Talk on the Inspireside –
Colin Falconer, Director of InspireChilli, takes an asset-based lens in search
of inspiring people and insights.
Episode 1. 'When asset-based thinking meets brain
science' - an interview with Bea Herbert, founder of ‘States of Mind’.
I decided to start my 'Talk on the Inspireside' series with Bea Herbert, winner of this year’s Bootstrap Enterprise
Bootcamp. Bea and I share a common passion for pushing beyond the norms
of problem-focused responses to youth disadvantage and mental health.
While my background draws from asset-based technology, Bea’s is in brain
science. Perhaps there is a synergy between the two, we began to wonder,
as we met over tea and chocolate biscuits at my Hackney HQ.
After a meeting of minds, we start our conversation
by sketching out some of the barriers that can lock people into risk-based deficit
patterns. While society wants to do good, I contend, many current forms
of funding and supporting good seem to entrench us further into controls that
restrict or reverse intended impact. Thus, while the underlying principle
of things like Universal Credit 'might' be progressive, their operational design can
be deeply flawed. It’s as though we are so busy treating people as problems to
cope with, that we never find the common sense ways to help them flourish. How
can we get closer to Aristotle’s vision of a ‘good life’?
‘Trust can be liberating,’ Bea offers in
reply. I imagine what the more trusting world of Universal Income might
look like, as though it could be the human equivalent to core funding
charities. But how often do we really trust people to be positive agents
of change? When do we properly invest in human capability?
We remind ourselves of the scenario. Our
society is spiralling into a space where we are increasingly disconnected from
each other. Worse, the more we are reminded of problems around us, the more we
retreat into this negative space. It’s a self-defeating defence mechanism
that reinforces the problems we are retreating from. Stressed into
a survival model – constantly waiting for resources to deal with more
problems – we create responses that are attuned to stress and survival:
that is, short-term, risk focused, self-preserving.
'If we look at the mindset of many organisations,’
Bea suggests, ‘they are often training people to focus on risk and meticulously
manage threat.'
We might intellectually engage with the idea of
stepping outside the negative space. Reality, however, keeps pulling us
back. The same old same old.
For Bea, some of the answers to this lie in
understanding stress and empathy. She describes to me how the brain
automatically works as a super computer for recognising threats. It
constantly scans the environment for negatives to react to. The more we feel we
are unable to cope, the stronger this radar becomes. That is a useful trait for
prehistoric landscapes, warzones, and life on the streets; but in other
settings proves counter-productive. Ultimately, living in a space of stress and
predicting an unknowable future makes for a highly anxious life.
‘Consider stress as a state of mind and observe its
presence in the world,’ Bea explains. ‘You can see the destabilising effect it
has on institutions, the individuals within them and society as a whole. Observe
the mind under stress, and we are given an insight into the capabilities that
are lost when operating in this state. Our decision making abilities are
impaired. Our ability to understand another person's point of view
becomes harder. Our brain cannot focus on the moment as we are pushed
into a state that is on guard for problems but less able to solve them.
The cycle can be broken but is perpetuated by our holding of the
experience. Trapped in rumination and analysis of 'imaginary' situations,
we get stuck in the 'trap' of distress.’
The ‘trap of distress’ is a powerful image. I
wonder if it is somehow connected with society’s endless ‘dissing’ of people
into the disadvantaged labelling and false fixing of ‘problems’. Is this
why we are never able to act on root causes and potential that would be obvious
to us if our decision making abilities were refocused? The good news, Bea
shares, is that the default position can be adjusted. Mastering other
parts of the brain and being more aware of the different states of mind we can
experience will help us harness ways out of stress.
‘An interesting thing about the stress response is
that along with the stress chemicals adrenaline and cortisol, our brains also
release oxytocin, the one that makes us feel full and calm and reassured. In
times of despair our body still offers us a choice. This chemical is released
in an attempt to provide a sense of connection. The more that is released,
through conversation, eye contact and a shift of attention towards the people
around us, the more the damaging effects of stress are neutralised and
repaired.’
Bea goes on to explore how people end up working in
environments that downplay the importance of honest, genuine human connection. The
consequence, for her, is reflected in increased anxiety levels and a sense of
'stuckness' within systems over focused on controlling what could go wrong, instead
of creating what could go right.
I note the irony that the best way to unstick the ‘trap
of distress’ is by feeling empathy through human interaction – the one thing
that being stressed often divides us from. Indeed, the very idea of threat can
make us even more isolated from the communications that might free us. As Bea puts it, ‘' We are living in a world
where it is not difficult to feel that a sense of threat and instability is
around us constantly. But when life is
seen as a struggle to get by, a stressed state of mind steals from us the
ability to access higher, creative, compassionate qualities. These are
the qualities we must focus on growing.’
Techniques and approaches to master all this form
part of Bea’s enterprise ‘States of Mind’. Her new Community Interest Company
offers exciting training programmes designed to equip young people with the
knowledge to talk about and listen to the mental states of themselves and
others in empowering ways. The vision for ‘States of Mind’ is easy to embrace:
‘We like to see ourselves as fixed and constant characters. The truth is that
such an existence is the opposite of human experience. By not acknowledging the
limiting, or liberating, effects of different mental states, we lose an
opportunity to better navigate through the varying versions of ourselves. 'States of Mind' offers a way towards greater awareness and a more honest
conversation to evolve our lives’.
As we talk, I am struck by the comparisons between
Bea’s descriptions of people and the behaviour of organisations. There is
no shortage of organisations committed to creating asset-based solutions. Yet, under
compliance, competition, funding and other pressures, the same organisations sometimes
end up repeating deficit practices and relationships. Can brain science help us
respond to the systemic stresses faced in trying to make an asset-based
approach work?
Bea and I agree that a shift in the organisational
state-of-mind is critical. It forms a natural part of the balancing act an asset-based approach brings to meeting needs while nurturing strengths.
Bea’s simple techniques, such as conscious systems of listening and support, open up the opportunity for a more
positive investment in human productivity and fulfilment. We reach for a
conclusion over a final chocolate biscuit: to take action on assets means using
our heads. Together. Empathetically.
A lot, lot more...
Find out more information about the work of States of Mind
at www.statesofmind.org
