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Bruce Cryer
interviewed by Emma Taylor on October 18, 1995
"People are burning out in droves."
Bruce Cryer is a director at the Institute of HeartMath
Tripod: Could you explain the aim of HeartMath?
BC: The Institute of HeartMath is a research and education think tank, and we specialize in bio-medical research and training technologies to enhance human performance, boost creativity, enhance intuitive insight and reduce stress. The main areas we focus on are the scientific research around how our thoughts and emotions affect our physiology, and then developing tools that can help people in very practical ways to be more fulfilled, be healthier, be more productive -- in their workplace, in their family life or just within themselves.
Tripod: One of your goals is to bring more "spirit" into the workplace. What exactly do you mean by "spirit"?
BC: When we look at many of the challenges in organizations today, with down-sizing, re-engineering and all that kind of stuff, what is often the cry of employees is for more appreciation, for more of a sense of care in the workplace, more of a sense of passion and meaning and purpose. I talk about spirit in the workplace in fairly general terms, not as a set of spiritual philosophies for the workplace, but rather helping the work environment be a place where people can really fully express themselves, and bring their spirit into the workplace ... so that the spirit of that place can be a positive, uplifting, inspiring one, instead of a rigid, resistant, non-resilient one, which is what a lot of workplaces are like.
Tripod: That sounds nice, but it's a very warm and fuzzy concept. Is there any reason why a company should encourage more spirit in its workplace?
BC:Well, it's the lack of feeling appreciated, cared for and feeling part of a team that increases stress tremendously on individuals ... you have a less productive worker ... you have a worker more likely to burn out, more likely to be absent, more likely to look for other work -- all those are very real, very tangible factors. Health care costs alone are a very bottom-line reason why workplaces need to have more care and more of a sense of spirit. The stress-related health care costs are now about $300 billion a year in the US -- that's about five times what all the Fortune 500 companies put together make in profit. ... We have done some work with a Fortune 100 company, where there were some very dramatic improvements -- in blood pressure, in hypertension, in productivity, in reduction of symptoms of stress -- all of which helps the individual be more effective, therefore the company has a company of people who are better able to do their jobs effectively and creatively.
Tripod: What are some examples of how you would train people to achieve this?
BC: Our approach is something we call Inner Quality Management. That is a series of tools and technologies -- the key one is called Freezeframe. This is a one-minute technique for stopping a stressful reaction in the moment when you're having it, shifting your perception so that you both feel better in the moment, but especially so that you can make a better decision or you can have more creative insight in that moment.
Tripod: How do you do this Freezeframe thing?
BC: Well, it's a five-step process. The first step is to recognize you're feeling stressed. The second step includes literally shifting your focus of attention to the area of the heart. There's a two-way communication nervous system between the brain and the heart, which when we're under a lot of stress ... is not functioning well -- it's like static in the line. So if you focus on the heart, that allows the communication between the brain and the heart to improve. The third step is to try to recall or to experience a positive feeling about something -- about a time you were on the beach in Maui, for example. ... Step four -- now you can now ask yourself for a more effective response. ... The fifth step is simply to act on whatever insight you gained.
Tripod: Do you think there are some industries where this is impossible? It seems that many fields thrive on a lack of heart and spirit -- Wall Street, for example.
BC: I know what you're saying, I understand that. We work with a lot of high-tech companies and engineering companies who at first say, "If we can't measure it and quantify it, we're not interested in it." Wall Street's not all that different, it's very numbers-oriented, dollar-oriented. Our approach is to say, "Hey, everybody could use more effectiveness." The belief that we can somehow thrive on stress is really not the case, if you look at all the scientific research. People are burning out in droves from that philosophy. Most of the large companies that we work with that are really interested in looking at how to prepare for the next century are saying we've got to change that mind-set. ... We do a lot of work with the US military, for example, from the Air Force to the Marine Corps to the Army.
Most of our clients are high-tech clients, some of them are the young bucks from Silicon Valley, that think they can do no wrong, and are very arrogant and cocky, and very successful. But ... you've got people in their thirties now with heart disease, in their twenties, even. They're realizing, "Wait a minute. Something's gotta shift here for my own sake." It doesn't mean that the only alternative is to pack it all in and move to New Hampshire. There is a balance point in the middle, where you can still do the work that you love, and be in a high-energy, creative environment, but with more personal balance in the middle of it. That's really what we're about -- we're not trying to get people to unplug and get rid of technology and all that. We exist on the technology companies who are coming to us in droves!
Tripod: You mentioned the "young bucks" from Silicon Valley -- do you think the advent of the Net has helped or hindered spirit and community? In one sense, it has brought together a worldwide community, but it has also reduced the need for human contact.
BC: Yeh, it's a great question, and I think about it and talk about it a lot. To me it's neutral. I think it's all about how people use it. ... The Web has had a sort of leveling influence on business and commerce, and people can pick and choose what they want. It does have sort of a community feel to it. But nevertheless, my main interest in all that is, what is the quality of the content we are putting on the information highway? We can create another highway of information, but if we put the same old junk on it, the same old contention and antagonism, and ineffective mind-sets, then we have created a high-tech version of what hasn't worked in the past.
Tripod: Do you see trends in the workplace? Where would you say America is now, in terms of spirit?
BC: There is a tremendous explosion in books and articles and conferences about this topic, and I'm finding receptivity in very high levels of organizations that I would not have anticipated, even two years ago. I've been hearing CEOs of twenty billion companies openly talking about these questions. It's a very rapidly growing trend, and it's only going to get bigger, because stress is increasing in these organizations.
Tripod: What does this have to do with EQ?
BC: We deal very much with the whole concept of emotional management -- it's emotional management, or mis-management, that has more to do with a company's success in the mid-nineties than just how great a product is, or how great a marketing vehicle you've got. It's the ability to respond to changes, how you handle that emotionally, how you deal with crises. The whole concept of EQ makes total sense. While I know it will have many detractors, nevertheless, it represents a rounding out of the whole picture of intelligence. It's real stuff -- people come to work emotional basket cases some days.
Check out more tips on creating a heart-warming workplace at the Institute of HeartMath's home page, at http://www.webcom.com/~hrtmath/IHM/AboutIHM.html#Setting
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