Leadership Development Through Change Management: A Neuroscience Perspective

Abstract

The complex and agile environment in which organisations operate today, with ever-changing technology penetrating every facet of our lives more than ever before, has led to a key challenge for the leaders of today, effectively managing change in organisations. The agile environment means organisations are required to go through changes on a regular basis and at a rapid pace. Today, leaders are required more than ever to understand the complex dynamics of human behaviour in organisations, to effectively navigate and manage change. Recent developments in the field of neuroscience have helped gain a much deeper, scientific understanding of human behaviour. Needless to say, the understanding of these neuroscience perspectives will open up tremendous opportunities for leaders to be more effective at the workplace. The article details a few such perspectives of neuroscience which are critical in change management and concurrent leadership development.

Surviving COVID-19: The Neuroscience of Smart Working and Distance Learning

“…Together with mirror neurons and spindle cells, as we have seen before play a critical role in supporting social intelligence and intuition, there is another brain activity that is involved in these processes 4,23 : neural oscillations. Neural oscillations, or brain waves, are rhythmic patterns of neural activity that enable the coordinated activity of the brain.…”

“…6 However, as underlined by neuroscience, another class of neurons is impacted by this situation: spindle cells. 23 Spindle cells are special cells that drive what is termed as ''intuition'' or ''gut feeling.'' These cells have a prolonged body size, about 4 times that of typical brain cells, and an extra long branch to allow an ultrarapid transmission-within 1/20 of a second-of emotions, beliefs, and judgments.…”

“…These cells have a prolonged body size, about 4 times that of typical brain cells, and an extra long branch to allow an ultrarapid transmission-within 1/20 of a second-of emotions, beliefs, and judgments. 4,23 These cells play a critical role in leadership because they allow a boss or a teacher to immediately understand whether a student deserves a high (or low) rank or if someone is right (or wrong) for a job. Unfortunately, this process is literally physical, and it is based on the same nonverbal signals discussed before.…”