Traits of innovation
The purpose of this column is twofold: to expand leaders’ awareness of the exponential impact that individual resilience has on organizational success, and to elevate its consideration as a highly prudent strategy for long-term organizational sustainability in times of tumultuous change.
Today’s topic is the impact of individual resilience on innovation.
Innovation is essential to organizational sustainability. It drives value, improvement and adaptation. Through creative responses to challenges or opportunities, innovation serves as the conduit for new or improved products and processes that benefit stakeholders.
Traits of Innovation
Innovation requires fostering specific traits that enable creativity, collaboration and execution:
- Open-Mindedness — willingness to embrace diverse perspectives, challenge assumptions and explore new ideas without judgment.
- Psychological Safety — team culture where members feel safe to express ideas, take risks and make mistakes without fear of criticism or retribution.
- Curiosity — genuine desire to ask questions, seek new knowledge and explore uncharted territories.
- Collaboration – strong communication, mutual respect and teamwork to integrate ideas and leverage collective expertise.
- Adaptability — ability to pivot and adjust to new information, challenges or changing environments with ease.
- Perseverance — capacity to face setbacks, learn from failures and continue to push boundaries.
- Empathy — understanding of user or stakeholder needs, ensuring that solutions are relevant and impactful.
- Critical Thinking — ability to analyze problems thoroughly, evaluate options logically and make informed decisions.
- Proactivity — taking initiative and ownership in pursuing innovative ideas rather than waiting for direction.
- Experimentation Mindset — willingness to test, iterate and refine ideas, focusing on learning and improvement.
- Vision Alignment — shared understanding of goals and purpose that drives cohesive efforts toward innovative outcomes.
Most leaders would agree that these are important traits. The obvious question to ask is: How can they be fostered?
More crucial questions are: What factors impede individuals from exhibiting innovative traits? How can those factors be mitigated? Is there a fundamental, common-denominator factor that, if addressed, can alleviate numerous other barriers?
Chronic Stress – Core Impediment to Innovation
When it comes to impact, the most fundamental level is neurological. Uncertainty and constant change innately trigger the human nervous system’s emergency modes of fight, flight or freeze. Continual stimulation of the emergency response without reset results in well-documented levels of chronic stress and burnout, as widely observed since the pandemic.
According to the Gallup State of the Workplace 2023 Report (Gallup.com), 44% of the global workforce experiences chronic stress or burnout, with rates in the U.S. and Canada reaching 52%. In such a state, individuals’ cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, health and interpersonal relationships are significantly compromised.
The McKinsey 2022 Women in the Workplace Report cites that 56% of senior women, 44% of senior male leaders and 50% of managers report burnout.
External stressors, such as market fluctuations, geopolitical unrest and environmental concerns, have become commonplace, exacerbating an underlying sense of insecurity. Workplace stressors, including increased workloads, communication challenges, layoffs and a lack of professional development opportunities, further contribute to chronic stress and burnout.
How do chronic stress and burnout impede innovation? They keep the nervous system operating in emergency modes where threat avoidance and self-protection take neurological precedence over other priorities.
It is important to note that the fundamental aspects of innovative traits — open-mindedness, psychological safety, curiosity, collaboration, adaptability, perseverance, empathy, critical thinking, proactivity, experimentation mindset and cohesion — are not accessible in emergency mode.
These traits emerge from the parasympathetic side of the nervous system, where critical thinking, positive social engagement, creativity, and physical and mental restoration are accessible.
Individual Resilience – The Common Denominator of Innovation
There is a common denominator to address: understanding the human nervous system’s function, the mechanics of resetting it and conditioning it for greater resilience under stress.
For leaders seeking to foster the traits of innovation and guide their organizations through today’s uncertainty and accelerated change, the priority should be human resilience as an organizational strategy for sustainability.
Humanity’s greatest strength — resilience — is already neurologically wired along with the inherent traits of empathy and positive social engagement. This is the fundamental variable of innovation and sustainability.
Organizations that provide and set resilience skills practice as a prioritized organizational standard will shift both the paradigm and the power. Rather than reacting to external triggers, their leaders and teams will access their innate skills to internally mitigate the stress response, access higher-order thinking traits, and engage more quickly for greater collective health, innovation and success.
Kathleen Gramzay is an entrepreneur, body/mind resilience expert, speaker, author and founder of Kinessage LLC. The Kinessage® methods are taught nationally to transform stress, chronic tension and pain, and increase mental resilience and long-term health for greater well-being and sustainable success. Her resilience strategy consulting and programs empower leaders and teams to be present, think more clearly and work more productively, confidently and collaboratively.
Did You Know: According to the Gallup State of the Workplace 2023 Report (Gallup.com), 44% of the global workforce experiences chronic stress or burnout, with rates in the U.S. and Canada reaching 52%. In such a state, individuals’ cognitive abilities, problem-solving skills, health and interpersonal relationships are significantly compromised.
