MUCH of what the business world considers ‘good’ management is in fact placing staff under stress and hitting productivity.

That’s the view of management author Jeremy Old, who says an understanding of neuroscience could help transform UK workplaces.

Mr Old said much common management practice is counterproductive because it triggers the stress response.

“Humans have thrived as a species by becoming highly socialised, collaborative problem-solving mammals. When management prevents people from collaborative problem solving, they become stressed,” he said.

“When employees become stressed they start underperforming in random ways. As a result, the organisation around them also starts to underperform.”

Mr Old points out that the UK is among the worst performers in the western world when judged by hourly productivity.

He said stressed employees lose the enthusiasm, commitment and focus that is important for excellence.

“We often see managers unwittingly provoke the stress response in a way that demotivates their teams, suppresses talent, distorts decision-making and interrupts the flow of work,” he added.

Mr Old gained a masters in business administration from Bournemouth University and is a trained psychotherapist. He founded change management specialist Team Business Development Ltd, based in Wimborne St Giles, and has 25 years’ experience working with businesses as a management coach.

He says genuine collaboration in the decision-making process unleashes the talent of everyone involved.

His book Reinventing Management Thinking – Using Science to Liberate the Human Spirit sets out 30 ‘organisational stressors’ that managers should avoid.

He argues that people habitually sink into unhealthy ‘brain states’ at work, whereas they show enthusiasm, commitment and desire to improve things when participating in his collaborative planning workshops.

He uses ‘organisational stress audits’ to help design stress out of organisations. His approach was initially based on systems thinking and psychology research carried out at the Stanford Research Institute and has been used in more than 50 assignments.

He said: “I want to convince more managers that leading collaboratively is the way to transform productivity.

“We have to do something to stop this poor productivity trend or we will simply lag further and further behind our competitors,” he added.

“With Brexit on the horizon, this is not a comfortable option.”