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The Fear-free Organization: Vital Insights from Neuroscience to Transform Your Business Culture
Evidence from neuroscience shows that individuals and organizations are more successful when people are encouraged to take risks, explore new ideas, and channel their energies in ways that work for them. And yet many organizations are filled with bullies, vicious gossip, undermining behaviours, hijacking tactics, political jockeying for position, favouritism and other factors that instil fear and impede productivity. It is no wonder that organizations are actively looking at how they can improve and maintain the psychological health and wellbeing of their employees to the benefit of all concerned. The Fear-free Organization reveals how our new understanding of the neurobiology of the self - how the brain constructs the person - can transform for the better the way our businesses and organizations work.
Academic yet accessible, The Fear-free Organization addresses head on the issue that scared people spend a lot more time plotting their survival than working productively. The book helps leaders understand the neurobiology of fear, face the damage it is doing, and replace it with building relationships, managing energy flow and fostering trust. It guides you in making your workplace one that's full of energy, not adrenalin; focused on possibility, not profit; and generates independent thinking, not obedience so you can promote the psychological wellbeing that is strongly correlated with greater energy, motivation and better cognitive function.
Academic yet accessible, The Fear-free Organization addresses head on the issue that scared people spend a lot more time plotting their survival than working productively. The book helps leaders understand the neurobiology of fear, face the damage it is doing, and replace it with building relationships, managing energy flow and fostering trust. It guides you in making your workplace one that's full of energy, not adrenalin; focused on possibility, not profit; and generates independent thinking, not obedience so you can promote the psychological wellbeing that is strongly correlated with greater energy, motivation and better cognitive function.
- GenresBusinessNeuroscience
234 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 3, 2015
8 people are currently reading
183 people want to read
About the author
Paul Brown
368 books32 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 16, 2015
Does your workplace seem to be ruled by fear? Order is kept by rules, regulations and often ranks of stressed executives acting as “little Hitlers” who lead by shouting, bullying and other bad behaviour including the ultimate sanction of dismissal?
Of course, every company needs order and workplaces must have regulations, often for safety and regulatory purposes. Some rules are good and necessary. Yet maybe the company runs sub-optimally because of the climate of fear, oppression and chaos within. Just like someone being bullied or abused, often the victims are too scared to speak up and the offender might not even thoroughly know of their actions, the causes behind it and the deep effects it is having.
Nobody has left. Nobody has sued. Nobody has hit the boss (or in the USA resorted to drawing a weapon)… so it must be ok and everything is tickety-boo. After all, people always complain about their bosses don’t they? The company is making profits…
Even if your company is not overly plagued with such sabotage affecting its bottom-line, maybe things could be optimised in any case to remove as much negativity as possible. Science to the rescue? The authors set out to look at the latest developments in the field of neurosciences – itself a relatively new field of science that is enjoying a boom thanks to technological advances – to look closer at what makes us tick and what makes us fearful. Fear is a powerful, debilitating and changing emotion and when you think how much time we spend at work and how our life is regulated by our ability to work and earn, it can affect a lot more than just a company workplace.
The book’s publicity material notes that fear is one of the most powerful motivating forces in our working culture today, with an overwhelming majority of bosses using it to keep order. “How often have you or someone you know experienced the fear of being thought a slacker and fired; of being unfairly criticised; of being back-stabbed and passed over for promotion; of being left in the dark, excluded, left out of meetings, undercut, pre-empted; of being the last to know? Fear easily overtakes excitement and enthusiasm as the primary driver of motivation at work. It is readily used as a management tool because there is simply nothing easier than tapping into another person’s fear system,” the authors note.
Sadly they are right. Change is, of course, possible if we (as a society) can understand this and can push for change. It won’t be an overnight sensation but the smart employers will be looking to maximise their employee’s motivation and happiness, or they should be, as recruitment costs a lot of time and money, even for the lower, more commodity positions. Imagine the costs finding a good executive, employed on a six-figure salary, who probably can switch between workplaces and yet they are often treated to the same pressures of fear from their bosses and often pass it on (it’s normal, right?) down the chain of command.
Despite the book being written in a fairly open, accessible form this is not a light read. This is not a complaint, just a fact. You should read it first to get on-board with the concept, then re-read it with a view of tailor-making a change implementation for your own organisation and then maybe a further re-read to see what you might have missed.
The authors advocate the creation and promotion of a “Fear-Free Organisation” (hence the book’s title) and then give you the tools to set you along this pathway. It won’t be a simple overnight change, it requires rewriting the collective minds of many, it requires rewriting a culture that still may be viewed as being “normal” and there is a good chance it will be met with outright hostility (remember, many view “attack” as the best form of “defence” after all…) Most importantly, the authors can’t give a step-by-step guide either. It is just impossible!
What about the future? “In the fear-free organisation there are no panic rooms, no internal enemies, no bad guys. The fear-free organisation has zero tolerance for bullies, for backbiting, vicious gossip, tittle-tattle, undermining behaviours, hijacking tactics, political jockeying for position, favouritism, and fascist-style policies. In the fear-free organisation leaders understand that scared people spend a lot more time plotting their survival than working productively. In the fear-free organisation people work on inspiration. They are encouraged to take risks, to think out of the box, to challenge the status quo, to explore new frontiers, to stand up and be counted,” the book states.
Utopia? Maybe. Yet people didn’t think that man would one day walk on the moon. It takes a dream, it takes a vision, it takes a lot of hard work and inevitably knockbacks along the way. That “moonwalk” may be in reach for your workplace. Your colleagues and future colleagues may thank you for inspiring the change. Your own health and your family might also thank you. If only they realised and understood.
The authors have thought of it all (or near as damn it). The book cannot be written off as the collective madness of a bunch of white-coated boffins who’ve never stuck a foot outside of a university and seen what happens in the real world. Field work, interviews, scientific evidence and actual examples are mixed together to great effect and of course references to source materials are given so you can dig even deeper if you wish (or are seeking to discredit the claims and shoot the messenger along the way).
This is a book you want to ignore; you want to be able say that it contains just plain “BS” and claim that the world is just perfect. Yet, maybe you already realise that there is a problem. So order this book today, get yourself sold on the idea and then seek to effect change. One man or woman can’t change a world, but many can create a sea change.
The Fear-Free Organization, written by Paul Brown & Joan Kingsley & Sue Paterson and published by Kogan Page. ISBN 9780749472955. YYYYY
Autamme.com
Of course, every company needs order and workplaces must have regulations, often for safety and regulatory purposes. Some rules are good and necessary. Yet maybe the company runs sub-optimally because of the climate of fear, oppression and chaos within. Just like someone being bullied or abused, often the victims are too scared to speak up and the offender might not even thoroughly know of their actions, the causes behind it and the deep effects it is having.
Nobody has left. Nobody has sued. Nobody has hit the boss (or in the USA resorted to drawing a weapon)… so it must be ok and everything is tickety-boo. After all, people always complain about their bosses don’t they? The company is making profits…
Even if your company is not overly plagued with such sabotage affecting its bottom-line, maybe things could be optimised in any case to remove as much negativity as possible. Science to the rescue? The authors set out to look at the latest developments in the field of neurosciences – itself a relatively new field of science that is enjoying a boom thanks to technological advances – to look closer at what makes us tick and what makes us fearful. Fear is a powerful, debilitating and changing emotion and when you think how much time we spend at work and how our life is regulated by our ability to work and earn, it can affect a lot more than just a company workplace.
The book’s publicity material notes that fear is one of the most powerful motivating forces in our working culture today, with an overwhelming majority of bosses using it to keep order. “How often have you or someone you know experienced the fear of being thought a slacker and fired; of being unfairly criticised; of being back-stabbed and passed over for promotion; of being left in the dark, excluded, left out of meetings, undercut, pre-empted; of being the last to know? Fear easily overtakes excitement and enthusiasm as the primary driver of motivation at work. It is readily used as a management tool because there is simply nothing easier than tapping into another person’s fear system,” the authors note.
Sadly they are right. Change is, of course, possible if we (as a society) can understand this and can push for change. It won’t be an overnight sensation but the smart employers will be looking to maximise their employee’s motivation and happiness, or they should be, as recruitment costs a lot of time and money, even for the lower, more commodity positions. Imagine the costs finding a good executive, employed on a six-figure salary, who probably can switch between workplaces and yet they are often treated to the same pressures of fear from their bosses and often pass it on (it’s normal, right?) down the chain of command.
Despite the book being written in a fairly open, accessible form this is not a light read. This is not a complaint, just a fact. You should read it first to get on-board with the concept, then re-read it with a view of tailor-making a change implementation for your own organisation and then maybe a further re-read to see what you might have missed.
The authors advocate the creation and promotion of a “Fear-Free Organisation” (hence the book’s title) and then give you the tools to set you along this pathway. It won’t be a simple overnight change, it requires rewriting the collective minds of many, it requires rewriting a culture that still may be viewed as being “normal” and there is a good chance it will be met with outright hostility (remember, many view “attack” as the best form of “defence” after all…) Most importantly, the authors can’t give a step-by-step guide either. It is just impossible!
What about the future? “In the fear-free organisation there are no panic rooms, no internal enemies, no bad guys. The fear-free organisation has zero tolerance for bullies, for backbiting, vicious gossip, tittle-tattle, undermining behaviours, hijacking tactics, political jockeying for position, favouritism, and fascist-style policies. In the fear-free organisation leaders understand that scared people spend a lot more time plotting their survival than working productively. In the fear-free organisation people work on inspiration. They are encouraged to take risks, to think out of the box, to challenge the status quo, to explore new frontiers, to stand up and be counted,” the book states.
Utopia? Maybe. Yet people didn’t think that man would one day walk on the moon. It takes a dream, it takes a vision, it takes a lot of hard work and inevitably knockbacks along the way. That “moonwalk” may be in reach for your workplace. Your colleagues and future colleagues may thank you for inspiring the change. Your own health and your family might also thank you. If only they realised and understood.
The authors have thought of it all (or near as damn it). The book cannot be written off as the collective madness of a bunch of white-coated boffins who’ve never stuck a foot outside of a university and seen what happens in the real world. Field work, interviews, scientific evidence and actual examples are mixed together to great effect and of course references to source materials are given so you can dig even deeper if you wish (or are seeking to discredit the claims and shoot the messenger along the way).
This is a book you want to ignore; you want to be able say that it contains just plain “BS” and claim that the world is just perfect. Yet, maybe you already realise that there is a problem. So order this book today, get yourself sold on the idea and then seek to effect change. One man or woman can’t change a world, but many can create a sea change.
The Fear-Free Organization, written by Paul Brown & Joan Kingsley & Sue Paterson and published by Kogan Page. ISBN 9780749472955. YYYYY
Autamme.com
May 29, 2024
This more academic book explores fear and its effects within an organisation. The authors then explore how this knowledge can be used to create organisations that flourish, rather than fail through fear. An in-depth work, invaluable for those serious about their working environment. Basic understanding of scientific principles like nervous transmission, brain function and basic logic are helpful, but not essential.
January 24, 2016
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel" (Maya Angelou)
No matter what we believe, we are hardwired to be affected by emotions, even at work. I learnt this in the The Fear-free Organization.
The eight basic emotions are: love/trust, excitement/joy, fear, anger, sadness, shame, disgust and surprise. Two are positive, five are negative and one can be either. So this explains why we may experience more negative emotions.
Our early development in relationships deeply affects our brain, but current relationships also affect it (plasticity). The point here is that difficulties in relationships, whether at work or not, will be determined by the emotions triggered. There is no way to leave emotions at home!
Importantly a distinction has to be made between difficult people and toxic people. The latter are really bullies, who are autocratic, abusive, manipulative, and secretive. They damage your sense of self, and sap your confidence. Ideally, organisations would have zero tolerance for such people, but if not, then you have to avoid them, make allies with others, record instances of bullying, raise a grievance or even leave.
Difficult people upset, irritate and annoy you, they don't listen, they're dismissive and inflexible. If left unexamined, the relationship with such people could leave you drained of energy, losing trust, and sapped of creativity . The best way to deal with such people is to:
1. Develop self-awareness. Look inside to understand why the emotions are coming up, develop strategies to keep cool (breathe deeply, pause before you respond etc), manage your expectations and remember you don't have to get on with everyone.
2. Get to know the difficult person. Be empathetic, open and respectful. Listen very carefully. Make clear what you want and expect. Explore common areas of interest. Find out discreetly what is bothering the other person.
3. Focus on solutions. What can you do to improve things, rather than focusing on the past. Learn from mistakes
4. Be tolerant of different approaches. Different is not the same as difficult. Avoid being defensive of ideas. Don't assume you know the intentions of the other, better to ask.
5. Turn things around. Disarm, be nice. Do something unexpected. Do a favour. Be complimentary.
bilalhafeez.com
No matter what we believe, we are hardwired to be affected by emotions, even at work. I learnt this in the The Fear-free Organization.
The eight basic emotions are: love/trust, excitement/joy, fear, anger, sadness, shame, disgust and surprise. Two are positive, five are negative and one can be either. So this explains why we may experience more negative emotions.
Our early development in relationships deeply affects our brain, but current relationships also affect it (plasticity). The point here is that difficulties in relationships, whether at work or not, will be determined by the emotions triggered. There is no way to leave emotions at home!
Importantly a distinction has to be made between difficult people and toxic people. The latter are really bullies, who are autocratic, abusive, manipulative, and secretive. They damage your sense of self, and sap your confidence. Ideally, organisations would have zero tolerance for such people, but if not, then you have to avoid them, make allies with others, record instances of bullying, raise a grievance or even leave.
Difficult people upset, irritate and annoy you, they don't listen, they're dismissive and inflexible. If left unexamined, the relationship with such people could leave you drained of energy, losing trust, and sapped of creativity . The best way to deal with such people is to:
1. Develop self-awareness. Look inside to understand why the emotions are coming up, develop strategies to keep cool (breathe deeply, pause before you respond etc), manage your expectations and remember you don't have to get on with everyone.
2. Get to know the difficult person. Be empathetic, open and respectful. Listen very carefully. Make clear what you want and expect. Explore common areas of interest. Find out discreetly what is bothering the other person.
3. Focus on solutions. What can you do to improve things, rather than focusing on the past. Learn from mistakes
4. Be tolerant of different approaches. Different is not the same as difficult. Avoid being defensive of ideas. Don't assume you know the intentions of the other, better to ask.
5. Turn things around. Disarm, be nice. Do something unexpected. Do a favour. Be complimentary.
bilalhafeez.com
October 29, 2015
Neuroscience is a burgeoning field of both psychology and behaviorial economics.
The ability to discern what other people are thinking and feeling is critical to social interaction and a key part of the human experience. So it's not surprising that the human brain devotes a lot of resources to so-called social cognition. But only recently has neuroscience begun to tease apart which brain regions and processes are devoted to thinking about other people.
In this ground breaking book, the authors explain in detail where organizations can make their employees less risk averse and in turn more productive. The team member will also be a happier employee, which is important.
There are case studies presented to reinforce the power of neuroscience.
The ability to discern what other people are thinking and feeling is critical to social interaction and a key part of the human experience. So it's not surprising that the human brain devotes a lot of resources to so-called social cognition. But only recently has neuroscience begun to tease apart which brain regions and processes are devoted to thinking about other people.
In this ground breaking book, the authors explain in detail where organizations can make their employees less risk averse and in turn more productive. The team member will also be a happier employee, which is important.
There are case studies presented to reinforce the power of neuroscience.
August 17, 2015
Decide who the audience is. If it is business people, then cut to the chase. Start with a story that illustrates the point/argument. Then fill in the basic science. Starting with the very dry science seems logical but it's a recipe for losing the reader. The text is choppy and dry. When I gave up trying to read it page by page, I still couldn't find the insights that could be applied to a business environment. Pull those out. Highlight them. Repeat them. Cannot recommend which is too bad b/c the title sounds intriguing.
June 26, 2016
Great explanation of why Fear fails in organisations
I'd recommend this book to everyone who accepts that research and data applies to the management of organisations, and wants to understand how fear has no place in management.
I'd recommend this book to everyone who accepts that research and data applies to the management of organisations, and wants to understand how fear has no place in management.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews