GUEST POST BY Wendy Jenkins OAM, READY RESILIENCE
Ready Resilience helps organisations thrive during times of change and challenge, using practical neuroscience-based resilience tools that have been proven to offer in-the-moment solutions and long-lasting results. Learn actionable tips you can apply right away in Ready Resilience Founder Wendy Jenkins’ articles, written exclusively for the TEMi community.
The Neuroscience of Modern Work: The Familiarity Trap
This year, Wendy Jenkins OAM, Founder of Ready Resilience, will focus her insightful TEMI monthly articles on ‘The Neuroscience of Modern Work’, offering science-based insights and tips you can apply right away.
What feels right to the brain may simply feel familiar.
The brain likes what it has encountered before.
Familiar information is generally easier to process than something new. Psychologists refer to this as processing fluency. Because the brain processes something familiar with less effort, we can interpret that feeling of ease as a sign that it is reliable or correct.
This is a useful mental shortcut. Without it, we would need to reconsider everything from the beginning each time. However, that efficiency can also create a familiarity trap: we may mistake ease of processing for evidence that something is better.
Imagine reviewing two possible approaches to a complex global mobility case. The first resembles what has worked previously. The second is less familiar but may better suit the employee’s circumstances. The familiar option can feel safer before we have properly compared them.
It is similar to returning to the same dish at a favourite restaurant. We already know what to expect, so choosing it requires little mental effort. That does not mean it is the best option on the menu. It is simply the easiest choice for the brain to make.
At work, the familiarity trap can shape our decisions without us noticing. We may continue using the same provider because the relationship feels comfortable. We may favour advice that matches what we already believe or misinterpret unfamiliar cultural behaviour.
To interrupt the familiarity trap, notice when your main reason for preferring something is, “This is how we usually do it.”
Before reviewing the options, decide what matters most in this particular situation. This directs the brain towards relevant evidence instead of relying mainly on what feels comfortable.
It can also help to seek the perspective of someone with different experience. Their brain may not share the same familiar patterns and may notice an assumption you have overlooked.
Finally, ask: “If this were a new option, would I still consider it the best one?” Familiarity is not necessarily a problem. Experience gives the brain useful patterns to draw upon.
The challenge is remembering that familiar and suitable are not always the same thing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy Jenkins is the founder of Ready Resilience, Co-Founder of the Lungitude Foundation, certified Neuroplastician, Speaker and Lung Transplant Survivor. Ready Resilience helps organisations thrive during times of change and challenge, using practical neuroscience-based resilience tools that have been proven to offer in the-moment solutions and long-lasting results.
Having been told she had two years to live over eighteen years ago, Wendy is passionate about empowering people to transform their perspective on life’s challenges through dynamic masterclasses, workshops, and certified resilience training. To learn how Wendy can support and inspire you at your next conference, leadership event, or personal development session, please email we***@*************ce.com or visit www.readyresilience.com.
){kind=link}