Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
last illustration and complete it with the internal cycle of the other
person.
Perceiving
each other's
behavior
Perceiving
own behavior
Perceiving
own behavior
Displaying
behavior
Evaluating
behavior
Evaluating
behavior
Displaying
behavior
Intention to
behavior
Intention to
behavior
Person 1
Person
2
Mirror function
Two persons mirroring each other's behavior & intentions
Now we see two persons, each with their own feedback cycle. These
cycles mutually enrich each other with mirror input from the behavior
of the other person. Both persons can evaluate their own behavior, but
at the same time also the behavior of the other. Research has taught us
that people who imitate each other like each other more because they
feel they are two of the same kind. So there is a natural tendency to
copy each other
s behavior, and as you can see, by doing that they
also get in touch with the intentions behind those copied behaviors.
Because of the mirror system, intentions mingle.
'
Although strictly not proven, it takes little imagination to under-
stand that mirror systems in other areas of the brain connect not only
intentions but also values and attitudes that form the foundations of
overt behavior. It is very likely that mirror systems distribute values
among team members. As the loops are constantly going round, there
is a permanent mutual influence between team members, and from this
perspective it is easier to understand why cultural change is so difficult.
If one team member exposes new behavior based on new intentions
but all the other team members keep on demonstrating the old behav-
ioral repertoire, it requires a lot of resilience to resist merging with the
flow of the majority and readjusting. Next in this chapter, we discuss
what can be done to change these loops in a certain direction.
Case 1
In this case, we see that although the
of the two mechanics and
the operator was new, they immediately started to develop collective
“
team
”
