How Healthy Collaboration Rewires Your Brain for Workplace Success
- Shalini Jebasingh, PhD
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 11 hours ago
Your work environment constantly shapes your brain’s structure and wiring—its neural architecture. With intentional effort, your brain has an amazing inbuilt ability to transform complex workplace challenges into meaningful wins.
So, if you or your generally healthy team feels stalled, the answer is not withdrawal; it may be re-engaging through open communication, high trust, and psychologically safe neural activation. And one of the most powerful and effective ways to do that is through healthy collaboration.
Approaching life with the belief that you can learn, grow, and thrive is not just a philosophy. It is neuroscience. We all know those colleagues who show up with a growth mindset; they are a joy to work with. Growth mindset is grounded in rewiring our brains, creating environments where we feel safe and capable, and helping others feel safe and capable, too. And the exciting part is that it is measurable.
Carol Dweck wrote extensively about the growth mindset. Her central point is simple: through effort, you can develop the capabilities you set your mind to. This is true in life and at work – and neuroscience supports it.
Here, I am sharing three ways a growth mindset changes us internally.
1. Builds efficient neural pathways.
Imagine the LA Lakers practicing a complex offensive play. Initially, communication is deliberate. Every player consciously tracks positions, timings, and spacing. But after repeated execution, the shift occurs. Movements synchronize. Decisions to pass or shoot become fluid and automatic.
The Lakers' practice illustrates three key shifts that happen in our brains when we put intentional effort into something.
▪ Synaptic Strengthening: Our neurons communicate across tiny gaps called synapses. Every time we practice a skill or repeat a thought, a signal fires to the next neuron – and this signaling process’s efficiency increases. The result is that we can process information efficiently.
▪ Neural Pathways: When this linking happens repeatedly and with intentional focus, the connection strengthens and a neural pathway forms. It increases reliability. The information we process – we tend to rely on it automatically. [So, if you are in a traumatic situation, or have gone through trauma, depending on the situation you find yourself in, these pathways that signaled threat can quickly “switch on” at the slightest cue of threat, triggering a fight, flight, freeze, or collapse internal state.]
▪ Myelination: The neuron’s long tail (the axon) becomes wrapped in a protective layer called myelin. Like high-speed fiber-optic insulation, myelination increases the speed and pressure under which we can process information. This is team resilience building!
Increasing Brain Density, Grey Matter.
Our brain and spinal cord contain areas packed with neuron cell bodies and synaptic connections known as grey matter. Science shows that your brain's "grey matter" (the part that processes information) can actually grow or change when you learn new things or interact with people. But it only changes in the specific area you are using. So, just "wanting" to improve or having good intentions isn't enough to change your brain structure; you have to do the work and practice the skill.
When we put effort into learning—how to collaborate in truth, how to use AI, or anything else—these neural connections reorganize and strengthen for that particular skill. The Grey Matter becomes denser and more robust as new connections and connection structures form for this skill that you want.
The Reward Factor.
We have often heard that effort-driven growth activates the brain’s — our internal — reward network, the dopaminergic pathway. This system influences our motivation and complex goal-oriented decision-making. But there is more!
The real job of dopamine is to spot things that are important or unexpected. It reacts most strongly when something is better (or worse) than you thought it would be, helping you assign value for future opportunities.
Collaboration, the Ultimate Builder or Breaker
If we focus our efforts on building a wholesome, healthy work culture, that is exactly what we will produce.
While we do this through feedback, recognition, and so on, collaboration is one of the best ways to intentionally build an effort-driven, healthy work culture. It directly reinforces the neurobiology of a growth mindset. When we collaborate, multiple neural systems activate simultaneously. We are listening, thinking, negotiating, problem-solving, and sensing one another. When a team "fires" together like this, two things happen:
A. Shared Neural Pathways: When we collaborate repeatedly, we build aligned mental models and predictive coordination. The neurons that fire together, wire together, helping teams anticipate and respond to one another with increasing speed and coordination.
B. Increased Team Resilience: Myelination speeds up our processes, helping the team perform better under high-pressure situations.
The "Lakers" Effect at Work
The LA Lakers or any other sports team, when in practice, fire their neurons together, and those neurons wire together. If they are a healthy team, then as they continue to put intentional effort into practice, myelination helps accelerate their passes and movements. Their play becomes fluid and automatic.
Then, when they high-five each other or hear the crowd’s applause, that recognition triggers their unexpected-outcome–here, reward –circuitry. Dopamine reinforces the behavior. They are motivated to perform together again — to cooperate, collaborate, and compete as a unified team.
Research also shows that social engagement is associated with stronger activation of the prefrontal cortex — the center for executive decision-making. So, when we commit to healthy collaboration, we are building a gym for our brains. Instead of operating in silos — reaching out only when assistance is required, then retreating into isolation — build your own Lakers team. By collaborating, you aren’t just finishing a project—you are building a gym for your brain.
3 Tips for Healthy Collaboration
Define Clear Roles: Ensure everyone knows their position on the court.
Over-Communicate: Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuit movement, urged his team to over-communicate rather than under-communicate—a strategy that has helped them thrive for over 500 years
Align Efforts with Goals: Be transparent about how each person’s work contributes to the objective. Share ideas, offer new perspectives, and support one another.
75% is the turnover rate in the carwash industry.[3]
But one company from this sector ranked #1 in Glassdoor’s 2025 Best Places to Work, with an average rating of 4.7 stars. Crew Carwash. There are many reasons for the excellent work culture at this 75-year-old family-owned business. One reason is their teamwork – and it is one of their core values. It is simple: “Help others before they ask.” This includes their customers and team members. Their teams work as a unit in a fast-paced environment where keeping the lines moving is essential. And in the process, they have learned to have fun connecting and competing with each other in a positive way!
If you are looking for ways to help your team collaborate better, I have shared two processes below that you can adapt to your company or team’s needs.
When you truly see, connect with, and complement each other while pursuing a shared purpose, you will find joy and fulfillment in your career.
As always, I wish you the best work life.
About Dr. Shalini Jebasingh
Dr. Shalini Jebasingh is a trauma-informed Critical Stress Management Coach, Values-Based Organizational Trainer, Biblical Workplace and Leadership Scholar, Developer of the proprietary theoretical SCRIBE Framework for Critical Stress Management, Developer of the proprietary, research-based, validated Love in Leadership Assessment, Founder of Eirene Group, and Founder of Bible at Work
[3] https://scaleups.com/this-car-wash-company-is-scaling-happiness-and-building-a-culture-that-is-fueling-growth/
I. A 6-Week Neural Activation Sprint
Purpose: Move collaboration from concept to measurable behavioral shift.
Byline: Healthy collaboration can be built with a repeated behavioral loop tied to measurable performance outcomes.
Step 1 — Audit Current Pattern (2 days to 1 week)
▪ Identify one recurring cross-functional friction point.
▪ Dig deeper:
◦ Where are decisions slowing?
◦ Where are silos appearing?
▪ Measure baseline: decision cycle time, rework rate, or escalation frequency.
This grounds collaboration in performance metrics rather than sentiment.
Step 2 — Scheduled Repetition (Two to three days a week for four weeks)
▪ Create a structured 10-minute weekly cross-functional problem review.
▪ Prepare with
Clear role identification, that participants are aware of and have bought into.
Stated purpose for neural activation exercise.
The team’s perspective and two pros and cons they have identified.
▪ Orient the team to be intentional and effort-driven.
▪ Meet at the same time with the same participants using the same format.
Step 3 — Reinforce Loop with Unexpected Outcome (1 day)
Publicly recognize one instance of improved coordination.
Recognize outcome (speed, clarity, fewer escalations).
Appreciate behavior: “This is what effective collaboration looks like.”
This activates reinforcement learning — not emotionally, but structurally.
II. The Shared Mental Model Alignment
Purpose: Build predictive coordination in high-responsibility teams.
Resilient teams are not built by goodwill. They are built by rehearsed coordination under constraint.
Step 1 — Define Role Clarity
Each leader answers in one paragraph:
Identify, “What does the company’s success look like this quarter?”
What decision authority do I hold towards this success?
What decisions require consultation?
What does success look like in my function this quarter?
Circulate before discussion.
Step 2 — 45-Minute Alignment Session
Structure:
Each leader presents their paragraph (no interruptions).
Group identifies overlap zones.
The team takes time to write one thing about how each team member can contribute to the company’s success and how they can support the team member in their success.
This builds aligned mental models and builds predictive coordination.
Step 3 — Evaluation
The group meets once every two weeks for six weeks to measure
▪ How many consultations did a team member have towards the company's success objectives?
▪ Identify and write down any shift in decision-making authority.
▪ How many consultations did a team member have towards the leader’s success?
To continue learning more, see works by K. Anders Ericsson, Wolfram Schultz, Eduardo Salas, Amy Edmondson, and Albert Bandura.
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