Affect and eye contact are key to interpersonal synchrony
Why do we connect better with some people than others? Could that be the foundation for creating high performing teams? Over the past several years, neuroscientists have begun to study inter-brain synchrony, or how multiple brains interact. A recent study found that higher levels of inter-brain synchrony could predict higher levels of collective performance among teams, but suggests that this is just the beginning of the research needed to really understand how synchrony impacts performance.
Synchrony Simplified
Interpersonal synchrony occurs when two or more individuals begin to have coordinated thoughts, feelings and behaviors that aren’t planned. We see this when our steps align with the person we are walking next to, for example. We feel it when the mood in the room changes because someone with a lot of energy helps to wake us all up; or when a “Debbie Downer” enters the room and takes away the fun. (Thank you Paula Pell and Rachel Dratch).
A 2017 study published in Nature, examined synchrony in adults by focusing primarily on two components: eye contact and positive affect, or liking the other person based on a series of positive conversations. The researchers, led by Dr. Sivan Kinreich, found greater synchrony in couples than strangers. But, as you might expect, the more time strangers spent making eye contact and having conversations about a positive theme, the more synchrony increased.
There may be a bit more to eye contact too, since no one likes to be stared at. Neuroscientists at Dartmouth College, as reported in Scientific American, studied pupil dilation “as a measure of synchrony during unstructured conversation,” Researchers Thalia Wheatley, associate professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and graduate student Sophie Wohltjen found that eye contact was a mechanism for checking in to ensure shared attention and alignment. “Making eye contact marks a peak in shared attention—and not the beginning of a sustained period of locked gazes.” Moreover, synchrony “drops sharply after looking into the eyes of your interlocutor and only begins to recover when you and that person look away from each other.”
In other words, don’t stare, but when you are talking to or working with someone on your team, making eye contact from time to time may help you both stay in sync. It may also help bond the two of you if you are working on something you both like or if you can find the fun in something you don’t like to create more of those positive shared experiences.
Synchrony at Work
This is a phenomenon that most of us notice every time we work in teams. The more we like each other and the topic (or can find fun in the topic), the more we enjoy spending time together and working together. If you present to a group and don’t make eye contact with certain parts of the audience, you risk losing their interest and attention. Additionally, if you’ve ever had a conversation by a white board, you know that glancing at each other from time to time to make sure you are both on the same page and agree on what you are talking about makes you believe you are in sync.
These days, when many teams are no longer co-located, creating opportunities for synchrony has become even more important. If we take a lesson from these studies, that may mean creating more positive experiences for the team to connect–even if it’s just a team game over Zoom–so that positive affect continues to help team members stay in sync. It may also mean that white board sessions or presentations over zoom could benefit from more interruptions, toggling back to the team to make eye contact and check in to make sure everyone is in sync.
