Canadian HR Reporter

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014 CANADIAN HR REPORTER & STRATEGIC CAPABILITY NETWORK is is your brain on innovation Anyone can be creative and innovative – under the right conditions BY LIZ BERNIER WHERE DO PEOPLE get their best ideas? Chances are, it's not while they're running a meet- ing or corralled in a brainstorm- ing session — great ideas usu- ally come effortlessly, as a flash of inspiration. "When you are in a state of flow, (it's) when you lose track of time and four hours have gone by and you think, 'Where did the day go?'" said Brady Wilson, co-founder of Juice, a corporate training com- pany in Toronto, at a Strategic Ca- pability Network event in Toronto. A state of flow is when work feels easy and inspiration — and innovation — strike without be- ing forced. "(e best ideas) come to us as epiphanies in a moment of energy, when we are in a really good state," he said. Wilson cited one particular cli- ent in the entertainment industry that was facing significant com- petitive challenges and the need to continually reinvent itself. So how could it learn to be more innovative? Everything in the organization was driven by one operating sys- tem, he said: Conversation. "We're trying to move organiza- tions from treating conversation and relegating it to the episodic — whenever there's an episode, I bring out my conversation skills. We're saying, 'No, there's a way to step into conversation every day and move into the epic business tensions that we face, and we can understand what matters most to this person and this person in a situation,"' he said. "We can do the good work of harmonizing our competing needs and draw the energy out of the tension — draw the solutions out of the tension." A second aspect is energy man- agement, according to Wilson. "Again, if we shift… to creat- ing and building the conditions where we partner with each other to create an environment where energy can flow — and it flows idiosyncratically, we understand that. But when energy is there, we know that innovation can be very close by," he said. A third aspect is the way in which innovation is structured, he said. "(It's about) a structure process that is an every-person way of doing innovation — where it's not those braniacs who are seques- tered away in the R&D room. No — it's a type of process that any- body, no matter what their think- ing style, can walk in on and con- tribute to." Chemical reactions Chemical reactions are also an important consideration, accord- ing to Wilson. Take, for example, a lioness stalking her prey — her brain is releasing one particular chemical: Dopamine. "When you see the reward, your brain releases all the re- sources required to get to the re- ward," said Wilson. "Dopamine makes you insanely creative, it allows you the ingenuity and the inventiveness and the en- ergy to pursue and be attuned to your goal. It creates a reward orientation." For that reason, dopamine is one of the brain hormones that's considered very important to in- novation, he said. "If we go into an innovation process and people are low on dopamine, the types of innovation that will come out will be pedes- trian at best." Another important factor is oxytocin, which releases connec- tion and openness, he said. Also a critical factor to innova- tion? Serotonin. "Serotonin, the active ingre- dient in Prozac, reduces stress, worry, fear and it builds a sense of confidence and belief and pos- sibility," he said. So when dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin are released in the brain, people who are overloaded with information and deadlines can begin to innovate. e reactions people have for survival are also key to creating innovation, said Wilson. "Survival is prediction, pattern recognition, focused attention, the ability to regulate your emotions, the ability to create great strategies and make great decisions. ese are basically the power tools of innovation, and they are the first thing that we lose when we are completely depleted at work." And innovation isn't just for so- called creative types. "When we talk to leaders about this, what they'll often say is 'In- novation is on everybody's web- site,' and leaders are saying to not just managers but also employees 'We have to be more innovative in today's business climate,'" he said. "And what the employees are saying back is 'We hear you saying this is really important — we don't have a clue how to step into that.'" People often don't know how to innovate — they don't always "Dopamine makes you insanely creative, it allows you the ingenuity and the inventiveness and the energy to pursue and be attuned to your goal." MAKE > pg. 16 Lightspring/Shutterstock

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