There’s a myth that we all seem to accept as kids; that we only use 10% of our brain. This myth gives rise to some fanciful stories about people who use more of their brains, and are therefore smarter, while also providing fuel for many an insult about people who use less than 10%, and are therefore less intellectually formidable. But the truth is that all of us use all of our brains, just in different ways at different times. The human brain has been described as the most complex object in existence. And without an owner’s manual, there’s a good chance we’re not taking advantage of its complexity.
Our brains tend to work in layers. Like onions, parfait, and ogres, layers are an analogy for our brains that we can use to understand a little bit more what’s going on in this super-computer. The first layer is our immediate consciousness. It’s what you’re thinking of right now. Hopefully, for you dear reader, the top layer is the words you see on the screen in front of you. Immediately below this is the peripheral consciousness. This is all the things going on around you that you are aware of, but aren’t paying full attention to. If you’re reading this on the bus, you are aware of movement, but it’s not in the front of your mind. If you are at home, you might have music on in the background - you might even be humming along - but if asked, you might not be able to immediately name the song. Slightly deeper, you’re aware that you are awake, upright (probably) and vaguely aware of the temperature. These are the things that you can quickly shift your attention to in order to bring them to the top layer. It’s this middle layer that we’ll come back to.
The last layer that we’ll briefly look at is the bottom layer. You can give it the label of your subconscious if you like; it’s the thoughts that you don’t know you’re thinking, and that you may or may not even be able to access. And it’s FAST. One example of the thousands that exist is catching a ball. You see the ball coming and you put your hand up. In this bottom layer though, a thousand equations have been solved in a split second to calculate everything about the ball; its velocity, trajectory, the likely effect of gravity, the effect of wind, it’s probable weight, and it’s surface texture. Then a series of commands has been sent to your body to: set your feet, balance your stance, extend your arm and fingers, and close them at just the right moment to capture the ball. On the top layer, you probably thought, ‘I’ll catch that,’ but deeper down, you just earned a Nobel prize in physics.
There are many differences between these layers, and one of the biggest differences is processing power. The top layers are single channel processors; one task at a time. Multi-tasking in the top layer is really just task-switching. But for the bottom layer, it’s all about parallel processing. At the same time it’s figuring out how to calculate every computation for catching a ball, it’s also figuring out how to talk, breathe, balance, squint into the sun, and a thousand other tasks that keep you functioning as a human. You might be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, but that’s because your subconscious is doing them both for you. Simultaneously.
Another way to think about the differences between these layers is bandwidth. You can only consciously think about one thing at a time, and hold another seven or so in working memory. Using our earlier analogy, the top layer has one item in its memory banks, and the middle layer holds a few more. But this isn’t even a fraction of the sensory inputs we are receiving, and it’s a very select group. Are you sitting down? If so, are you aware of the chair beneath you? You are now; you’ve replaced an item in your top layer with this new awareness. Soon, it will drift into the middle layer as you again engross yourself in these words, and then it will silently slip back into the subconscious, replaced by other thoughts until recalled again when you rise and realise you have a numb butt.
With all that goes on around us, we’ve learned to filter the inputs we get into two main areas; regard and disregard. Our subconscious takes care of the disregard part, and we think we’ve ignored it, even when we haven’t. You might not pay attention to the temperature around you (or the chair beneath you) but your subconscious will adjust your internal cooling mechanisms regardless of whether you actively notice that you’re warm. At some point, some inputs are automatically passed from the ‘disregard’ status to the ‘regard’ status. As you get really warm, you might all of a sudden remark how hot is is and look for an active way to cool down. Similarly, when walking on a crowded footpath, you don’t notice the people in the crowd around you, but if you see a familiar face, you react. In effect, there is a filter between the layers in our brain that sorts out what goes into our conscious thinking. And that filter is incredibly important.
Have you ever bought a new car? When you decided on the make and model to buy, did you all of a sudden notice that type of car everywhere around you? Until this point, the information wasn’t very relevant or important, and was therefore filtered out. When the information became relevant, the filter adjusted to allow it to pass into your middle layer for holding as you were near other cars, then the top layer for examination when you saw one. Our filters are adjustable; but rarely adjusted.
The subconscious is incredibly powerful, but with great power comes great hunger. To conserve energy, our brains try to operate on idle as much as possible. For most of our actions, this works fine. But the filter between our layers is a potential power draw, so we use habit to make it efficient too. The effect of this is that we tend to pay attention to the things we normally pay attention to. And unless forced to change, the information passed up through the filter remains very similar. This is totally fine for much of our lives, but there are times it’s better to examine the filter, and see if it needs reshaping.
Our attitudes tend to be a product of our thoughts. And our thoughts, as we’ve seen, are often a byproduct of our habits. This feedback loop is part of the reason for our disposition; we see some people as perennially happy, or morose, or sceptical, or laconic. Part of this - but by no means the whole reason - is the filter we apply to our thinking. If, when confronted with a novel event, we filter for happy thoughts and optimistic outcomes, these will influence our approach. Our brains can’t hold enough information to try and be simultaneously happy and morose in response to a given event. It can’t be wholly mad and wholly laconic. If we train ourselves to filter the world around us in a certain way, that approach becomes habit, and affects our attitude generally.
It’s hard to be reactively selective in our filtering though. We can’t choose happiness as a response to a new event if our general outlook is sombre. Rather, we need to train ourselves to look for happiness in our normal thinking, and set the filter in response. Just like seeing a make and model of car we are interested in, if we are interested in the positive outlook in the world we move through, our subconscious will adjust the filter to suit. If we look for ill intent in others, then we should hardly be surprised to find it.
This is a hugely simplified explanation of course. The most complex object in existence cannot be summarised so easily, and there are scholars who weep for the analogies above. Despite this, the takeaway is clear; if we seek out the positives around us, we will find them, and eventually, the filter that passes information to our conscious brains will adjust to bias towards this outlook. Conversely, if we expect the negatives to happen, we cannot be surprised when they are all we filter for, and in turn, are all we perceive. Ultimately, we choose which habit we form, which filter we set, which attitude we adopt.
As leaders, you can choose to believe that people working with you are doing their level best to perform well and support the organisation. Or you can choose to expect poor performance, and look for fault and blame around you. Either way, you shouldn’t be surprised with the make and model of team mate you see most often.
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