Jo speaks with authors of The Social Brain about group dynamics, human connection and thriving together
Training Journal to all: Why come together to write a book about the social brain, and what does that mean?
All: We come from different disciplines (evolutionary psychology, corporate leadership and learning design). Throughout our careers the three of us have been interested in the same question: Why is it that some groups function as more than the sum of their parts – and other groups, however talented, simply don’t? The Social Brain explores the foundational conditions for the human thriving in groups. It explores the implications of scale, environment, human biology and psychology – in other words what doesn’t change about human needs.
At a moment when the shape of work is being redesigned, we hope that our three-legged stool of perspectives can shed light on what human beings need to perform, innovate and have impact together. It often happens that important research doesn’t find its way into organisations where it is needed most. There are lots of reasons for this – organisations may be designed and structured based on a set of assumptions that are no longer true or there is a dominant narrative that takes hold. Our book was written as a way of bringing our research and experience to organisations and to opening up a different conversation about what it means to be human at this fragile moment in our shared human story.
TJ: Samantha, what is strategic leadership and how is it different from the concept of everyone being a leader?
Samantha: In our work, and in our book, we talk about leadership in many different forms. Leading a choir or community is an act of leadership, equally so is leading a small team at work or being responsible for a specific area of the business. In our work we think of strategic leadership as leadership that needs to take into account the whole system.
Strategic leadership requires a broad view, requires the leader to look at what is happening at the edge of the system and to take an integrated view of various stakeholders. Strategic leadership can happen anywhere in an organisation and is not connected to hierarchy. Rather it is an approach or mindset that can be developed.
Much of our work focuses on bringing the behaviours and capability needed for strategic leadership into sharp relief. Increasingly as the world speeds up and as the issues continue to become more complex – there is an expectation that everyone will need to have some strategic capability – the ability to bring into the organisation new ideas and ways of working that will enliven and freshen things up.
Strategic leadership is also the ability to convene effectively, to make decisions that take into account multiple perspectives and to have a sense of what a future fit organisation might be.
TJ: Robin, you are Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, what does that mean and how does it help our understanding of human behaviour in the 21st century?
Robin: Evolutionary psychologists study those aspects of human psychology that are universal and relatively constant across cultures and people – the parts of the system that we cannot change because they are actually hardwired. Examples include the very strict limit on the number of relationships we can manage at any one time, and the ways in which we build and maintain these relationships.
Efficient management systems will seek to understand these, and the constraints they impose, so as to devise better informed solutions that will accommodate them rather than futilely fighting against them.
TJ: Tracey, how does sustainability come into modern leadership?
Tracey: Leadership has got bigger. It doesn’t stop at the walls of an organisation or finish with our own leadership tenure. It crucially involves thinking about what will last – and what matters. One of the interviews in our book was with the great historian Theodore Zeldin, who asked: “What is the point of business unless it is to help create something better for the next generation?”
We partner with the Economics of Mutuality Alliance to help leaders to measure and reduce their impact on the planet by considering natural, social and human capital in their decisions, as well as financial capital.
Sustainability is not only about leading businesses that tread lightly on the Earth but also about developing work practices, products, habits, relationships that are built to last. Our work shows that organisations that are focused on helping to solve difficult problems tend to outperform those companies that are profit driven only. Professor Colin Mayer, based at Oxford University, describes it this way: “The role of business is to produce profitable solutions to the problems of people and planet.”
TJ to all: How can individuals become more strategic if they would like to develop their management or leadership career?
All: We have discovered five strategic habits that can be incorporated into everyday work. They are, in summary:
1) Diary habits – how you spend your time is important. We have worked with many organisations where people are spending way too much time fine-tuning PowerPoint presentations, for example, which is a quick way to destroy attention and imagination. It is difficult to be strategic when you are fine-tuning what is already there.
2) Future thinking habit – thinking more strategically requires a focus on what is happening in the world. Simple shifts can make a difference – one of the organisations we work with for example has given their employees access to the FT to expose them to new ideas. There is so much available for leaders to expose themselves to future thinking.
3) Exploration habits – asking questions to intended to open up new learning. Some of the best leaders actively seek out areas that they have little expertise in – exposure to new ideas definitely sparks more strategic thinking.
4) Connection habit – entrepreneurs, for example, talk about the network effect – how through connection and conversation ideas and opportunities are sparked. In our book we share examples where senior leaders often end up listening to very few voices. This is a problem as the same ideas end up circulating around the organisation. We always encourage senior leaders to actively focus on connecting with people who may fall outside their inner circle.
5) Self-reflection habit – strategic leaders understand how they make decisions, the traps that they might fall into, the assumptions they hold dear. Effective leadership always begins with the ability to self-reflect.
TJ to all: What are the biggest leadership challenges in organisations today, and what are some of the ways to deal with them?
All:
1) To create social strategies so that employees can build trust, discretionary effort and connection. We are hard wired for human connection – and yet many people are lonely, atomised, unproductive and unfulfilled in a virtual, 2D world. The organisations that thrive in the future will find ways to bring people together to create meaningful connections.
2) There is a goldrush feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) around AI right now. “Technology is the answer… but what was the question?” architect Cedric Price asked in 1966. Strategic leaders ask the questions before they rush to the answers. Of course, there are many benefits to be had from generative AI particularly, but prescient leaders also think about the human implications of large-scale adoption, not only for their businesses but also for society.
3) Most strategic leaders are conscious that climate change is happening faster than predicted. This quickening will affect business models more than it already has. The future will favour adaptive, morally courageous leaders.
4) Much of our current ‘stuckness’ comes from the systemic complexity of our worlds. The power of our interdependencies has a shadow side: it is hard for a single leader to change the system. Strategic leaders in the future will need to develop their convening power to gather the collective intelligence together in person in order to move the dial.
Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey and Robin Dunbar are authors of The Social Brain: The psychology of successful groups and you can read the TJ book review here
