Inner chimp

Dr Steve Peters, author of the best-selling book The Chimp Paradox (2012), helps us understand why, even as emotionally intelligent human beings, we are sometimes prone to think or respond in an overly emotional or irrational way. The chimp brain is a psychological theory that is related to how we have evolved over time to respond to threats in our environment. 

 For example:

•   Jumping to conclusions, or thinking in ‘black and white’ terms
•   Paranoid thinking
•   Experiencing a sense of inner turmoil that makes us overreact if we feel threatened or undermined.

Peters distinguishes between the ‘human brain’ (which enables us to be compassionate and to react calmly by using both emotions and rational thinking) and the ‘chimp brain’ (where we react without thinking, say things we do not mean, sulk or ‘lose it’ when faced with opposition). Our chimp brain is ever-present and reacts five times faster than the human brain, but we can train ourselves to be aware when it is making an appearance. The aim is not to kill your chimp brain but to tame it – being able to calm ourselves and use logic to reassure it makes us emotionally literate leaders and professionals.

Learning to tame your ‘inner chimp’

• We can only regulate our emotions if we also have an opportunity to express them; this can help us process socially inappropriate feelings such as frustration, anger and disgust. So, it is important to vent, to allow your inner chimp to have its voice in a safe space. Find people (within and outside the workplace) that you can vent with safely. The strategy for Personal Board of Directors will help you with this.

• We can then begin to address our emotional reaction calmly and allow the human part of our brain to determine a more rational reaction to the situation.

• Remember, being angry is perfectly natural and a logical response to some situations, but not always proportional or functional.

• When we need to divert our inner chimp, it helps to count to ten or to use a breathing technique before we voice our reactions.

• Techniques to challenge unproductive thinking (see KFP5 Wellbeing section) can also be useful in calming our inner chimp. Strategies to help manage inter-personal conflict are discussed in KFP4 Mission and Vision.

Encouraging practitioners to find an appropriate person to vent to (and recognising their need to do so) is important – although, as a leader, remember that you may not be the appropriate sounding board.

Try the following exercises to manage your inner Chimp:

• Describe a recent situation in which you allowed your emotions to control your reaction to something that someone else said or did. How did their words or actions trigger you, and how did you respond? 

• How did you feel afterward? Did you get the result you wanted from your reaction? Why or why not?

• How could you have managed your Chimp better to allow your Human (your rational brain) to stay in control? 

If you speak to someone else using your Chimp (emotional side), they will most likely respond with their Chimp. Try to speak to other people from your Human (rational side) to their Human and leave your Chimps out of the conversation. The following exercises may be helpful: 

• Think of a recent argument that you had in which your Chimp drove your words or actions. When you addressed the other person with your Chimp, how did her Chimp respond? 

• How did your Chimp respond when her Chimp spoke to you? Were you able to prevent it from doing so? Why or why not? 

• How could you have used your inner Human to better respond to the other person’s Chimp when it addressed you?