The document discusses how understanding the survival brain, also known as the reptilian brain or crocodile brain, is important for building thriving cultures. The survival brain was the first part of the human brain to develop and is responsible for initial threat filtering, fight or flight responses, and basic emotions. It has limited reasoning capabilities and focuses primarily on keeping us alive. The document also notes that people are highly attuned to social cues and how others perceive them because from the brain's perspective, social rejection could mean death. Therefore, organizations must create psychological safety to overcome these natural social triggers.

1. THE
WHY
01
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY &
BEHAVIOUR
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5. When it comes to building thriving culture, it all starts
with understanding the survival brain and how it
influences people’s behavior and experience.
The survival brain is also known as the reptilian brain or
crocodile brain (croc brain for short) and was the first to
develop in human evolution.
• It is responsible for the initial filtering of all incoming
messages
• It generates most survival fight-or-flight responses
• It produces strong, basic emotions
• When it comes to decision making, the croc brain’s
reasoning power is... primitive
• It simply doesn’t have a lot of capacity, and most of
what it does have is devoted primarily to the things it
takes to keep us alive

12. "As humans, we are very good at reading cues; we are
incredibly attentive to interpersonal phenomena... we
have a place in our brain that's always worried what
people think of us, especially higher ups. As far as the
brain is concerned, if our social system rejects us, we
could die. Given our sense of danger is so natural and
automatic, organisations have to do some pretty special
things to overcome that natural trigger.”
Amy Edmondson - Harvard Professor who studies
psychological safety