Neurobiologists say this one simple lesson can help you lead more effectively

After the usual round of strategy conversations, my client sat down to write his strategy document. It had been percolating in his head for days. Then, when he sat down, nothing happened. Strategy and strategic thinking are of the utmost importance as the bedrock and guidance for organizations, but creating them requires your brain to work well. Understanding how the brain supports performance is useful not only for strategy work but also across many leadership tasks. Although the brain contains around 80 billion neurons with countless connections, two systems matter most here: the analytic network and the limbic system. 2 systems The analytic, or task-positive, network is responsible for complex thinking and decision-making. Sitting mainly in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), it’s where brain-area integration occurs. Therefore, to write a strategy, we draw on working memory (the brain’s project management system), language processing and production, information synthesis, and the visual and motor coordination needed to put ideas into words. For this to happen effectively, the system needs freedom from interference. That interference can come from the limbic system, located at the back of the brain above the brain stem. The limbic system—really a collection of areas including the thalamus, hypothalamus, and the amygdala—acts as our reaction and alarm centers. When receiving huge amounts of data about what’s happening to us, and what we predict is about to happen, it triggers our fight or flight responses to keep us safe. Neurobiologists think that, given the highly technological and uncertain times we live in, the limbic system is more stimulated than ever before. And here’s the important connection—when the limbic system is this active, it inhibits functionality of the analytical network. This they call a “threat state.” My client couldn’t write that strategy most likely because he was in a “threat state”: He was overwhelmed, stressed, beginning