The CEO Magazine Australia — November 2017

ccording to neuroscience, there are six

factors that employees need in order to

feel motivated, happy and engaged in the

workplace. The acronym is SPACES, and

it’s also useful for creating employee resilience during

organisational change and for helping to get your

thinking back on track when you lose focus:

elf-esteem

urpose

utonomy

ertainty

quity

ocial connection

How to manage

THESE ARE THE SIX MOST IMPORTANT

FACTORS TO EASE THE EFFECTS OF CHANGE

AND CREATE A POSITIVE WORKPLACE.

WORDS • HILARY SCARLETT

CHANGECHANGE

When we have these six things, the reward centre

in our brains is activated and engaged. This means

we are positive, resilient and energised and can

focus on collaborating with others, as well as being

open to new ideas.

If workers don’t identify with these factors,

brains are in a ‘threat’ state. This means employees

may feel and act switched off and negative

because their energy naturally goes into protecting

themselves and being defensive. Ultimately, the

workplace is then seen as more threatening than it

actually is.

SPACES can be used at a micro level to plan

interactions – such as a phone call or a meeting –

or it can be used on a more macro level as a

checklist of how to plan a change program across

the organisation.

A S P A C E S