Organisational Benefits of Alternate Mindsets: Well-being & Creativity

In contrast to the traditional mindset (TMS)—the conscious awareness, controlled mental processes, and analytical-logical manipulation of symbols—an alternative mindset (AMS) is viewed as the pre-conscious mental processes (i.e. associative, imaginative, intuitive) and holistic thinking (Davis-Floyd and Arvidson, 1997; Dane and Pratt, 2007; Hodgkinson et al 2009). Since Plato, the West has considered TMS as the hallmark of intelligence and simply of any cognition. Yet, in recent decades various research explored complementary and/or alternative to analytical-logical cognition mental systems (eg., Damasio, 1994; Nisbett & al., 2001; Wagner & Sternberg, 1985). The alternative mindset—an array of such systems—was primarily explored for its individual benefits, while our research focuses on organisational benefits. To do this, we used a bi-weekly meditative practice to induce an AMS in organisational actors. We hypothesized that following the shift from TMS to AMS, organisational actors will benefit from enhanced creative production and well-being. Statistical analysis, using the fixed effects model, showed significant increase in well-being and creativity as of six sessions.