Thursday Sep 14, 2017

Episode 9 - Emotion at Work in Neuroscience

This podcast is about sharing ideas, insights, research and experiences around emotion in the workplace. Since I decided to start the podcast I wanted to get a genuine neuroscientist on the show. This was important for me because there is a lot said about neuroscience in the workplace and I am just not sure that lab-based research can be generalized into the workplace.

I also talk a lot about being more evidence-based in our practice. But with neuroscience, it is so so niche. The types of tests being done/run, the methodologies used, the generalisability of the results out into the wider world. I wanted to give a better insight.

So, my guest Matt Wall (link to bio below) and I talk about myths, misconceptions, issues with methodology. We talk about when parts of the brain have defined and specific functions (e.g. The occipital lobe) and when there are many other or more parts of the brain involved (e.g. Emotion involves more than the Amygdala).

We also get into:

the potential issues with reducing complex things to simple explanations

proximate and ultimate explanations of things and the relative benefits of both

what the world of work can really learn from neuroscience research (and you may not like the answer)

Links to other things we discuss:

Science of the Discworld by Terry Pratchett

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Discworld-Terry-Pratchett/dp/0091951704

More detail of the 'lie to children' phenomena we discuss

https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Lies-To-Children

Proximate and Ultimate explanations

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximate_and_ultimate_causation

A link to David Rock and the NeuroLeadership Institute