The Work-life Insight
Over the past year, WorkSocial Jersey City experienced a 43% revenue growth and is anticipating to see even more growth in 2022 as demand for flexible offices rises.
WorkSocial saw its revenue grow by 43% in 2021, and the company expects to see continued growth in the new year as demand for coworking spaces rises.
In order to meet this demand, WorkSocial's CEO Natasha Mohan announced that the firm plans to expand its portfolio through strategic alliances with other coworking spaces that are owned and managed by female and minority-run operators.
Corporates want to adopt a hybrid model in their real estate strategy as they come out of the pandemic. [Corporates] want multiple products and multiple solutions for how they want to operate. We are seeing now more than ever that the social contract between employer and employee is being redefined. Employees are looking for employers and employers are looking for partners to jointly serve customers.Currently, WorkSocial has 18 locations across 15 cities, equating to about 1800 seats. Occupancy across Workocial locations has also reached surpassed 90%, which kept its portfolio profitable during throughout the pandemic
Today companies of all sizes, be it a 100-year-old company or a startup, are looking at flexible space as the way to move forward,” said Mohan.WorkSocial continues to create an impact in the communities its serves. WorkSocial consistently donates cash and in-kind services to local charities.
"Our primary focus is ending world hunger." We are too small to end world hunger so we make sure we consistently feed people.
About WorkSocial: WorkSocial offers designed shared offices and coworking spaces in Jersey City in a most desirable area to fit the professional needs of today’s workforce in an environment that supports business growth, creative collaboration, and overall professional success, at every stage of your career.
Contact Information:
Name: Natasha Mohan
Address: 111 Town Square, Suite 1203
Phone Number: 201-210-8255
Whether you're looking to start your own business or grow your brand to new heights, WorkSocial is the place to be! WorkSocial is Jersey City's premier coworking space, offering shared office solutions to fit your business needs and support your career goals in a modern, open environment that allows you to work alongside others who share your ambition and desire to succeed. Today, WorkSocial is proud to welcome Global Philanthropies to their ever-growing professional community. Contact WorkSocial to find your ideal coworking space today!
Jersey City, NJ, December 27, 2021--- Today's professional workforce recognizes the value of open, inspiring office spaces, social collaboration, and the benefits of being part of an energizing working community that supports the collective success of everyone involved. Enter WorkSocial, an all-in-one solution that answers the call of aspiring entrepreneurs, established business owners, busy professionals, and work-from-home freelancers who are looking for a place to take their career goals to the next level.
WorkSocial has become home to some of Jersey City's most talked-about success stories. Their shared offices attract some of the most trusted brands in the business world, along with the area's top buzz-worthy startups and entrepreneurs.
Today, WorkSocial is honored to announce one of their newest partners, Global Philanthropies. Global Philanthropies has grown to become an established leader in world-class philanthropy, sharing hope and resources with people in need, and connecting people with purpose, all across the globe. It's companies such as Global Philanthropies that keep WorkSocial going strong, committed to helping Jersey City businesses be the best that they can be.
At WorkSocial, you'll find people at every stage of the professional spectrum, working alongside one another in a variety of fresh, innovative coworking spaces designed to meet the unique needs of a diverse group of professionals across every industry. WorkSocial has the ideal office space for rent that meets every business and budget, from established enterprises to brand new startups. WorkSocial's shared working spaces have exactly what you're looking for to build your business or help it grow.
You can collaborate in common areas, reserve a conference room for rent, or sneak away into one of their many meeting rooms anytime. WorkSocial eliminates the need to break the bank on renting office space that doesn't live up to your expectations despite its' expensive price tag. Now, anyone can afford an attractive, professional workspace, equipped with ample space, modern furnishings, eco-friendly practices, roomy restrooms, clean breakrooms, and essential office equipment to ensure you have everything you need to achieve your personal career goals.
If you're ready for a fresh, exciting coworking space that supports your professional dreams, put WorkSocial to work for you. Contact WorkSocial today to find the perfect shared office environment to fit your business needs today!
About WorkSocial: WorkSocial offers shared offices and coworking spaces designed in Jersey City's most desirable areas to fit the professional needs of today's workforce in an environment that supports business growth, creative collaboration, and overall professional success, at every stage of your career.
Contact Information:
Name: Natasha Mohan
Address: 111 Town Square, Suite 1203
Phone Number: 201-210-8255
“Interactions beyond work to provide help and encouragement are key to building trust. We love and cherish long-term relationships with our employees.”
Co-working spaces today need no introduction. Most people inevitably know at least one person who works in a shared workspace. Simply put, co-working spaces are shared workspaces that house freelancers, startups, and corporations alike, in a common space. Members do not have to deal with the burden of expensive and long-term office rental agreements, and commercial property owners get more out of spaces that are lying idle by renting out to co-working players.
In light of the foregoing, we’re thrilled to present WorkSocial — a leader in the co-working space industry. The company supplies its clients with comfortable state-of-the-art conference rooms, well-stocked kitchens, and most importantly the belief that their business matters. Its mission is to become more than a run-of-the-mill shared office rental space provider; a movement that is driven by the fundamental spirit of entrepreneurship.
WorkSocial was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Jersey City, NJ.
Natasha Mohan, WorkSocial Founder, and CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.
Q. What are the different amenities that are available in your co-working space for businesses to remain operational?
We are an all-inclusive one-stop co-working solution for businesses. We strive to be a full-service provider for our clients by providing amenities such as phone booths, stand-up desks, high-speed internet, security, onsite cleaning staff, in addition to spacious AV-capable conference rooms. We have a dedicated full-service team in place to assist our clients to solve any business, IT, or space issues that may arise during the day. Importantly, we have acquired the DGE clearance to be able to serve gaming and high-tech companies.
Besides this, we offer in-house weekday lunches to our clients keeping in view COVID-19 restrictions.
Q. Being around other people can be a great motivation to stay productive during the workday, but it can also mean being surrounded by distractions that will limit productivity. How can we overcome this?
The science behind our co-working space is to increase productivity. The ergonomics, aesthetics, and feng shui of a space enhance productivity and joy. With that in mind, the interior lighting has been carefully selected to meet the needs of each office space. And to respect our clients’ privacy and need for silence, we have installed white noise machines, which also reduce echoes. The color scheme was thoughtfully selected to promote happiness in the workspace.
Additionally, to avoid distractions, the private office is completely enclosed with white walls compared to other glass wall co-working spaces. The atmosphere we created is more toward the enterprise coworking environment, with the intention that our clients are encouraged to be mindful of others sharing the space.
Q. Lack of customization and branding is seen as a potential drawback for co-working spaces. Can we expect a solution to this? And what are the anticipated trends in the co-working spaces due to Covid?
Our branding is strategically placed throughout the building in many forms. For example, on the eco-friendly mugs our clients use—to remind them that we are increasing our green footprint. We also have branded masks to make sure they are doing their part to keep all of us safe. The anticipated trends in co-working spaces during the pandemic have increased our cleaning protocol. We provide clients with day use of the offices and have arranged for medical staff to periodically stop by to conduct onsite voluntary COVID testing. We’re also trying to limit our clients’ need to leave the building during the day by providing food and snack options onsite. That said, healthy, happy, and productive is how we want our clients to feel in our space.
Q. ‘When people are having fun, they work together better and they produce better work.’ How do you interpret this saying?
As human beings, we are social animals, we need to be surrounded by others to find inspiration and daily motivations. In other words, it’s ideal to be around motivated people than to sit in isolation and work. With people being forced into isolation during this pandemic, the incidence of depression has gone up. We need to combat that by continuing to meet and work with people safely, considering sound mental health is very important to us.
Q. Growing the company based on employees’ passions must be a priority. Do you ask your employees what they are interested in doing and how they would like to see their career unfold?
As of now, we are all multi-tasking since our team is pretty small. They are encouraged to express themselves and how they can contribute to the organization. We are a young company so we grow as our employees grow. There is a shared goal and interest but also high energy buzzing to keep us on our toes. Yes, on occasions, we do talk about where they want to be placed in the company as we grow. I care about my team and love their work. If there are tasks that don’t resonate with them, we figure out a solution to ensure every goal is reached.
Q. Trust is a difficult attribute to measure and a delicate dynamic to maintain. How do you maintain this with your employees?
We provide them with all the resources and support to help them make the best decision for the task they are given. It is about giving them autonomy and feeling as vested in the company as I do. I trust them to make the right decision, but if they are truly stuck, I make sure I am there to help them through the process. We’re not only co-workers but also a family. Interactions beyond work to provide help and encouragement are key to building trust. We love and cherish long-term relationships with our employees.
Q. What does the future hold for WorkSocial and its employees? Are exciting things on the way?
We, as a company, are growing every year, whether it is expanding our workspace, cleaning up processes, or hiring new employees. We have many plans for expansion in the future, possibly in different states.Natasha Mohan, a Trusted Leader: In Her Own Words
I am Natasha Mohan, the founder of WorkSocial. I, like many women entrepreneurs, multitask as I jump from being mom and wife to businesswoman, and mentor all in a day’s work. It’s not easy but I enjoy the challenges that life brings me. Who I am as a person shapes my leadership. My early life experience in the hospitality industry adds to my customer service model. I have spent the last 20 years in the real estate industry climbing the ranks and making a name for myself. Working in the real estate industry was a natural progression to wanting to open my own co-working space. Over the years, I have seen office spaces not fulfilling clients’ expectations and how it impacted them. That being the sole reason, I wanted to offer an ideal co-working space for clients where they can grow their businesses and be inspired to fulfill their dreams.
I find my work-life balance by taking time to be with my teenage kids, husband, and puppy. Family is very important and they have supported all my aspirations and dreams.
“We are an all-inclusive one-stop co-working solution for businesses.”
Credit:
The Silicon Review
Website: https://bit.ly/3JgAAJv/;
Periods of uncertainty and upheaval often have far-reaching effects on society. They can even lead to people resigning from their jobs.
During the pandemic, the world changed. There were shutdowns, quarantines, and restricted access to goods, services and jobs. Many businesses in the retail, hospitality, food services and travel sectors furloughed and laid off employees. And across multiple sectors, many employees worked from home for extended periods of time -- many for the first time in their careers.
With such large-scale disruption in the economy and the lives of hundreds of millions of people, many people have a renewed focus on what matters most to them. That period of introspection and reflection has led employees to rethink their jobs and their career paths.
Most large employers think that their employees are leaving for better jobs. In their view better equates to higher-paying jobs. Yes, the jobs are higher-paying, not just in dollars or cents. These jobs align better to peoples post-pandemic lives.
Almost EVERYONE has had to redefine their business and purpose.
WHY NOT THE BUSINESS?
But for all the negatives of the “big quit,” I see it as offering an enormous opportunity for business leaders to reassess what already makes them (or stands to make them) a company that current employees want to stay with and prospective employees want to join. Whether seeking a new job or thinking about leaving a current one, many people are looking for well-tailored benefits that promote emotional, physical, and financial wellness.
In that sense, the Great Resignation frames this moment as a crisis. While Klotz may not have consciously linked these past eras, the name likens this to a period of withdrawal. It also centers the immediate consequences for employment status and the job market. But focusing on resignation as a crisis flattens the dramatic change for American values, which could have far-reaching consequences outside of the workplace. For Americans who live with few social safety nets or identify by their work, quitting is a touchy business, often shrouded in a mix of secrecy, shame, and emotional labor. Under the banner of the Great Resignation, individuals are nudged to confront a constellation of questions around the immediate act of leaving a job: Should I do it? Can I afford to? What would I do afterwards? This reflection has real value; people may more actively take stock of their work situation, think through the steps it would take to change, and get the gumption to act amid a broader cultural moment focused on resigning. But in their own words, many people who have been part of this movement explain their choices as a result of reevaluating their lives and where they derive meaning. In this case, a resignation crisis feels like a limiting metaphor when leaving a job may just be collateral to a deeper realignment in American work life.
The Great Resignation indicates mass quitting is a crisis and concentrates on the immediate consequences for employment status and the job market. But focusing on resignation as a crisis lessens the dramatic change in American values.
Americans don’t have social safety nets or identify by their work. Quitting is a touchy business, often shrouded in a mix of secrecy, shame, and emotions. The Great Resignation is confronting people with questions that can have long-term effects on their wellbeing. Questions like should I quit, can I afford it, and what will I do spur individuals to think hard about leaving. With that being said, self-reflection has value.
Many people who are already part of the ‘Big Quit’ movement (meaning they have already resigned) explain their choices due to re-evaluating their lives. So perhaps we’re not experiencing a Great Resignation, and instead, we’re participating in a great work change that can shape the future of the workplace.Part of the challenge is that businesses don’t have a game plan to follow. Companies have never encountered so few potential job candidates in recent history. Many companies arerapidly shifting office culture and attempting to navigate the new normal of people expecting flexibility at the workplace. While there may still be debates over remote work, people want the option to stay home.
Regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic, no business can operate without workers. Companies should be focusing on embracing the movement and listening to the needs of employees rather than ignoring them. Workers are not asking for much here. Check out the following ways you can help combat the Great Resignation at your workplace.
People’s needs, priorities, and expectations have changed. Understand what your employees require to feel safe, supported, and secure at work.
Invest in taking care of your employees and their families. Mental health resources and help with childcare can go a long way.
Address burnout and boost workplace wellbeing.Prioritize culture and connection. Leave work aside once in a while to connect and build relationships with your people.
Jersey City, N.J. (December 21, 2021) – As the demand for shared office spaces increases, one local coworking space, WorkSocial, is expanding its Jersey City office space footprint by 6,000 square feet to accommodate the growing number of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and consultants seeking the company’s offerings.
The expansion work at 111 Town Square Place in Jersey City begins in February and will be open to clients in April 2022.
Since 2016, WorkSocial has been providing coworking spaces and private offices for rent that provides small businesses and individuals a refreshing alternative to home-based work or meeting in public places like coffee shops. Members benefit from a dedicated on-site service team, upbeat culture, state-of-the-art technology, access to private offices and group conference rooms and business services like reception, mailing services, WIFI, and more.
The expansion will include additional offices, six new meeting spaces, and five phone “booths” where clients can take private calls. “This is such an exciting endeavor,” explains Natasha Mohan, CEO. “It was designed by an all-female minority team and inspired by offices at Google and Facebook.”
The coworking trend was already growing rapidly before 2020 but COVID-19 changed how people worked, particularly in the business-dense Tri-State area. When it was clear many companies were asking their employees to work from home, WorkSocial sprung into action, making sure their locations in both Jersey City and New York City were open and adhering to strict social distancing and sanitizing protocols. The effort paid off.
“Working from home can be isolating,” explains Natasha Mohan, CEO of WorkSocial. “Our clients wanted to be able to go somewhere where they could access everything they needed but without worrying about safety. That trend continues now, with the rollercoaster we are seeing with the COVID-19 variants.”
COVID-19 also brought a significant increase in people leaving – or losing – their jobs and pursuing their own business dreams. In fact, according to Census Bureau’s data, nearly 1.4 million applications were filed to form new businesses through September of 2021. Comparatively, 2020 had around 1 million and 2019 had 987,000 during the same time periods.
“Our space and services are ideal for new start-ups that are learning what resources they need and how to manage them,” says Mohan. “We provide that support so they can concentrate on their business and not have to worry about office space, technology or support services. We provide a professional mailing address as well so they aren’t sending mail to their apartment, for example,” she adds.
Importantly, WorkSocial allows small businesses to offer their employees a pleasant and highly functional work environment without the burden of overhead.
Mohan says the new space they are building is already 60% reserved. “It gives us great joy to be a resource to the people and teams who work at our facility. There is so much creativity and energy; it’s exciting to come to work here every day.”Since 2015, WorkSocial has been offering highly functional, pleasant coworking spaces in New Jersey and New York City to teams, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and individuals.
Our mission is to provide a workspace that supports small business endeavors, community outreach, mentoring and entrepreneurial needs while promoting a well and happy lifestyle. For more information or reservations, please visit:
Think about a moment of self-care. Chances are, it didn’t happen at your office.
Self-care has habitually been saved for outside work hours. So it probably won’t come as a shock that conventional working spaces aren’t necessarily mental health-friendly.
But since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, traditional offices appear to have been radically modified. Stationary, inflexible cubicles are being reimagined into open spaces where workers can freely exchange ideas, mobile tables replace individual desks, open kitchens are fully stocked, and assigned seating is out the door.
Coworking spaces are changing the future of how we work and championing a new era of self-care in corporate America. Here’s how.
The Post-Pandemic Workplace
Currently, the number of people occupying coworking spaces in the United States is close to a million. While the future of work can still seem a little uncertain, coworking is a positive change brought into the workplace due to the pandemic. Blended workplaces are predicted to be the new ‘norm.’ Some people will work from home while others work from the office on specific days.
Coworking spaces are designed to accommodate people’s unique behavioral habits. Physical offices must now adjust to a more forward-thinking, creative working environment where workers have the tools they need but still feel a sense of flexibility and autonomy. At the same time, more companies are seeing that the social aspect of the working environment is one of the most critical parts of the physical workplace.
The relaxed atmosphere is usually influenced by the fact that people who work in coworking spaces could be from various companies, professions, etc. This usually means there’s less of a sense of competition.
Leaving the One-Size-Fits-All Mentality
Companies of all sizes and sorts are starting to ask their employees how, when, and where they want to work. Flexibility at work in regards to workspace preference and scheduling is vital for well-being.
Allowing employees to have more say in their own workplace experience is a slightly newer approach to the individualized, task-oriented workforce that’s taken over for the past 70 years. Additionally, corporate America is an increasingly competitive terrain for recruiting and retaining talented workers. Coworking spaces that cater to self-care is another way for companies to rise in the “war for talent.”
The Benefits of Coworking Spaces for Mental Health
With the onslaught of coworking spaces also comes a significant focus on wellness and well-being. From lush outdoor areas with tables and chairs for meetings to large indoor spaces that resemble a mini-city inside a building, coworking spaces offer some long-overdue mental health benefits in the workplace.
The most productive coworking spaces offer an atmosphere that helps establish a healthy balance between business and private life. With the challenges of everyday life, there’s sometimes a need for quick breaks in a relaxing environment. These spaces are particularly beneficial for individuals who do not have great self-care habits. Encouraging self-care in the workplace often leads to better practices outside of the job.
The Self-Care Crisis in Corporate America
It’s no secret that Covid-19 brought a slew of anxiety, stress, and other mental health issues. From the stay-at-home orders, sudden change in routines, and the overwhelming sense of worry, the impact on mental well-being is drastic for some.
Coworking spaces give employees better tools to foster good self-care habits. For one thing, most coworking spaces offer a stimulating atmosphere through exceptional room designs, colors, and plenty of natural light. These uniquely designed spaces also allow employees more flexibility. Workers often have access to different working stations depending on what they need at that moment. For example, they can work solo in a quiet private area, host a meeting in a designated room, or relax, eat, and socialize in the open lounges. Accommodating workers’ individual needs throughout the day allows them to work when they feel most motivated.
Fresh air, daylight, and personal choices can go a long way. Once companies ensure workers have everything they need - including space, office supplies, flexibility, and good self-care practices, they can start to focus their energy on doing their jobs, as the rest is provided to them.
While we can’t say yet if flexible, fluid coworking spaces are short-term or permanent, we can say the office environment is continually evolving. Coworking spaces have the potential to be part of the future of work. Why? Because physical working environments should focus more on our mental well-being.
Abstract
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic decoction used as a traditional medicine in several Amazonian regions. The ritualistic use of ayahuasca has spread throughout many countries, making it necessary to study its risks and benefits. Two sub-studies were designed for this investigation. In sub-study 1, a psychiatric interview and a battery of questionnaires were administered to subjects (n = 40) before their first ayahuasca use. Two follow-ups were conducted at 1 and 6 months. In sub-study 2, the same interview and battery of questionnaires were administered to long-term ayahuasca users (n = 23) and their scores were compared with those of the ayahuasca-naïve group. In the first assessment, nearly half (45%) of the naïve users were found to meet the diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric disorder. After the ayahuasca use, more than 80% of those subjects showed clinical improvements that persisted at 6 months. The questionnaires showed significant reductions in depression and psychopathology. Regarding sub-study 2, long-term users showed lower depression scores, and higher scores for self-transcendence and quality of life, as compared to their peers in sub-study 1. Further controlled and observational naturalistic studies assessing the eventual risks and potential benefits of ayahuasca are warranted.
Introduction
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive beverage that results from the decoction of Banisteriopsis caapi and Psychotria Viridis, plants rich in β-carbolines (harmine or tetrahydroharmine, among others) and N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), respectively. DMT is a partial agonist of serotonin (5-HT) receptors, but it can interact with other receptors as well (for a review see Carbonaro & Gatch). The hallucinogenic effects are primarily caused by the combination of the monoamine-oxidase A (MAO-A) inhibiting properties of β-carbolines and DMT, which results in the oral bioavailability of the latter.
Ayahuasca has been traditionally used in several communities of the Amazonia, but in recent decades its use has spread throughout the world4, first to urban areas of Brazil, where syncretic religions such as Santo Daime, União do Vegetal and Barquinha were established, and then to other contexts, including several countries of the world where ayahuasca retreat centers have been developed and/or new shamanic groups exist.
Concurrent with this increased public interest in ayahuasca ceremonies, there has been major interest from the academic and biomedical fields regarding its potential health effects. Data from observational studies suggest that ayahuasca and its active ingredient DMT may have anxiolytic properties. Furthermore, it has not been associated with increased psychopathology or with impairments in neuropsychological functioning. An open-label clinical study found significant therapeutic benefits among patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD) after the administration of a single dose of ayahuasca. Additionally, one randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was recently published, showing that, compared to placebo, a single ayahuasca dose was associated with significant reductions in depressive symptoms in MDD patients.
The mechanisms through which ayahuasca produces therapeutic effects are not completely understood. First, DMT is widely found in plants and mammals, including humans. It acts as a partial agonist at 5-HT receptors, and several studies have shown that the 5-HT2A receptor site could be the main target. Additionally, neuroimaging studies (described below) show that the neural effects of ayahuasca, in both healthy and depressive subjects, are mediated by brain areas rich in 5-HT2A receptors. As far as β-carbolines are concerned, they also show potential neuroprotective effects besides their MAO-inhibiting properties.
Beyond the complex affects the isolated compounds have on different neurotransmitter systems, there are neuroimaging studies that can help clarify ayahuasca’s potential mechanisms of action. Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) studies reported that ayahuasca increases blood perfusion in frontal brain regions, the insula, the left nucleus accumbens, the left amygdala, the parahippocampal gyrus, and the left subgenual area. This pattern suggests that ayahuasca’s effects are related to introspection and emotional processing. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have observed activations in the occipital, temporal, and frontal areas of the brain. Remarkably, even with eyes closed, levels of activation in the occipital area were consistent with the visionary experience. Ayahuasca also activates the frontal cortex and areas involved in episodic memory. Furthermore, in one study using MRI, an inverse correlation between cortical thickness in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and intensity and duration of previous ayahuasca use was observed. This is highly relevant due to the direct implication of PCC in the default mode network (DMN), and it suggests that regular ayahuasca use could potentially lead to structural changes in certain brain areas. Evidence of decreased DMN activity after ayahuasca use supports this finding.
Due to the current crisis in psychopharmacology and the lack of effective medications for the treatment of psychological or neurological disorders, alongside the continued exoticization of indigenous cultures, the number of people attracted by alternative medical practices such as the ritualistic use of ayahuasca has been increasing. Given this context, the effects of ayahuasca should be assessed especially in those people who have no previous experience with the decoction. This would help to avoid the bias present in retrospective observational studies for which only long-term users were recruited. Those users could be resistant to some of the ayahuasca’s adverse effects, allowing them to use it without perceiving any harm, and thus they tend to participate as volunteers in the studies. However, by analyzing the experience of first-time users, this bias may be better controlled for and more accurate information about the overall effects of ayahuasca on novice users can be obtained.
There are some studies that have focused on the assessment of first-time ayahuasca users. Osório et al. and Sanches et al. reported the effects of a single dose of ayahuasca in patients with recurrent depression in an open-label study. Fast-acting antidepressant and anxiolytic effects were reported that persisted after 21 days. Palhano-Fontes et al. published the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial (RCT) in which ayahuasca was assessed for the treatment of severe depression and significantly reduced depressive symptoms. In those clinical trials, although patients were naïve ayahuasca users, there were carefully selected according to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Barbosa et al., in a non-controlled study, found significant decreases in psychiatric symptoms after initial experiences with ayahuasca among a non-clinical sample. Barbosa et al. found similar results in a follow-up study of the same sample. No adverse effects were reported, and those who began to use ayahuasca regularly showed improvements in role-emotional and social functioning scores according to the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36). Trichter et al. analyzed potential changes in spirituality (measured with the Peak Experience Profile, the Spiritual Well-being Scale, and the Mysticism Scale as quantitative measures, and an interview as a qualitative measure) after the first ayahuasca experience of 54 people and found that the experience did not result in significant changes.
Due to our fieldwork, we know that there are dozens of groups of ayahuasca users in the Spanish territory alone, which is a situation that could be relevant to public health. While some authors describe the communitarian use of ayahuasca as a healthcare system, some case reports are being published with information about psychotic episodes induced by ayahuasca. When elucidating the potential risks of the ritualistic and communitarian use of ayahuasca, an RCT approach,, would not fit well with the context and the complex variables involved in such ritualistic settings. However, observational studies represent a useful and valuable tool for gathering more generalizable data. In this case, we designed two observational sub-studies: In sub-study 1, a longitudinal assessment of first-time ayahuasca users was conducted. Since it is difficult to find a control group/treatment/condition in order to compare results, we designed a sub-study 2, where the baseline assessment of that same group was compared with a group of long-term ayahuasca users. In this way, it is possible to find potential differences that may be attributed to the regular use of ayahuasca or, on the contrary, are common conditions that may explain personal traits that may lead one to get involved in regular ayahuasca use and other spiritual and/or alternative health practices. for a schematic diagram of the study.
Schematic diagram of the complete study.
Results
For sub-study 1, we recruited 28 women (70%) and 12 men aged between 20 and 65 years (X¯¯¯¯X¯ = 35). The majority (95%) of subjects were from Spain. Regarding education, the majority (54%) of the sample graduated from university. Most participants were atheists (84%). The majority of the sample (59.2%) wanted to take ayahuasca for therapeutic purposes, mentioning emotional or psychological issues. Other motivations included self-exploration (29.6%), curiosity (11.1%), to have a psychedelic experience (11.1%), receiving insights regarding professional development (7.4%), or to start on a spiritual path (3.7%). Regarding the types of ceremonies that participants attended, 40% were neoshamanic (led by westerners who traveled to a South American country to learn the methods of traditional medicine), 37.5% religious (mainly Santo Daime, but also other religious groups derived from classical ayahuasca religions), and 22.5% psychotherapeutic (a typical Western approach, in which a psychotherapeutic setting is used, without religious or shamanic content) ceremonies. As is common in longitudinal studies, a smaller number of subjects was retained during follow-ups. While 28 subjects participated in the 1-month follow-up, 15 subjects participated in the 6-months follow-up. At baseline, eighteen subjects (45%; 77.7% women) met the criteria for one or more psychiatric disorders (50% with comorbidity). The most prevalent diagnoses were generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; n = 6) and substance abuse/dependence (alcohol = 2; cannabis = 2; lorazepam = 1).
Table 1 Sociodemographic data of the sample.
At the one-month follow-up, the 18 subjects (77.7% women) who met diagnostic criteria were interviewed again. Eleven of them (61%) no longer met the criteria for any psychiatric disorder (0% of comorbidity). Four of these subjects (22.2%) presented fewer psychiatric diagnoses than at baseline. One subject (5.5%) met the criteria for a different psychiatric diagnosis than at baseline. Finally, one subject (5.5%) who did not meet the criteria for any psychiatric disorder at baseline did so during the follow-up, meeting the criteria for GAD. Thus, 7 subjects met the criteria for psychiatric diagnosis at this time-point. One subject had taken ayahuasca once more since the first assessment.
At 6-months follow-up, 15 subjects (60% women) continued their participation in the study. Five subjects took ayahuasca again since the 1-month follow-up. Only 8 subjects from the initial 18 who met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder were interviewed. Among those 18 subjects, only 2 still met the criteria for psychiatric diagnosis. According to the available information, the subjects who met diagnostic criteria at baseline but did not at the 1-month follow-up continued to not present diagnostic criteria for any psychiatric disorder. The participant who did not meet the diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric disorder at baseline but met the criteria for GAD at 1-month follow-up still met the diagnostic criteria for GAD at 6-months follow-up. No other subjects met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder, as only 3 subjects met the criteria at the 6-months follow-up.
Regarding the data from the administered questionnaires, at one-month follow-up, lower scores were found for two scales of the Symptom Check-List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R): anxiety (d = 0.54), and hostility (d = 0.62). At 6-months follow-up, lower scores were obtained for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) (d = 0.72) and in the role-emotional scale (d = 0.74) from the SF-36 questionnaire.
Table 2 Means and confidence intervals obtained in sub-study 1.
Regarding the subgroup analysis of data from the sample that met criteria for diagnosing psychiatric disorders, all of the CIs overlapped between assessments. However, a tendency was observed in scores obtained by most of the questionnaires, as they decreased significantly (data not shown).
Regarding the analysis of potential differences between subjects who dropped out of the study and those who remained, there were no significant differences in any variables, neither at one-month nor at the 6-months follow-up. However, some tendencies with notable effect sizes were registered. At one-month follow-up, subjects who dropped out of the study tended to obtain lower scores in CAPE-depression symptoms frequency [t(35.2) = 2.6, p = 0.01; d = 0.75] and the depression dimension of SCL-90-R [t(37.3) = 2.3, p = 0.02; d = 0.69].
Sub-study 2 was conducted in order to determine if any differences in assessed variables were due to ayahuasca use or previous conditions. In this sub-study, the baseline data of the sample for sub-study 1 were compared with long-term ayahuasca users’ results for the same variables. We recruited 10 women (43%) and 13 men aged between 32 and 64 years (X¯¯¯¯X¯ = 45). The majority (78.3%) of the subjects were from Spain. Regarding education, the majority (32%) of the sample graduated from university. In terms of religious beliefs, most participants were atheists (34.8%). The mean number of ayahuasca ceremonies that participants attended was 70 (ranging from 50 to 100 ceremonies). Only two participants (9%) met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. One subject met the criteria for suicide risk (for attempted suicide), GAD, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); the other subject met the criteria for suicide risk (for past attempted suicide) and antisocial personality disorder. See Table 1.
Analyzing data collected through the questionnaires, we found statistically significant differences between long-term and ayahuasca naïve users in the HAM-D score [t(53.5) = 2.1, p = 0.03; d = 0.49], the self-transcendence scale from the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R-67) [t(61) = 4.6, p < 0.001; d = 0.51], and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-Bref) score [t(61) = 4.3, p < 0.001; d = 0.51].
Table 3 Means and standard deviations from the sub-study 2.
Regarding the subgroup analysis involving only the sub-study 1 participants who met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder, more differences were found between those participants and the sample of long-term ayahuasca users. Differences were found in HAM-D score [t(39) = 2.6, p = 0.03; d = 0.77], CAPE-total distress score [t(39) = 2.2, p = 0.03; d = 0.68], CAPE-depression symptoms frequency [t(39) = 2.8, p = 0.007; d = 0.87], CAPE-depression symptoms distress [t(39) = 2.9, p = 0.006; d = 0.89], CAPE-negative symptoms distress [t(39) = 2.4, p = 0.01; d = 0.74], Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II) score [t(39) = 2.3, p = 0.02; d = 0.70], ST scale from TCI-R-67 [t(39) = −3.5, p = 0.001; d = 1.10], RE scale from SF-36 [t(39) = −2.5, p = 0.01; d = 0.79], and WHOQOL-Bref score [t(39) = −3.6, p = 0.001; d = 1.10].
Discussion
Since ayahuasca use is expanding both internationally and locally in the Spanish context, the aim of this study was to observe the effects of ayahuasca on psychological and health variables in naïve ayahuasca users. This will help medical practitioners to understand possible adverse effects as well as potential therapeutic uses.
We performed two sub-studies. Regarding sub-study 1, 40 ayahuasca-naïve subjects were assessed before using ayahuasca for the first time, and they were followed up with at 1 and 6 months after. Following the usual pattern of participants in complementary and alternative medicines, the majority of the sample consisted of women with higher education.
The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) interview showed that 45% of the sample met the diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric disorder. This finding is in line with the main reasons reported by participants for attending ayahuasca ceremonies, which include the treatment of mental health problems and to achieve psychological well-being. Remarkably, at the 1-month follow-up, 61% of participants who initially met the diagnostic criteria no longer met the criteria for any psychiatric disorder. Additionally, 22.2% of participants showed a decrease in the number of psychiatric disorders for which they met the diagnostic criteria, reducing the high prevalence of comorbidity at baseline (50%) to 0% at the 1-month follow-up. Overall, 83.2% of participants reported a clinical improvement. This improvement lasted until the 6-months follow-up. This finding is surprising, considering that this clinical improvement reported in the psychiatric interviews was not fully identified by the questionnaires used. A reduction in psychiatric diagnoses based on clinical interviews after the initiation of ayahuasca use is consistent across studies. These results are also consistent with a recent study published by our group where it was found that half of a large sample (n = 380) of long-term ayahuasca users reduced or eliminated their prescription drugs after they began to regularly use ayahuasca.
Only one subject met some criteria for a new psychiatric diagnostic, specifically for GAD, after using ayahuasca for the first time. That subject met the criteria for this disorder at 6-months follow-up. There are several reports regarding adverse effects of ayahuasca, leading some of them to psychiatric diagnoses. In order to obtain more information, the questionnaire scores for this case were checked, and it was noted that the scores on every psychopathology scale from the SCL-90-R decreased notably at 1-month follow-up. At 6-months follow-up, half of the scales of the SCL-90-R increased again, following the general trend of the whole sample. In the clinical interview conducted using the MINI, this subject mentioned that the ayahuasca experience went well, and the traumatic termination of a partnership that they were experiencing was a more probable cause of the anxious state.
Regarding changes in psychological and psychopathological variables, there were improvements in the HAM-D at the 6-months assessment, in anxiety and hostility from the SCL-90-R at the 1-month assessment, and in the role-emotional scale from the SF-36. The only variable that showed consistent change in the 6-month study period was depression as measured by HAM-D, which improved at every assessment. Although differences between baseline and the 1-month follow-up did not reach statistical significance, the scores decreased by half. This improvement was more evident at the 6-months follow-up, where differences between measures reached statistical significance. This finding is in line with previous research in which ayahuasca showed antidepressant effects at 7 and 21 days after its controlled administration in a clinical setting. Our sample was not clinical, but 45% of subjects met the criteria for a psychiatric disorder. The same pattern of improvement was observed in the role-emotional scale from the SF-36. A similar study with a sample similar to ours also found long-term improvements in the role-emotional and social function scales from the SF-36 questionnaire.
Confidence Intervals showing significant differences through different assessments in sub-study 1. HAM-D = Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; SCL-90-R = Symptom Check-List-90-Revised; SF-36 = The Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form.
Psychopathology scales of anxiety and hostility from the SCL-90-R only improved at 1-month, but not at the 6-months assessment. This tendency was observed for many scales, despite not being statistically significant. A general trend of improvement at 1-month follow-up was observed, while this improvement progressively decreased up until the 6-months follow-up. This can be clearly seen in Table. This pattern suggests that the potential therapeutic benefits of ayahuasca are temporary and do not persist in time, except for the case of depression. Several studies comparing ritual long-term ayahuasca users with non-users or with normative data have found better SCL-90-R scores and better scores for other psychopathological and psychological measures in users This may suggest that the long-term benefits of ayahuasca use depend on maintaining regular use.
The size of the sample decreased at both follow-ups. Therefore, we wanted to understand any potential limitations in that regard, so we conducted comparisons between drop-out subjects and those who remained in the study. Despite not obtaining significant results, subjects who scored lower on depression symptoms frequency (CAPE), and depression and hostility (SCL-90-R) at baseline tended to remain as study participants at least until the first follow-up. There were no significant differences nor notable tendencies between subjects who quit and those who remained until the last follow-up regarding any variable. This finding suggests that people with a high degree of distress may feel better after ayahuasca use and, subsequently, be more motivated to collaborate with researchers.
When only participants who met diagnostic criteria for a psychiatric disorder were analyzed, all the confidence intervals (CI) of variables overlapped between assessments. However, they indicated remarkable decrease over time in HAM-D scores, in the psychopathology scores measured by SCL-90-R at the 1-month follow-up, decrease in AAQ-II scores at each assessment, and increase of the WHOQOL-Bref score in the same manner. This also suggests an improvement in psychopathological status as it was also found using the MINI, but the sample may have been too small to observe significant differences using CIs. Despite reporting a clear tendency on the questionnaires used, this was not enough so that the CIs did not overlap.
In order to better understand if the eventual differences found between assessments in sub-study 1 were attributable to the use of ayahuasca or to extrapharmacological variables, including the passing of time, or if there are any pre-conditions that may lead a person to get involved in ayahuasca use, we performed sub-study 2. Only the measure of depression, assessed with the HAM-D, showed significant differences between non-users and long-term users, where the latter scored better than the former, a finding consistent with the long-term antidepressant effects of ayahuasca14,15,16. In previous studies, the acute administration of ayahuasca reduced the functional connectivity (FC) of the default mode network (DMN)21, which could be related to the improvements made on a depressed condition. Moreover, it has been observed that the acute administration of the psychedelic tryptamine psilocybin also reduced the FC in the DMN in patients with MDD and resulted in a decrease in depression scores that lasted for at least 6 months. Therefore, both the lower scores found at months 1 and 6 in naïve users and the lower scores for depression found in our long-term users, as compared with the baseline scores of subjects from sub-study 1, may reflect an actual mid-term antidepressant effect of ayahuasca. Due to the complex effects of ayahuasca, both pharmacological and psychological, employing an integrated approach involving different disciplines would be necessary to explain its efficacy. It has been observed, for example, that ayahuasca acutely enhances mindfulness-related capacities, such as decentering or acceptance, and psychological process variables such as personal values could also be involved in therapeutic outcomes. These capacities seem to be maintained during the after-glow period and also have persistent effects over the long-term. Long-term effects may also be associated with the integration of the experience into normal life (e.g. by reconciling unexpressed/unresolved emotional energy), and thus with improvements in psychotherapeutic outcomes. Furthermore, some authors suggest that the psychedelic experience or the mystical-type experiences that psychedelic drugs induce can also explain their therapeutic effects. Finally, as ayahuasca is generally taken in ceremonies for which small or large groups of people gather, its communal use can also be viewed as exerting potential benefits, since feeling part of a community can have an important therapeutic impact.
The other measure where experienced users scored higher than naïve users was self-transcendence (ST). There are multiple studies that have shown that psychedelics can induce long-term personality changes. In sub-study 1, subjects did not change their scores in ST between assessments, but in sub-study 2 long-term users scored significantly higher than non-users in ST, a result that has been consistently found in previous studies as well. It has been suggested that ayahuasca users’ higher ST scores could be partially explained by their participation in religious practices such as Santo Daime. However, in the study by Bouso et al. the samples (ayahuasca users and non-users) were matched for religion, age, and gender, so the difference in that study could be attributed to the ritualistic use of ayahuasca. In the present study, the number of atheists was lower in the group of long-term ayahuasca users, but only 13% of participants were Santo Daime members. Taking all these data into account, it is reasonable to think that higher scores in ST may be a direct consequence of ayahuasca use. A previous study found differences in cortical thickness in several brain areas to exist between long-term users and non-users of ayahuasca, suggesting a physical brain modification after regular ayahuasca exposure without any apparent neuropsychiatric consequences (there were no differences between groups in their performance on psychiatric and neuropsychological tasks). In that study, researchers found a correlation between ST and cortical thickness in the posterior cingulate cortex1 Psychedelic drugs may therefore offer an interesting tool for investigating the stability of personality traits and their brain correlates.
Regarding the differences between naïve ayahuasca users’ and experienced users’ baseline scores for quality of life as assessed by the WHOQOL-Bref, they are also consistent between sub-studies. Although in sub-study 1 there were no significant differences between assessments, there was an actual clinical improvement between them . This is consistent with previous research where regular ayahuasca use was associated with a better mental health status or with improvement on psychopathology scales, as was also observed in sub-study 1.
When comparing long-term ayahuasca users with the sub-study 1 subsample of psychiatric diagnosis (n = 18), the number of variables in which significant differences are found increases. This is reasonable in light of the much smaller number of long-term ayahuasca users who met the diagnostic criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder (9%). Ayahuasca-naïve users who met the criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis scored poorly for depression (HAM-D), positive symptoms frequency (CAPE), depression symptoms distress (CAPE), negative symptoms distress, in AAQ-II questionnaire, self-transcendence scale (TCI-R-67), role-emotional (SF-36), and WHOQOL-Bref. Despite not finding statistically significant differences between assessments among the subgroup of naïve users with psychiatric disorders, remarkable improvements were observed for several scales measuring psychopathology and quality of life. This lends support to previous research that found that ayahuasca users gained therapeutic benefits or experienced an enhanced ability to solve personal problems.
The main limitation of this study is that there was no control group with which to make comparisons to determine the impact of the intervention. In order to minimize that limitation, we designed sub-study 2. Coherent results were found both between sub-studies and with previously published research. However, further studies using larger samples should consider potential differences between the type and setting of the ceremony.
This study assessed naïve users of ayahuasca in order to collect data regarding its overall effects on psychiatric condition and psychological status. Since ayahuasca use has become globally popular as a self-help practice, it is important to better understand its potential risks and benefits. General mid-term adverse effects were not observed in this study, although some secondary acute reactions were observed in some individual cases (e.g. anxiety) and will be reported in a separate paper. Additionally, from a clinical point of view, there was a substantial decrease in psychiatric symptomatology after the first use of ayahuasca, which persisted until the 6-months follow-up. The most evident improvements were found with regards to depression. These improvements in depression found after performing clinical interviews were also demonstrated by the psychiatric rating scales. Better scores for depression were also observed among long-term users when compared with ayahuasca-naïve users at baseline. The results obtained in this study help to inform us about the effects of the ritualistic use of ayahuasca on mental health. These results suggest that the use of ayahuasca in controlled settings may offer therapeutic benefits. Future studies with larger samples are warranted in order to better understand 1) the more specific effects of ayahuasca use on public health and 2) the reasons why those initiated in ayahuasca use continue to use it or not.
Methods
Sub-study 1
Sample
Several ayahuasca ceremony leaders from different parts of Spain were contacted and asked to inform us when ayahuasca-naïve subjects called them to participate in their ayahuasca ceremonies. Subjects willing to participate contacted the authors. In this way we recruited 40 ayahuasca-naïve subjects (28 women) for sub-study 1.
Measures
Sociodemographic information. Age (years), gender (male/female), nationality, maximum educational level, religion, and motivation for participating in ayahuasca ceremonies were collected from participants.
Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI; Sheehanet al.; Spanish version: Ferrandoet al.). MINI is a short structured diagnostic interview that includes DSM-IV and ICD-10 psychiatric disorders. It is a short but accurate tool for use in both clinical trials and epidemiological studies.
Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D; Hamilton; Spanish version: Ramos-Brieva). HAM-D is a questionnaire used to rate the severity of depression through the assessment of various aspects, such as mood, suicide ideation, insomnia, anxiety, or somatic symptoms. A score of 0 to 7 is considered to be normal, while a score of >7 is indicative of depression.
Community Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE; Stefaniset al.; Spanish version: Fonseca-Pedreroet al.). CAPE was designed specifically to evaluate psychotic-like experiences in epidemiological studies in the general population. It contains 42 items and measures psychotic-like experiences using eight sub-scales (Total Frequency score; Total Distress score; Positive Symptoms Frequency; Positive Symptoms Distress; Depression Symptoms Frequency; Depression Symptoms Distress; Negative Symptoms Frequency; Negative Symptoms Distress) based on a dimensional approach.
The Symptom Check-List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R; Derogatis; Spanish version: González de Riveraet al.). The SCL-90-R is a self-report questionnaire that assesses 9 psychopathological symptomatic dimensions. It includes 90 Likert-type items that are scored from 0 to 4: Somatization (SOM), Obsessive-Compulsive (O–C), Interpersonal Sensitivity (I–S), Depression (DEP), Anxiety (ANX), Hostility (HOS), Phobic Anxiety (PHOB), Paranoid Ideation (PAR), and Psychoticism (PSY). The scale also provides 3 additional psychopathological indices: General Severity Index (GSI), Positive Symptoms Distress Index (PSDI), and Positive Symptoms Total (PST). For all of these scales, higher scores imply worse symptomatology.
Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II; Bondet al.; Spanish version: Ruizet al.). AAQ-II is a measure of psychological flexibility that shows good test–retest reliabilities. High scores imply worse psychological flexibility.
Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-R-67; Cloninger; Spanish version: Pedrero-Pérezet al). TCI-R-67 is a 67-item self-report questionnaire, in which items are rated between 1 (completely disagree) and 5 (completely agree), that measures seven domains of personality: Novelty Seeking (NS), Harm Avoidance (HA), Reward Dependence (RD), Persistence (PER), Self-directedness (SELFD), Cooperativeness (COOP), and Self-transcendence (ST).
The Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form (SF-36; Ware & Sharebourne; Spanish version: Alonsoet al.). SF-36 has been used in many healthcare settings. It has 8 individual subscales divided across physical and psychological domains: Physical Function (PF), Role Physical (RP), Bodily Pain (BP), Global Health (GH), Vitality (VIT), Social Function (SF), Role Emotional (RE), and Mental Health (MH).
World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-Bref; WHO; Spanish version: Lucas-Carrasco). WHOQOL-Bref is an abbreviated 26-item version of the WHOQOL-100. It is an assessment tool with cross-cultural validity that is used to assess the quality of life.
Procedure
The interview and questionnaires were administered before ayahuasca-naïve subjects attended their first ayahuasca ceremony. One-month and 6-months follow-up were conducted in order to observe potential changes in variables assessed.
Statistical analysis
An analysis based on confidence intervals (CI; 95%) was used. CIs were calculated for each of the variables and assessments. When two CIs of the same variable did not overlap between different assessments, we calculated and reported the effect size (Cohen’sd). A subgroup analysis involving only those subjects who met psychiatric diagnostic criteria was conducted.Two Student’sttests were used to analyze potential differences between those subjects who quit the study at both follow-ups and those who did not. Effect size (Cohen’sd) was calculated and reported. Bonferroni correction was used for multiple comparisons.Pvalues under 0.001 were considered statistically significant.
IBM SPSS Statistics v.20 was used to analyze the data. An on-line calculator of effect size was used
Sub-study 2
Sample
The same ayahuasca ceremony facilitators were asked to inform us when ayahuasca-experienced subjects (inclusion criterion was established as the participant having taken ayahuasca more than 30 times in their lifetime) called them to participate in their ayahuasca ceremonies. Subjects willing to participate contacted the authors. A total of 23 ayahuasca-experienced subjects (10 women) were recruited.
Measures
The same measures were used as in sub-study 1.
Procedure
The interview and questionnaires were administered in one single assessment.
Statistical analysis
Student’sttest was used to compare the means obtained for both samples of sub-study 2. A subgroup analysis was conducted involving only the sub-study 1 subjects who met psychiatric diagnostic criteria and comparing them with the sub-study 2 sample.
IBM SPSS Statistics v.20 was used to analyze the data. An on-line calculator of effect size was used
Ethics
This study (inclusive of sub-studies 1 and 2) was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Autonomous University of Madrid), Spain. Written informed consent was obtained from all volunteers. All experimental procedures were performed in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.
Credit:
Post- Daniel F. Jiménez-Garrido
Website: https://go.nature.com/3FdKsks
You set aside the first hour of your day to work on a strategy document that you’ve been putting off for a week. You haven’t been disciplined about getting to it, but you’ve had one crisis after another to deal with in the past week. Now, finally, you’ve carved out 90 early morning minutes to work on it.
First, however, you take a quick peek at the email that has piled up in your inbox overnight. Before you know it, you’ve used up the whole 90 minutes responding to emails, even though none of them was truly urgent.
By the time you walk into your next meeting, you’re feeling frustrated that you failed to stick by your plan. This meeting is a discussion with a direct report about the approach he’ll be taking in a negotiation with an important client. You have strong views about how best to deal with the situation, but you’ve promised yourself that you will be open and curious rather than directive and judgmental. You’re committed, after all, to becoming a more empowering manager.
Instead, you find yourself growing even more irritable as he describes an approach that doesn’t feel right to you. Impulsively, you jump in with a sharp comment. He reacts defensively. You worry for a moment — and rightly so — that you cut him off too quickly, but you tell yourself that you’ve worked with this client for years, the outcome is critical, and you don’t have time to hear your direct report’s whole explanation. He leaves your office looking hurt and defeated.
Welcome to the invisible drama that operates inside us all day long at work, mostly outside our consciousness. Most of us believe we have ourselves. In reality, we have two different selves, run by two separate operating systems, in different parts of our brain.
The self that we’re most aware of — the one that planned to work diligently on the strategy document and listen patiently to your direct report — is run by our pre-frontal cortex and mediated through our parasympathetic nervous system. This is the self we prefer to present to the world. It’s calm, measured, rational, and capable of making deliberate choices.
Know more about us and our services
The second self is run by our amygdala, a small almond-shaped cluster of nuclei in our mid-brain and it is mediated by our sympathetic nervous system. Our second self seizes control any time we begin to perceive threat or danger. It’s reactive, impulsive, and operates largely outside our conscious control.
This second self serves us well if a lion is coming at us, but the threats we experience today are mostly to our sense of worth and value. They can feel nearly as terrifying as those to our survival, but the danger we experience isn’t truly life-threatening. Responding to them as if they are only making things worse.
It’s in these moments that we often use our highest cognitive capacities to justify our worst behaviours. When we feel we’ve fallen short, we instinctively summon up our “inner lawyer” — a term coined by author Jonathan Haidt — to defend us.
Our inner lawyer is an expert at rationalizing, avoiding, deflecting, dissembling, denying, disparaging, attacking, and blaming others for our missteps and shortcomings. The inner lawyer works overtime to silence our own inner critic, and to counter criticism from others. All this inner turmoil narrows and consumes our attention and drains our energy.
The problem is that most organizations spend far more time focused on generating external value than they do attending to people’s internal sense of value. Doing so requires navigational skills that most leaders have never been taught, much less mastered. The irony is that ignoring people’s internal experience leads them to spend more energy defending their value, leaving them less energy to create value.
In our work with leaders, we’ve discovered that the antidote to reacting from the second self is to develop the capacity to observe our two selves in real-time. You can’t change what you don’t notice, but notice can be a powerful tool for shifting from defending our value to creating value.
A well-cultivated self-observer allows us to watch our duelling selves without reacting impulsively. It also makes it possible to ask our inner lawyer to stand down whenever it rises up to argue our case to our inner and outer critics. Finally, the self-observer can acknowledge, without judgment, that we are both our best and our worst selves, and then make deliberate rather than reactive choices about how to respond in challenging situations.
To improve your capacity to self-observe, begin with negative emotions such as impatience, frustration, and anger. When you feel them rising, it’s a strong signal that you’re sliding into the second self. Simply naming these emotions as they arise is a way to gain some distance from them.
Also, watch out for times when you feel you’re digging in your heels. The absolute conviction that you’re right and the compulsion to take action are both strong indicators that you‘re feeling a sense of threat and danger.
In our work, we provide leaders with small daily doses of support — reminders to pay attention to what they’re feeling and thinking. We’ve also found it helpful to build small groups that meet at regular intervals so leaders can share their experiences. A blend of support, community, connection and accountability helps offset our shared impulse to stop noticing, push away discomfort, and revert to survival behaviours in the face of perceived threats to our value. A good starting place is to find a colleague you trust to be your accountability partner and to seek regular feedback from one another.
Finally, it’s important to ask yourself two key questions in challenging moments: “What else could be true here?” and “What is my responsibility in this?” By regularly questioning your conclusions, you’re offsetting your confirmation bias — the instinct to look for evidence that supports what you already believe. By always looking for your own responsibility, you’re resisting the instinct to blame others and play the victim and focusing instead on what you have the greatest ability to influence — your own behaviour.
A deceptively simple premise lies at the heart of this deliberate set of practices: see more to be more. Rather than simply getting better at what they already do, transformational leaders balance courage and humility in order to grow and develop every day.
Credit:
Post- Tony Schwartz
Website: https://bit.ly/3kXJ2mf
Considering your return-to-the-workplace strategy? Avoid these common misconceptions to foster a healthier, happier, more productive environment
When COVID forced the world to quickly adapt to a remote work environment, many of us thought that we were facing our biggest workforce challenge. But as leaders and employees grapple with how to move forward post-pandemic, we’re quickly realizing that our greatest obstacle may well be re-entry into the workplace.
From the very beginning of the pandemic, we knew work would never look the same, and discussions surrounding “back to normal” quickly changed to “the new normal.” But as much as we’ve hyped this concept, no one has been able to define it: Employers are struggling to outline what expectations they should have for employees, who in turn are wondering how they will adjust, again, and rework their schedules to accommodate their employer’s expectations.
On top of all this, many people are reexamining what a successful career looks like and are trading cutthroat, always-on jobs for roles that allow for more flexibility and meaning – a trend that’s becoming known as the “Great Resignation.”
When we started writing our book, Work Better Together: How to Cultivate Strong Relationships to Maximize Well-Being and Boost Bottom Lines pre-pandemic, we had no idea just how timely it would be – because if there is one thing that the pandemic taught us, it’s that social connection is vital to every part of our lives, including work. Now the big question is: Do we all need to be in the office to cultivate and nurture those connections?
In some ways, organization leaders are stuck between a rock and a hard place: If they let employees continue to work from home, social connections will suffer. But if they force employees back to the office, many will leave for more flexible opportunities. Thinking in terms of either/or will only make re-entry more difficult.
Here are four fallacies to keep in mind when it comes to workplace re-entry:
1. False: Everyone needs to work the same way
Let’s face it: Little has changed when it comes to the workweek and workday. It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of workplace flexibility came on the scene. More progressive companies that provided flexible policies (and the culture to support it) were relatively rare.
Now that we’ve all experienced workplace flexibility, there’s no going back. What people value in their careers has changed. Where, when, and how people work probably doesn’t need to be determined by leadership – instead, organizations should empower their teams to create ways of working that are best suited to the preferences and needs of their people. And because every person and every team is different, you will likely see a lot of different approaches across the organization.
2. False: You must be in-person to innovate
Many employers that insist on everyone coming back to the office are stuck on the idea that innovation can happen only when people are all physically together. And there will certainly always be a place for in-person connection – it plays a vital role in building connections and supporting collaboration when done with intention. But physical togetherness is not a panacea for innovation.
If your teams aren’t innovating like they should be, the problem is probably not location. Instead, look at the culture. Every company and team may look different, but all workplace cultures require four things to thrive: trust, empathy, well-being, and psychological safety. Organization and team leaders who prioritize these things will be better positioned to retain talent by fostering a workplace in which people can bring their best selves to work every day. This in turn leads to more innovation.
3. False: Everyone is tired of technology
We know that Zoom fatigue is real because we’ve experienced it. But technology shouldn’t be the reason to bring everyone back to the office – after all, everyone will continue to use it whether they’re in the office or working from home.
Instead, strive to be more intentional and thoughtful about how you use tech on the organizational, team, and individual levels. Leaders should ensure that effective collaboration platforms are in place so employees don’t need to rely on conference calls to get work done remotely. Teams can agree on boundaries that define when and how colleagues communicate. And on the individual level, everyone should take responsibility for creating space in their day for technology-free time.
4. False: Employees will leave, and you can’t do anything about it
Some of your team members probably started planning their exit as soon as they read the first “return to work” email. You know it’s happening, but what can you do about it?
Better understanding the needs of your team members can help you come up with solutions that work for both your employees and the business. Building open lines of communication and encouraging honest discussions will build trust, strengthen relationships, and may help you retain more people.
While re-entry has caused anxiety, it has also presented an opportunity for organization leaders, teams, and employees to apply the lessons of the pandemic and create a healthier, happier workplace culture.
Credit:
Post- Jen Fisher, Anh Phillips
Website: https://red.ht/3j2vIww
At Virgin, we believe that all businesses – regardless of size or sector – should be led by purpose. This is why I’m so proud to see how Virgin Media is living up to its purpose of ‘building connections that really matter’. I spoke to Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Office of Virgin Media, as part of my Purposeful Leadership interview series and I was really inspired by what he had to say.
We talked about everything from accountability and authenticity; to making your purpose practical and evolutionary; building a culture of belonging; balancing your personal purpose with a business purpose; involving your people; having brave conversations to create positive change; and so much more.
Jeff brought so much energy to the discussion. Every time I speak to leaders who are genuinely driven by purpose, I am always blown away by their passion and commitment to making every business decision through a purpose lens. It's this drive and focus that helps businesses reach such ambitious purpose and sustainability targets, and turn talk into action. As Jeff put it:
“When you start talking about being purposeful, people assume it’s at the expense of being performance-driven. This, for me, is an ‘and’ not an ‘or’.”
When you look at the impact the company has made over the last five years, and it's current Meaningful Connections Plan, the proof is in the pudding.
This solutions-focused, action-driven approach to business is ingrained in Jeff’s character and is a wonderful trait in a leader. In his own words:
“My dad used to say to me: ‘I can’t hear what you’re saying, because your actions are deafening me,’ and I really believe that.”
I just loved this... well said Jeff’s Dad! Speaking of character traits, Jeff also listed these six qualities as being particularly important in becoming a purpose-driven leader:
- being driven
- keeping a focus on performance
- being empathetic
- being inclusive
- making sure you listen
- trusting others
I was also particularly interested in Jeff's ‘cultural triangle’ theory. As he stated: “Leaders make choices, and choices determine culture.” It’s this understanding that your purpose and your values need to be embedded from the very top, that makes the Virgin Media O2 leadership team so effective. At Virgin, we often take a different approach to the traditional business norms, and, as Jeff and I discussed, the triangle is often inverted to make sure culture is co-created by the people. This ensures that everyone has a say in driving change and in making business decisions.
Jeff understands purposeful leadership better than almost anyone I’ve met, so I hope you find our discussion insightful. To close, I’d like to share Jeff’s personal purpose statement, which really says it all:
“My purpose is to realise my own potential, by helping others to realise theirs.”
Credit:
Post-Holly Branson
Website: www.virgin.com
Please try different keywords.