Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Danielle Cobo
Today's guest is Dr. Brita. She is an internationally recognized thought leader who uses her background in leadership, neuroscience, psychology, and education to create brain science based solutions for today's workplace challenges. Brit is a former COO for Linda dot. Also known as LinkedIn learning and has over 10 million views worldwide of her online courses.
Danielle Cobo
She is also an author and in 2021, she was named a top 20 learning influencer and a top 20 HR influencer for leadership development. Thank you so much for joining today.
Britta Andreatta
Thank you, Danielle, I'm excited to talk with you and connect with your listeners.
Danielle Cobo
I have thoroughly enjoyed checking out your website, reading some snippets of your book and also watching some of your LinkedIn learning courses.
Danielle Cobo
You've had a very interesting career journey. And will you please share with our audience where you started and how you got to where you're at today? Really talking about brain. Okay.
Britta Andreatta
I started off in higher ed. I was getting my PhD and ended up staying at UC Santa Barbara where I was a Dean and a professor, and I studied student success.
Britta Andreatta
So I created a lot of student success programs for undergraduates, veterans, graduate students. And I developed a pretty. Robust leadership development program. And then after being there 20 years, I've I felt like I was kind of done with working in that particular environment. So I jumped over to linda.com where I was the chief learning officer.
Britta Andreatta
And that's when I actually studied neuroscience. I just wanted to be better at my craft cuz I was designing, learning for all of our members as well as our employees. I was just struck by how much new information had been discovered about the brain and how we learned. So that turned into. A lunch and learn talk, which became a keynote, which became my first book.
Britta Andreatta
And then linda.com was purchased by LinkedIn. I was certified in all the change management models. And as we were going through that acquisition, which I was personally very excited about, but still having this huge emotional roller coaster. And I realized we did not know anything about change. So I thought, huh, I wonder what brain science says about change.
Britta Andreatta
So that became book number two, wired to resist. I was like, I guess I'm doing this. I guess I'm gonna be the person that T. Neuroscience to the work world. So that led to book number three, which is wired to connect all about teams and inclusion and collaboration. And I'm currently working on book number four, which will come out in 2023 wired to become, and it'll be about innovation, purpose, and potential.
Danielle Cobo
I had no idea that your company was the platform for LinkedIn learning concept and where it's at today, how you have built this company and was providing so many different resources for your own students on education. And now it has turned into where it's at today, where. Thousands of videos that are on LinkedIn learning and everything from project management courses to job search strategies to leading through change.
Danielle Cobo
You really revolutionized some of the resources that are available to us through LinkedIn learning because of the platform that you were created, right from the beginning.
Britta Andreatta
Well, let me clarify. linda.com was created by Linda Wineman, the woman and her husband, Bruce Haven. I got to work there as their chief learning officer.
Britta Andreatta
But they absolutely were way ahead of the curve in terms of leveraging the power of video instruction. Uh, I contributed by bringing kind of the learning science perspective so we could improve the product and, my own courses are in the library, but absolutely. And then LinkedIn with the power of their platform have been able to now share learning all over the in multiple languages and have just expanded Linda's vision.
Britta Andreatta
Um, so much, it's just wonderful to see how much people learn. And I get comments from people all over the world that I'll never meet in person who have watched one of my courses and, I feel connected to them. So pretty awesome.
Danielle Cobo
You've talked a little bit about, and some of the books, have you talked about wired to change and wired through?
Danielle Cobo
There's a lot of things that we go through in life, whether it's, changing in a job or whether it's something that's happened personally in our lives, we're constantly going through change. and especially in the workplace, when we've had change through this pandemic, whether it's expansions or downsizing or difference in working remotely Than the office and through these changes, sometimes we can resist a little bit. And so how are some different ways that we can thrive through change?
Britta Andreatta
Well, let me first talk about why we resist, cuz I think once people understand that it's helpful. this, this surprised me when I was doing the research, but it turns out that our body.
Britta Andreatta
Seas change as potentially dangerous. So if you think about how we're wired, our amygdala is designed to kick off that flight or flight response to help us survive. And how it does is, our senses are constantly scanning our environment. And the first signal that something bad is gonna happen is something changes.
Britta Andreatta
There's a loud noise. There's a smell of smoke. There's a growl in the Bush over there. So we're wired to see change as the precursor to danger. And we only kind of settle down once we get enough information to know that it's not so. We're not being difficult when we resist change. It's part of our biology is to look at change suspiciously, and then oftentimes leaders, you know, they spend a lot of time thinking about a change and they announce a change, but we know that humans just naturally go through this process of first being skeptical.
Britta Andreatta
Worried, maybe a little bit excited, but frustrated, stressed, you even depressed and anxious. Like we go through a predictable pattern of emotions around change and that's because we're wired to look at it as potentially dangerous and look at all the ways it could go badly or all the things we could lose.
Britta Andreatta
So if you feel like you sometimes are a Negative Nellie in your head, that's your biology. It's not really your personality. It's just what gets set off with change. But the good news is eventually we work through that. It takes us a little while, but eventually we get on board with the change we make sense of it.
Britta Andreatta
We. Our leaders can do a better job of helping us get on board and get used to the change. And then we can even start to look forward to it and get excited about it. So that's the first thing that kind of gets labeled as resistance is just, oh, this is a little bit scary and I've got a lot of worries about it.
Britta Andreatta
And then the second reason we kind of resist change is that. We are habit forming creatures. In fact, there's a part of our brain, the basal ganglia that's designed to help us take a behavior and turn it into an automatic pilot activity that we don't have to think about. Cuz the brain's trying to conserve energy.
Britta Andreatta
An example I like to share with people is remember when you were learning how to drive a car. And how much focus and concentration that took and adjusting the mirrors and working with the speed and steering. And for some of us a clutch, if we had, a stick shift car, but now you can drive to work and not even think about the act of driving your body knows how to drive.
Britta Andreatta
So that's the basal ganglia. when we're doing change at work, or even if we think about the pandemic, people have well grouped habits that are comfortable and easy and they don't have to think about, and then usually change requires them to not only develop a new habit, which is awkward, uncomfortable, and just.
Britta Andreatta
Yucky for a while, until we get used to it, we often are asked to let go of something that was comfortable and easy. And so we might even resist changing the behavior cuz we like the old behavior better. So those are a couple reasons why we resist change. and I like to just normalize that for people, because once you understand that you can be a little bit more patient with yourself, or if you lead others, you can be a little bit more patient with how they of respond to it.
Danielle Cobo
It's good to hear that sometimes that label of being a negative Nelly is not necessarily who we are, but sometimes our body's natural reactions to resist the change. So that is very reassuring to hear.
Britta Andreatta
Yeah, our brain is a meaning-making machine. So in the absence of information, we will always fill in worst-case scenario always because that helps us survive. If we think of the worst, we're more prepared to survive. So that's why when I work with leaders, I'm always talking to them about you wanna be really forthcoming with the narrative and information, because if you leave them any room to interpret it, they're gonna go negative, not being difficult, being human.
Danielle Cobo
There's a lot of value in transparency. Sometimes we will make decisions without knowing all of the facts and then that worry comes up and the assumptions come to the forefront of our mind, and it may be furthest from the truth. And there's so much value in having transparency, especially in the work environment.
Danielle Cobo
And especially when there's change. For sure. For sure.
Danielle Cobo
Tell me a little bit, what are maybe some action steps that we can take once we've gone through that resistance phase? How can we get out of it?
Britta Andreatta
Great question. we kind of naturally do on our own, but there is ways we can make it easier and faster.
Britta Andreatta
So first of all, hopefully your leaders are doing a good job of giving you consistent, transparent information, but if they're not, you can empower yourself by going and asking questions, digging around a little bit. finding out what's really happening and maybe just checking your assumptions and just being aware that you're gonna naturally kind of jump to worst case scenario.
Britta Andreatta
So participate by digging in a little bit. I also think that change is, easier to go through when you do it with friends, so that you're kind of on this journey together and supporting each other. So if you're going through a major change, you know, intentionally partner up with people who are going through that change too, and then you can support each other through.
Britta Andreatta
I also like to remind people that change is stressful on the body. know, before the pandemic, I used to say it's like flu season. And when flu season comes around, we do a few things to take care of ourselves. We'll wash our hands more, we'll eat more veggies. We'll try to get better sleep.
Britta Andreatta
Now that seems, like a it brings up post traumatic stress syndrome for people when we talk about it now, but. You have to remember, change is stressful and you can only handle so much change at a time. So like my husband and I, every six months, we kind of evaluate how much change is coming, how much change is on our plates and we're intentional around, okay, we gotta dial up self care or whether we better dial down socializing or, know, taking trips at that point. Be intentional about managing your energy and self care. And then a last tip is, you know, if you can gamify it at all, it helps. Like if you can, with your teammates, create points for achieving each level or intentionally having high fives and pizza parties, the brain wants some reward for going through change.
Britta Andreatta
And what we typically do is we start critiquing it. Oh, we're over budget. Oh, we're behind schedule. And so the brain, if it doesn't get some reward for all that it's already doing, it can start to say, oh, change is always negative. So we. More resistant to future change. Sowe still wanna hold people to good standards of behavior, but first say high five, we accomplished X, Y, and Z.
Britta Andreatta
Now we're two weeks behind schedule. How do we go faster? Don't skip the reward and high five part it's important.
Danielle Cobo
So, what I'm hearing you say is definitely be intentional of the people that you surround yourself with. and to take that a step further in surrounding yourself with people that are also experiencing the change, but also people that are going to lift you up, support you and be a little bit of more of that positive side versus the people that kind of get.
Danielle Cobo
Stuck in that dwelling of the resistance of change. So really being intentional with the people that you surround yourself with is one thing I'm hearing. The other one that's resonating is, celebrating because often we forget, sometimes we're so focused on all the changes that are being made or all the things that aren't happening.
Danielle Cobo
And if we don't take time to celebrate just the little milestones that have come along the way. We really miss out on the opportunity to get those little boost of positivity, confidence and reassurance through those change.
Britta Andreatta
Absolutely CEL. We could all use more celebration in our life. And the other thing that I would say about surrounding yourself with positive people, I go into this in my book, wired to connect, which is all about groups and teams, but we have this thing inside of us called mirror neurons.
Britta Andreatta
And we. Are built to feel other people's feelings. So if you looked really sad right now, the sad part of my brain would be activated. And if you were really laughing, the happy part of my brain would be activated. It's, it's part of how we have empathy and compassion, and we're connected as a species and as a community, but it also means if you're surrounding with people who are really negative and stressed out and scared, it's gonna impact you.
Britta Andreatta
You're gonna feel that. and also let me add media. if we consume a lot of media, like negative news or gloom and doom stories all the time, it can really shift our mental health. we are designed to pick up the emotions of people around us, and if you're watching thousands of other people be really freaked out, you're gonna feel it.
Britta Andreatta
So be mindful of all those things, your body is very sensitive to how others feel.
Danielle Cobo
I'm really glad that you mentioned the social media aspect, because it's really easy to get. Zoomed by all the things that are happening on in life. And sometimes it's a great reminder too. Yes. While there's a lot of change and challenges going on in our country, especially I'm a military spouse.
Danielle Cobo
So it always brings me back to the perspective of gratitude. And still recognizing the gratitude that I have for a lot of the things we do have in this country versus a lot of things that other people don't have. The simple things in life that are the necessities of water and food. It really creates that first world versus third world problems.
Danielle Cobo
And what we could get consumed by the negativity that we see around us sometimes.
Britta Andreatta
And absolutely, and the science is super clear about gratitude. It shifts us. And so does mindfulness practice. Both of those things literally shift your brain and your ability to be more resilient in the world.
Danielle Cobo
The other thing that you talked about was that mirroring of body language and smiling versus laughing and that empathy. And it reminded me of a time that I was in a counseling session many years ago. I think it was part of my premarital counseling. we were talking about sometimes road rage. And when you're in the car with somebody and they get that immediate road rage.
Danielle Cobo
And the counselor said while. You are caught up in the moment of what's going on with whether the person cut you off or not know that your reaction fills the car with the energy. And so everybody in that car is experiencing that same frustration and anger and energy. The same applies to, if you're walking through the door and you're constantly bringing all that stress from work into your household, you're then bringing that onto your family as well.
Danielle Cobo
So that mirroring really resonated with what you said as well.
Britta Andreatta
Yeah, absolutely.
Danielle Cobo
What are three things you wanna leave? our listeners with today?
Britta Andreatta
I would say embrace the irony. That change is the only constant in life. It's the one thing we can count on. And yet our reaction to it is to be resist it and stress out about it a little bit.
Britta Andreatta
I mean, I just think that's super ironic. However, Once you understand that about your biology, you can now start working with it and give yourself some compassion around how you respond. You can start taking better care of yourself. You can start advocating for your needs and asking questions. Once you kind of understand how it works, then you can partner with your own body and and then move through, change in a much more effective way.
Britta Andreatta
Um, the other thing that I would say. Because of the pandemic and the waves of change that we've been through the last two or three years, everyone is burned out right now. And, and burnout is a medically diagnosable state of physical and emotional exhaustion. How it shows up is we start to feel a decreased sense of accomplishment.
Britta Andreatta
So things that used to make us feel good, or our jobs that we used to like, or our teams that we used to enjoy being around were just feeling super. About it all. And I think that's driving the great resignation is that people are feeling like I don't like my job anymore, but really that's burnout talking and it, and it maybe it's fine that you're switching jobs don't feel bad about that.
Britta Andreatta
But what I would say is we're burned out. It, it sucks joy away from things. And we got here because we overworked and under. Rested. if I was to give every anyone a prescription, I would say really lean into your vacation, lean into play, play helps our body know that it's safe again, and that we can start to relax a little bit, but we've been hypervigilant for over two years and I can't stress enough.
Britta Andreatta
The toll that has taken on us physically and emotionally. um, lean into self care, play and vacations, and you'll start to feel better.
Danielle Cobo
I'm so glad you talked about leaning into self care. And for those of you that are listening, if you are experiencing burnout, I invite you to tune in to episode 65.
Danielle Cobo
I've got burnout expert, CA Donovan. She talks about how to set boundaries and how to overcome burnout. We also have a couple episodes that are specifically on time management and productivity and self care and self love as well. So I invite you to tune into those. thank you so much for joining.
Danielle Cobo
You are a wealth of knowledge and I will include the links to her books and the show notes. And I hope y'all have a wonderful day. Thank you so much for joining.
Britta Andreatta
Thank you, Danielle. Have a great day.