Find out how HR pros can apply basic principles of neuroscience to foster a more positive workplace culture where psychological safety thrives. Matt Kalb, vice president of client experience at T3 Expo, explains to host Raiyana Bryant what chemically happens to people’s brains every time they feel valued — and how leaders can use this understanding to be more vulnerable, self-aware, and appreciative with their teams. As Kalb puts it, “Empathy is not just a soft skill; it’s biological.” Get practical advice for building more trust, combating stereotypes, and making empathy your superpower. This podcast is approved for .5 PDCs toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Listen to the complete episode to get your activity ID at the end. ID expires June 1, 2026. Subscribe to HR Daily to get the latest episodes, expert insights, and additional resources delivered straight to your inbox: https://shrm.co/voegyz --- Explore SHRM’s all-new flagships. Content curated by experts. Created for you weekly. Each content journey features engaging podcasts, video, articles, and groundbreaking newsletters tailored to meet your unique needs in your organization and career. Learn More: https://shrm.co/coy63r
Find out how HR pros can apply basic principles of neuroscience to foster a more positive workplace culture where psychological safety thrives. Matt Kalb, vice president of client experience at T3 Expo, explains to host Raiyana Bryant what chemically happens to people’s brains every time they feel valued — and how leaders can use this understanding to be more vulnerable, self-aware, and appreciative with their teams. As Kalb puts it, “Empathy is not just a soft skill; it’s biological.” Get practical advice for building more trust, combating stereotypes, and making empathy your superpower.
This podcast is approved for .5 PDCs toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Listen to the complete episode to get your activity ID at the end. ID expires June 1, 2026.
Subscribe to HR Daily to get the latest episodes, expert insights, and additional resources delivered straight to your inbox: https://shrm.co/voegyz
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Explore SHRM’s all-new flagships. Content curated by experts. Created for you weekly. Each content journey features engaging podcasts, video, articles, and groundbreaking newsletters tailored to meet your unique needs in your organization and career. Learn More: https://shrm.co/coy63r
[00:00:00] Raiyana Bryant: Welcome to Honest HR. I'm your guest host Raiyana Bryant, talent and employee experience specialist at SHRM. Today we're exploring how neuroscience can drive cultural change and create psychological safety in the workplace. Joining us is Matt Kalb, vice President of Client Experience at T3 Expo. Welcome to Honest HR, Matt.
[00:00:30] Matt Kalb: Thank you so much. Happy to be here.
[00:00:32] Raiyana Bryant: Awesome. So can you explain the concept of neuroscience driven leadership and its relevance to fostering a positive organizational culture? And then how can HR professionals leverage this? Understanding, to influence workplace dynamics?
[00:00:48] Matt Kalb: Absolutely.
Have you ever been in a room where the second you walk in, you feel the energy, whether that's good or bad?
[00:00:55] Raiyana Bryant: Yeah.
[00:00:56] Matt Kalb: That is your brain processing social cues so quickly, and when it comes to neuroscience driven leadership, it's understanding how your brain is reacting to the feelings, to the responses of how people react and what they trust.
And when I started bringing this in with the team, I realized that it was kind of shifting the way that people were showing up. And in turn it was helping me change the way that I was leading. And for HR professionals, it's taking a step back and realizing that we don't need to be focusing on emphasizing policies, but helping shape cultures within the company.
[00:01:33] Raiyana Bryant: So from your perspective, what are the key elements that contributes to psychological, safety in the workplace?
[00:01:40] Matt Kalb: It's a good question. Psychological safety comes down to one thing. Can you show up a authentically 100% yourself and not get in trouble for that? Leaders need to focus on being more vulnerable with their teams because subconsciously,
everyone around you picks up on that and they start reacting more vulnerable. And when people are open and those leaders are sharing their own experiences, they're creating that trust with the team. It fosters more psychological safety and stepping away from taking failure as like a catastrophic event and looking at as a learning opportunities and giving everyone the ability to fail without having repercussions.
[00:02:26] Raiyana Bryant: So what does neuroscience research, reveal about how HR professionals and leaders can build trust and strength, strengthen relationship within their teams? And are there specific practices or behaviors that are especially affected?
[00:02:43] Matt Kalb: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, your brain is looking for connectivity and.
Certainty. Those are the two things your brain really wants to look for. And with HR professionals, you have the ability to ex extend that so much when it comes to the trust side, because trust is not just a, warm and fuzzy feeling. It's chemical. Our brain releases oxytocin every time that we feel valued.
So the next time that you are interacting with someone within the company. Focus on those micro moments and not just ask like, how are you doing? How has the day been? Follow up with deeper questions, because that's what people feel valued of saying like, oh, you live in Maryland? What part of Maryland?
Like what's your favorite part about living there? What's your favorite part about your job? What's the highlight of your day been? Because that's what releases oxytocin, not just in the person receiving the question, but the person asking the question.
[00:03:40] Raiyana Bryant: So how can HR professionals approach leadership and secure their buy-in to implement some of these approaches in their own organization.
[00:03:50] Matt Kalb: Leadership buy-in can sometimes feel like trying to teach a cat how to fetch. It's very challenging.
[00:03:58] Raiyana Bryant: Yeah.
[00:03:58] Matt Kalb: What we can do is try to speak their language a little bit and they're looking at budgets, they're looking at retention rates, they're looking at sales, and if we start to.
Form some of these neuroscience aspects of like what it helps when, how much productivity comes out of people when they are feeling safe, and we share that in direct, connection with sales and productivity and retention. Yeah. Then they start to listen and it's not about a complete overhaul because our, brains get tired really easy.
So when you're making changes, they have to be really small and specific. So if you're looking at a program that you think you might be able to increase, just a little bit of psychological safety or some retention where you're seeing fallout, is there something you can tweak that could help elevate that and leaders notice it when you can model it so you can start within your own team.
Some of the leaders that I've worked with, they'll, they are hesitant to make change, but then when I invite them to come to one of the meetings that I run with my team, they see and feel what psychological safety feels like. And that's when they start to get a little bit more to buy into what it could do for the company.
[00:05:13] Raiyana Bryant: Yeah, that's good. 'cause if you think about it, you know, some, people, when they think about making their goals and building their goals, they think of a, bigger picture, right? So. Knowing that you can start smaller is, is good. Exactly. It's not bad. so unconscious bias can significantly impact, organizational decision making and culture.
so how can neuroscience driven approach, help HR professionals and leaders identify and mitigate these biases?
[00:05:45] Matt Kalb: So the thing about the brain is it's an incredibly efficient. Machine and it's processing 11 million bits of information every second. Wow. We're only conscious of about 40 to 50 of those bits of information.
So it's biases are not a moral flaw. It's a brain flaw because our brain is processing it so quickly and it's subconscious. We don't really necessarily have control of it. And the first STA to first. A chance to combat that is to name it, to bring awareness to the situation. So the next time that you make a snap judgment towards someone, especially when it comes to stereotypes, is take a moment and pause.
And in your head, just say to yourself, is this a stereotype talking or is this me?
[00:06:36] Raiyana Bryant: Yeah.
[00:06:37] Matt Kalb: And just giving yourself to activate, giving yourself time to activate your prefrontal cortex, which is right in front of your brain, and that's what is responsible for your rational thinking. Giving that a chance to catch up with your reaction can start to change the pathway, and you build more neuro pathways to avoid the unconscious bias.
[00:07:00] Raiyana Bryant: What role does continuous learning and self-awareness play in neuroscience driven leadership, and how are their tool, how are their tools or frameworks you recommend for HR Pros to better understand their own behavior and its impact on others?
[00:07:19] Matt Kalb: Self-awareness is, key to leadership. You have to be self-aware in order to be a, good leader.
Oftentimes, when. Every single person is triggered by someone or something. It's often because there's something unresolved within ourselves. For example, if someone were to cut you off while you're talking and you feel this little bit of anger or frustration pop up, if you take a moment to pause it, you might think of that reaction is actually because maybe in the past you felt.
Maybe unheard or devalued. So you're reacting quickly because someone else was interrupting. That person maybe had no malice in the interrupting, but you were triggered by it. So taking some time to think about it yourself is, a really powerful, and there's an incredible book by Viktor Frankl. He is a Holocaust survivor.
It's called man searches for meaning. And he says that between stimulus and response there is space. And what you choose to do in that space is our freedom. And it's such a powerful quote if you think about it, because it, we can only control our own attitude. So if, when someone responds, when that stimulates us and we take a moment to pause that, space that we get to choose of how we're gonna react.
Self-awareness is everything with it.
[00:08:42] Raiyana Bryant: So many organizations aim to align their leadership practices with inclusivity and empathy. So how does neuroscience support these efforts, and what advice would you offer to HR pros and leaders seeking to embody these qualities? Authentic
[00:08:59] Matt Kalb: empathy is, it's biological, it's not just a soft skill.
When we see someone in distress or we make a connection with someone, we're actually mirroring their, odds, and it's, pretty fascinating. There's a, study that was done that put people in A-F-R-M-F-M-R-I machine, which is a machine that looks at all of your brainwaves and sees what's firing, what's going off when you're doing an activity.
And they had them watch a movie clip with no context at all. After they watched it, they had, they allowed them to have a discussion and kind of come together and see if they come to a consensus of like what they interpreted the movie clip as now when they went back in the FMRI machine and they watched the clip again, those that agreed on what the outcome of this.
Context less movie clip was they had exactly the same brain scans.
[00:09:54] Raiyana Bryant: Wow. Even though that's so crazy. Even though they were
[00:09:55] Matt Kalb: no longer near each other, but because they had a mutual understanding. So empathy is such a powerful tool, and it's only gonna get stronger for us, especially as AI becomes more ingrained into our lives.
What you can do is when you're making those connections with people to increase empathy is do what communication practice called looping. Especially if someone's sharing like a personal story with you, is offer up what you heard in their own wor in your own words. So when they share the story, you loop it back to them.
Okay. And you give them an opportunity to say, no, that's not what I said. Okay, well what did you say? Because that's how I interpreted. And basically just keep going. And the more you do that until you're both like the person feels heard. Then. It skyrockets that oxytocin and that connection and really shows empathy.
[00:10:46] Raiyana Bryant: So, looking ahead, how do you see the integration of neuroscience and psychological safety shaping the future of organ organizational culture? And then what should HR professionals focus on to stay ahead of the curve?
[00:11:03] Matt Kalb: It's a great question because I think about this a lot with companies with. AI really take, starting to take over a lot of the busy work that we're doing.
There's a lot more time for us as humans to be more human, and I think empathy is gonna be a superpower moving forward because the companies that give the employees the opportunity to not just give them more work now, the AI gives them that time back, but to give them the opportunity to collaborate and be more creative.
That's what's gonna separate companies moving forward. And I see a future that companies are gonna be hiring specific roles for like a neuro architect or a culture architect, that their main focus is what to do with that extra time that we are getting back with ai.
[00:11:57] Raiyana Bryant: So is there anything else you would like to share about.
Neuroscience, psychological safety and organizational culture that we haven't already talked about?
[00:12:10] Matt Kalb: I think the biggest thing is just be kind to your brain and give yourself an opportunity to take a break. breaks are not a sign of weakness. It's literally our brain asking for a break and to take some time and start small again.
Like. Take two hours off early on Fridays, go outside. Put your feet on the ground. Just breathe in the fresh air and put down your phone. Yeah, just put it down. That's like a tip. And just sip your coffee in silence. Silence is such a powerful tool to recharge your brain. just from a personal experience, I was working for somebody that I was trying to prove my worth for within the company, and I ended up getting stressed induced psoriasis.
And my heart was the acting as the age of a 50-year-old, and I was 27 years old, and that was my wake up call. And it was because I wasn't being kind to my mind, and I don't want anyone else to have to go through that. And one piece of advice I could give to everyone just. Try to be kind and take some more breaks.
[00:13:18] Raiyana Bryant: That's great. And that's going to do it, for this week's episode of Honest HR. A big thank you to Matt for sharing his deep insight with us. Honest HR is part of SHRM's daily flagship content series. Head to SHRM dot org, HR Daily to learn more and sign up for a daily newsletter.
Like, comment and be part of the conversation. Thank you for joining.
See you next time.
[00:14:01] PDC: This podcast is approved for 0.5 professional development credits. AKA PDCs, toward SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP recertification. Enter the following PDC ID in your SHRM activity portal to log your credit. Two six dash five four STX. That's 2 6 5 4 STX. This ID expires on June 1st, 2026.