Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Use it or lose it is real. If you are not practicing a skill, if you are not going through something, if you are not visualizing doing something, you are not strengthening the connection, it will weaken over time, but also use it and improve it. So if you're using it and you're practicing it regularly, you will strengthen the connection in your brain. So if you want to get good at something, if you want to have a really good habit and you practice it and prioritize it, you can do it. There's nothing to stop you. Except you. Foreign.
[00:00:31] I'm Jess Chapman and this is Wired to Work, a podcast about how we work and how to make work better for everyone. This is going to be a breakdown episode. So this is these episodes I talk about a concept or a framework that can help anyone at work make things better. Later in the season, we'll talk about feedback and conflict and some other topics. And I'll share brain based frameworks and tips to help you handle those situations. But today I want to talk about neuroplastic plasticity. So you've probably by now heard the term neuroplasticity. If you're kind of interested in any of the brain stuff, that word is becoming more common and more commonly used. So what exactly are we talking about? Well, neuroplasticity is about the brain's capacity to change its structure and function in response to what you do. So basically, to put that into English, we shape our brains by the things that we do, the things that we think, and the things that we say. You might have heard the term neurons that fire together, wire together. Donald Hebb coined that theory and that phrase in 1949. So it's pretty old now, but it's still really relevant. And it became popular, a more popular phrase in the 1990s. And that is gets to the heart of what we're talking about with neuroplasticity. So neuroplasticity is not about creating new parts of your brains per se, but changing how the existing parts of your brain fire together. And this change occurs through strengthening of connections, weakening of connections, or reorganization of the connections between neurons. Right now, some of you might be thinking, what's a neuron? A neuron is a cell in your brain that is designed to transmit a signal. And it has what we call dendrites, which are the receivers. It has the cell body, it has axons, which send the signal. And then there are synapses or gaps between the neurons in your brain. So neurons don't touch, they communicate across the synapses across the gaps with the chemicals that they are trans.
[00:02:27] And that's what we talk about. We talk about neurons firing together. When a neuron fires, it is generating that signal. That signal is traveling down its axion and communicating that chemical across the synapse to another neuron.
[00:02:41] And if enough signal is received on the other side of things, then that neuron fires as well. And that's what we're talking about when neurons fire together. Now, when two neurons fire together repeatedly, several physical changes actually happen. So we get what we call synaptic strengthening is where they actually get better at passing signals and talking to each other. It's like people, if you get communicate with somebody all the time, you get better at that communication. That is true for neurons in your brain. If they fire together regularly, they get better at communicating. We also get changes in synaptic strength. So actually, coordinated firing means the pathway itself becomes stronger, and it's easier for the signal to be passed from one neuron to another. And then over time, you can actually stabilize the connection until it becomes kind of a more of a physical change. This is not like an idea. This is actually physically in your brain, that connection between the neurons becomes stabilized. And in some cases, we actually put myelin, which is a type of kind of sheath around the axioms on the. On the neurons. And that allows the signal to travel more easily with less energy. And so ultimately, when two neurons fire together regularly, you get a really strong regular connection that makes it much easier for the signal to pass.
[00:03:59] So now you're thinking, that's nice, Jess. Thank you very much. Bit of brain science. What exactly does that mean I do with that? Well, ultimately, that means you could quite literally shape the connections in your brain by your choices around your actions, words, and thoughts. If you're doing things that cause two neurons to fire together repeatedly, then you will build the strength of that connection, and it will be easier for that action to happen, which is, of course, habit. Right? So habit is an expression of neuroplasticity, Repeated behaviors that become neural pathways which make it super easy for the signal to travel, and we don't have to think about it anymore. And I'm going to give you a couple of examples of that.
[00:04:38] So, first of all, think about driving to work or maybe somewhere you go regularly.
[00:04:42] How many of you, and you sit there thinking, have driven to work, and then got there and thought, I don't actually remember driving. Like, I don't remember taking the turns. I don't remember doing the thing. That's because you have done the activities to do with that journey so often that the neurons have fired, and you now have habitual pathways around doing that particular trip. And I've also. I don't know if this happened to you, but I've also been going somewhere where I've started on the same road, and I haven't been thinking about it, and I've driven to work when that wasn't where I was going, right? Because the pathway is so strong, the habit is so strong. The other thing you can do as a little funny activity is try signing your name with both hands. So first sign it with your normal hand, right? And you'll feel how easy it is for you to do that, right? It'd be super easy for you to.
[00:05:26] You won't think about it, it'll just be supernatural. Then as soon as you put the pattern in the hand you don't normally use, your brain is like, what is this? This is not how I do things. Because the neurons that are involved in that activity are not neurons that fire together all the time. But if you change job and you went somewhere else, eventually you would have just as strong a habit driving to that location. If you started signing your name with your other hand, eventually you would be just as comfortable with that as you were signing with your original hand, right? Which is why the good thing is, for those of you who are getting up there in years, like me, there is no such thing as, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Now, there's some nuances to that, but we can all learn to do something. And the more you do something, the easier it becomes, right? So that's super great to know that knows. That means we know we can wire our own brains, which is super.
[00:06:17] But if it was that simple, none of us would probably have unhelpful habits, right? If we were as simple as being able to say, I can. I can wire my brain however I like, that would be great. But it's not quite that simple. So the brain allocates resources to things that you do frequently. So to neurons that you use all the time to things that you are attending to or giving attention to because they are deliberately unnecessary or because you tag them as important through emotion, right? So if you do it frequently, if it's important or if it's deliberate, your brain will prioritize that first.
[00:06:51] So repetition for habit creation and strengthening is the first part. But we also need to consider timing, attention, and emotion. If you imagine you fired an electrical pulse into the air and there was nothing to catch it, at that moment in time, then that pulse or that signal is lost. Right? And that is also true with neurons. So if they, if one neuron is active but the other neuron is not active at the same time, then the signal doesn't pass and the connection isn't made. And that's why if information is too far apart for people, you won't retain it. The strength of the connection isn't made. Right. So timing is really important. So is attention. If you're not deliberate about doing something, your brain says, oh, that can't be that important. I'm not going to put energy behind that connection. So if you are doing something off the side of your desk, then your brain is going to say, that's not as important. And I'm going to put less energy behind creating that connection.
[00:07:43] So when you sit down and you are multitasking because the webinar or this podcast is on and you think you're being super efficient because you're doing two things at once, you're actually probably not right. Something is being lost because your brain is dividing your attention between more than one pathway.
[00:08:01] And then with emotion. Emotion is like a flag that a pathway is important. Our brains like to focus on what's important. There's too many things going on in our lives. Your brain will simplify. And an emotion is like a tag. It's like a flag that your brain puts on an action or an event. It could be a green flag if it's a good emotion, or a red flag if it's not a good emotion. But you will likely prioritize and therefore remember things that are highly emotive. And if you can try this out too. If you think about past history, the chances are the memories that you have are significantly happy events or significantly unhappy events. But you don't spend a lot of time noodling on things that were kind of middle of the road. I mean, and so if it feels good, your brain will go green flag, prioritize that pathway and other things will happen in your brain, like dopamine releases, which mean you'll do it again. If your brain says, oh, I don't know about that red flag, and then we'll avoid that pathway next time, Right?
[00:08:59] So that's what's happening when we are creating pathways in our brain. We need the repetition, we need the practice that creates the connection. And the more you use the connection, the stronger it becomes. And the easiest metaphor I have for that one is driving down roads. If you imagine driving down a well lit highway that you have driven down a thousand times before, then you don't have to think about it. It's a path you already know. That doesn't mean you can't go off roading and drive through the dirt in your jeep. But that's a lot more energy, concentration and effort to do that than it is to drive down the highway. And that's what's happening in your brain all the time with your connections. You've got some that are really well developed highways and some that are off roading rough paths that you might want to decide if you're making into a highway or not.
[00:09:42] So again, that's lovely, Jess. I now understand much more about neurons and connections than I did before. What am I supposed to do with all of this? Well, a few things to think about. This is why training without practice isn't helpful. You need to make sure if you are learning things, you have the opportunity to practice what you are learning. Knowledge is not the same as application. All right? So make sure you're thinking about that when you're selecting opportunities for yourself to learn and grow. You need to be able to practice what you are learning.
[00:10:12] If you are distracted, you are not going to be learning as much. So make sure when you're thinking about learning something new or trying to build a connection, that you have the space to devote your attention to it. Because if you are distracted, you're not going to learn nearly as much, which makes sense as if you're not. Which is also why you don't want to wait till the end of the year for a performance review. Right? Because too much time has passed between the action and the feedback. So we're not going to be able to process that. Or if why when you're doing something new, that if you start to panic, you're less likely to learn because your brain is going to tag it as a red flag and be less valuable to you and something to avoid in the future. So you want to make sure that when you're trying to learn new things that you have the space to do, that you have time to practice those things and that you're in an environment where you can be comfortable enough to stretch and try without panicking or worrying about it. So neuroplasticity is a lifelong thing we can learn through our whole lives.
[00:11:05] It is affected by stress because stress floods the brain with cortisol. And cortisol tells us, I'm too busy dealing with survival right now to figure out making this connection stronger. I'm not going to bother. Right. We're Just going to worry about the things we need to worry about right now. That is why we can know things and still not change our behavior.
[00:11:27] So it's not as simple as saying, okay, I know what I'm supposed to do, I'm going to go and do it. Well, that's not really how we function. We function by understanding. I know what I'm supposed to do. I have time to practice what I'm supposed to do. I feel comfortable doing it, and I get good, immediate feedback on it. Those things will then allow us to embed and strengthen that connection. That also explains why insight rarely creates change, why you can give somebody feedback and they don't do anything about it, why we don't massively rewire things all the time, and why we're still all grappling with unhelpful habits that we wish we didn't do. Because it takes more than just repetition for those things to work.
[00:12:07] So if I bring that right back to what do we do? So few things for us, individually and collectively. Individually, use it or lose it is real. If you are not practicing a skill, if you are not going through something, if you are not visualizing doing something, you are not strengthening the connection. It will weaken over time, but also use it and improve it. So if you're using it and you're practicing it regularly, you will strengthen the connection in your brain. So if you want to get good at something, if you want to have a really good habit and you practice it and prioritize it, you can do it. There's nothing to stop you except you. You. Right? Which is kind of cool when you think about it, right? Repetition daily is better than one off, right? So trying to do something on a one off, not likely to work for you. So repetition. How are you going to repeat and practice something?
[00:12:54] Go all in on something. So don't pick 92 things you want to learn because your brain can't divide attention that way. Pick the one thing that's most important and practice that over and over and over again. And age does have an impact which we won't get into because there's lots of things around that. But it is not enough of an impact to worry about. So you can absolutely teach an old dog do tricks. So sorry, folks, you can no longer use that excuse and say, yeah, I'm too old to do that. That's not a thing. Not a thing anymore. All right, so that's for us, for individuals, for organizations, few things to think about.
[00:13:24] If you volunteer people for training, it is going to have less impact than if they self select. So if you are going to volunteer people, if someone is voluntold to show up to a training program, make sure they have some sense of the benefit and some value for themselves in why they are they are unlikely to practice and do those things.
[00:13:43] Training must also include practice. How are they going to actually do this thing and have the opportunity to practice? If it's not in the training program, then coaching after the training program for repetition, attention and reinforcement is really important.
[00:13:57] Make sure that you give feedback as close to the event as possible. So we know this, we talked about this for years, but we still don't do it. If you wait two days to give so many feedback, that is much less helpful than two hours, which is much less helpful than two minutes. Ideally, someone's getting immediate reinforcement about what they do. But if you want something to stick, feedback and reward, especially reward, well done, good job. Needs to be as close to the event as possible.
[00:14:23] And one that I see a lot of in organizations which is around change.
[00:14:27] We are wired to create and strengthen habit. If you keep changing things in organizations all the time, you are asking people to learn and reinforce new connections in their brain all the time. That takes time. You can't expect people to switch circuits and suddenly be just as good at the new thing as they were at the thing before.
[00:14:49] So quite often I see organizations launch a new thing and think they are done there. You are not done at the point that you launch the new thing. That is the point that someone has a connection. Maybe if you're lucky, they've made a connection and now they need the time and the attention and the reward and the space to practice that thing until it becomes a habit. So don't launch a thing and think you're done. As soon as you launch the thing, you now need all that time. So you need at least 6 to 12 months for that person to practice before their habits will be good enough.
[00:15:21] So that's why neuroplasticity is such an important thing to understand because it underpins everything we do. Everything you think, everything you say, everything you do, wires your brain. And if we're intentional about it, then we have control over our habits, we have control over our thoughts, we have control over our practices. We have control over what makes us great day in and day out, which gives us a huge amount of power and control over who we are and who we want to be. So I think it's a really important thing for people to learn and understand and something that we should talk about. More in organizations. So that's why I put it up front in the Pocket podcast. But take some time to think about how do you build your own habits? What do you do to wire your own brain? Because the only thing that's stopping you is you. So that's a wrap for today. Thank you very much for joining in. And if you liked our conversation today, please do like and subscribe. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. You can also check out our websites E3CA and Neuroworks CA for more information about what we do in the wonderful world of work. So thanks again for joining in, and I look forward to seeing you on another episode.
