Synopsis: Persistent ‘risk taking’ is now associated with conditions of stress and mental health problems.
Plagued by uncertainty and indecision, people tend to back risks, especially if they worked in the past.
Job stress
Many thus play ‘safe’ with risks on the job. To de-stress from its pressures, people in increasing numbers also play the odds. These facilitate their eventual preoccupation with winning, or attempting to recouping losses.
For example:
- A survey study of 43,000 Americans found that more than a quarter gambled five or more times a year – from playing cards for money, to buying lottery tickets, and betting on sports games.
- A research on the habits of office workers (Morse, January 2007) found that one in three workers gambles during work time, at least once a week and for at least 15 minutes.
The figures are on the rise in other parts of the world as well.
Goal change
The goal sought changes from effective decision-making action to anticipating the pleasures of a win. The attempt to call correct becomes the dependable strategy at work and in life. Failures or losses do not encourage rethinking the underlying premises, but the same strategy and its consequence repeats over and over again.
The habits of risk taking and gambling share the same neural networks in the brain. Hence one can soon lead to the other. A study reported in Forbes showed that continual risk taking could become like a narcotic, a way of coping with the pressure. The degree of anticipation grows with each successive strike, and so does the drive to win.
Rewards in the mind
Persistent ‘risk taking’ is now associated with conditions of stress and mental health problems. People afraid to lose, rely on this decisional process although it neither guarantees nor sustains success. Researchers implicate both individual attitudes and organizational culture in nurturing this type of decision-making.
The repetitive behaviour is a clear pattern of cumulative stress as the ‘rewards’ are only in the mind. Beating the odds to win is the consuming passion – the addiction. It pushes people further into stress and prolongs their fear of the unknown and future uncertainties. Even responsible managers can fall prey to the addiction to winning.
Using resources
The attempt is to control the environment with a reliance on odds. Despite prevailing circumstances, past assumptions about success with standard received wisdom, or best practices in ‘the way things have always been around here’, also remain the same. The preference for the ‘familiar’ stems from the individual and organizational desire to conserve resources.
In unknown situations, the resources needed, like critical thinking and reasoning, are far greater. New knowledge about changing environments helps develop our abilities to adapt to them. Improving adaptation facilitates our learning new ways to combat change and its challenges. We become more equipped and adept at dealing with uncertain times.
Goal change
The goal sought changes from effective decision-making action to anticipating the pleasures of a win. The attempt to call correct becomes the dependable strategy at work and in life. Failures or losses do not encourage rethinking the underlying premises, but the same strategy and its consequence repeats over and over again.
The habits of risk taking and gambling share the same neural networks in the brain. Hence one can soon lead to the other. A study reported in Forbes showed that continual risk taking could become like a narcotic, a way of coping with the pressure. The degree of anticipation grows with each successive strike, and so does the drive to win.
Rewards in the mind
Persistent ‘risk taking’ is now associated with conditions of stress and mental health problems. People afraid to lose, rely on this decisional process although it neither guarantees nor sustains success. Researchers implicate both individual attitudes and organizational culture in nurturing this type of decision-making.
The repetitive behaviour is a clear pattern of cumulative stress as the ‘rewards’ are only in the mind. Beating the odds to win is the consuming passion – the addiction. It pushes people further into stress and prolongs their fear of the unknown and future uncertainties. Even responsible managers can fall prey to the addiction to winning.
Using resources
The attempt is to control the environment with a reliance on odds. Despite prevailing circumstances, past assumptions about success with standard received wisdom, or best practices in ‘the way things have always been around here’, also remain the same. The preference for the ‘familiar’ stems from the individual and organizational desire to conserve resources.
In unknown situations, the resources needed, like critical thinking and reasoning, are far greater. New knowledge about changing environments helps develop our abilities to adapt to them. Improving adaptation facilitates our learning new ways to combat change and its challenges. We become more equipped and adept at dealing with uncertain times.
Comments/opinions, anyone??
References for ‘Risk’ blogposts:
Are You An Unhealthy Gambler?
Thinking twice [Article no: 84 on website twmacademy.com]
Are You An Unhealthy Gambler?
Thinking twice [Article no: 84 on website twmacademy.com]
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