team to move three steps to the left, read what’s now in front of them and add more thoughts to the chart.
• After a few more minutes call a stop to the activity and give everyone some time to walk round the completed mind map and read everyone’s contributions. It may be appropriate for the group to share observations or ask relevant questions at this point.
• Put this up on a wall in a prominent place where it can serve as a reminder of the focus for the day. Invite participants to add further thoughts and inspirations or alter their outcomes as the day progresses.

This week’s tip, however, is just a useful checklist of strategies we as trainers or leaders can use to help optimise transfer of learning.  I’m sure you already use many of these in your organisation or business – my challenge to you is this:

What else could you be doing?

Before the workshop

• Get participants to commit to work based projects which will ensure that the learning is put into action immediately after the course
• Distribute an engaging welcome pack, with questions for reflection and suggested pre-workshop activities
• Make the training programme part of a bigger process, not just a stand alone
• Space out the learning opportunities
• Get line managers involved
• Set a written exercise that will look at their beliefs/learning objectives and what they want, for the purpose of increasing level of challenge and clarity
• Video or facts with corresponding questions that prompt them to consider such things as “What they believe about change etc”.
• Create postcard in which they fill in their learning objectives pre-workshop using the 4MAT system
• Ask them to commit to a phone call to discuss anything arising from written work
• Agree specific business projects up front (before the training) with the learner and the learner’s manager – so that they already know what they need to go back and achieve.
• Praise, encourage and reward successful transfer of learning

• Use plenty of repetition
• Approach the same topic from many different angles
• Ask frequently ‘what have you learnt so far?’
• Lean harder on the importance of reinforcing learning at intervals after the training. Suggest dates on which they’d benefit from some sort of refresh/review
• Create a reflection log to be filled in after major chunks of the workshop
• Make opportunities for participants to teach each other
• Structure in ‘show you know’ sessions
• Use concert reviews
• Use nested loops
• Use mnemonics
• Engage parts of the brain which create long term memories easily – and use lots of emotion
• Encourage note taking and mind mapping
• Create audiotapes of the material and supply to participants
• Produce laminated reminders of the material for post course use
• Create a learning state that is close to the application state
• Get line managers involved as much as possible in the workshop itself

• Identify opportunities for participants to put the learning into action within 48 hours of the course
• Line Manager involvement
• Make successful transfer part of the performance management process
• E-mail participants with summaries of the material
• Build in post-course coaching sessions
• Set up learning buddies
• Arrange for the learners to ‘guest’ on future programmes – give a 5-minute presentation on how they have successfully applied the learning.
• Trickle tips by e-mail
• Online discussion forums and resources – success stories, managers’ forum, communities of best practice
• Regular lunches/breakfasts/get-togethers
• Suggested development resources
• Suggested activities and top tips
• Send postcard (that they have filled in) three or six months later
• Organise a monthly webinar or conference call for a self-directed support group.
• Follow up evaluation interviews with learner’s manager
• On the job coaching opportunities
• Send each participant an audio tape filled with reminders and reinforcers – in a concert review format if appropriate
• Create and circulate a video of people who are successfully applying the learning
• Use an intranet to capture success stories and fresh application ideas
• Create a physical bulletin board near heavily travelled areas containing pictures of successful learners, reminders, tips, a “help yourself” pocket of cards containing job-aids or checklists, and a graffiti section where people can add their own stories, comments and pictures.
• Place reinforcing messages on posters and peripherals where people can’t fail to see them (in the lift, the mirrors in the toilet, in the canteen, entrance and exit doors, next to clocks, in stairwells, in pay envelopes, vending machines, along corridors as mobiles or displays. Don’t leave them up for ever – and keep changing the messages to reflect what’s just been learned.
• Hold ‘brown bag’ lunches or breakfasts where learners share stories
• Interview learners and ask them about their experiences of applying the learning. What else could you have done in the training that would have made the learning easier to transfer? Take the lessons back into your design.
• Ask learners to train or coach others who didn’t attend the training event.
• Require each participant to write a short report summarising how they successfully applied the learning. Collate these together and send all participants a copy. Drip feed.
• Develop managers in the skills of supporting, coaching and reinforcing the learning back on the job. Make this a priority in your management development strategy

I sometimes tell this story* during workshops to illustrate how unconscious patterns can be played out – and how we can all display behaviour that is inadvertently biased.

“Imagine, you are conducting an interview with two people, we’ll call them Sally and John. John reminds you of yourself when you were younger, or of someone you know and like. You have that sense of familiarity or ‘chemistry.’ You instantly like him, and though you are not aware of why, your mind generates justifications. (He seems like a straightforward kind of guy. I like the way he ‘holds’ himself.) You ask him the first interview question and he falters a little. After all, it’s an interview. He’s nervous. Because you feel an affinity toward him, you pick up on his nervousness. You want to put him at ease. You say, ‘John, I know it’s an interview, but there’s nothing to be nervous about. Take a breath and let me ask the question again.’ John nails it this time and he’s off and running to a great interview. The whole interaction took four seconds, yet it made a world of difference.

Then you sit down with Sally. There is nothing negative about her, just no real connection. It is a very ‘business-like’ interaction. You ask her the first question and she’s a little nervous too, but this time you don’t pick up on it. This interview moves forward, but not quite as well as John’s. The next day a co-worker asks you how the interviews went, and you respond: ‘John was great…open, easy to talk to. I think he’ll be great with staff and clients.’ And your reply about Sally? ‘She’s okay, I guess – didn’t set the room on fire.’

Your perceptions about the interviews constitute your reality. You probably don’t even remember the four-second interaction that changed John’s entire interview. In fact, if somebody asks you, you would swear you conducted the interviews exactly the same way with the same questions. Your own role in influencing the outcomes was completely invisible to you, driven by your background of comfort with John.”

Micro-affirmations

That four-second intervention was a micro-affirmation. Mary P. Rowe, PhD, is an MIT Ombudsperson and Adjunct Professor of Negotiation & Conflict Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of  ‘Micro-affirmations and Micro-inequities’.  She defines micro-affirmations as “apparently small acts, which are often ephemeral and hard to see, events that are public and private, often unconscious but very effective, which occur wherever people wish to help others to succeed. They are “tiny acts of opening doors to opportunity, gestures of inclusion and caring, and graceful acts of listening”. They have their roots in empathy and generosity and Rowe argues in her paper that they can be used as a behavioural tool to raise morale and productivity and to reinforce greater inclusivity in the workplace.

The premise is this…

We may find it difficult to catch ourselves behaving inequitably towards others (the story above illustrates this), but if we set out to affirm others in an appropriate and consistent way, we have a reasonable chance of over-riding the behaviour we want to avoid.

This appeals to me on a couple of levels. Firstly, I am someone who tends to see the opportunity for improvement before I see the achievement (it’s why, unchecked, I can readily beat myself up for my shortcomings, even when there’s lots of good stuff to appreciate! And why I sometimes do that with others too.) Secondly, I find it easier to replace an undesirable behaviour with a desirable one, rather than try to eliminate an undesirable one thus leaving a void (a diet’s a great example – don’t tell me what I shouldn’t be eating – I need to be clear on what to do instead when that bar of chocolate is beckoning!).

Your call to action

If this connects with you, the best way to explore it is to give it a go. Here are a couple of ideas for how;

• Take a day (or an hour or two) when you commit to always listen to another person’s point of view before launching into your own. And then be sure to affirm what the other person says. Notice what kind of approach it requires you to take. Perhaps you need to listen more carefully to what they say. Maybe you are improving your ability to notice what they did well (rather than what they did wrong).
• Think about someone you respect, someone who already commands from you the kind of behaviour you want to display (it might be a grandparent, for example, or a leader at work). Then imagine in each interaction you are dealing with that person. What effect does that have?

What would happen if everyone in the workplace took this approach. Would it promote greater tolerance, do you think?

* I am grateful for this story to Diversity Best Practices who included it in their 2008 paper.

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If you have just 9 minutes 55 seconds this Christmas, I encourage you to watch this beautiful TED Talk, and tap into the beauty and gratitude around you.  Thanks Matt.

Link to TED Talk

Nature’s beauty can be easily missed — but not through Louie Schwartzberg’s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day.

The Kaizen Team wishes you all a fantastic festive season, however you’re celebrating it – and may 2012 be your best year yet!

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