NeuroReal Series: Episode 2: The Default Mode Network: Why Inclusive Cultures Need More Daydreaming
- Georgina Brown (hershe)
- Nov 11
- 3 min read
"Stop staring out the window and get back to work."
Classic teacher energy, right? But neuroscience might beg to differ.
Because staring out the window — or more precisely, daydreaming — might be exactly what your brain (and your culture) needs to become more inclusive, empathetic, and innovative.
Welcome to the Default Mode Network. Or, as we like to call it: your brain's backstage pass to meaning, insight, and connection.
What Is the Default Mode Network?
The Default Mode Network (DMN) is a group of brain regions that light up when you’re not focused on a specific task. Think of it as the opposite of your to-do list mode. It kicks in during rest, reflection, imagination, and social daydreaming. (And yes, mind-wandering.)
Discovered through fMRI studies in the early 2000s, the DMN includes areas like the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus.
These areas are crucial for:
Self-awareness
Empathy and perspective-taking
Remembering the past and imagining the future
Creating meaning from experience
If your brain were a workplace, the DMN would be the strategy away day, not the Monday morning huddle.
Why the DMN Matters for Inclusion
Inclusion isn’t just about policies or checklists. It’s about mental availability. The capacity to pause, reflect, imagine someone else’s perspective, and make meaning out of complexity.
All of that? That’s Default Mode Network territory.
When the DMN is active:
We make sense of social dynamics
We consider how our actions affect others
We access empathy and moral reasoning
It’s not a stretch to say that your brain’s ability to be inclusive lives in the DMN.
But here's the kicker: in most workplaces, the DMN is starved.
Hyper-productivity, constant meetings, and task-switching keep our brains in executive control mode (i.e. focused, external, reactive). Great for spreadsheets. Terrible for systems change.
No wonder inclusive leadership feels so hard. The brain hasn’t had time to prepare.
What Happens When We Suppress the DMN?
Reduced empathy
Increased reactivity
Shallower thinking
Weaker moral reasoning
Sound familiar?
We see it when leaders make snap decisions without considering impact. When teams can’t zoom out to see patterns. When diversity work becomes reactive rather than reflective.
Suppressing the DMN doesn’t just hurt individuals — it shrinks the organisation’s capacity for culture change.
So What Can We Do? (Besides More Staring Out the Window)
1. Schedule Space to Think
Protect unstructured time. That’s when the DMN comes online. Block 20 minutes a day for "creative recovery." No emails. No meetings. Just mind-wandering.
2. Design for Reflection
Encourage reflective questions in meetings. Add journaling to learning programmes. Give space for silence before discussion. Inclusion thrives in the pause.
3. Build DMN Time Into Strategy
Want culture change? Start with your culture calendar. Make space for the kind of slow, deep thinking that precedes real shifts in behaviour.
4. Use NIMM
The NeuroInclusive Maturity Model (NIMM) builds in DMN-friendly practices: journaling prompts, coaching conversations, co-regulation rituals. Because sustainable inclusion needs more than intention. It needs neural design.
Final Word
We’ve built workplaces that celebrate doing. But inclusion lives in the being.
The DMN is where empathy, reflection, and inclusive intention take root. If we want to grow cultures that connect across difference, we have to stop long enough to imagine the world through someone else’s eyes.
So yes, let your mind wander. It might just lead you somewhere truly inclusive.
Next in the NeuroReal series: Episode 3: The Salience Network and Why Bias Feels Like a Shortcut (But Isn't).
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