while en route to your neo-cortex can cause you all sorts of problems!

Last week I was in San Antonio Texas giving a breakout session for NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatcher’s Conference on getting results with no authority.

A key point to know is how your brain reacts to threats.  We feel before we think. Emotions come before thoughts. Your thoughts normally progress from your amygdala to your neo-cortex.  Your amygdala houses your emotions and your long-term memory.  Your neo-cortex holds your logic and your short-term memory.  When your thoughts stop at your amygdala and stay there, several things happen:

• you have a slowdown in your thought process, which can last up to 20 minutes
• continuing on this destructive path, toxins can remain in your system for up to four hours
• as long as these toxins are in your system, especially the first 20 minutes, the more likely you are to relive the emotional event

One way to keep your emotions in check is to remember

It’s not what they said, it’s what you think you heard

I was re-reading an article in a prior edition of Business & Commercial Aviation, entitled Cockpit Cacophony.  It states that

“The noisy cockpit environment certainly doesn’t help the communication of important information.  A review of 250 NASA ASRS …. business jet flight crews found that fully 2/3 involved communication errors as a root cause and of those a quarter involved read-back errors and an equal number involved expectation errors … High noise levels can impair concentration and cause fatigue and insomnia. “

We know how important read-back is …. very much like summarizing a discussion.  Can the noisy cockpit environment be compared to the noisy work environment?  Do phone ringing, other people talking, emails dinging and music playing equate to a noisy work environment?  Does your preoccupation add to the ‘noise’?

We know that the brain cannot multi-task …. your mind can focus on only one attention-needing activity at a time.  We can walk and talk …. only if we don’t have to watch our step.  If so, then our minds will focus on the rough terrain and not be able to maintain a sane train of thought.  If your mind is sifting through the background noise, it is not able to concentrate on the words that are being directed towards you.

How about the expectation errors?  How many times have you begun listening to someone and were sure you knew what they were going to say, so you complete their sentence?  Or you expect something to happen so you disregard the signs contradicting your expectation?

It’s not what they said, it’s what you think you heard.

Yes there really is a sickness called “Hurry Up Syndrome”!  I knew this disease existed, I was surprised that it had a real scientific name!  According to University of Manchester’s Dr. James Reason, this time crunch that we operate under increases the chance that we will make a mistake by 11 times.*

When we are operating with this malady, we tend to make decisions based more on emotion than relying on fact, or on a combination of facts and emotion.  Our perspective changes, and our natural cautious checkpoints are crushed.  We are focused on completing the task, resolving the uncomfortable or threatening situation, or wanting the offending person to leave us alone!  In other words, our amygdala [Amy, as my clients know it] hijacks and takes control of our thinking.  Our neo-cortex is not given the opportunity to take over.

EMS pilots are especially susceptible to this … they have a critical care patient they must fly from Point A to Point B.  Knowing this is a critical flight, can cause these pilots to take risks they may not have taken otherwise.

Think of how your communication changes when you are experiencing “hurry up syndrome”.

It isn’t what they said, it’s what you think you heard!

*B&CA magazine, October 2008, p. 44

Interesting article on Staring …. why you stare, who you stare at, what you can do to stop staring.

Staring … or peering intently at something or someone … is what part of your emotional brain does.  When the object, or person, you have focused on does not ‘match’ any image in your mind [think of NCIS running fingerprints through their databases], your rational mind does not say “Hey let’s check them out to see if they are friendly or not”.  Your emotional brain, specifically your amygdala, immediately puts your body into a ‘fight or flight’ mindset.  Think of prehistoric dinosaurs and cavemen.

So how do we conquer this eruption?  When you feel yourself becoming overly-emotional, that means your right brain is becoming overwhelmed.  Engage your left brain … do math calculations in your head.  Figure out the fastest route from your office to your home.  Analyze and strategize.  In doing so, your focus will be on the logical calculations and your creative, your emotional side, can relax.

Shari’s expertise lies in combining inter- and intra-personal communications with neuro-communications in an engaging way that makes it easy for you to increase morale and productivity.  Contact her to discuss how this can help you!