Susan Britton explains how the brain craves certainty about duration, path, and outcome. When agreements are unclear, uncertainty floods the nervous system with adrenaline and norepinephrine, making people tense and defensive. A London study found that a 50% chance of electric shock caused more pain and agitation than knowing a shock was certain, showing how uncertainty amplifies stress.
So as I just mentioned in the earlier slide talking about that duration, path, outcome and how the brain is always trying to navigate those 3 pieces, if we don't have agreements in place, there is a great deal of uncertainty. The brain cannot figure out what is the duration, what is the path, what is the outcome. And it's interesting when you think about uncertainty, if there's a an overload of uncertainty, there's really— you're going to get a lot of adrenaline and norepinephrine— norepinephrine, I can say that— really pumped up into our systems. And so thinking about how do I lessen that uncertainty, how do I lessen that adrenaline within my client, or if I'm a coach-approached leader, within the people that I'm talking to, so that I can be sure to have their full attention, so that they're not as on guard, so as they're not so that they're not being so protective about trying to figure out where we're going in the conversation. So if you think about it, adrenaline really gives us that sort of tense feeling, but so that we can perform. I mean, it's fine when you've got adrenaline sort of floating through your system because let's say you're in a tennis match and you're ready to receive a serve and you're not sure where it's going to go. Adrenaline is fine in that sort of a situation. You need it to be able to move left, right, and hit the ball. In a coaching conversation or a communication of any sort as it relates to perhaps organizations and leadership, you have to have less adrenaline so that people can be present, so that they can hear, so that they're not busy defending their reputation and other perceived threats that they might have. It's interesting too, when the body actually has more uncertainty, it perceives more pain. There's a fascinating study that came out of London about 5, 6 years ago, and the researchers found that when they told the subject that they were definitely going to receive an electric shock, those participants had less agitation and felt less intensity around the shock versus those who were told they had a probable chance, about a 50% chance of receiving that electric shock, those folks were even more tense. They had more adrenaline, more epinephrine floating through their system and perceived greater pain as a result of that. So there's a lot to be said about how the body and the brain sort of processes all of that uncertainty.
Susan’s ICF Educator Award | The Heart Behind the Impact Katy Montgomery, PCC
