What Exactly Is The Scratchy?

• If you're completely comfortable with your job every day, you're doing it wrong. It's not possible to learn, move ahead, or acquire new skills without 1) adding yet another task to your to-do list, and 2) getting outside your comfort zone and feeling scratchy. Naturally we tend to ignore the challenges or opportunities that make us uncomfortable. However, these often are the things we should be doing first – either to catch up to where the business needs to be, or in the interest of getting ahead of the curve and being ready to shape the future.
• This is not going to be the 50 millionth book on how to usher your company through corporate changes. It's not about being stuck in a merger, preparing your employees for a new system, or dealing with other company issues that are forced upon you. This principle is about getting yourself out of your comfort zone and making some changes that will be very good for you, very good for your people, and very good for your business.

Scratchiness For You

As a leader, you can set a great example for your employees by being willing to take risks, try new things, and admit when you're out of your comfort zone.

First you must know yourself. As you read in Principle #1, self-awareness is the key to being an effective leader. Know how you think and behave. Recognize your values. Acknowledge both your talents and least-used attributes. Observe how you respond to a variety of leadership challenges, such as trying to influence others or giving a keynote address. Reflect upon your own leadership style. Be brutally honest with yourself. How could you change for the better?

• Be authentic. People immediately sense when you're faking your way through something, which erodes their trust and confidence in you.
• Acknowledge any areas that already make you feel scratchy.
• Challenge yourself to do at least one thing that feels scratchy every week.
• Try working through your least favorite Emergenetics Attributes to make them stronger.
• Take risks. Be fearless. Don't worry about the possibility of failing or looking foolish. You are human and everyone knows that already.
• Be open-minded. Reconsider previous decisions. Evaluate nonnegotiables that actually are negotiable.
• Ask for feedback about how you are doing. Ask open-ended questions to get thoughtful answers. Don't ask unless you're willing to address the answers.

Your employees do not have the same preferences you do. For example, perhaps you're most comfortable picking up the phone and making a quick call. This seems perfectly natural to you, but some people hate the telephone. A call from you will scare them to death and make them very uncomfortable. (Note to those individuals: Try using the phone once in a while!) Communicate with your people in a variety of formats, some of which may make you feel scratchy, including phone calls, emails, face-to-face conversations, meetings, handwritten notes, and surveys.

Scratchiness For Your Employees

Your goal is a welcoming, supportive corporate environment that harmoniously accommodates people with different Profiles. Everybody will have to get a little scratchy to accommodate each other's attributes, but the results are well worth it. You will not end up with a workforce out of The Stepford Wives – you'll have a diverse group of people who know how to cooperate.

• Team members can begin by honoring each other's Profiles, and making the effort to flex their attributes in order to better appreciate each other and communicate more effectively.
• When employees already know each other's preferences, their action groups can get more done, more quickly (see Principle #4: Creating a Meeting of the Minds).
• Greater understanding of each other creates an atmosphere in which employees feel valued and challenged. This corporate culture increases employee engagement and job satisfaction.

Scratchiness For Your Business

Allow your employees to embrace the scratchy. You can encourage them to get out of their comfort zones by modeling scratchiness and by cultivating a corporate culture that is not punitive. Know how your team members think and behave, their learning styles, their preferred ways of working, and what situations or people will make them feel scratchy.

• An adaptable work force already is shaping the future, while a fearful or disengaged work force resists change.
• A transparent environment – one in which people share how they think and behave – encourages greater engagement because there is a minimum of hidden agendas, head games, office politics, and negativity.
• Greater engagement means better employee retention, which in turn means keeping and promoting your people as they become more skilled instead of losing them to other companies.
• Encourage your employees to stretch their skills and take calculated risks. Show support when you know they are working out of their least preferred attributes. When they know you trust them, they will be more willing to push themselves when they are feeling scratchy.
• A corporate climate without fear promotes honesty, innovation, creativity, engagement, and learning. Give your workers permission to find meaning in failure and push through feeling scratchy to success.

How We Embrace The Scratchy In Our Office

We embrace the scratchy every day. New employees regularly comment about the differences between our Emergenetics culture and their experiences within more traditional corporate climates. We do things differently around here. Everything is deliberately coordinated to produce a productive and healthy corporate environment. Everything we do is intentional, from the way we use our Profiles to understand each other, to the way we run our meetings, to our office decor, to the floor plan, and even the lightbulbs we use.

Following is a story that shows what is normal for our office. You might consider Emergineering some of these ideas into your company culture, even if they seem scratchy to you now.

Nikki's Story

I hurried into the office one day after being out of town, and a new employee was sitting at a desk by the front door.

“Who are you?” I inquired.

“My name is Nikki,” she asserted, briefly removing her hands from the keyboard. “Who are you?”

Snarkily I replied, “I am Geil, the person who signs your paycheck.”

“That's nice,” Nikki said, returning to her keyboard.

I ran into my office, grabbed what I needed for my next trip, and left feeling annoyed with myself that I had given her a testy answer. After all, I knew better. Research shows that an employee will be happier at her job if her leader has a conversation with her in the beginning.

Two days later I returned and went back to Nikki's desk. I apologized, and said, “Let's talk for a few minutes so we can get to know each other better.”

“Oh, I don't care about all that fluffy stuff,” she answered, briefly looking up from her computer. “I am just going to get my job done!” She lowered her eyes and returned to her keyboard.

My gut flipped as I retreated into the confines of my office, thinking grumpily that everyone is right about “those millennials.” I am a gregarious driver (Expressiveness/Assertiveness), so I actually thought we were going to have a chat. But then I checked Nikki's Emergenetics reports, which indicated her competencies, preferences, and motivations. When I saw her Profile, everything made sense. Talking just for the sake of talking was not a priority for Nikki, which ordinarily would worry me about someone whose job included customer care. However, I reasoned, if Nikki stays in this office long enough, we will teach her that it is all right to be data-driven, practical, and relational. She can learn to flex her Social preference, and she will still get her work done.

Here is Nikki's Emergenetics Profile. Note that her pie chart has preferences for both Analytical and Structural thinking. She has some Conceptual thinking but just a tiny sliver of Social thinking. She is reserved (first third of Expressiveness), determined (third third of Assertiveness), and absolute (first third of Flexibility). Her response to me was completely in character for someone without a Social preference who is at the quiet end of Expressiveness, the driving end of Assertiveness and the focused end of Flexibility. She really did just want to get her work done! Once again, it was not personal – it was Profile.

In some corporate cultures, Nikki would have been gone in a minute after speaking to the CEO that way, but because she had landed a job at Emergenetics, I had access to her Profile and knew that incorporating Nikki into the team would be worth the effort. She would learn that she would have to tap into her Social attribute because she often has to speak with our Associates. Today, I frequently receive complimentary emails about her detailed work, as well as her thoughtful customer relations.

Nikki's previous job had been in a company with a generic working environment that had become quite negative. She was glad to be away from there, but she wasn't entirely prepared for how different she found our offices and our corporate culture. She was feeling scratchy starting her new job, and now I realize that her having a conversation with her new CEO right off the bat was disconcerting to her. When speaking to someone in authority, she prefers to be prepared and to have an agenda.

In our Emergenetics offices, we maintain a family-like, caring atmosphere. We accommodate the Profiles of a very diverse group of workers in as many ways as we can. We follow Tony Alessandra's platinum rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated! When we hire new employees, we check their Profiles, figure out their learning styles, and attempt to accommodate them so they complete their work brilliantly.

Everyone is free to talk to everyone else. We emphasize the positive and find different words to replace the negative (see Principle #3: The Language of Grace). We take every attribute into account when we make decisions. We don't have a lot of rules and regulations. If you get to work late, or need to help your son buy a corsage for the prom, or must take care of a sick child, the expectation is that you will get your work done soon as you are able.

We care about the health of our employees and believe that life is more than the time between vacations (see Principle #6: Let Your People Live to Work, Not Work to Live). The first time we told Nikki to take a “smoking break,” she thought we had lost our minds. But because sitting is the new smoking, we encourage everybody to stop, get up, leave their work, and even walk around a bit outside.

Our walls are painted Purple, Blue, Green, Red, and Yellow, which fits our brand. Our walls also were outside Nikki's comfort zone at first, but she got used to them quickly. One day she was giving a client a quick tour of our offices and I overheard her saying, “Oh, the walls! When I came here, I thought there was a lot of color – plus each wall is different! There isn't a single room painted all the same. But the colors are part of our branding and our corporate culture. My office is blue and purple. It seemed strange, but I like it now.”

Meet Marvin, Your Future Employee

Emergenetics has been very successful in schools through our STEP (Student/Teacher Emergenetics Program). It is a separate division of Emergenetics that specializes in bringing our program into schools, working with educators who teach students from ages 10 to 18 using the Emergenetics Youth Report. The STEP program is how we met high school student Marvin.

The assistant principal of Marvin's school was telling us that she'd had to discipline him the day before. She had written him up for after-school detention, called his parents, and added a note in his permanent record saying that he had disrupted the entire school and was disciplined accordingly. Being an orderly person (Structural thinking) who was concerned about the school community at large (Social thinking), as well as being communicative (Expressiveness), no-nonsense (Assertiveness), and decisive (Flexibility), the assistant principal still was thinking the next day about Marvin's case, and wondering if there was anything else she should have done to ensure he would not wander into misbehaving again.

“Well, what did he do?” I asked.

It turns out Marvin had invented – all by himself – a smartphone application that could turn off all the electronics in his classroom. His teacher was trying to start a DVD when Marvin clicked on his app and made the TV monitor and all the computers in the room suddenly blink off.

Marvin was ecstatic. He leapt up from his chair and immediately headed for the hall, where he walked past classroom after classroom clicking his app, shutting down electronics and causing chaos. The most important thing to him was that his app worked.

I could not help chuckling.

“Do you think I should have done something else?” the assistant principal asked.

“Yes!” I replied. “You talked to him from your Structural/Social brain, but he heard what you said from his Analytical/Conceptual brain. Cheer him on for his intelligence, and move his energy to where it can be useful.”

The assistant principal made Marvin a member of the school's Technology Club and also introduced him to the school's most proficient IT teacher. Marvin did not get out of detention, but he did find his tribe of fellow techies at the school and learned how to use his special powers constructively. Marvin was a senior, and his mother congratulated the assistant principal. It was the best year Marvin had ever had.

This child is your next employee. How will you be able to challenge him?

Meet Everyone's Needs, Not Just Your Own

As a leader, you must know yourself from the inside out. This will make you aware of any fears or biases you have that may prevent you from creating an optimal climate for all the different types of workers who make your company's success possible. Businesses today have many different kinds of corporate cultures, and you may be losing high performance employees to companies with more modern and accommodating environments.

What percentage of your employees are enthusiastic and fully engaged with their work? What is the mood in the morning? Does it take two cups of coffee before people start accomplishing anything? Stop for a moment and think about your employees – each one of them – and whether you are allowing them to work in the way they would like. Are you meeting the needs of different Profiles? How could you make your people happier and more productive?

• Even if it makes you feel self-conscious, post your Emergenetics Profile outside your door. You have nothing to hide. Be a proud representative of your attributes.
• Resolve to adapt at least one of the ideas in this chapter that takes you outside your comfort zone. Leap first. It will be OK.
• Do you keep doing things the same old way they've always been done without thinking why? I know people who still balance their checkbooks, even though millennials go through life without checks or even cash. Do your offices look like an episode of The Twilight Zone?
• Do you have personal biases that are affecting your corporate environment? How do you like to work? Are your preferences fair to everyone else? For example, look at your default method of communication – the one that suits your Profile most comfortably. Do you stretch your attributes to use more than this one approach? How accessible are you – really?
• Do executives and managers in your company demonstrate an acceptance for a wide variety of workplace behaviors and preferences? Is this acceptance modeled and lived at every level?
• Are you getting less out of your employees because they must all fall in line with a prescribed way of showing up to work? What about parents who have children to get to daycare or school? What about employees who prefer to come in late but will stay late as well?
• Is there a company-wide mandate about employees decorating their offices? What if they prefer to work with headphones, or like to put dragons on top of their computer monitors, or want to put their children's art up on the walls? Would letting employees work inside their comfort zone take you outside of yours?
• Are you holding back because the idea of changing your corporate environment makes you feel scratchy? Are there any company systems that should be updated but thinking about the inconvenience and expense makes you so uncomfortable that you don't do anything? Are there any executives who should be fired but the process of showing them the door is just too difficult for you? Have you gotten complacent about the need to do the things that make you scratchy?
• Is there new technology that makes you uncomfortable? Can you navigate your smart TV and sound systems at home or do you have to call your kids? Technology isn't going to go backward.

Be bold. Be scratchy. Start somewhere. But while you're implementing a change, remember to think about all the attributes, not just your own.

Avoid A Uniform Corporate Environment

Recognizing that the brain needs to occasionally refresh itself throughout the day, businesses are making an effort to accommodate both work and leisure, sometimes in the same space. They may have spaces with tables for collaborating, as well as quiet areas for concentrating. This is better for the variety of people who work for you.

Some people work well in a uniform environment, but some don't.

A Brief History Of Office Spaces

The word corporate has become synonymous with “gray, boring, and unimaginative.” When you change your environment thoughtfully and with intention, your company's corporate climate and productivity will change as well.

With any office, there's always a conflict between the need for privacy and the need for openness, conversation, and collaboration. Which is more effective, interaction or autonomy? The answer depends upon the task as well as upon individual attributes. Workers need different options.

In the 1900s, the invention of the steel girder allowed builders to create huge rooms that could be filled up with banks of desks. Bosses looked on from private offices. These open rooms could fit a large number of employees, but they were noisy and stressful.

To encourage collaboration, designers tried pushing workstations together, and setting them up like cells or pinwheels, but employees still were distracted, irritated, and exhausted. This did nothing to improve productivity, probably because every time we are interrupted, it takes 25 minutes for us to remember everything we were doing beforehand.

The first office cubicle was designed in 1968. The original cubicles had semiprivate spaces with low walls that allowed natural light to spread across the room. They had no doors, a giant surface for spreading out work, efficient files, and even standing desks. This design did not catch on until it was modified into a smaller, cheaper workstation – without the standing desk. By the 1990s, employers figured out they could cram more uniform cubicles together by using inexpensive modular walls. Midlevel employees got their own so-called private cubicles in which they could hear everyone else's conversations, smell each other's lunches, and catch each other's colds. Imagine having your cubicle right next to a high-traffic area like the water fountain, the coffee machine, or the bathrooms! Studies showed that being subjected to endless background noise disrupted concentration, impaired memory, and aggravated stress-related illnesses like migraines and ulcers. Next, forward-thinking employers went to the opposite end of the spectrum by “game-ifying” their environments. Some went wild. Some offices have couches, beanbag chairs, pool tables, snacks, random puzzles and brain teasers scattered about, and even slides between floors. Open, stimulating floor plans work best for energetic, outgoing employees – although even they may be too distracted by all the shiny things to concentrate. If this is your workplace, you probably won't hear anything from the quiet employees, who work best in a peaceful environment. If you go look, you might find one working behind a plant with headphones on.

Emergineering includes, but is not limited to, your floor plan. Creating new spaces that both satisfy and challenge your employees will move your company forward.

One Company, Many Profiles

In our Emergenetics headquarters, some areas are quiet and some aren't. Some offices have doors and some don't. We accommodate both our headquarters and the separate STEP program on one floor. And, of course, our employees represent every kind of attribute, which is a challenge for every well-balanced organization.

The main office, where you first enter the building, is very open, and the staff working there prefer it that way. They are all calm by nature (Expressiveness), and they are content working in silence. When others enter the front door, they are stunned by the quiet. This is where Nikki was working when I first met her, and she fit right in. Just one employee in this area, Meghan, is gregarious (Expressiveness), but she has learned to keep her vivacious energy under control while she works. This was a scratchy challenge for her, but her desire to work successfully with us is the motivation she needs to modulate her behavior while being surrounded by people who do not speak unless called upon to do so. Meghan still has a lot of energy around her innate need to converse, but fortunately she is adaptable (Flexibility) and has learned to channel that energy into all the talking she has to do on the phone in connection with her work.

My son Morgan, Emergenetics President, and I both work near the main office. Our behaviors are identical. We each have a separate office with a door because we're both animated (Expressiveness) and most of the time we're talking on the phone, in a meeting, or with employees. Both of us are far too loud for the group in the main office. We also get into heated discussions with each other, and because we're both debaters (Assertiveness), we never mind a good argument: it usually leads to another great idea. On the other hand, our spirited discussions are distressing to the nearby staff because we sound angry, and we ruin their peacefulness. The office manager actually asked us to leave the offices when we get annoyed with each other because we haven't been successful in learning how to disagree quietly and our debates upset the others.

The STEP crew is in another space down the hall, and they find ways to be gregarious but somehow still get their work done. Laughter comes from their office at any moment, and some of us visit them when we need a break.

The quiet room of the library is a sanctuary for soft-spoken people (Expressiveness) like those in our front office, but it's a jail for those who are irrepressible (Expressiveness). Changing from one office layout to another won't help your company's productivity unless you pay attention to the different attributes of your employees. You can see how we use different spaces to accommodate different attributes, and how the people who don't entirely fit in to a particular space make an effort to flex their attributes so they're part of their crowd.

Sharon, our Director of Associate Development, has a corner office (formerly a closet) that suits her fine. She's interested in cerebral subjects (Analytical/Conceptual thinking) and is not passionate about what most other people are doing (Social thinking). She's glad there's no random foot traffic going by her office. If someone wants to see her, they know where to find her.

Sharon regularly goes to brainstorm with the STEP crew, who are naturally outgoing. Sharon explains, “I visit the STEP office with purposeful intent, but now I understand the need to indulge this group by giving them time to share stories about their weekend news involving children, dogs, and other miscellaneous events.”

Having studied Emergenetics for many years, Sharon knows that people with her combination of Analytical/Conceptual thinking attributes generally believe they are smarter than everyone else. She adds, laughing, “Hear the arrogance in my voice? I don't deeply care about the STEP employees' brilliant children or grandchildren, or someone's new puppy, or an uncle's visit to the hospital, but I know it will help everyone get along if I take an interest.” Similarly, although Sharon enjoys the company of her coworkers at Emergenetics, she would not refer to them as “friends.” For Sharon, and for most other Analytical/Conceptual thinkers, only a few relationships are deeply felt.

Sharon applies the platinum rule, stretches her natural preferences, and treats this group as they want to be treated. She just wants to get her work done, but she knows she needs to give the STEP crew time to release their outgoing energy first.

Sharon's combination of Analytical/Conceptual thinking is seen twice as often in men as in women (17% of men vs. 8.5% of women). In the corporate world, men with this profile typically do not prefer to be seen as heartfelt and sympathetic. Left to themselves, they're more interested in thinking about data, big-picture systems, and solutions. The way they show their passion is by accomplishing amazing projects. When you ask them about their work, they will speak about what they believe is necessary for the team. They're not interested in pleasing the team's human element. Instead, their work is a gift to the team because it will make it easier for team members to move forward with what they must accomplish.

Managers with Analytical/Conceptual thinking preferences and no Social preference can be intimidating, particularly if they are at the quiet end of the Expressiveness spectrum. They seldom see any reason to leave their intellectual tower and most likely abhor idle chitchat. If a male manager with this Profile skips the office party, people may notice his absence with relief and have another adult beverage. On the other hand, because Sharon is female, people are surprised that she doesn't go to office parties, and that she doesn't especially care about the personal lives of others – something about which Sharon is not apologetic. Not all women are wired with a Social preference.

You might be surprised to learn that in addition to her Emergenetics work, Sharon is a spiritual adviser. She says she does not need to care about people's puppies to recognize what is going on in their lives. In fact, she thinks a little distance makes her better at seeing her clients' issues. However, Sharon will modulate her attributes to meet other people where they are to make them feel comfortable. This is scratchy for her, but then others are able to see themselves in her, which helps her work successfully with them.

Sharon has become extremely adept at flexing her attributes. This is an essential skill in counseling, as well as any time you have many people working together. I'll be returning to this subject often. Scratchiness is good because skills can't be developed unless people are given the opportunity to practice. Many employees develop improved self-confidence when they get out of their usual comfort zone and realize they're able to collaborate with almost anyone.

Even when you hire for fit, there still will be scratchiness in the company – and that is not a negative thing. Feeling scratchy can be a great incentive to move forward and grow. Emergineering will help you recast any pain points as opportunities to stretch and to set new goals.

How We Emergineered Our Meetings

Our offices are designed for learning, and we stay on top of the latest neurological research to benefit ourselves and our clients. This section will share with you our best meeting practices – those that allow us to run the company efficiently and to honor every attribute. Attendance at these meetings is mandatory, and they are held during work hours. Some are giddier than others, but they are not office parties. Some types of meetings are scheduled weekly, whereas others only take place once a year, but all contribute profoundly to how we meet our personal and business goals.

Without regular meetings like this, it's easy to get caught up in everyday challenges, and before you know it something is going off the rails. Everyday busyness can be so distracting that we lose track of our priorities – those things that are the most valuable for us and for the company.

Structural (Green) Meetings

We hold Green meetings every Wednesday. These are designed to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

• We start and end on time. By starting with a centering exercise (discussed later in the chapter) we make sure no one is late, ever.
• We follow an agenda.
• Every report has an objective.
• All information is narrowed to fit into 30 minutes.

These characteristics are satisfying to the employees with a lot of Structural neurological connections in their brains. They are frustrated by free-form meetings that to them seem to go on forever.

Social (Red) Meetings

Red meetings are all about teambuilding. Each department picks a month to plan.

• In January, we celebrate the Chinese New Year, and red envelopes are given to each employee. This helps us remember that we are a global company. At the same time, our Singapore office does something similar.
• In February, we celebrate Valentine's Day. This year, the theme was Fond of You Fondue Party
• In April, we always go for Barbecue and Bowling to celebrate our knockout year.

One of the world's largest breweries originally gave us the idea for Red meetings. At one of their Red parties that we were invited to, one of our employees who is known for her sociable nature (Expressiveness) approached a man who was sitting at the end of the bar, speaking to no one. She asked him why he was sitting there by himself at a Red meeting filled with people who had a preference for Social thinking. He said, “I want to find out what Social people do at a Red meeting.” He had no preference for Social thinking, and his behaviors indicated he preferred to be alone. He said, “I have no need to be at this party. I simply came to analyze the situation and learn what happens at a Red meeting.” He will probably never attend another.

One of our employees, Martha, has data-driven (Analytical) and methodical (Structural) thinking preferences. She seldom speaks (Expressiveness), never makes a scene (Assertiveness), and is focused (Flexibility) in everything she does. Because I am in and out of the office so much, months may go by during which I never hear Martha's voice.

Martha is obligated to come to our Red meetings, but she is not obligated to enjoy them. She chooses not to participate in any revelry, and instead sits in a corner reading a book. She never told anyone that she doesn't enjoy bowling, but then again she didn't have to. It isn't an issue. The other employees all know her Profile and recognize that this is simply who Martha is.

Conceptual (Yellow) Meetings

Yellow meetings are all about the big picture for the business. We have one Yellow meeting at the beginning of each year.

• We review the previous year's accomplishments.
• We congratulate ourselves for the amount of work we did.
• We set a long-term vision for where we want to be in the future.
• We set short-term goals for the following year.
• The last goal is always a Happy Surprise. It's important to have open-ended goals so you can invite positive energy into the business.

A recent Happy Surprise was the addition of our first Emergenetics representative in Africa. At the beginning of that year, it was not one of our goals. Through hard work and good fortune, we expanded our global footprint to new territories.

Analytical (Blue) Meetings?

We hold a Blue meeting every July. This meeting is based on analyzing data and financial information.

• We measure our progress toward our objectives for the year.
• We review the status of our finances.
• We determine how we will proceed for the second half of the year.

Just like a household budget, a company budget has ebbs and flows of income and expenses. Because one of our values is maintaining a sense of family, transparency is important to us. If revenues indicate we need to curb expenses, everyone plays a part in minimizing expenditures. Privately owned companies are often reluctant to share financial information with their employees, but this meeting is particularly applicable to them.

Centering

Imagine being asked to sit in a circle, being invited to close your eyes, then using your breath to scan your body for any tension, and finally being asked to pay attention to your breath again to release the tension. We begin every meeting with this centering exercise to get our brains focused. It is conducted in silence for two or three minutes, and then the timekeeper invites everybody to open their eyes and the meeting continues.

When we first started this practice, many members of the staff felt scratchy about it. They were willing to go along, but there was some reluctance that showed up as rustling and movement during the three minutes of quiet. What finally sold everyone on centering was the efficiency and focus with which we're able to conduct our meetings. We're able to cover a lot more information in 30 minutes than before. After doing this for several months, we have noticed an immediate depth of silence as everybody releases their day's frustrations instead of letting them carry over into the meeting. Now when we begin, everyone in the room becomes instantly silent – even the most recent employees, who may find this a bizarre way to start a meeting.

Remember Nikki, our new employee? She felt out of her element at her first team meeting when she was introduced to two of our office rituals: “centering” before the meeting, and “reflection” after it (more about reflection in a moment). These practices put Nikki at a loss, but now, after a couple of months, she enjoys the centering, and we know we will hear a meaningful reflection from her at the end of every meeting after she has had time to think about what she wants to say.

At this point, you may be wondering if you should continue reading, because you can't imagine selling this idea to your people and it sounds like cosmic woo-woo psychobabble. But research is on your side. Meditation, or centering, releases stress and lowers blood pressure. When people are relaxed and not distracted by worries, the brain releases oxytocin – known as the trust hormone because it reduces fear, enhances feelings of closeness, and promotes group cooperation. Oxytocin encourages people to trust their group leader and even helps explain why people who feel connected walk in tandem and clap in unison.

Our centering exercise has benefits that extend well beyond our meetings. Intentionally building social ties at work is linked to improved performance and engagement. Research spanning several years shows that, compared with people at low-trust companies, people at high-trust companies report 74% less stress, 106% more energy at work, 50% higher productivity, 13% fewer sick days, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, and 40% less burnout. How do you feel about centering now?

Leading The Centering Exercise

The last question you're probably wondering about is: Who will lead the centering at your meetings? It doesn't have to be you. Someone from your team would probably be happy to volunteer because many people have now incorporated mindfulness into their lifestyles. Or you can hire a consultant. Do you remember Sharon, the spiritual adviser I mentioned earlier? We have her lead our three minutes of centering at the beginning of every meeting.

Some of your people will take to centering like ducks to water. We've noticed that individuals with a lot of imagination (Conceptual thinking) who are also open-minded (Flexibility) slide into the process immediately. Others may be more skeptical, and it may take them several weeks to be persuaded. The initial scratchiness of this practice may make you want to forget the whole thing, but please persevere. The top brains in the country are behind you.

Reflection

In general, we do not take enough time to reflect. We are so busy doing that we don't take time for thinking. This applies to every human being except babies, and who knows what they're doing. Some people are more likely than others to mull things over, but reflection benefits everyone.

We end every Emergenetics meeting by briefly sharing our personal reflections about what the group just discussed. Time is built into the agenda for this. We have found that:

• The process of personal reflection extracts additional meaning from each meeting and cements it in our minds.
• Hearing each other's thoughts gives us more ideas to consider, often leading to new, constructive avenues of thought.
• An added benefit to ruminating about the meeting and articulating our thoughts for each other is that this can be a profound exercise in vulnerability and team bonding.

Typically, the leader identifies a question for the group to reflect on at the end of the meeting. Generally, the question has some reference to the meeting and how it affects each person. Sample questions could be:

• What insights did I gain from this meeting?
• What did I learn about myself?
• Our profits are up. What does this mean to my department, and what can I learn from this?
• Our client is not happy. What have I learned from this experience?

As you can see, these the questions are related back to the individual. This helps everybody relate the information from the meeting to ways in which they can grow, which ultimately will benefit the growth of the organization.

People who are tranquil (Expressiveness) prefer to have some time to organize their thoughts, so it's a good idea to allow a moment before the first person speaks. Convergent (Analytical/Structural) thinkers likely will be skeptical of this process, but they'll give it a go if they trust you. Over time, their reflections often become the most meaningful. Our employee Brad, a quiet, convergent (Analytical/Structural) thinker, initially scoffed at the idea of taking valuable time for reflections. Most likely, you'll have at least one or two people like Brad on your staff. Although his initial reflections were perfunctory, over time the value of reflections became apparent to him. Now we all wait to hear Brad's thoughts, which invariably are deep and thought-provoking.

We begin by asking, “Who wants to go first?” and then go around the table in order. No one is allowed to interrupt or cross-talk until everyone has finished. No one may demur. After this, the leader asks for “reflections on the reflections.” The follow-on reflections that surface usually are beneficial for the entire group. Eventually, with practice, all the reflections will become deeper.

Reflection taps into all aspects of your experiences, clarifies your thinking, and helps your mind consolidate what matters and what you wish to achieve. Anchoring and deepening your learning also adds neural circuitry to your brain and expands the cerebral cortex. Reviewing what works, making connections, setting goals, and building your brain – what's not to like about a little ruminating?

Implementation Steps

1. Challenge yourself to do something that feels scratchy. Try centering in your next meeting.
2. Give your employees permission to risk and fail forward.
3. Take time for reflection.