The Brain Innovation Project: An Innovation Mindset
Innovation For Life
Cognitive Flexibility To Navigate An Uncertain World
The rapid and profound changes occurring in life, work and society demand a fundamental transformation in how we engage with the world. Incremental changes are no longer enough.
Individually and collectively, this means how we use our biological brains – the astonishing product of four billion years of the evolution of life – as they are responsible for everything we think, feel, perceive, say, plan, create, do, imagine, invent or believe.
Modern Cognitive Neuroscience has transformed our understanding of our brains, showing them to be powerful prediction machines which continuously shape and constrain our perceived possibilities.
This awareness of our brains’ underlying operating principles enables us to ‘hack into’ their functioning, rewiring them to see, think and act in new ways.
Whether you are leading organizational change, undertaking scientific research or developing social impact programs, you use the same brain
That’s why our brain-based approach works across every sector and scale.
What We Do
Transformative Ideas Made Practical
The Brain Innovation Project provides bespoke training and coaching for leaders, change agents and organisations driving impact and shaping the future.
Our unique approach combines cutting-edge insights from the Cognitive Sciences with simple, powerful and practical tools and techniques to help you innovate, create, perceive, think and act in new ways.
It’s not that one mode of thinking is inherently better than another. Rather, it is about the agility to be able to switch between different approaches according to the task at hand.
After all, if you only have a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. In a rapidly changing world, the versatility of a Swiss army knife is more useful.
While our brains are incredibly complex, our tools and techniques are simple. No ‘gadgets, substances, super-natural powers or magical thinking’ are required; just a curiosity to explore how your extraordinary natural, biological brain works and the new possibilities this opens up.
Core Focus Areas
Most of our work fits into the following broad categories. But our modular approach is entirely transferable across sectors, themes and issues.
Leadership In Uncertain Times
Embracing Uncertainty
The paradox is that while the fundamental operating principle of our predictive brains is to reduce uncertainty, new learning and action can only emerge as a result of uncertainty.
Beyond Resilience: Well-being, Focus and Performance
Beyond Resilience
The solution is not just to become 'more resilient'. Rather, to help people identify and access more of their inherent resourcefulness, creativity and desire for meaningful engagement.
Social Change and Innovation
New Solutions Needed
By understanding how our brains (and those of others!) make sense of the world, we open up new opportunities and possibilities for change.
An Innovation Mindset
AAA Plus Framework
All too often innovation remains just an empty buzzword. A process to be managed. Delegated to specialist teams. Something to be saved for strategic retreats and away days.
We see it differently.
Innovation isn’t just a process – it’s a mindset. It is the ability to discover new and better ways of imagining, creating and acting in all aspects of life, from the personal to the professional and from the organisational to the societal.
To generate novel approaches when stuck. To move from broad, expansive, big-picture thinking to concrete action (and back again). To lean into uncertainty rather than trying to eliminate it or put it into a box.
Our AAA Plus Framework provides a powerful lens to understand where the blockages to change occur and where we are stuck in rigid patterns. This helps us identify potential leverage points for action.
The extent to which we formally use the AAA Plus Framework depends upon your needs. It can sit quietly in the background or function as an operating lens through which to identify new ways of thinking. Either way, the blockages are rarely where you think they are.
If you would like to explore the Framework further, please take the free, online AAA Plus Assessment.
Practical. Powerful. Surprising.
What Others Say
From leadership teams to diverse organisations across the globe, the words we most often hear are 'inspiring', 'surprising' and 'practical'. Here are some other things people have to say:
