The importance of testing for clear thinking in recruitment

Neuroscience is rapidly changing our understanding of how human memory works.  For many years it was widely believed that the human brain recorded events like a video camera and that events that had been completely forgotten could be could be retrieved and played back given the right set of circumstances.

We now know that the memory does not work in that way at all.  In fact the human brain reassembles and reorders various parts of an event when retrieving a memory.  It, in effect, creates a completely new memory, often including details that seem very real but which turn out later not to have taken place.

The same process takes place when the brain remembers words and orders them together either to think analytically or attempt to express thoughts.  Rather than having a dictionary-like definition, words in the brain are stored as an ever-changing set of connections that constantly update their meanings.

When people are reading, writing, listening or speaking, their brains create new connections and hence new definitions for many of the words, statement or phrases that it is processing.  This phenomenon manifests itself in the tendency of business discussions to devolve into dialogues around semantics rather than address the actual issues in question.

The brain’s inherent plasticity when using words greatly increases the value of business communications that are clear and precise.  That clarity and precision (or lack of it) is simultaneously rewiring the word connections and definitions both in the brain of somebody who is writing and speaking as well as the person who is listening or reading.

Fuzzy wording creates fuzzy thinking

Unlike communications that are clear and precise, business communications that are fuzzy and imprecise generate connections between words that are similarly ambiguous and unclear.  In other words, a feedback loop is taking place: fuzzy thinking creates fuzzy wording which in turn creates fuzzier thinking. 

Many organisations tolerate, indeed encourage, the use of fuzzy and imprecise wording in the form of acronyms, buzzwords and jargon.  The culture created is one where fast communication can appear to occur so that anyone who uses the key words feels as if they are an integral part of the organisation. 

This has been compounded in recent years by the trend for people to express themselves using quotation marks or inverted commas in both writing and speech.  This is an expression of thought in its original form phrased by the communicator without clearly defining exactly what they mean.  Often the phrase is a metaphor and in most circumstances there is understanding.  Caution is advised as the rules around the use of quotation marks varies with language.   All too often, we know what we mean and think that we are communicating clearly but in reality this is often not the case.  As an illustration, we when we talk we think people “get it” but in reality they “switch off” when they hear something that isn’t meaningful “in their world” and so may appear to be somewhat “dumb”.

Clear thinking creates clear wording which in turn creates clearer thinking.

What this means when recruiting

From the perspective of recruitment, it is important to understand how your communication style reflects the fuzzy thinking and imprecise wording of the industry that you recruit for and the clients that you work with.  It is obviously necessary to assess your clients’ tolerance towards industry acronyms, buzzwords and jargon and imprecise wording and how ingrained it is in their culture.  How much are you contributing to this by your desire to be recognised as an experience professional?

For those organisations who recruit people who communicate in a similar way, this will contribute to the amount of ambiguous thinking, which is going to impact on the communication capabilities within the overall organisation. 

In the future, recruiters must put additional emphasis on a candidate’s ability to write and speak with precision and clarity.  As a result, the recruitment process will tend to make the overall organisation progressively better at communicating internally and externally and so appear to be “smarter”.

What can neuroscience tell recruiters?

There has been a lot of talk about neuroscience recently. It is the latest flavour of the month but what does it really mean in the field of recruitment?
Neuroscience is more than just an understanding of which parts of the brain become more active in certain situations. In fact, the more we find out about the workings of our most complex organ, the less we find that we truly understand. However, the research is uncovering new knowledge that can makes us better at recruiting to ensure that we place the right candidate in the right role at the right time.

The outputs from brain research, social science and psychology can help recruiters to attract and retain new candidates and clients by helping to understanding more about motivation, personalities and behaviour and what drives them. All this can play a part in improving performance.

A lot of the research is providing peer-reviewed evidence that supports many of the things that we have known or suspected for years. However, it is adding to our knowledge of what makes us tick as human beings. This means that we can now look at making changes in our behaviour that is proven to have more positive, sustainable outcomes in the long term.

Motivation

Motivation is vital in recruitment. However, it is not just about money. The motivation and reward systems in our brain drive us towards our goals with energy and enthusiasm.   Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in generating feelings of pleasure. In business, if a happy environment full of rewarding experiences is created, our brains produce dopamine in the right areas so that we become more motivated to push ourselves. So trying to find out what produces those dopamine responses for individuals will help to determine what motivates them.

Stress

Cortisol has been found to accumulate in parts of the brain when a person is feeling stressed. It has become widely known as the stress hormone. High levels of cortisol for extended periods lead to high blood pressure (with the associated health issues), memory loss and possible depression. All of these are costly to the individual and the organisation. Good businesses need a healthy workforce, which starts with performance management that is consistent and transparent to avoid stress in the workplace.

Recruiters may view a candidate’s history of working long hours as a positive indicator of commitment. In the future, however, recruiters may need to interpret a history of working long hours as a negative indicator suggesting a lack of balance and a consequent inability to think and perform effectively. This is, also, where consideration of a person’s motivational factors becomes critical. What is driving this behaviour?

Empathy and emotional involvement

Male and female brains are not only wired differently, they are infused with different combinations of neurotransmitters (such as oxytocin) and hormones (such as oestrogen, adrenaline, oxytocin). Oxytocin acts as a neurotransmitter and a hormone.

Women have been shown through studies to be better at intuitive thinking involving people. When you talk, women are more emotionally involved and will listen more. Women are more naturally empathetic.

Women’s ability to listen more effectively and read emotional cues has enormous implications for how businesses are run, especially in the crucial area of teamwork. According to recent studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there is a positive correlation between the ability of teams to accomplish group tasks and the number of women on the team. The correlation between team success and gender was not the diversity of the team, but the actual percentage of women on the team. The more women on the team, the more effective the team, even when they worked online without face-to-face meetings.

From this, recruiters may need to view the recruitment of more women as a workable strategy for creating stronger, more effective teams. Such a strategy is likely to become more important as social networking increases the amount of team activity in the workplace.

Learning

Good leaders and managers ensure their people will be given opportunities to develop and grow. Synapses in the brain grow and strengthen with new information, referred to as plasticity. However, neuroplasticity takes time and the system can be overloaded if too much information is delivered all at once. Research shows that we retain information better when we learn in in small regular doses interspersed with good, quality sleep. Training that combines a mixture of theory, reflection and practical activity and will allow the brain to assimilate and use the information well. In order to embed in the learning, the training needs to be relevant and built into working practice over a period of time.

When a company is harnessing their employees’ individual personalities, goals, needs and abilities, in an employee-focused manner and communicate with them properly, the employees feel valued and valid, which helps to build a successful and intuitive working environment. This in turn empowers them and alleviates stressful situations reducing the levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, which can narrow their attention to any perceived threat, and opens them up to broader thinking, better problem solving and more creative thought.

All this is very interesting but what does it mean in practice? Certainly, from a recruitment perspective it means working with candidates in new ways to look at how they take in information, how they process information, how they work with emotions, what factors are motivators for them, how they interact with others, how they manage stress and their effective working practices.

Another way of looking at this conundrum is to start focusing on emotional intelligence. This is how a person combines their thinking with their feelings in order to build quality working relationships and to make more effective decisions. The evidence is mounting that emotional intelligence is a more effective measure of success in work and life that is bringing in the new understanding supported by the evidence from neuroscience.

The brain is a remarkably adaptable organ capable of making changes and developing new connections.  This is called neuroplasticity and continues well into our eighties.

Every memory or thought process is made up of a set of interconnecting neurons forming a unique map.  The maps that are accessed more frequently stay with us longer.  This is a good link to learning and practising actions repeatedly.

Mirror neurons fire in our brain when we see or experience someone else’s behaviour leading to the idea that we are systematically interconnected and why our social interactions are so important.

Mindfulness is a foundation for coaching skills and knowledge using neuroscience.   Mindfulness is all about learning to live in the present moment through controlling thought processes, emotions and body sensations.  Paying attention, on purpose, by slowing down brain chatter and automatic or habitual reactions allows us to experience the present moment as it really is.  Mindfulness strengthens the left prefrontal cortex where thought processes arise and the white matter connects between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, which improves focus and memory.

Working memory is limited.  We can only focus on a few things at a given time so small incremental steps are best.  It takes a lot of energy to remain focused and we are easily distracted.

Attitudes, beliefs and values are hard wired.  Once a habit has become hardwired, it is difficult to overwrite.  The best method is to help people focus on something that overrides the bad habit pathway rather than to try to remove it.

Coaching requires that we encourage attention on solutions rather than the problem otherwise ineffective neural pathways get created.  Coachees who are asked to create a journal can generate good quality focus and keep these circuits active and open for longer.

Due to the interconnectedness of the brain, working out which small changes in thinking processes create big changes in behaviour is a fundamental to coaching.

Self directed neuroplasticity, is when we direct ourselves to focus on new habitual pathways and don’t allow ourselves to get distracted.  Thus, we can change our brains by conscious effort – shining a light on something new creates new neural connections.  The questions that you ask influence the results that you see.

Good coaches don’t give advice to their clients.  The best approach is to ask perceptive, penetrating questions that allow the client to work out solutions for themselves.  Often any advice may not be appropriate as it may not be relevant to them or their circumstances no matter how much it appears to be appropriate.

Human brains work in a way that matches patterns and often notice when something doesn’t quite fit with expectations.  If, a blue flashing light is expected but a red flashing light appears the more attention will be paid to it because of the difference around expectations.

When we experience this difference in our visual, auditory or any other sense occurs a signal is generated.  Activity takes place in the orbitofrontal cortex of the brain.  This is just behind the eyes.  Activity occurs in this area when we don’t trust something or someone or when something doesn’t appear to be quite right.  The ambiguity arouses the amygdala, which are responsible for filtering emotion.

The amygdala are central to the flight and fight response.  They are continually on the look out for danger and they work to move us toward what we see as rewarding and to move us away from what we perceive as dangerous.

These error detection circuits explain a number of well-known phenomena.  The reason why we focus on problems is because this energises us.  The media report bad news most of the time because it gets our attention.  People find it easier to create lists of weaknesses and things that they are not so good than find more than one or two strengths.

Find out more about neuroscience and coaching at NeuroBusiness 2015.  This is a conference being held at the University of Manchester on 24th and 25th June 2015 that will focus on enabling businesses and organisations to benefit from the power of breakthrough research in the field of neuroscience and associated disciplines.  

Watch the video below to find out more from Roger Longden (ThereBeGiants) – Conference Organiser.

More details can be found at www.neurobusiness2015.com