In the January 4 issue of the Financial Times there was an article by April Dembosky: Cerebral Circuitry. I found it very compelling while also quite depressing since Dembosky clearly laid out changes I have been noticing in people, especially young people. I’ve had it sitting on my desk…yes, I actually saw it in a real newspaper with all it’s tactile stimulus enhancing the intellectual enlightenment…since then as I’ve pondered the implications.
As you have already surmised, many of the changes are not for the better.
Dembosky gives a quick overview of some of what is being found by those researching the changes in the way our brains work when constantly impacted by today’s pervasive technology. It gave fact to what I’ve noticed: an eroding of empathy, a decreasing ability to read body language, a shortening of already short attention spans, a disappearance of focus, an inability to concentrate and so do really deep thinking, and in general a lessening ability to just talk to people in civil and engaging ways.
As Jaron Lanier says, “We have been designing a paradise for those with Asperger’s syndrome.” He then adds, “…we’re making ourselves more narrow.”
Clearly technology has also done wonderful things for each of us as well as others around the world. As a frequent traveler to Africa I have been amazed to see the positive changes increasing access to smart phones and other devices has made in the lives of those most in need.
And yet, there are those changes that are tearing apart the social bonds that connect one to another, the bonds that lead to civil society and strengthen our ability to live and work together for the common good. The bonds that build empathy, that break down the barriers to communication and lead to greater understanding.
The implications for companies are immense. Every way a company, or any organization, interacts with people will have to take this into account. We see some of this already happening as social media is incorporated into so many things and some workplace changes occur but I don’t see most companies really thinking about and understanding what these brain changes mean for hiring, training, managing, and dealing with customers, supplers, regulators.
It truly requires a completely different way of thinking about how you interact with everyone, and how everyone interacts with each other. The old ways of dealing with the people in your business really don’t apply anymore.
The systems of managing need to be re-thunk as does just about everything else. But most important of all is the implication for communication in all its forms. As John Grinder once told me, “communication is the response you get.” And since everything depends on good communication you’ll only get great response if you take the changes in our brains into account. Which is hard, very hard.
It depends on you, not them. “The response you get” is about you, not them, and how you adapt and change based on what’s going on around you. You need to pay attention, be amazingly flexible, stay calm, and adjust continually. Those that do will thrive while those that don’t notice the changes or refuse to act on them will travel the road to failure.
For good or bad the changes are real and unstoppable. Don’t be run over as they race past you.