Your Brain on Collaboration
The Neuroscience of Collaboration Takeaways:
Our brains are wired for social interaction and connection.
Good business relies on collaboration.
Creative collaboration promotes innovation
Dizzy Gillespie outlining a form of collaboration in jazz
The pinnacle of our leadership and team development model is the principle we’ve introduced as Ensemble Mindset, which we define as collaborative co-creation through collective intelligence. It is the group mechanism through which a common operating platform and language lead to high performance. The three elements at its core are purpose, values, and intention.
The collaborative part of the definition above is our focus in this post. Jazz is a sphere of collaboration. Jazz musicians continually strive to co-create and innovate to play the best music they can together. Alignment with the group purpose and goals is the engine that drives the process of creation.
The Three Cs
It’s worth reiterating the distinctions between coordination, cooperation, and collaboration as in a recent post on collaborative leadership. This great illustration from Dr. Britt Andreatta’s book, Wired to Connect: The Brain Science of Teams and a New Model for Creating Collaboration and Inclusion, lays out the traits of each:
Andretta goes on to explain that “while coordination only requires basic communication and planning skills, cooperation requires those skills plus a clear process for execution and accountability. Collaboration requires the most advanced skills of all: building trust, engaging in creativity and innovation, and having a mindful process for resolving the inevitable conflict that arises from this most complex form of work. In addition, collaboration requires special conditions that must be intentionally created and maintained if you want to reach peak performance.”
Wired to be Social
Through millions of years of evolution, our brain had one central job – to keep us safe – so this has become our typical mode of interaction with the world. Our brain constantly analyzes what is happening around us to determine whether it is a threat or reward – as many as five times a second. This mode can inhibit our creativity, productivity, and pleasure as it uses stored information to judge how we should react and behave.
In survival mode, collaboration is not usually a part of the equation, yet our brains are also wired for social interaction. As humans, we have an innate ability to connect and collaborate. Strong personal interconnections release the hormone oxycotin, which lessens the threat response, enabling us to view others as non-threatening. It’s the same chemical released when members of a team work together to score a winning goal or when band members perform in a great show. The quality and quantity of our social connections lead to better performance and develops in-group trust.
Brain Connections
How does a collaborative mindset become more readily accessible?
Our brain makes a connection between two ideas or objects, sending electronic pulses back and forth between corresponding neurons. With repetition, neural pathways become reinforced and stronger. Synaptic efficiency allows the brain to route neural messages along the most efficient (electrically least resistive) pathways, thereby conserving energy. Once these pathways are strong, the brain can more efficiently connect two ideas and have a faster, stronger response. Our perceptions are influenced by these efficient neural pathways which, in turn, influence our day-to-day actions and interactions.
When it comes to collaboration, there are deep neurologically-based differences in our perceptions, assumptions, and selections which determine what stimuli/drives we act upon and which ones we don’t. Understanding our impulses and drives allows us to be a more effective part of a team.
Collaboration requires time, patience, and often, the discipline to listen between the words. Openness is key to collaboration which allows us to create new connections between neurons.
Collaboration for Innovation
The deceptively simple practice of taking turns creates a mutuality structure that guarantees participation, inclusion, shared ownership, and organizational dialogue, all of which can lead to dynamic capability in organizations, just as it does in jazz. – Frank Barrett
Creative collaboration promotes innovation. Musicians may well master their instruments and lead their own bands, but the litmus test lays in how well they jam with other musicians, and how effortlessly they produce music that’s fresh and new.
The mindset around leadership has traditionally been based on independent thinking and control, bias for action, and on the strength of one’s own decisions. The recognition and reward of individual achievement will always be a part of the business landscape. Effective leadership today requires a mindset contrary to control and command – one in which diverse perspectives and divergent skills of a collaborative space are used to stimulate innovative breakthroughs.
