Cultivating an Innovative Mindset

Do you believe that it is essential for an organization to invest in cultivating curiosity in leaders and employees?

The research shows that cultivating curiosity promotes innovation, enhanced performance, and greater employee engagement.

The first step in cultivating curiosity, is to apply a "beginner's mind" in the workplace. A beginner's mind means approaching a situation, person, or problem as if it is the first time you've seen it, instead of behaving on autopilot.

When we are often stuck trying to solve a problem, make a process more efficient, or have difficult conversations, our bias and past experiences taint how we see these situations instead of approaching them with a beginner’s mind.

A few challenges exist in cultivating an innovative mindset in today's constantly changing, uncertain work environment. 

First, research indicates that conscious processing takes much more energy than subconscious for the human brain. Humans love habits to conserve brain energy. Scientists estimate that 95% of our behaviors are habitual. Habits and routines serve us well. It would be exhausting to constantly think about our driving route to work or tying our shoes.

The brain wants to use the least amount of energy. Therefore, it is easier for our minds to run on autopilot and approach problems and people from our prior experiences and biases. This cognitive rigidity can get in the way of approaching work projects and conversations with curiosity.

The second challenge is all the external distractions we face during the workday. Since COVID, there have been many back-to-back meetings, time-sensitive deadlines, zero tolerance for mistakes, lack of time and budgets, constant digital distractions, and, at times, unstimulating work, not to mention the daily uncertainty we face in any organization.

These external distractions lead to our internal distractions. Internal distractions are our negative thoughts of self-doubt, perfectionism, bias, and past conditioning. These catastrophizing and ruminating thoughts often lead to difficult emotions, such as anger, sadness, and feeling overwhelmed. It is challenging for our brains to engage in curiosity when we have so much going on at work and can feel exhausted from the mental and emotional weight we carry.

The good news is that our brains are malleable. We can train our brains to be more curious. When applying a beginner's mind to a situation, we develop cognitive flexibility when approaching tasks, projects, and people at work. We start to change the way we see things.

How can an organization support their employees and leaders to have more of an innovative mindset?

Simply Pause programs strengthen the curiosity muscle. Cheryl Shah, founder of Simply Pause, will guide the participants in five weekly one-hour sessions in a group environment; participants collaborate in a community where they experience common humanity, learn from one another, and have accountability for weekly practices. The practices and exercises introduced are minor tweaks to your workday, that will support working with all the external and internal distractions.

"Employees and leaders develop the behavorior change skills, to pause and look at a situation with curiosity."

Behavoir change takes consistent practice, and in the Simply Pause programs, this investment in your leaders and employees will translate to a workplace culture of innovation, employee engagement and retention, and enhanced performance.  Ultimately driving actionable results, such as higher profitability and meeting strategic plan initiatives.