The Neuroscience of Appreciative Inquiry

Summary

The 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

00:00

🧠 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.

Keywords

💡Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is a positive organizational development process that focuses on discovering what gives 'life' to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most successful. In the context of the video, it is used to encourage the activation of the default mode network and positive emotions, which is essential for open communication, creativity, and effective teamwork.

💡Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system, which includes the brain, its structure, and function. The video script discusses how advances in neuroscience, particularly in brain imaging technology, have allowed researchers to discover opposing brain networks that influence our cognitive and emotional responses, which is central to understanding the impact of appreciative inquiry.

💡Task Positive Network

The Task Positive Network is a brain network activated during cognitive tasks such as perception, motor control, and problem-solving. It is associated with feelings of stress and the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. In the video, it is contrasted with the default mode network, highlighting the need for balance between these networks for effective communication and creativity.

💡Default Mode Network

The Default Mode Network is a brain network that enables big-picture thinking, engagement, motivation, stress regulation, and social and relationship awareness. It is linked to positive emotions and is associated with trust and feeling supported. The video emphasizes the importance of this network in fostering a sense of unity and resilience within a team.

💡Sympathetic Nervous System

The Sympathetic Nervous System is a part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for the body's 'fight or flight' response to stress. The script mentions that activating the task positive network can lead to the activation of this system, which can be counterproductive to open communication and creativity.

💡Analytic Thinking

Analytic thinking involves logical analysis and problem-solving. The video script explains that while it activates the task positive network, it can also inhibit the default mode network, potentially leading to a lack of trust and defensiveness, which are not conducive to a collaborative environment.

💡Empathic Thinking

Empathic thinking is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. The video script suggests that this type of thinking activates the default mode network and suppresses the task positive network, leading to increased trust and openness among team members.

💡Stress Regulation

Stress regulation refers to the process of managing and reducing stress levels. The default mode network, as mentioned in the video, plays a role in stress regulation, which is crucial for maintaining a positive and productive work environment.

💡Resilience

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. The video script links the activation of the default mode network with increased resilience, as reconnecting with one's values and aspirations can provide a sense of purpose and motivation to overcome challenges.

💡Positive Emotion

Positive emotion is a feeling state that is associated with joy, gratitude, and other uplifting experiences. The video emphasizes that positive emotions, which are fostered by the default mode network, help in engaging creative imagination and building stronger relationships within a team.

💡Problem-Focused Approaches

Problem-focused approaches are methods that concentrate on identifying and addressing problems. The video contrasts these with appreciative inquiry, noting that problem-focused approaches can lead to feelings of being judged and self-consciousness, whereas appreciative inquiry promotes a sense of safety and empowerment.

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]