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Why the act of recognizing Jane and her correlating positive reaction does does not yield the same results with John is a fascinating study of cognitive perception.
Our brains have greater impact upon successful recognition than we think.
Note, the act of giving recognition is a new stimulus, or set of information, for the brain to process. In fact, the brain goes through a minimum of four steps to process such information.
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So Bob approaches John and thanks him for getting a monthly report completed within three days after the end of the month. The first thing our brain does is looks back within the memory bank to compare this information of being “thanked”. Novel experiences are hard to process as there is nothing to compare to it to. Similar experiences from the past can actually be ignored and become status quo. This is especially the case when we give the generalized statements like “Thanks for getting this report in on time,” or simply “Great job!”
Calculate Causation
Our brain then goes into detective mode and tries to observe and perceive this data of “recognition received” to figure out the “why” – “what does Bob really want?”, “He never thanked me before, why now?”, “Why is he always so trite?” And based upon whatever past experiences we have had we actually formulate a theory for the cause for this novel or oft repeated expression of acknowledgement.
Predicting Outcome
Based on our formulation of a theory we predict what will be the outcome from the expressed thanks. “I knew it! – Bob just wants me to get another report done for him”. Or it might end up being, “Wow! Bob is becoming pretty genuine with everyone around the office. Looks like he has changed!” When we generate a correct hypothesis our brain can resume a more placid state and ignore such interactions. When we can’t seem to put things together, then something else happens.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the process of dealing with discomfort of two contradictory ideas at the same time. “How come Bob is being nice to me all of a sudden?” So we end up having a motivation drive to put some order to our attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. We do this by either changing or justifying our attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. So the ideas we hold in our brain about people, places and things are pretty locked in until proven otherwise.
So as you can see it takes our brain quite a bit of processing to perceive recognition actions or words as actually recognition. We had better make our attempts at recognition giving more “brain friendly” by doing some things like the following:
1. Always be specific with expressing what the person did and how that made a difference.
2. Strive to be consistent with your recognition giving behaviours so it cannot be misinterpreted.
3. Understand where other people’s brains are at and prepare to address people’s (their brains!) concerns.
Our brains have greater impact upon successful recognition than we think.
Note, the act of giving recognition is a new stimulus, or set of information, for the brain to process. In fact, the brain goes through a minimum of four steps to process such information.
Register and Compare
So Bob approaches John and thanks him for getting a monthly report completed within three days after the end of the month. The first thing our brain does is looks back within the memory bank to compare this information of being “thanked”. Novel experiences are hard to process as there is nothing to compare to it to. Similar experiences from the past can actually be ignored and become status quo. This is especially the case when we give the generalized statements like “Thanks for getting this report in on time,” or simply “Great job!”
Calculate Causation
Our brain then goes into detective mode and tries to observe and perceive this data of “recognition received” to figure out the “why” – “what does Bob really want?”, “He never thanked me before, why now?”, “Why is he always so trite?” And based upon whatever past experiences we have had we actually formulate a theory for the cause for this novel or oft repeated expression of acknowledgement.
Predicting Outcome
Based on our formulation of a theory we predict what will be the outcome from the expressed thanks. “I knew it! – Bob just wants me to get another report done for him”. Or it might end up being, “Wow! Bob is becoming pretty genuine with everyone around the office. Looks like he has changed!” When we generate a correct hypothesis our brain can resume a more placid state and ignore such interactions. When we can’t seem to put things together, then something else happens.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the process of dealing with discomfort of two contradictory ideas at the same time. “How come Bob is being nice to me all of a sudden?” So we end up having a motivation drive to put some order to our attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. We do this by either changing or justifying our attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. So the ideas we hold in our brain about people, places and things are pretty locked in until proven otherwise.
So as you can see it takes our brain quite a bit of processing to perceive recognition actions or words as actually recognition. We had better make our attempts at recognition giving more “brain friendly” by doing some things like the following:
1. Always be specific with expressing what the person did and how that made a difference.
2. Strive to be consistent with your recognition giving behaviours so it cannot be misinterpreted.
3. Understand where other people’s brains are at and prepare to address people’s (their brains!) concerns.
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