The subconscious mind at work

How responsible are we for social circuitry in the workplace?

How much of your behavior are you aware of? Take a guess in the poll below (in the app or on the website).

The grand reveal

Estimates vary, but research shows that as much as 95% of our behavior is subconscious. This means that most of what we do is driven by the part of the mind that processes information and influences behavior without our awareness.

95 percent!

For me, that’s a bit of an OhMyGod. No wonder it gets so messy at work. We’re just careening around “subconsciousing” on each other.

The subconscious mind processes vast amounts of data from past experiences and environmental cues. This is a marvelous evolutionary trait. It makes our brains super efficient, preserving our energy (literally glucose) and allowing us to react quickly in complex environments. For example, our brains automate repetitive tasks (such as driving), emotional responses (defensive reactions), decision-making (what to eat for lunch), memory and learning (interpreting social cues), social behavior (matching body language), intuition (sensing something is “off”), and more. Three cheers for automation!

The subconscious at work

So what does this mean at work? I’m still exploring this, but I want to share my raw thinking and hear your thoughts. Here are a few things I’m pondering.

1. If most of our behavior at work is unconscious, why do we take one another’s behavior so personally? What assumptions are we making about one another?

2. What sort of education / training / behavior modification would be most effective at creating healthy cultures that run on automatic (in the 95%)? I have not personally seen a corporate training that focused on learning things so well that they became subconscious. But it seems like a worthy goal.

3. What sort of responsibility do we have to become aware of our subconsciously driven behaviors at work?