The Hidden Edge
The Hidden Edge, Why Mental Fitness is the Only Advantage That Matters in Business, by Jodie Rogers, Wiley 2021
How often have we seen in-depth examples of real companies working on employee mental fitness? Sure, in lean discussions we learn about how companies like Honda and Toyota train and move employee associates around to build a high-performance team. And we've heard endless lectures and keynotes from leaders turned consultants about their own particular leadership successes. Sometimes they even cover failures! But its rare to learn the gritty details about what it takes to prepare and maintain the kind of mental health habits and foundation that make it through high stress, like pandemic, and even failure scenarios; we can learn much from these frank discussions, but it's certainly not typically discussed.
But in The Hidden Edge, mental fitness expert Jodie Rogers shares her real world experience with companies such as Unilver, Coca-cola, LOreal, Mondelez and others as they work through this relatively unexplored but very powerful area. Think about the highs and lows of an emotionally charged workday. What times do you find most dangerous and most challenging? These are the areas Ms. Rogers works hard on and covers in her corporate examples.
Where does stress originate, or " Chapter 16 - Overcoming the Amygdala Hijack"
The amygdala, toward the back of the head, is our oldest brain center; it functions for our survival - its our alarm system, and it basically disables other activity when we are threatened. But we don't always want to feel threatened or stressed, and according to Rogers, who quotes neurobiologist Richard Davidson, "people who are emotionally resilient have more of a positive mindset and have strong neural pathways from the prefrontal cortex to the amygdala." In other words, they can turn off the alarm and reboot...the negative feelings generated by the amygdala peter out, and they don't get mired in feelings like unhappiness or resentment. Its good to survive using the amygdala reactions, but even better to recover and reboot our other less emotional brain functions. Fortunately, says the author, we can practice and recover our more balanced brain skills using exercises presented in The HIdden Edge.
In "Four ways to Take Back Your Amygdala", the author recommends:
1. Meditation - four days can change your brain. Meditation or mindfulness training was pioneered in the 1970s, but it is now a basic post-cancer recovery treatment, and it works.
2. Count from 1 - 10.
If you're angry, count to ten in your mind before you say anything.
If you are very angry, count to one hundred. Thomas Jefferson
Although Jefferson could not have known it, he was turning off the amygdala fight or flight program.
3. Counting and Breathing
4. Silent Scream
Do the silent scream - or if you can find an underground bunker, scream aloud - until you run out of air! The author recommends "the best way to get it (adrenaline) through and out of your body is by acting as if you are in some sort of intense fight without having to be in one... If we all started to implement some of these tools, we'd be able to distance ourselves from the emotional charge, create some 'headspace', and make more considered choices.
Patricia E. Moody
FORTUNE magazine "Pioneering Woman in Mfg"
IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert
A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, patriciaemoody@gmail.com