Emotional Contagion In Business
The Psychophysiological Pathway Of How Group Burnout Spreads And Persists
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Emotional Contagion In Business
The Psychophysiological Pathway Of How Group Burnout Spreads And Persists
I have been saying it from the beginning of the Return-to-Office “Mandates”...
Burnout will get worse.
Indeed, it has gotten worse...
Expanding beyond 80% since more organizations have made their “demands”.
Most executives and leaders fail to really understand what Burnout is...
Or the deep psychophysiological business consequences of their decisions.
For instance...
One individual in Burnout will have their Productivity Potential drop to 5% or less...
And it can, and does, go into Negative Productivity.
That same individual also becomes blocked, literally, from the areas of the brain where innovation, creativity, and problem-solving occur.
This is why so many executives and leaders have been screaming for innovation, creativity, and better solutions to problems...
But completely fail to get anything meaningful.
Burnout simply blocks us, as humans, from our potential.
But it is worse...
Because Burnout can spread and become Group Burnout.
In Group Burnout, the problems become exponentially worse.
Here is the thing, though...
This spreading of Group Burnout is not simply a matter of “many individuals” who simply “fall” into Burnout.
In reality, there are psychophysiological mechanisms that we have, as humans, which literally “spread” Burnout, like a Contagion...
And when organizations fall into Group Burnout...
As many have in today’s world...
It keeps those organizations in Group Burnout.
How does this happen?
Well, for the purposes of today, we have to understand three of the four Cognition Systems in the body.
Each of these systems has clusters of neurons, which allows these systems to think interdependently of each other.
Yes, if you thought the brain controlled everything from a thinking perspective, you’d be absolutely wrong.
Though the brain is a critical Cognition System, it is not the “only” cognition system...
And frequently it is hijacked by one or more of the other Cognition Systems.
So, which Cognition Systems are important for today?
The Brain.
The Nervous System.
The Heart (The study of which is called Neurocardiology).
How do these systems interact which causes, and spreads Group Burnout?
Well, it begins in the Heart.
Our hearts create electromagnetic waves...
Which can be scientifically tracked and measured anywhere from 3 to 15 feet away from us...
And these electromagnetic waves reflect our current psychophysiological state of being.
In simpler terms...
The electromagnetic waves are different if we are at “peace”...
Compared to if we are “stressed”...
Or if we are “happy”...
And even if we are “burnt out”.
These waves are transmitted out from the heart around us.
But it is more important than that.
Why?
Our hearts do not just transmit these waves...
They can also receive these waves from others.
So, we can literally learn to feel and even understand others’ electromagnetic waves.
When you are tracking this utilizing biofeedback tools, this can be seen as HRV-Coherence.
Utilizing these tools, we can “see” when our hearts receive signals from others’ hearts, even across barriers such as walls, without physical interactions between individuals.
Now, as this occurs, there is another psychophysiological occurrence that happens within the heart...
Entrainment.
It is not “just” that we can feel and interpret the electromagnetic waves of others...
But we can actually “impact” each other’s states of being.
This means that if I am at peace, I can “pull” you into peace...
And this will be reflected in your HRV-Coherence.
Or...
If you are in Burnout...
You can “pull” others into Burnout with you.
This is a large part of the reason that I said that forcing everyone into the same office...
Especially when the vast majority despised the decision...
Was a poor decision.
But it is an even worse decision when we add in the Nervous System.
Why?
Emotional Contagion.
This is where the emotions that are experienced through HRV-Coherence...
Become experienced and stored in the Nervous System.
See, our Nervous Systems also have a series of Neurons.
They can and do store aspects of the emotions that we experience.
The Nervous System is focused on paying attention to what is safe or potentially dangerous.
When we experience some of the more “negative” emotions...
Such as Stress, Anger, or Fear as examples...
These become stored in the Nervous System...
And “Aspects” of whatever caused these emotions are “remembered”.
Now, there are a wide variety of “Aspects” that can be stored...
From colors, sounds, specific features, smells, tastes, and more.
When we encounter these “Aspects” in the future...
The Nervous System will trigger and put us into a Fight-or-Flight Response.
If we encounter similar aspects over and over again...
The areas of the body where they are stored can even become what is known as “Trauma Capsules”...
Which can be experienced as pain.
It is not “physical” pain, so using pain killers such as Tylenol or Advil has absolutely no effect on these Trauma Capsules.
As these Capsules Build, and the Nervous System is triggered into Fight-or-Flight...
It can create further Stress Chains, or additional stressors caused by stressors.
It can negatively impact things like our Digestion or Immune System, making us more susceptible to more health problems.
Now, if we take this back to the office...
If you have a lot of people who are Stressed Out...
Who hate their jobs...
Despise their Leaders...
And are in Burnout...
The result is that these will impact us first through Entrainment...
Impacting our HRV-Coherence...
Which then becomes stored in our Nervous System through Emotional Contagion.
Then, if we even so much as “encounter” any Aspects that are “similar” to what has been stored in the Nervous System...
It will trigger the Fight-or-Flight Response...
Causing a change in our HRV-Coherence...
Which then will spread to everyone we are around through the Entrainment and Emotional Contagion.
The result...
Is that Burnout spreads, becomes locked in the Nervous System, keeping Aspects of the workplace ready to trigger our Fight-or-Flight Response again...
Creating a Vicious Cycle where it becomes extremely difficult for anyone in the office to escape Burnout.
As all of this happens, it actively stops and prevents our Brains from accessing higher functioning...
Which gridlocks businesses and organizations...
Destroying productivity...
Preventing innovation and creativity...
And causing more problems while simultaneously making it more difficult to solve those problems.
This is the state of our workplace today...
And it is why so many organizations are struggling with no solutions that are proving to be effective.
When those solutions fail to account for the full psychophysiological...
Organizations cannot escape from Group Burnout.
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So how do Leaders turn this around?
We know that, obviously, the “common” solutions do not work…
Mediation…
Vacation…
Ignoring the elephant in the room.
But, there are things that we can do to stop the spread of Group Burnout…
And transition into something incredible.
I have Six Steps for this…
Let’s Dive In…
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