Marie Holm, personal development consultant (Google, Norsk Hydro) explains us how to change our mindset to enhance our innovative ability. This slideshare is an abstract of the lecture Marie Holm gave at Telecom Ecole de Management (Paris, France), during an Executive MBA Master Class

1. 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

2. Whant to know more about these issues ?
• Marie Holm lectured about Personal Development and
Innovation during an Executive MBA Master Class at
Telecom Ecole de Management, the 10th of April.
• Her lecture has been webcasted on
www.youtube.com/telecomEM
• Learn more about Telecom Ecole de Management
Executive MBA on www.telecom-em.eu/emba
or contact emba@telecom-em.eu
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3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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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8. 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?

9. 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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10. 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.
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11. Discussion
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Is our traditional mindset conducive to well-being and creativity?
 In what ways?
 What alternatives might be possible?

12. 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)

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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?

16. Whant to know more about these issues ?
• Marie Holm lectured about Personal Development and
Innovation during an Executive MBA Master Class at
Telecom Ecole de Management, the 10th of April.
• Her lecture has been webcasted on
www.youtube.com/telecomEM
• Learn more about Telecom Ecole de Management
Executive MBA on www.telecom-em.eu/emba
or contact emba@telecom-em.eu
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