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The Surprising Effectiveness of Coaching in Diminishing Burnout Symptoms

The Surprising Effectiveness of Coaching in Diminishing Burnout Symptoms

by | 2023 Oct 6 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

A pilot program that successfully reduced burnout among female medical residents has shown even greater results on a national level in the USA.

You are a coach so is this really surprising?

As a coach I have seen how effective coaching can be in multiple areas in life. But this is surprising for numerous reasons.

Firstly, the larger follow up study was more effective than the initial pilot study.

Secondly, the effectiveness is in reducing signs of burnout which some may believe are harder to impact with coaching (not me though).

Thirdly, because of how the intervention was carried out with virtual and filmed group sessions – so not just one-on-one which may would think has the potential to be more effective.

Oh wow! So how was this carried out then?

Well, first off let’s understand the population group. This was targeted at female medical residents. As I’m sure most of us are aware the medical professions are at high risk of burnout for multiple reasons: workload, responsibility, long and changing working hours, high regulatory hurdles, etc. Women more so for additional reasons such as discrimination in the workplace.

The pilot programme in 2021 had positive outcomes with improved ratings by participants on imposter syndrome and personal compassion. The expansion of this programme by Adrienne Mann et al. University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus was conducted in 26 institutions across 19 states with a total of 1017 participants.

That’s an impressive study size – what were the results then?

Very good. Very good indeed. Those that participated in the four-month programme saw substantial reduction in all levels of professional distress including burnout (using the Maslach Burnout Inventory with its sub scales), moral injury, and imposter syndrome; and improvements in wellbeing such as self-compassion, and flourishing.

That’s excellent news! Note that just a one point increase in the Maslach Burnout inventory has been associated with a 7% increase in suicidal ideation and a 5-6% increase in major medical errors. So good for the individual but also good for the medical system and institution.

You mentioned this was group coaching – how was this done?

This is also interesting because this was done in group coaching scenarios but also with some participants being passive i.e. just listening in. Participants could take part in group coaching session on any topic with up to five coachees. However, other participants could also log in to follow the session. The sessions were also recorded for participants to view privately at a later date if they so wished.

In addition they also had access to and could participate in anonymous written coaching in which they could write a narrative reflection and this was then responded to by a coach.

That’s interesting and this was obviously effective?!

Yes, indeed it obviously was effective. I found it fascinating that this combination seems so effective. And that is also good news it shows that access to coaching is the key factor and that alternative, and also more efficient and cost effective methods can also be very impactful.

And on a side note aren’t you also doing study into wellbeing in the workplace in healthcare are professions?

Yes, correct. We already have good results for the English version of the SCOAP-profile (based on our SCOAP theory) and are doing a study in German now. We are also including a cohort of healthcare workers precisely because it is profession that has high susceptibility to burnout.

And German speakers can take part here – as a thank you, you will get your full SCOAP report and be the first to get the results of the study.

We also hope this will point to more effective interventions.

But for now, we can say that we know that coaching interventions seem to be highly effective for female medical residents

Yes, great to have that solid data in – I strongly suspect it is not just for female medical residents but broad population groups as well!

 

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Adrienne Mann, Ami N. Shah, Pari Shah Thibodeau, Liselotte Dyrbye, Adnan Syed, Maria A. Woodward, Kerri Thurmon, Christine D. Jones, Kimiko S. Dunbar, Tyra Fainstad.
Online Well-Being Group Coaching Program for Women Physician Trainees.
JAMA Network Open, 2023; 6 (10): e2335541
DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35541

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When Love Overrides Other Needs

When Love Overrides Other Needs

by | 2023 Oct 4 | Decision Making, Public, Quick Hits, Society Brains

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

Of course love overrides everything – how could you think differently?!

Well, no it wouldn’t make sense for love to override everything – we need to be alive to love. The question though, is how do competing needs play out in our brain.

If you’re thirst and hungry, or hungry and afraid, what do you prioritise and how does the brain do this?

And what’s this got to do with love?

Well, it’s not really love but potential love (or unromantically: potential mating partner) – and in this piece of research it’s in birds, zebra finches to be precise.

In birds?

Yes, it’s not just mice in neuroscience labs. Andrea Roemer et al. of Cornell University wanted to find out how needs compete with each other in animal models. There is plenty of research into motivation for single needs but little on competing needs.

“Love” is also a bit of a stretch of the imagination, or a very human interpretation. Specifically in this case brain signals of a lone male thirsty zebra finch were measured using optogenetics (i.e. very precise measurement of neuronal activity in real time).

First they were recorded as the thirsty finch was given water and trained to recognise signals for water – but then the researcher added a female zebra finch to see what would happen.

Oh, interesting and what did happen?

First off, we know that dopamine, you will have likely heard for me previously, is triggered by small rewards such as drinking and eating. Dopamine is also considered a motivation transmitter in the brain – triggering motivation to engage in an activity such as getting said drink or food. It is also involved in addiction.

The question now is does adding an extra need, or motivation, mix up dopamine systems, or switch between them, or something else. And then what is prioritised?

…and…

And when the female finch was added to the scenario what happened is that the male zebra finch, who had been trained to recognise a signal for water, ignored the signal and this was accompanied by the dopamine signal being switched off.

So the dopamine system stopped activating to thirst?

Precisely – and it is important to understand that this is biological. We often talk of “psychological” mechanisms but here we can see that this is not “psychological”, switching to another focus, but the signalling mechanism in the brain being deactivated when a new potential reward is added.

And is this really love?

Well, no. But maybe in zebra finch terms it is. What it shows is that attraction to the other sex can trump a simple emotion such as thirst – but this may depend on how severe that other need is.

But it also neatly explain some phenomenon such as how we can ignore certain needs under certain conditions – later the finch may have felt doubly thirsty because of his brain switching from one need to another.

In this case it also shows that there was no real competition in the brain – it wasn’t different dopamine networks fighting it out with each other, rather a damping of the dopamine response in one area of the brain.

It also shows that our brains are constantly rebalancing our needs according to current environmental conditions.

And that male zebra finches prioritise crumpet over other needs

Or prioritise love!

For a deep dive into the brain and love see Your Brain on Love

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Andrea Roeser, Vikram Gadagkar, Anindita Das, Pavel A. Puzerey, Brian Kardon, Jesse H. Goldberg.
Dopaminergic error signals retune to social feedback during courtship.
Nature, 2023
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06580-w

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The Negative Social Impact of Dealing with AI in the Workplace

The Negative Social Impact of Dealing with AI in the Workplace

by | 2023 Sep 29 | Business Brains, Organisational Leadership, Personal Performance, Public, Quick Hits, Senior Leadership, Team Leadership

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

AI is a very hot topic at the moment. It is considered a tool that will be able to do everything and essentially replace human beings in the workplace. Not to mention the existential threat that some see. But at a more pragmatic level just working with AI seems like it can have some unintended consequences. Read on:

So what is negative about dealing with AI? Feeling stupid, maybe?

I suppose it could be, but I think most people see it as a tool to get more of what they want at the moment. This research looked at the psychological impacts of dealing with AI in the workplace in four locations (U.S., Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia).

Ok, I’m intrigued, what did they find?

Tang et al. conducted studies in four countries that explored the impacts of interaction with AI. This included working as often as possible with AI systems for a three-week period and tracking psychological impacts with surveys. In another study half of the cohort wer instructed to avoid working with AI systems for three days and the other half to maximise their work with AI systems. They also included surveys of family members to report on other factors at home.

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Oh wow, I like that idea? But you still haven’t told my what they found…

I’m getting there. The findings across all the studies and groups was consistent, it is important to note, suggesting that this is not cultural. So what did they find? They found that interactions with AI:

  • Increased feelings of loneliness

  • Increased insomnia

  • Increased after-work drinking

But there are some positive effects too…

Oh, that is fascinating – so it seems that interacting with “machines” actually does impact our social system. But why sleep and drinking?

Yes, fascinating. The loneliness could be intuited – after all if you’re interacting less with human beings, or less than usual, loneliness could be a logical consequence. We do know that social interaction is also rewarding and can calm anxiety – so maybe the increased anxiety is causing sleep disruptions and desire for rewards such as in drinking. That is all supposition though.

But there were some positive knock-on effects.

Oh, what were they?

They found that those who interacted a lot with AI were more willing to help others in the workplace!

Oh wow – lack of social interactions make people more helpful?!

Yes, it seems like the lack of social interaction makes people want to be more social and therefore more helpful. What is also interesting is the effect of personal social anxiety on this which was also measured.

And what was that?

Those who were more socially anxious, i.e. more worried or nervous about their social connections, responded stronger. On both sides. So they became more lonely than those who were less social anxious, but they also become more helpful!

That is surprising!

Kind of. Their high anxiety would make them more responsive.

Ok so what does this mean?

The researchers were quick to point out that this is correlational data and doesn’t prove causation, though one study did compare different scenarios. However, it would make sense that lowering interactions with human beings in favour of AI has an impact. Whether this is short- or long-term, or could be naturally compensated by other mechanisms, such as those helping behaviours, remains something for future studies to tease out.

For now we know that there are more than likely consequences, and unintended consequences, of working with AI that are very human.

Well, that makes me happy that I’ve got you to talk to!

Are you sure I’m not an AI programme…

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Pok Man Tang, Joel Koopman, Ke Michael Mai, David De Cremer, Jack H. Zhang, Philipp Reynders, Chin Tung Stewart Ng, I-Heng Chen.
No person is an island: Unpacking the work and after-work consequences of interacting with artificial intelligence.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 2023
DOI: 10.1037/apl0001103

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How the Gut Influences Brain Development in Babies

How the Gut Influences Brain Development in Babies

by | 2023 Sep 27 | Healthy Brains, Public, Quick Hits, Society Brains

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

Are you suggesting that the gut influences the brain – how on earth can that happen?

Yes, but when I say the gut I mean specifically the microbiome of the gut – that is the collection of bacteria in our guts. Which are plentiful.

What, our gut bacteria can help with brain development?

Yes, this has been well-documented in recent years. We all have hundreds and thousand of different strains of bacteria in our guts. And the balance of these seem to have a surprisingly large impact on our health. And that includes brain health and in this case brain development.

How on earth can that happen?

Well, there are multiple ways and we are not sure exactly how all of these work. But an example is that a class called bacteroidetes produce metabolites called sphingolipids, which are instrumental in the formation and structuring of neurons in the brain.

So, a healthy balance of bacteroidetes is a massive bonus of the developing brain (actually any brain).

Oh wow, and what did these researchers find?

In this exploratory study, published in PLOS in August, Sebastian Hunter et al. found that certain bacterial strains were associated with increased cognitive functionality but they also measured brain processing responses (to sounds) in babies 4-6 months old.

They found that those with higher, or lower, proportions of certain strains performed better and had more rapid brain responses.

Specifically, if you’re interested in the details, negatively to Bifidobacterium, and positively to the abundance of Clostridium and Enterococcus.

Ok, and do they know why?

There are multiple ways that your gut bacteria can influence your health but they did note a positive association with metabolic pathways – and this included, for example, if you want to know the technical details, something called branched chain amino acid biosynthesis and the pentose phosphate pathway.

Basically stuff that helps with brain development.

Oh wow – and can this be influenced?

Yes, we can influence our microbiomes and that of our children. I speak about some of the mechanisms here. We know that vaginal brith is good for the microbiome in babies, as is breastfeeding. Minimising use of antibiotics also.

For us, as adults, our diet is essential – lots of natural high-fibre food such as fresh fruit and vegetables and avoiding highly-processed foods counts for a lot.

Is it the same for us adults as well?

Indeed, yes, the microbiome has been shown to be very important for health and brain function in adults as well.

Eat your greens, then!

Yup, and rolling around in the dirt also seems to be beneficial!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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Reference

Sebastian Hunter, Erica Flaten, Charisse Petersen, Judit Gervain, Janet F. Werker, Laurel J. Trainor, Brett B. Finlay.
Babies, bugs and brains: How the early microbiome associates with infant brain and behavior development.
PLOS ONE, 2023; 18 (8): e0288689
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288689

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Your Brain’s Own Cannabinoid Molecules Calm You Down

Your Brain’s Own Cannabinoid Molecules Calm You Down

by | 2023 Sep 25 | Healthy Brains, Public, Quick Hits

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Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

Making fast and accurate decisions is the goal right?

Right. But we know from research that there is a speed/accuracy trade off i.e. the faster you make a decisions the more it is likely to be inaccurate.

 

And what has dopamine got to do with this – I thought dopamine was a reward chemical also known for the little dopamine “hits” on social media.

Yes, dopamine is related to reward – as you mentioned particularly with reward learning i.e. you do something and get a reward – in the classic rat experiments they get something to eat.

But dopamine is also involved in movement – Parkinson’s is also related to dopamine and L-Dopa the common Parkinson’s medication simply boosts dopamine. Dopamine is also considered one of the key motivation chemicals.

Ok, and what did these researchers do?

The researchers from the University of Cologne in Germany had participants (humans not rats that is!) do various computer-based reward learning tasks. They did this under various conditions with L-Dopa for example, to boost dopamine, or with placebo.

And what were the results?

By using these computer-based learning scenarios they were more accurately able to measure responses and accuracy. And indeed they noticed that dopamine did increase this speed vs accuracy divide. Meaning that dopamine increases decision-making speed but at the expense of accuracy.

Ummm that’s kind of not the best thing then!

Yes, dopamine motivates and drives action, and in this scenario it increased decision making speed. But that may not necessarily be a good things if accuracy loses.

But if you have trouble making decisions then dopamine might help?

We’re a long way from using supplements to improve decision making despite what some “biohackers” may claim. Sure, for those who can’t make decisions and for some forms of ADHD a dopamine boost may help ability to make or get to decisions, which could be very useful. But for most of us that is not the case.

And a reminder to slow down sometimes to increase accuracy?

Yes, indeed!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

Reference

Karima Chakroun, Antonius Wiehler, Ben Wagner, David Mathar, Florian Ganzer, Thilo van Eimeren, Tobias Sommer, Jan Peters.
Dopamine regulates decision thresholds in human reinforcement learning in males.
Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41130-y

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Role of Dopamine in Speed and Accuracy of Decisions

Role of Dopamine in Speed and Accuracy of Decisions

by | 2023 Sep 22 | Business Brains, Decision Making, Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

Making fast and accurate decisions is the goal right?

Right. But we know from research that there is a speed/accuracy trade off i.e. the faster you make a decisions the more it is likely to be inaccurate.

 

And what has dopamine got to do with this – I thought dopamine was a reward chemical also known for the little dopamine “hits” on social media.

Yes, dopamine is related to reward – as you mentioned particularly with reward learning i.e. you do something and get a reward – in the classic rat experiments they get something to eat.

But dopamine is also involved in movement – Parkinson’s is also related to dopamine and L-Dopa the common Parkinson’s medication simply boosts dopamine. Dopamine is also considered one of the key motivation chemicals.

Ok, and what did these researchers do?

The researchers from the University of Cologne in Germany had participants (humans not rats that is!) do various computer-based reward learning tasks. They did this under various conditions with L-Dopa for example, to boost dopamine, or with placebo.

And what were the results?

By using these computer-based learning scenarios they were more accurately able to measure responses and accuracy. And indeed they noticed that dopamine did increase this speed vs accuracy divide. Meaning that dopamine increases decision-making speed but at the expense of accuracy.

Ummm that’s kind of not the best thing then!

Yes, dopamine motivates and drives action, and in this scenario it increased decision making speed. But that may not necessarily be a good things if accuracy loses.

But if you have trouble making decisions then dopamine might help?

We’re a long way from using supplements to improve decision making despite what some “biohackers” may claim. Sure, for those who can’t make decisions and for some forms of ADHD a dopamine boost may help ability to make or get to decisions, which could be very useful. But for most of us that is not the case.

And a reminder to slow down sometimes to increase accuracy?

Yes, indeed!

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Premium Brain
Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

twitter / LinkedIn

Reference

Karima Chakroun, Antonius Wiehler, Ben Wagner, David Mathar, Florian Ganzer, Thilo van Eimeren, Tobias Sommer, Jan Peters.
Dopamine regulates decision thresholds in human reinforcement learning in males.
Nature Communications, 2023; 14 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41130-y

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