Have you ever felt instantly happy when your favourite song comes on? The soundtrack to your life plays, as you strut down the street, earphones in and spirits high. On the other hand, sad songs can instantly make us feel low. They can force us to reminisce about the one that got away or evoke painful and upsetting memories.

Music has the power to change our perception and mood, all because the tune correlates to memories and emotions from the past, which becomes lodged in our brain. Much like music, brainwaves (or the study of electroencephalography) communicate with neurons within our brains and are best described as a state of conscious harmonics – sparking thoughts, emotions and behaviours that make us react to everyday life.

What are brainwaves?

Brainwaves are formed by masses of electrical pulses that are synchronised from billions of neurons communicating with each other. Think of brainwaves as musical notes in a pattern… only, less like Michael Jackson and more like, say, Björk. Brainwave frequency is measured in Hertz, which refers to cycles per second, and are often divided into bandwidths. To give you an idea, low-frequency brainwaves can be compared to a deep, pervasive drum beat, while high-frequency brainwaves might be more of a piercing, high-pitched violin.

So what are the different levels of brainwaves, and how do they affect the mind?

Incorporating neurostrategy and brainwaves into business

Neuroscience is the process of understanding the brain’s state and how it influences the decisions and the behaviour of people. In one of our more recent blogs, we spoke with our resident neurostrategist, Jon-Claude Raad, who took us through the process of neuroscience and how we can harness its power.

And, what did we learn? That neurostrategy is built on values and emotional systems. This, in business, is particularly helpful when understanding your team and their needs. By utilising neurostrategy, you can start to understand what drives employees, what motivates them and what they might value in an organisation. As a leader, it’s important to take time to show teams that they’re listened to, understood, and have a purpose. And it’s proven – the happier the employee, the more productive they are.

What you might not know is that it’s these brainwaves that can have the power to affect your employees and how they might be approaching their work on a day-to-day basis.

Evidence suggests that teams that successfully work together, can synchronise their brainwaves and merge their thought patterns. Scientists found teams with similar rises in areas of engagement, attention spans and cognitive workload, were more likely to be in sync with each other, leading to improved levels of efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace.
This level of cohesion, concentration and productivity can often be described as ‘being on a roll,’ ‘in the zone’ or ‘at the top of their game’. However, to some, they might refer to this state of mind, as the flow state.

Reaching the flow state

First coined by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in 1975, the flow state refers to the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity, fully engaged, and feeling energetically focused. This state is then activated when the alpha and theta brainwaves merge, taking the brain to the brink of the conscious and subconscious mind.

There’s research to suggest that some people, like innovators, are naturally prone to reaching the flow state. A BBC article suggests that it’s more likely to be those people that score highly on personality tests for conscientiousness, openness to experience, and low on measures of neuroticism.

It sounds like being in the flow state seems like a pretty good place to be, particularly in the workplace. So can you find a way to trigger it? A 10-year study by McKinsey and Co. found that top executives of organisations were 500 per cent more productive when working in the ‘flow state’. What did they do? They set clear goals, gave immediate feedback and promoted intense focus amongst their teams. To reach the flow state, effective communication and familiarity are recommended – so sharing goals, important information and checking in on your team regularly is the key.

The Heelix platform has been designed with this technology in mind and aims to create emotional connections between employees and their teams. It’s here that managers can use Heelix to identify roadblocks, understand their employee’s needs and improve overall productivity and performance.

Increase productivity by harnessing the brainpower

At Heelix, we’ve poked, prodded and picked apart the brains of professionals to truly understand the way the brain works at its best. We created Heelix leveraging neuroscience, analysing the way the brain responds to intrinsic triggers. If you’re ready to tap into the brains of your employees for mind-blowing business results, try Heelix for free today.