How to develop a dopamine addiction in feedback and debriefing? Astonishing answers are the drug!

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JWR-Headshotsmile copyAstonishing responses from colleagues or learners in feedback conversations or debriefings are like crack cocaine for me… addictive.   Okay, I’ve never tried crack, but the “zing” of an unexpected response can also be quite a high.  The more often I hear things I did not know and could not foresee, the more addicted I get the little dopamine squirt of surprise.  I let myself depend on other people to teach me about themselves and what they are trying to accomplish. 

I start to crave the unique story behind each person’s actions.

So, when I heard the paradoxical phrase, “No was the yes I needed,” while listening to a podcast on Sunday, I pricked up my ears.  Boston chef/entrepreneur Barbara Lynch was explaining how she found her voice and path in the hard-driving kitchen of a mentor who yelled and ranted things like, “No! not like that!”   In an unexpected reversal, Lynch said, “because of the attention deficit disorder and the dyslexia, I couldn’t follow anyone’s formula at all. So “no” to me was the “yes” I needed to hear.”  “No” became the affirmation she needed to find her “Yes!” and do things her own way.

Check out her interview:

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/09/523170073/a-chefs-struggle-recounted-in-out-of-line

Jenny Rudolph is the Executive Director of the Center for Medical Simulation, Boston MA 02129, www.harvardmedsim.org
Founded in 1993, the Center for Medical Simulation (CMS) was one of the world’s first healthcare simulation centers and continues to be a global leader in the field. At CMS the focus is on communication, collaboration, and crisis management training in order to develop skills and teamwork behaviors that are best learned actively under realistic conditions. Since it first opened in 1993, CMS has trained thousands of participants in its innovative and challenging programs.