What can light your fire at work?
What can sabotage you at work?
Next week, I’d like to talk with you about Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. I’m reading it for the second time because I have found it to be one of the most significant books of the decade. However, today, I want to describe dopamine to you and explain why it is so important.
Did a teacher ever assign you a research paper in high school or college? After working hard and completing it, did you feel a sense of euphoria?
Or amped up?
Or just plain ‘ol good?
If so, that was your body unleashing dopamine into your system.
Your body secretes dopamine when you set a goal and meet it.
Your body secretes dopamine when you plan a task for the day, write it down, complete it, and then cross it off your list.
Dopamine feels good.
Dopamine is nature’s way of affirming that the action you take is helping sustain you and keep you alive. One hundred fifty years ago, your great-great-great grandfather spotted six or seven ducks swimming on Sweet Gum Creek a mile away. Quietly, he moved away from the creek and then parallel to it until he reached the spot where he guessed the ducks had gone. Then, with great stealth, he crept up on them. When the ducks sensed danger, they raised their wings and flew away, but not before he managed to get a shot off and bring one down. That dead duck meant supper for the family, and completing such a crucial task triggered a surge of dopamine.
But dopamine can also work against you. While it can reinforce good behavior, it can also encourage bad behavior. Dopamine can become addictive.
That teenager who ignores the family dinner table conversation in order to text? That is motivated by dopamine.
The alcoholic? Driven by dopamine.
As well as…
- the smoker
- the womanizer
- the gambler
Dopamine fuels addictive behavior. It can stimulate tremendous work from people. It can also retard productivity by steering employees toward self-destructive habits.
David Greenfield, a psychologist and professor of psychiatry, asserted, “That ping [from our smartphones] is telling us there is some type of reward there, waiting for us.” He points out a parallel between human responses to texts, tweets, or email alerts on our smartphones. All of this is a manifestation of our body’s secretion of dopamine. Unfortunately, research suggests that dopamine levels can be significantly higher when anticipating a reward than when receiving it.
Back to the smartphone: the “ping” alert can often be more exciting than the actual text, tweet, or email itself. As Greenfield colorfully describes it, “Smartphone notifications have turned us all into Pavlov’s dogs.”
Dopamine can drive immense productivity in the workplace. It can also provoke tremendous destruction. Next week, I will build on this foundation and share with you valuable insights from Dopamine Nation.*
Mark
Dr. Mark Edge
The WorkEdge Company
Telephone: 903-245-7851
Email: workedgetexas@gmail.com
Website: www.workedgetexas.com
Author of Holy Chaos How To Walk with God in a Frenzied World
*Thanks, Grammarly, for your editorial insights, and thank you ChatGPT for your AI generated image