Most of us have no idea how the brain works on a biological, chemical or psychological scale. But businesses are increasingly starting to harness that knowledge to influence the decision making and engagement, not only of their customers, but also their teams as well. Understanding the neuroscience, or thought processes, behind decisions can help managers engage their employees better and influence consumer behaviour, better known at Heelix as neurostrategy.

Neurostrategy is the analysis of human behaviour and decision making and then application to different business operations, from marketing to UX to people management. Heelix, a real-time feedback performance management platform, is an Australian-first for innovative business analysis. Heelix was developed by a team of neuroscientists and psychologists who specialise in tapping into the non-conscious nature of human decision making, led by Katharina Kuehn, one of APAC’s leading neuroscientists. We caught up with Jon-Claude Raad, Neurostrategist from the team, to discuss how neurostrategy works and its potential impact both now and in the future.

Let’s start with the basics, what exactly is neuroscience and how is it different to psychology?

Neuroscience can include a number of disciplines, including neurochemistry, neuroanatomy and psychology, basically any that focus on understanding the structure and function of the nervous system and the brain. Psychology, on the other hand, is one part of the umbrella term of neuroscience and mainly focuses on the mental processes of the brain and its influence on behaviour.

What, then, do you mean by neurostrategy?

Neuroscience is about gaining an understanding of how the brain works as well as what influences people’s behaviour and decision making. Neurostrategy is about putting that information into practice. It’s about understanding what drives people’s behaviour, what they value and what emotional systems are most prevalent in their brain, then tailoring your approach to speak to them more specifically.

Every business has a strategy team. The ones who are responsible for putting together a plan of how the business intends to achieve its goals. That team might be a board of directors, or the executive team or a specialised strategy department. For example, one of the goals might be to increase the number of sales. Where a neurostrategy team differs from a regular strategy team is that they know that people process emotions faster than they process facts. So, instead of including facts, figures, stats and dimensions in marketing messaging, the team would suggest including imagery, colours, shapes and text that speaks directly to the emotions they want their customers to feel.

This strategy also works in other areas of business, including human resources (HR). Most employee engagement surveys ask the same questions about the same aspects of a job, for example, how happy their team is with their remuneration. A better strategy, one that Heelix was built on, is to focus on emotions, drilling down on how the team is feeling first, before asking more specific questions about why they feel that way later. In other words, the better you understand your employees, how their brain works and more importantly, what is emotionally relevant to them at work, the more you can tailor your approach to their needs.

What does a typical day for a neurostrategist look like?

Because an effective strategy means looking at things holistically, a typical day at Heelix means being involved across multiple areas of the business. Some days it can range from creating marketing content to developing training and development guides to advising web designers on changes to the website and even to helping develop and enhance existing platforms. The key difference between a typical day in the neurostrategy team at Heelix and a typical day for a strategist at another business is the understanding of how important it is to ensure everything we do is emotionally relevant to the target audience. Knowing what people are looking for from Heelix, knowing what the platform can provide to them and then knowing how best to match the two up is the underlying principle that all our work is based upon.

What current effects does neurostrategy have in the workplace?

Companies out there might not be using that exact term, but neuroscience is definitely being used more and more. Neuromarketing might be something more people are familiar with. We see a lot of businesses using neuroscience in their marketing to appeal to more customers or to sell more of their products. McDonalds is probably the most famous company currently doing this – the colour yellow, a large part of their logo, is shown to promote hunger. For employees in the workplace, HR managers are using neuroscience research in their people management systems to improve the experience of their teams at work.

Will these effects change in the future?

It’s tough to say how quickly Australian businesses will take up this technology. If you’ve been to any management or marketing training sessions recently, there’s already a lot of psychology involved. It’s obvious people in these positions have an interest in neuroscience and want to learn about it, but they probably don’t realise how powerful it really is. While marketing is currently the largest industry user, in time, it’s likely to become common across many professional industries, especially in the tech space. Senior managers in medium to large companies have a lot to gain by implementing positive changes for their teams based on this research.

Overall, if companies use neuroscience research responsibly in their business practices, the effects will be positive for consumers, for businesses and for employees as everything becomes more personally relevant to each individual.

What exciting research or technology is currently happening in the world of neuroscience?

One of the most interesting things at the moment is something called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Previously, the brain imaging scans used by researchers were able to take snapshots of brain activity at certain points in time. With fMRI, researchers are able to track brain activity in real time, as participants take part in experiments, complete activities, listen to certain music or view certain imagery. It’s MRI scans which allows us to see people’s brains reacting to stimuli in real time. That being said, it might be a while before we see fMRI technology being used outside of a lab and in a commercial setting because at the moment, the technology is expensive and only available to certain researchers whose samples for now are more exploratory than conclusive.

In terms of research, the most exciting work, both for us and for those who use Heelix, is the understanding of the different personalities at work, what they like and dislike, what motivates and discourages them, their strengths and challenges and how they communicate. Right now, most HR systems that use neuroscience are integrating it on the basis of what works for most people. We are instead looking at what works for different individuals, based on their personality. Not only does this allow for more relevant suggestions for improvements to workplace experience, it makes people feel more like an individual whose needs and wants matter rather than just another face in the office.

Bit of a spoiler alert – but stay tuned to the Heelix website and social media accounts because more integration of personalisation is on the not-so-distant horizon.

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