#52: The Science of Communication

Did you know that what we say and how we say it affects our health and wellbeing? And leaders’ words can also reveal a lot about the health of our organizations. Dr. Laura McHale, business psychologist and author of Neuroscience for Organizational Communication, explains how we can use neuroscience to communicate in ways that can help transform organizations for the better. In this conversation, we explore how to apply neuroscience in formal and everyday communications to deal with stress, the case for corporate communications teams to normalize talking about grief and loss, how attachment theory applies in the workplace and neuroscience-based techniques for communicating with employees about change.

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Resources

Follow: Laura on her website

Read: Neuroscience for Organizational Communication: A Guide for Communicators and Leaders

Read: David Rock’s SCARF model

Read: The membership-based employment model in Japan

If you enjoy the show, please rate it on Spotify or iTunes and write a one-sentence review. Your ratings and reviews help more people like you discover the podcast!

Episode Highlights

   7:21  The harm causes by repressing our emotions

14:20  How textual analysis can predict financial performance

16:14  How using equivocal language that affects people and organizations

20:20 How the SCOAP model can be used for organizational communication

29:17  How attachment theory plays out in workplace relationships

32:38  Three neuroscience tactics to arrest the cascade of stress

40:13  Unmet wellbeing needs in workplaces

What “working with humans” means to Laura

“…it means being mindful of our richness of our emotional lives, and the richness of our somatic lives, how we show up physically how we set what we do, how and how that impacts the brain. We are animals we are and we need lighting and plants and art to look at and all sorts of things. I think that that's part of being of working with humans.”