We use CLO Magazine each month with our local ASTD group. Lots of great articles which relate directly to the work we do with teams and team leaders. This short article is especially relevant.
Innovation, it seems, will be more prevalent in your organization if people feel a sense of inclusion. There is a region of the brain, the DACC, which interprets rejection in the same manner that it registers a physical beating. If people feel any sense of rejection, or just not feeling they are really part of the team, this emotion can hold them back from contributing ideas. Would you feel like contributing great ideas to someone who is beating you up?
If, as psychologist William James asserts, the need to be understood and valued is the universal drive for all social beings then anything we do to thwart this drive will have negative consequences. Assuming innovation is important in your organization, you may want to look at what you are doing to promote inclusion.
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