The Neuroscience of Appreciative Inquiry
Summary
TLDRThe video script by Andy Smith delves into the neuroscience of appreciative inquiry, highlighting the brain's task-positive and default mode networks. The former, activated during problem-solving, can induce stress, while the latter fosters creativity and social awareness. Smith emphasizes the importance of balancing these networks for effective teamwork and communication. Appreciative inquiry, by focusing on strengths and positive experiences, encourages the activation of the default mode network, leading to increased trust, resilience, and creative problem-solving.
Takeaways
- 🧠 The human brain has two opposing networks: the task-positive network, which is activated during cognitive tasks and can induce stress, and the default mode network, which supports big-picture thinking and positive emotions.
- 🔄 These networks are in opposition; when one is active, it inhibits the other, making a balance between them crucial for effective communication and creativity.
- 🤝 The default mode network is essential for team bonding, absorbing new information, and generating creative solutions, especially under stress.
- 🛠 In the workplace, the task-positive network is often dominant, leading to a focus on targets and deadlines but also causing defensiveness and a lack of trust.
- 🚫 Over-analytical approaches can suppress the default mode network, hindering the ability to find creative solutions and aspirations.
- 🌟 Appreciative Inquiry (AI) encourages the activation of the default mode network and positive emotions through full attention and discussions about strengths and achievements.
- 💡 AI promotes openness and trust by focusing on positive experiences, values, and future aspirations, enhancing resilience and purpose.
- 🔗 Emotional resonance, where individuals share the same emotions, helps in bonding and building stronger relationships within a team.
- 🌱 AI fosters a sense of safety and self-empowerment, which is conducive to generating new ideas and exploring possibilities.
- 🎯 AI starts by focusing on what is working well and positive exceptions, even if they are rare, to find the foundation for creative solutions.
- 🎶 The script concludes with the importance of balancing the two brain networks, emphasizing the role of AI in achieving this balance for effective teamwork and innovation.
Q & A
What is the role of the task positive network in the brain?
-The task positive network is activated during cognitive tasks such as perception, motor control, and problem-solving, including logical analysis. It tends to produce stressful feelings and activates the sympathetic nervous system.
What does the default mode network enable in the brain?
-The default mode network enables big-picture thinking, engagement, motivation, stress regulation, and social and relationship awareness. It is associated with positive emotions, trust, and feeling supported.
How are the task positive network and the default mode network opposing each other?
-When one network is active, it inhibits the other. Analytic thinking activates the task positive network but turns off the default mode network, and empathic thinking does the opposite.
Why is a balance between the two networks essential for effective teamwork?
-A balance is essential for open communication, creativity, and working together effectively. The default mode network is needed for bonding, taking in new information, and generating creative solutions, while the task positive network is used to carry out those solutions.
What are the negative side effects of being in the task positive mode most of the time in the workplace?
-Negative side effects include defensiveness, lack of trust, seeing others as threats or blocks to achieving goals, stress, reluctance to try new ways of working, and a focus on short-term results rather than long-term aims.
How does the default mode network help during challenges?
-The default mode network helps by enabling learning from each other and breaking out of the thinking that led to the problems in the first place.
What does appreciative inquiry do to encourage the activation of the default mode network?
-Appreciative inquiry encourages activation of the default mode network and positive emotion through practices such as listening with full attention, asking about strengths and achievements, and fostering emotional resonance and positive emotions.
How does appreciative inquiry differ from problem-focused approaches?
-Appreciative inquiry evokes a sense of safety and self-empowerment that encourages new ideas and scanning the environment for possibilities, unlike problem-focused approaches that emphasize external forces and constraints, leading to feelings of being judged and self-consciousness.
Why does appreciative inquiry focus on what's working and positive exceptions?
-Focusing on what's working and positive exceptions helps to avoid flipping the group back into task positive network thinking, which can shut down the default mode network. This approach is necessary for finding creative solutions and aspirational goals.
What is the significance of reconnecting with one's values in the context of appreciative inquiry?
-Reconnecting with one's values helps individuals become more resilient and have a stronger sense of purpose, which is important for maintaining the activation of the default mode network.
How does emotional resonance contribute to team bonding in appreciative inquiry?
-Emotional resonance, where one person starts to experience the same emotions as another, helps people bond and fosters a sense of unity and shared understanding within the team.
Outlines
🧠 Neuroscience of Appreciative Inquiry
Andy Smith, an appreciative inquiry facilitator, introduces the neuroscience behind appreciative inquiry. He discusses the discovery of two opposing brain networks: the task-positive network, which is activated during cognitive tasks and produces stress, and the default mode network, which enables big-picture thinking and is associated with positive emotions. The balance between these networks is crucial for open communication, creativity, and effective teamwork. The workplace often defaults to the task-positive mode, leading to defensiveness and a lack of trust. Challenges require activation of the default mode network to learn from each other and break out of problematic thinking. Appreciative inquiry helps activate the default mode network and positive emotions through focused listening, discussing strengths and achievements, and reconnecting with values.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Appreciative Inquiry
💡Neuroscience
💡Task Positive Network
💡Default Mode Network
💡Sympathetic Nervous System
💡Analytic Thinking
💡Empathic Thinking
💡Stress Regulation
💡Resilience
💡Positive Emotion
💡Problem-Focused Approaches
Highlights
Advances in brain imaging technology from the 1990s have enabled the discovery of two opposing brain networks.
The task positive Network is activated during cognitive tasks and can produce stressful feelings.
The default mode network enables big-picture thinking and is associated with positive emotions and trust.
The two networks are opposing domains, where activation of one inhibits the other.
Analytic thinking activates the task positive Network and suppresses the default mode Network.
Empathic thinking activates the default mode Network and suppresses the task positive Network.
A balance between the two networks is essential for open communication, creativity, and effective teamwork.
In the workplace, the task positive Network is often activated, leading to stress and defensiveness.
The default mode Network is crucial for learning from challenges and breaking out of problematic thinking patterns.
Appreciative inquiry encourages the activation of the default mode Network and positive emotions.
Being listened to with full attention activates the default mode Network.
Asking about strengths and achievements reduces defensiveness and opens up communication.
Reconnecting with values and aspirations increases resilience and purpose.
Emotional resonance helps people bond and engage their creative imagination.
Problem-focused approaches can lead to feelings of being judged and self-consciousness.
Appreciative inquiry creates a sense of safety and self-empowerment, encouraging new ideas.
Focusing on what's working and positive exceptions is crucial in appreciative inquiry.
Traditional problem analysis mode can risk flipping the group back into task positive Network thinking.
Finding creative solutions and aspirational goals is essential in appreciative inquiry.
Transcripts
[Music]
hello I'm Andy Smith appreciative
inquiry facilitator let's talk about the
neuroscience of appreciative inquiry
advances in brain imaging technology
from the 1990s onwards enabled
researchers to discover two networks in
the brain that in some ways are in
opposition to each other the task
positive Network is activated when you
engage in cognitive tasks perception
motor control and problem-solving
including logical analysis it tends to
produce stressful feelings activating
the so called sympathetic nervous system
the network known as the default mode
network on the other hand enables
big-picture thinking engagement
motivation stress regulation and social
and relationship awareness it's
associated with positive emotions trust
and feeling supported the two networks
are opposing domains in the sense that
when one network is active it inhibits
the other analytic thinking fires up the
task positive Network but it also turns
off the default mode network on the
other hand empathic thinking activates
the default mode Network and suppresses
the task positive Network so a balance
between task positive Network and
default mode network is essential for
open communication creativity and
working together effectively we need to
have our default mode Network active
when we're bonding as a team when we're
taking in new information and especially
when we need to come up with creative
solutions to challenges then ideally
after that we go into task positive mode
to carry out those solutions usually in
the workplace we don't have any
difficulty in activating the task
positive Network we're in that mode most
of the time as we work down how to do
this and aim to meet targets and hit
deadlines
unfortunately the side effects include
defensiveness lack of trust seeing other
people as either a means to an end to
get your goals achieved
or as threats or blocks to achieving
your goals stress reluctance to try new
ways of working and a focus on
short-term results rather than
longer-term and bigger picture aims it's
when challenges hit that we most need to
go into default mode network to learn
from each other and break out of the
thinking that led to the problems in the
first place so how to encourage greater
activation of the default mode network
in the face of the pressures of
organizational life
fortunately appreciative inquiry
encourages default mode network
activation and positive emotion in a
number of ways just being listened to
with a hundred percent attention
activates the default mode Network when
people are asked about their strengths
their achievements and things they're
proud of they become less defensive and
they open up more it's easier to like
and trust other people when they're
talking about their best experiences
their deepest values and their
aspirations for the future when they
reconnect with their values what's
important to them they become more
resilient and they have more of a sense
of purpose emotional resonance when one
person starts to experience the same
emotions as another when like they catch
emotions off each other helps people to
bond positive emotion helps people to
engage their visual creative imagination
problem focused approaches emphasize
external forces and constraints that can
lead to feelings of being judged and
self-consciousness appreciative inquiry
by contrast evokes a sense of safety and
self empowerment that encourages new
ideas and scanning the environment for
possibilities now that we know about
these two networks we can see that if
you were to get too analytical as we do
in traditional problem analysis mode you
risk flipping your group back into task
positive Network thinking and shutting
down the default mode Network but they
need to find creative solution
and aspirational goals this is why in
appreciative inquiry we focus first on
what's working and on positive
exceptions even if they're few and far
between
we'll find them if we look for them
[Music]
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