Behavioral Science

Behavioral science has now been recognized as an integral part of business’s growth and success. The focus of individual and organizational change and the knowledge and techniques which you can use assists in helping you change.

You learn to balance the productive thought with your creative thought.  Say for instance you realise you are confronted with a life changing event.  Even something like you realise you are going bald.  The creative side will panic and think of ways to emotionally respond to your crisis.  The practical thinking will endeavour to research and find a solution.

What you learn from Alcoholics Anonymous was that feelings and upsets distort thinking, perceptions and actions. "Don't make any important decisions for the first year in the program" was wise advice to people who were faced with major decisions in the midst of intense disruption. At the same time, most people hear in AA, "I can't afford the luxury of that feeling". Others begin to stop doing or focusing on things that "made them feel bad", and began to focus on and do things that felt "good". This was different from "stuffing feelings", an activity that focuses on the unpleasant feelings and makes them worse, and also saves them for later.

Combine these thoughts and methods and people will begin to notice that you could make better decisions in life you feel relax and pleasant, and you take time to change feelings and enjoy. That's different from Pollyanna, who made believe. As one person said, “I was affirmed in feeling perfectly awful, as long as I wished. Just don't believe what you think or observe at those times. During those serene times ("for today" is the expression in Al-Anon) I could both enjoy my life and think and act in ways that I could trust represented who I really am, not out of distorted intensities like guilt, anger, loneliness or fear.”

Read the rest of this person is story right here……

“Over the next several years I discovered that stress caused illnesses, and noticed things like the personal isolation that was a major part of the treatment for tuberculosis. There was even some evidence that the recovery program of AA would work effectively for tuberculosis patients (the founder of the National Council on Alcoholism was both and recovered from both through AA, and others affirmed the discovery). All of this came to an end through the use of antibiotics.

It was a phrase in my family, "my resistance was down and I got a cold", and we worked to build up that old resistance. Over the years, when I found myself in a "helper" role in life, and a staff member at a mental hospital, I continued to notice the connections among various illnesses and various feelings, like sadness and sore throats. Being a huge man, I was often asked to help calm down an unruly and psychotic patient, and I did what everyone does on a hospital ward. I talked of ease and calmness and in a short time the psychosis would abate and the patient would calm down. In fact (this was the days before drugs) if the patient were put in a straight jacket the calming would be much longer in coming. And, me being a resourceful and risk taking person, would see the patient later and talk about what the patient was saying while psychotic. More times than not the psychosis would begin to return. Then I would shift his focus to serenity and watch it go, then back to the feelings which supported the psychosis. Some patients were delighted when I offered that they take over, and in and out of psychosis they would go. I began to find that they could use some of what I learned in AA and Al-Anon to make serenity and clarity part of their lives.

Learning more about feelings led to the physical wellness work. Feelings are physiological events in the body. They are things that the person does, while we learn to believe that they happen to us. That's not surprising, since once you do something, like create a feelings state, and then you associate that with something else, like how people respond when you feel that way, you have now rehearsed an association and created a behavior pattern. That means that every time you think, "I wish they would act this way" it restimulates the feeling and, lo, they do! Now you will notice that they learn to "push your buttons" by placing a restimulator before you. They now "make you feel this way". Simply add this to childhood experience with illness (everyone pays attention to your illness, or to poor sick grandma). Now you have a system of behavior in which your body automatically holds those feelings which cause illness for you, and lo and behold you are sick and loved for it. You have more to say about your illness than you have been led to believe.”

Performance Shaping Factors

There are many forces which determine staff performance. Because they are unaware, they can be measured and managed. Many of these are unseen and cause nonproductive behavior. The Performance Shaping Factors can be identified, tamed and made to work for you. When you learn to manage the Performance Shaping Factors, rather than trying to manage each individual, these forces automatically cause productive and accurate work among your staff.

Did you ever wonder?

The boss calls you into his office or an employee stops by with a complaint. Right away you know just what they will say and how they will act. Did you ever wonder how it is that you can predict with more accuracy than psychologists, consultants or therapists?? They are equipped with mysterious knowledge and secret methods. They are also expensive. The fact is, as you have already guessed, that you already know what it is you need to know about how you and your organization behave and think.

Thinking

Thinking is a learned process. Each person thinks differently. Anyone can learn new ways of thinking, although many become frightened of trainers tinkering with their thinking because it appears to be a personal and private part of life. They resist learning new ways. So, while product development is going on, people with productive thinking habits will interfere with people who are imaginative. Then, when it gets to the production stage, the creative minds will interfere by offering a better product when it's too late to produce it. Thinking produces poor performance when it is inappropriate. Thinking produces excellence, accuracy, productivity when it is "in tune".

Dynamic Thinking

As with any kind of thinking, dynamic thinking is already automatic for some people. The gyroscope at rest which is made to stand and is then pushed over responds predictably. The spinning gyroscope, when pushed over, seems to respond unpredictably. Dynamic thinking predicts the effects of the inertia of ongoing systems. Without this form of thinking, how individuals behave in an organization remains mysterious, unthinkable.

Thought and Stress

Probably the most significant knowledge brought to you by the Designed Change Process is how various levels and kinds of stress alter how you think. Although everyone experiences this, few notice. When you want to concentrate you generate various forms of stress, like "I've GOT to get this done". When you wish to make a complex decision, you may not know how important it is to relax and provide yourself with "cognitive flexibility". As a matter of fact, the very importance of the decision itself may increase stress, narrow your thinking and spoil your decision. The Designed Change Process can help you learn how to think in the manner that is most appropriate and productive for the moment.