Recognizing Fear and the Lizard Brain

We have these great big brains. I am always amazed at the accomplishments of people working inside their heads and creating wonders.

We also have these great big lizard brains. Our lizard brain protected us during the epochs when we were being chased as a food source. Today our lizard brain- for the most part, just stands in the way of creating change.

This is OK if we account for our lizard brain and understand its impact on decision making. Seth Godin speaks eloquently on the subject of decision making and the lizard brain. We need perspective and we need rational processes to make decision based on what we know and what we can infer from experience and testing. But too often we just let our gut feeling and our lizard brain stop us in our tracks.

Now why am I making a big fuss about the lizard brain?

Because the concept of giving employees more slack in not conventional thinking and is just the type of concept which gets the lizard brain stirred up.

The concept of putting energy into a strategic content creation system requires higher level thinking that must contrast costs in dollars out of the wallet now for nice ROI in the near future but gains that are much more intangible....  and not so urgent.... but really important. For a business owner to have an effective internal conversation on either of these subjects, plus many more; he or she certainly has to have the lizard brain in his cage.

If we don’t account for our Lizard brain- it is not serving us well. It just might be causing us to stand still when the really smart thing would be to move.

The lizard brain does not differentiate between perceived risk and actual risk. In fact, the lizard brain merely fears change.

Dealing with the Lizard Brain

You can get the lizard brain under control by understanding your nervous tension, and rationally studying what is bothering you. You are seeing amorphous risk which needs to be drawn out and understand and you need a determination of what kind of action step would be relatively risk free and also provide a step forward to where you want to be.

Taking action that is not just guesswork or precipitous; but on the boundary between experience, and the hinterlands of change; makes sense.

You just need an actual plan that takes the first step and the second step and the 3rd step and then work in an analysis of what is happening.

And you can also determine what is a failure point. We learn from mistakes if we pay attention. And then we are smarter when we start again.

Oh, and here is a thought. What was the most expensive mistake you have ever made? It just might be related to hanging on to old technology that no longer was paying off. Like the Yellow Pages... the lizard brain kept you there long after you should have cut your losses. I am sure that is not true; but if partially true, but maybe there is a lesson to learn here helping to define an issue with the lizard brain.

You can be discouraged by failure, or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes, make all you can. Because, remember that's where you'll find success - on the far side of failure. - IBM founder - Thomas J. Watson

Bold is more fun.... when you have the risk well managed, of course.
What are your thoughts here? Have you ever had to deal with a lizard brain?
I am a salesman. I am often muttering about lizard brains. :)