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How to Develop an Optimal Mindset to Enhance

Innovation ?Presented by Marie Holm

How to Develop an Optimal Mindset to Enhance Innovation

Marie Holm, PhD

Founder – Spirituality Science www.SpiritualityScience.com

Member of the Research Chair of Mindfulness, Workplace Well-being and Economic Peace at Grenoble Ecole de Management

www.MindfulnessAtWork.fr

Phenomenon of workplace stress

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Occupational stress as a “global epidemic” - UN International Labor Organization

3 of 4 workers are on the brink of meltdown due to high stress - Fairleigh Dickinson University

• 40% of workers reported their job was very or extremely stressful - NIOSH

• 25% view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives - NIOSH

• over half of the 550 million working days lost annually in the U.S. from absenteeism are stress related

- European Agency for Health & Safety at Work

Stress mechanism (Psychological)

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• What causes stress?

The conditions that trigger a physical reaction from our brains can be summarized as the acronym: NUTS:

• Novel• Unpredictable• Threatening

If a situation is novel, unpredictable, or threatens either your survival or your ego, and which you don’t feel you have a sense of control over, the brain will start to release stress hormones.

Relaxation response

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The counterbalancing mechanism to the stress response is the relaxation response, of the parasympathetic nervous system.

• a physical state of deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to stress (H. Benson)  

• when you elicit the relaxation response, heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension decrease.

However, given the reality of the majority of workplaces still operating in the old fashion, one way to reduce stress is a "relaxation response". as an "aspirin" to the fever: it certainly helps but it doesn't alter the causes of the fever.

The quest for well-being and creativity

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Some stress hormones continue to be produced until the relaxation response is elicited because the sympathetic nervous system dominates the parasympathetic nervous system.

Thus, it often requires conscious effort to initiate the relaxation response, to re-establish metabolic equilibrium, allowing for a sense of well-being to return.

What is creativity?

• Creativity is the juxtaposition of ideas which were previously thought to be unrelated.

• It is your ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make useful associations among ideas.

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Enabling Creativity and Innovation

• Many organisations unknowingly stifle creativity, by failing to provide a management structure and work environment that empower employees.

• What counts is whether the novelty he or she produces is accepted for inclusion in the domain. (Csikszentmihalyi)

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What changes could be made to facilitate creativity in the workplace?

How Creativity Translates into Innovation

• To be creative, you need to be able to view things in new ways or from a different perspective.

• Tests of creativity measure not only the number of alternatives that people can generate but the uniqueness of those alternatives

• George Domino created a Creativity Scale that is based on the Adjective Checklist (Gough and Heilbrun) to identify creative abilities.

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Implications of enhanced creativity

Innovation:• Allowing ideas to

arise from all employees as a result of optimised use of employee creative potential.

Intrapreneurship:• Enhanced

intrapreneurial activity as a result of the greater number and quality of generated ideas. 10

Discussion

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Is our traditional mindset conducive to well-being and creativity?

In what ways?

What alternatives might be possible?

Alternate mindsets

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Ideas of well-being as a good life trace their origins to Aristotle’s concept of eudaimonia (human flourishing).Several types of alternate mindsets:

Equanimity: a state of mental or emotional stability or composure arising from a deep awareness and acceptance of the present moment. (Mathieu Ricard)

Resilience: ability to cope with stress and adversity. Resilient individuals use positive emotions to bounce back from negative emotional experiences. (B. Fredrickson)

Mindful: paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. (Kabat-Zinn)

Examples of current approaches

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Physical wellness programs:

Massage and relaxation at Google Fitness at SAS

Yoga at Dreamworks Tai Chi at Canadian Federal Taxation Office

Techniques

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Can we devise an organizationally-feasible method to enhance employees’ well-being and creativity?

One method, meditation, has been known both theoretically since classical times and is practiced in companies aiming at entering people into an alternate mindset.

Where to go from here?

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How would you suggest to bring about alternate mindsets in the workplace?

What challenges might employees and managers encounter in making such changes?

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Whant to know more about these issues ?

• Marie Holm lectured about Personal Development and Innovation during an Executive MBA Master Class the 10th of April.

• Her lecture has been webcasted onwww.youtube.com/telecomEM

• Learn more about Telecom Ecole de Management Executive MBA on www.telecom-em.eu/emba