What happens to Change when our brains are too hot?

Climate change is not only changing the environment around us. It is also affecting how our brains function. Research increasingly links heat with changes in attention, memory, learning, decision-making, mood, sleep and mental health. For organisations leading change, that raises practical questions about how and when we ask people to learn, adapt and make decisions in a warming world.

If you’re a business leader, project manager, change or neuroscience professional and still wondering how climate change affects your work, a growing body of research now shows that our brains work differently in the heat. “Rising temperatures can affect attention, memory, learning, decision-making, mood, sleep and mental health,” according to Burcin Ikiz, PhD, Founder of EcoNeuro and the Neuro Climate Working Group, and featured in the NY Times for World Brain Day (22 July).

“In this era of advancing AI, when everyone is debating the nature of ‘intelligence’, we have forgotten that our brains run well only within a narrow band of temperature.” Burcin Ikiz

Now think about what we ask people to do during business change programmes: process complex information, learn new systems, make decisions, manage uncertainty and change behaviour.

We already acknowledge that business change can create challenges for mental and physical wellbeing. But as our climate changes, and extreme heat becomes more common, we may need to rethink how, when and where we deliver change activity. Understanding the risks of heat will need to become part of how we assess readiness, design interventions and support people through change.

So what might this mean for organisations leading change?

• Consider heat as part of change readiness. When assessing readiness, capacity and risk, consider environmental conditions alongside workload, wellbeing and other pressures that may affect people’s ability to engage with change.

• Design change activity around people’s capacity to think and learn. Think about when and where you schedule complex decision-making, training, workshops and other cognitively demanding activity, particularly during periods of extreme heat.

• Connect climate adaptation with workforce and change planning. Climate risk shouldn’t sit solely with sustainability or facilities teams. Bring together sustainability, HR, workplace, health and safety, change and business leaders to understand what increasing heat could mean for how work and transformation are designed.

Understanding the risks of heat will increasingly need to become part of how we assess readiness, design interventions and support people through business change. 🥵