Acrostic:  A memory device that helps people remember discreet pieces of information. The first letter of each word in an acrostic spells out a word or message that provides a framework for understanding and application. 

Context:

The HALT acrostic is a big red stop reminder for us to be aware of our mental and physical states before we engage our brains to make decisions or solve problems. This acrostic reminds you to stop proceeding if you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. In today’s fast-paced environment, more than one of these conditions might be in play at the same time because the functioning of our brains is the common denominator. The message is simple—any of these conditions can affect the quality of your thinking and perception negatively.

 HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired)

Hungry:

Main idea: Glucose makes the difference. Glucose is nearly the sole fuel for the human brain, as the brain lacks fuel stores and hence requires a continuous supply of glucose. When we don’t eat regularly or eat the right things, we often unwittingly compromise our cognitive abilities, especially in decision-making. Many adults admit also being irritable, even hostile, when they are hungry as well as challenged to stay focused and objective in weighing options or approaches.

The availability and amount of food also affects animal behavior. Studies prove that many animals’ willingness to take risks increases or declines depending on whether the animal is hungry or full. For example, a predator only hunts prey that is more dangerous when it is close to starvation, a behavior also documented in humans in recent years. One study showed that hungry subjects took significantly more financial risks than their sated colleagues did.

Angry:

Main Idea: The emotional tail wags the rational dog. Anger is one of our most powerful and vital emotions. It can be a necessary tool for survival of individuals and communities. However, anger can become problematic when it persists and begins to cause significant difficulties in our lives, including our thinking, feeling, behavior, and relationships. As a basic human emotion, it is a physical and mental response to past threat or harm.

Anger takes many forms, from irritation to blinding rage or resentment that festers over many years. It has three components: 1) physical reactions, such as increased heart rate and blood pressure, 2) cognitive, such as how we perceive what angers us, and 3) behavioral, such as raising our voice or storming away.

Anger is caused by how we perceive a triggering event, which we falsely believe justifies our becoming angry in the first place. However, the truth is that a triggering event does not cause anger directly without two other factors: our individual characteristics and our appraisal of the situation. Individual characteristics include personality traits, such as narcissism or competitiveness, and our pre-anger state, for example, tired, agitated, or already angry. (Refer to Tired below).

When we assess the situation as blameworthy, unjustified, or punishable, we get angry. A person’s anger-inducing interpretation is not necessarily accurate or fair, especially when we are hungry, tired, or lonely.

Lonely:

Main Idea: You don’t have to be alone to be lonely. Loneliness is linked to everything from heart disease to Alzheimer’s disease. Depression is common among the lonely. Cancers tear through their bodies more rapidly, and viruses hit them harder and more frequently.

In the short term, it feels as though the loneliness will kill you. A study suggests that’s because the pain of loneliness activates the immune pattern of a primordial response commonly known as fight or flight. David Rock, a well-known author on the subject of how the brain works, discovered a set of five elements of social interaction that form the acrostic SCARF: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness. All humans value and need these five elements of social interaction, especially the Relatedness dimension.

When people feel safe and protected as part of a team or tribe, they don’t feel lonely or exposed. Instead, they are engaged and often thankful they belong to a group of people to whom they can “relate.” However, people can be formally in teams or tribes, but because of poor team leadership or dysfunctional team members, they feel very disconnected, unsafe, and lonely.

Neuroscientists are beginning to connect why loneliness triggers fight or flight responses which in turn disrupts our immune system and other related coping mechanisms. Leaders need to reduce the tendency to discount loneliness in either themselves or their teams as a contributing factor to poor performance or dysfunctional behavior.

Tired:

Main Idea: Fatigue is the enemy of rationality. Scientists now believe that a third of the population suffers from sleep-related problems, and studies have shown that we all get much less sleep than we used to. The typical person now sleeps seven hours a night compared with nearly nine a few decades ago. Many scientists believe that irregular sleeping patterns lead to illnesses, ranging from aches and pains to heart disease. Sufferers can go on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome, which causes overwhelming tiredness, poor concentration, irritability, and depression—similar to permanent jet lag.

Fewer than eight hours’ sleep a night can lower IQ the next day, whereas working night shifts increases the risk of diabetes, ulcers, and divorce. Besides these obvious impacts, fatigue can specifically influence the quality of our decision-making.

Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions a person makes after a long session of decision-making, leading to irrational tradeoffs. For example, judges in court have been shown to make less favorable decisions later in the day than early in the day. Decision fatigue might also lead to consumers choosing poorly with their purchases or managers making poor business choices.

Fatigue because of lack of sleep or overexertion has the same effect. Perceptive scheduling of important decision meetings and analysis events early in the business day can pay big dividends for managers and supervisors.

Final Words:

The HALT acrostic, with brain functioning connecting all four elements, is perhaps one of the most powerful self-awareness tools I use in my coaching practice. The word HALT sends a clear message—don’t make major decisions or commitments when you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired.

Bill is an international management consultant and trainer dedicated to helping individuals, teams, and organizations transform learning into measurable value. This simple but powerful imperative, which he calls Learning on Purpose, is the centerpiece for his consulting and training business and is aimed at engaging in learning as a process, not a one-time event. He can be counted on to candidly share his knowledge, global perspective, and objective insights about how to thrive in today’s fast-paced, turbulent, but opportunity-rich, environment. Your learning is his business