Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?

by Aaron Dignan

All decisions involve emotion. When you face a choice, subcortical structures in your brain fire and a range of emotions, instincts, and body sensations unfold, influencing or even arriving at a somatic decision before you’re fully aware of it. This is what is commonly known as a “gut feeling.” This interplay between our various thinking systems is so fast and embedded that we don’t even realize it’s happening. We may cling to the idea that we make most of our decisions objectively and rationally. But it simply isn’t so.82 Which is why, at this point in the book, I believe you’ve already made your choice. Somewhere in your mind or your body, you know. Either you believe that we need to change how we work, and you’re going to take that leap, or you don’t and you won’t. From here on out, I’m speaking to the believers. The catalysts. The visionaries. The risk takers. The readers who know in their gut that if we don’t change how we come together as human beings to build and shape the future, then the future won’t be a place we want to be. So where do we go from here? The answer is easy; the doing is hard. If you hold power over other people—in business, in philanthropy, in education, in public service, in your community, or even at home—it is your responsibility to increase the humanity, vitality, and adaptivity of that system. If you’re with me, here we go.