The Angels Cocktail
David JP Phillips is a Scandinavian communications expert, and his TED talks The Magical Science of Storytelling has had over 3.7 million views. According to Phillip, the effectiveness of a story comes down to one thing, emotional investment. The more emotionally invested we are in any area of our life, the greater the engagement with the story.
The secret of engagement, according to Phillips, is to radically increase three specific hormones released when we feel good and reduce the production of two others that decrease engagement. The feel-good hormones, when applied together, he calls the Angels Cocktail.
The Angels Cocktail consists of Dopamine, Oxytocin and Endorphins. This cocktail of chemicals, when released, makes us more focused, increases our memory functionality, and makes us more empathetic and more creative.
Every coin has two sides. The opposite side to the Angels Cocktail Phillips calls the Devils Cocktail. The Devil's Cocktail has high levels of Cortisol and Adrenalin. The Devil's Cocktail in high concentrations leads to some pretty unproductive and negative behaviours. Behaviours such as intolerance, irritability, uncreative work habits, critical discussions, memory impairment and bad decision making.
Unfortunately, according to Phillips, in meetings and work environments, most drink from the Devil's Cocktail. So how do we get more of the good stuff whilst staying away from the bad?
The answer is functional storytelling. Phillips suggests we write and catalogue our stories and identify those that create suspense, induce empathy and make people laugh. We can then reproduce these stories when required to induce the trio of positive hormones that drive us all towards a common purpose and goal.
The other impactful way we can use the Angels Cocktail is, of course, on ourselves by redefining the stories we tell ourselves, which shape our view of the world and impact resilience. As we work towards a different, better future, understanding the chemicals which impact how we feel and how we react to circumstances as they present can provide a vital building block to the most impactful story of all. The story we tell ourselves.
It is in understanding these scientific reactions that we can hack our nervous systems and thought processes to stay on the path, drive discretionary effort in ourselves and others and achieve amazing outcomes together.