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    You are here Home » innovation

    How Mindfulness Rewires Your Brain to Be More Innovative

    Last updated on Mar 17, 2016 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest post
    from Matt Tenney


    There is much debate over the question of whether innovative people are born as
    innovators, or if innovation is something that is trainable. I'm convinced that
    we can actually change our brains in ways that help us to be more innovative,
    and that a simple practice called mindfulness can help us do exactly that.

    The Key Traits of an Innovator

    One important element of understanding the key traits of an innovator is
    realizing that an innovator may not necessarily be the "creative
    type." Although many people use the words creative and innovative as
    synonyms, the two are actually quite distinct. Creativity simply refers to the
    generation of new ideas. An innovation is something that actually disrupts the
    status quo. It is an idea that has been turned into a reality that is somehow
    disrupting other current realities.

    With this understanding, we see that a person doesn't need to be creative
    to be an innovator. An innovator could take an idea that someone else had, but
    decided not to act on, and make the effort to transform that idea into a
    reality that disrupts the status quo. A well-known example of this is Bill
    Gates. Gates didn't create disk operating system (DOS). He bought it from the
    people who created it and then applied their idea to bring Microsoft software
    to market.

    Thus, a good working definition of an innovator is "a person who is
    able to bring to reality a useful idea that actually disrupts the status
    quo." This definition makes it much easier to define the characteristics
    of a successful innovator. We simply need to ask, "What type of person is
    most likely to bring to reality a useful idea that actually disrupts the status
    quo?"

    Two key traits of a person who can innovate according to the definition
    above are:

    • Empathy
    • Willingness
      to disrupt the status quo

    Empathy is important for two reasons. First, understanding the needs of
    others helps determine whether or not an idea will be useful and worth the
    energy to develop. Second, understanding the needs of the team members with
    whom we work is essential for advancing an idea, and may even be the most
    important factor for advancing an idea within an organization.

    Assuming an idea would be useful to others, we must be willing to
    challenge the status quo and stick with that idea despite initial opposition.
    According to the fascinating research of Dr. Prince of the Perth Leadership Institute, the reason most people don't
    innovate is that they are subject to a cognitive bias known as the status quo bias. As you would likely intuit, a person with
    a strong status quo bias is very unlikely to challenge the status quo. They
    feel very uncomfortable rocking the proverbial boat. Thus, one important
    element of being an innovator is being free from the effects of the status quo
    bias.

    How Mindfulness Changes the Brain for Innovation

    Neuroscientists have discovered that when we make the shift to being
    mindful, we actually change the active neural networks in the brain, moving away
    from the default mode network, which is associated with habitual,
    self-referential thought patterns. This shift away from habitual thinking is
    what frees us up from the constraints of cognitive biases, like the status quo
    bias.

    When we are mindfully aware of our thought patterns, we're more likely to
    see, right in the present moment, our habitual ways of acting and deciding,
    which allows us to do something different. For instance, we might notice a
    tendency to shy away from challenging the status quo and instead take action on
    a disruptive idea.

    Research in behavioral science has shown that a small
    amount of mindfulness training improves empathy. Neuroscience research conducted at Harvard showed that
    people who trained in mindfulness for eight weeks actually changed the physical
    structure of their brains in areas associated with self-awareness and empathy.

    You Can Begin Practicing Without Adding to Your Schedule

    Being mindful simply means that we shift from being caught up in thinking
    to being aware of thinking. Most of us are already doing this many times each
    day. We just don't often do it intentionally, and we don't sustain it for very
    long.

    Practicing mindfulness means that we intentionally become mindful and
    practice sustaining it for longer periods of time. We don't have to add
    anything to our schedules to do this. It's something we can practice during
    almost any of our daily activities. When done in mindfulness, even something as
    simple as brushing our teeth can become an opportunity to rewire our brains to
    be more innovative.

    Author Bio:
    Matt Tenney is the author of The Mindfulness Edge: How to Rewire Your Brain for
    Leadership and Personal Excellence Without Adding to Your Schedule
    .
    Through keynote speeches and training programs, he works to develop highly
    effective leaders who achieve extraordinary, long-term business outcomes --
    and live more fulfilling lives -- as a result of realizing high levels of
    self-mastery and more effectively serving and inspiring greatness in the people
    around them. Matt's clients include Wells Fargo, Marriott, Keller Williams, The
    Four Seasons, and many other companies, associations, and universities. Follow
    the author on Twitter.
    « Engaging your Team: The Science of Inspiring Others to Give their All
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