Our Primitive wiring collides with the modern workplace

We have primitive wiring

- Instinct to survive, fight, flight

- Instinct belong

- Instinct to become, grow, learn, improve

The instinct to “become, grow, learn, improve” might be better portrayed as a more primitive need to climb pack ranking. Climbing pack rank meant better food, more procreation and increased survival of offspring. No surprise that natural selection left us all with some instincts to climb pack rank. It is still our lizard brains at work

Fast forward to *NOW*. Pack ranking is closely related to age-ism.
I’ll explain. We are all wired to climb pack ranking, this equates to being smarter, faster, stronger than others in the pack. We instinctively avoid anything that makes us look dumber, slower, weaker.
Fear of failure (relates to pack ranking) is very real and very sub-conscious. The reason we avoid taking on new things relates to our egos and appearance of looking dumber, slower, weaker. Fear of failure, or more accurately, the appearance of failure, is deeply ingrained in all of us. Still our lizard brains at work.

Our instinctive need for pack ranking means we all hate looking dumber, slower, or weaker. And yet taking on some new skill always starts with looking dumber, slower, weaker.

Lets recognize our differences. Some of us thrive in a new challenge … it is internally processed as a new strength to build. And that positive incentive outweighs the possible negative (short term) outcome of looking dumber, slower, weaker. Glass half full thinking … we can do hard things.

Regrettably others of us avoid new challenges … internally processed as a likely failure rather than a likely success. And that negative possible outcome outweighs the positive incentive. Glass half empty thinking … we will look dumb and the specter of failure looms large.

This is a “shades of grey” question. We are all wired a little differently. The line between pack ranking -v- self-improvement is blurry at best. Some of us place more weight on pack ranking, and social appearance than others. Others of us care more about the inner journey of self-improvement, and lifelong learning, than outward social appearances.

Age-ism is the poor cousin of racism. Age-ism, just like racism, is rooted the prejudice that some group is incapable, because they cannot or will not learn. The counter-balance to age-ism is recognizing the value of experience and the value of mentoring. Mentoring is a secret weapon in the quest for employee satisfaction, and low attrition.

To counter age-ism, look past the biases; ask about mid and late career efforts to broaden skills. Ask about getting out of the comfort zone and tackling something off the beaten path. Ask about body of work, innovation. Ask about mentoring. These things matter. The reality is, most late-career folks are very capable, they have learned along the way.

My ask is that you make a conscious effort to think with the frontal lobe, not the lizard brain;
and look past the biases.