Brief 

Fear can’t be eliminated, but you can recognize it, and then “use that fear to make more creative and effective choices in your life rather than falling back into ineffective habitual patterns,” says Mark Minukas. The goal is to create a different narrative than the one we default to when fear arises, says Gaurav Bhatnagar, co-author with Minukas of a book on the subject.

 

Insight

 

Beyond Fear

Fear can grip individuals and organizations. I have seen companies with fear-based cultures and its dangerous impact. Two experts on business transformations, Gaurav Bhatnagar and Mark Minukas, have written Unfear: Transform your Organization to Create Breakthrough Performance and Wellbeing.

It shows you how to reframe your relationship with fear and anxiety to unlock extraordinary performance and personal wellbeing for you, your team, and your organization.No organization is ever completely free of fear. Instead, knowing how to reframe fear, to use its power, and to become resilient is key to success.

I recently spoke to the authors about their research on fear.

 

Why does fear so easily overtake an organization?

Gaurav: For a few reasons. First of all, organizations are made up of human beings and as human beings we are all prone to fear.

And yet fear is a taboo topic within organizations and therefore it is not discussed. It just seeps in insidiously with everyone pretending it doesn’t exist. Secondly, organizations have historically been deeply hierarchical, and deeply hierarchical structures create deeply unequal power.

And this makes for a fertile ground for fear to germinate. Finally, organizations today are living in a highly volatile environment with pressure for ever-increasing short-term profits and that is yet another factor that creates the perfect recipe for fear to permeate and get deeply embedded in organizations.

Mark: Another big reason fear overtakes organizations is because fear works in the short run. Fear motivates people to take action (or not take action depending on your own life experiences). We react to fear in ways that keep us safe in our minds.

 

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