Business as Usual Has Rewired Our Brains
The 21st-century workplace didn’t emerge in isolation — it’s the latest step in a long redesign of how humans live and think. From forager to farmer, farmer to factory worker, factory to information worker, each leap reshaped our brain’s wiring. Neuroplasticity allowed us to adapt, though often in ways that left us further from our natural environment and more dependent on systems we created.
Today’s “achiever brain” thrives on solving problems and driving progress. It also leaves us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and disengagement. Gallup reports show only a third of employees engaged and over half seeking new roles — a symptom of disconnection from meaning.
The research of Dr. Lisa Miller points toward cultivating an “awakened brain” — a capacity for meaning, sacred connection, and perception beyond the immediate. This is not an inherited state; it’s developed through consistent practices that quiet the achiever brain and open new neural pathways.
When a company invests in the awakened brain’s practices of meaning, employee retention is greatly facilitated.
Business as usual is no longer an option. The invitation is to lead in ways that steward awareness, foster connection, and align enterprise with something greater than its own machinery. The world is already reimagining us — the opportunity is to consciously shape how we reimagine ourselves in response.
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