3 Steps To Creating a Productive and Fulfilling Working Environment (Part II)
Continued from Part I
2. Create a Larger Circle of Tolerance
STOP acting like a lizard! The “reptilian” brain or the reactive center, deals with our primal need to survive. It is the part of us that repeats patterns of behavior that we often do not like, patterns that often prevent us from taking action on opportunities or keep us procrastinating, patterns of fear and sometimes stupidity. It reacts to emotional triggers that are outside the boundaries of our “Circle of Tolerance”. This primitive part of our brain breeds lizard-like reactions to our surroundings, and I might add that lizards are not very intelligent. Its purpose is self preservation (sometimes at the cost of intelligence). Think of the last time you were in a conversation with someone you were trying to make a point to and they did not agree. You finally left, perhaps without resolving the point and felt a bit frustrated. 20 minutes later though, you thought to yourself “OH! #@&! I should have said ” This is because during the encounter you began to “React” to the situation thus using your reactive brain instead of your reasoning brain, and for all practical purposes, you became a lizard. It then took you 20 minutes to get back to being a human being where you could “Reason” again. When you are in the reactive center of the brain you have Lizard-like Intelligence.
To elevate ourselves to the greater level of being a human being and sidestep our primal reptilian instincts, we need to respond, not react. We need to reason, not just think. To start, this requires increasing our “Circle of Tolerance”.
No map will make a difference in your life if you react to your environment without the ability to think intelligently and act on what you have learned. This action will require us to Let Go of many of the rules we have created about the way that “Things Should Be”. The greater the number of rules, the smaller the circle, letting go increases our circle and helps us to be more intelligent.
The Motivational Map is a tool to help us expand our Circle of Tolerance. It gives us insights to the roots of our and our co-workers’ behaviors, allowing us to see beyond the actions and grasp the real reasons behind the emotional needs that drive us. Awareness is power because you tap your brain’s capacity for greater acceptance of situations and surroundings. When you are able to see behaviors for what they are and NOT for what they take away from you, there is little reaction and you produce intelligent results. It allows you to combine the knowledge of your map with the intelligent part of your brain into a powerful and directive influence for making positive progress in your work and life.
Some tools for expanding your circle of tolerance are the CBCI (Colored Brain Communication Inventory) and the HDMA (Human Drivers Mirrored Assessment).