Creativity and innovation top CEOs’ agenda as they seek to boost their corporate performance in a sluggish economy. Many are setting up cross-functional innovation teams who can think outside-the-box and develop breakthrough products, services, or even business models.
Yet, these teams rarely produce the kind of disruptive stuff CEOs want. Wonder why? One explanation may come from Ayurveda, the traditional medicine system that originated in India over 3,000 years ago ( Ayurveda means "science of life" or "knowledge of longevity" in Sanskrit).
As part of our research and consulting work on innovation and leadership, we had many interactions with leading Ayurvedic experts, proponents and practitioners from around the world such as Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Rohan Nagar, Dr. Pratichi Mathur, Dr. Gopal Basisht and Dr. Robert Svoboda.
In addition, we have undergone several Ayurvedic treatments ourselves and experienced first-hand its positive impact on the body, mind, and soul. We believe that the Ayurveda philosophy can help corporations significantly enhance their productivity and creativity by aligning employees’ roles and responsibilities with their individual physical and mental energy patterns.
By learning how to increase, harness, and sustain the ‘prana’ or ‘life energy’ (aka ‘Chi’ in Chinese medical philosophy or ‘Ki’ in Japanese martial arts) of their employees we believe enterprises can boost their organisational vitality and out-innovate, out-perform, and out-live competition.
Before we explain how you can harness Ayurveda to increase the creativity and productivity of your own organisation, let us start with a primer on Ayurveda.
According to Ayurveda, everything in the universe, including the human body (corporeal body and by extension the ‘corporate’ body), is composed of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. While our body’s structural aspect is made up of these five basic elements, its functional aspect is governed by three biological humours (known as “Doshas”): Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Space and air together constitute Vata; fire and water, Pitta; and water and earth, Kapha.
These three Doshas are present in every cell, tissue and organ, and thus govern psycho-physiological changes in both our body and mind. Vata regulates movement and is represented by the nervous system. Pitta is the principle of biotransformation and in charge of all metabolic processes. Kapha is the principle of cohesion, structure and functions through the body fluids.
In every person these three Doshas differ in permutations and combinations and thereby determine the psycho-physiological constitution (Prakriti) and the physical-emotional-mental energy pattern of an individual.
Ayurveda’s goal is to keep these three Doshas properly balanced not just in your body, but also your mind. Indeed, if your Vata is in balance, we found out, you can be very creative and super-active but if Vata is in excess, you will experience anxiety and frustration more often.
Similarly we learned that, if your Pitta is balanced, you act as a very focused, intelligent, and passionate person but if imbalanced, Pitta will fill your mind with anger and make you judgemental. Finally, if your Kapha is in balance, you may be very grounded and act as great decision-maker and manager but if imbalanced, Kapha can make you sluggish and inflexible and too attached to your ideas and plans.
Most of us tend to have two predominant Doshas – Vata-Pitta or Pitta-Kapha or Vata-Kapha — which determine our psycho-physiological profile throughout our lifetime. End of the Ayurveda primer.
Now coming back to the topic of this article, let’s say you want to set up an innovation team to spur growth. Based on our explanation above, you can extrapolate that your team’s collective Dosha (energy pattern) will be shaped by the Doshas of its individual members.
Ideally, see whether you can gather a team with a balanced Dosha – with the right mix of people with Vata (unbridled creativity), Pitta (passion and determination), and Kapha (grounded and cautious). But ‘ideal’ is contextual: it all depends on the objective of your innovation project. As such here are three team configurations you could consider depending on the type of innovation you are pursuing:
Vata-Pitta (VP) dominated teams are ideal for driving disruptive innovation. VP teams have potential to excel at blue-sky ideation, yet their Pitta element can channel and focus the Vata-induced creativity to develop a well-crafted solution that meets, and even exceeds, clients’ needs. Hence, VP teams can produce disruptive innovation with less effort than teams with other Dosha combinations.
One could posit that the creative teams at advertising agencies like Ogilvy and design firms like IDEO may have primarily VP types. Similarly, it’s not hard to conceive that Apple consists of many VP teams which are the brains behind the iPad and iPhone (and if we extend our argument, you can see that Steve Jobs epitomises VP).
Vata-Kapha (VK) dominated teams typically yield evolutionary innovation. We posit that large conservative corporations with R&D departments tend to have innovation teams with a VK profile.
Their R&D researchers are given the creative freedom to innovate within defined boundaries. PV teams may have to work extra hard to produce breakthrough products or services but are more tuned to developing a breakthrough process that drastically cuts the cost of manufacturing. US carmakers such as GM and many IT providers — including IBM and Microsoft — are very likely to boast many VK teams.
Pitta-Kapha (PK) dominated teams will primarily produce incremental innovation. PK teams are ideal for driving innovation in firms that operate in mature industries and regulated sectors as their creativity can be very focused and grounded. For instance, Boeing’s engineers have to innovate with customer safety in mind.
PK-dominated teams, however, could have a dampening effect for firms in fast-moving industries like high-tech where new competitors can emerge out-of-the-blue. Deprived of the Vata element’s disruptive thinking, PK teams tend to innovate with passion, but always ‘inside-the-box.’ Hence their innovation approach is usually incremental. One could imagine that Toyota is made up of a large number of Pitta-Kapha teams.
Yet, these teams rarely produce the kind of disruptive stuff CEOs want. Wonder why? One explanation may come from Ayurveda, the traditional medicine system that originated in India over 3,000 years ago ( Ayurveda means "science of life" or "knowledge of longevity" in Sanskrit).
As part of our research and consulting work on innovation and leadership, we had many interactions with leading Ayurvedic experts, proponents and practitioners from around the world such as Dr. Vasant Lad, Dr. Rohan Nagar, Dr. Pratichi Mathur, Dr. Gopal Basisht and Dr. Robert Svoboda.
In addition, we have undergone several Ayurvedic treatments ourselves and experienced first-hand its positive impact on the body, mind, and soul. We believe that the Ayurveda philosophy can help corporations significantly enhance their productivity and creativity by aligning employees’ roles and responsibilities with their individual physical and mental energy patterns.
By learning how to increase, harness, and sustain the ‘prana’ or ‘life energy’ (aka ‘Chi’ in Chinese medical philosophy or ‘Ki’ in Japanese martial arts) of their employees we believe enterprises can boost their organisational vitality and out-innovate, out-perform, and out-live competition.
Before we explain how you can harness Ayurveda to increase the creativity and productivity of your own organisation, let us start with a primer on Ayurveda.
According to Ayurveda, everything in the universe, including the human body (corporeal body and by extension the ‘corporate’ body), is composed of five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. While our body’s structural aspect is made up of these five basic elements, its functional aspect is governed by three biological humours (known as “Doshas”): Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Space and air together constitute Vata; fire and water, Pitta; and water and earth, Kapha.
These three Doshas are present in every cell, tissue and organ, and thus govern psycho-physiological changes in both our body and mind. Vata regulates movement and is represented by the nervous system. Pitta is the principle of biotransformation and in charge of all metabolic processes. Kapha is the principle of cohesion, structure and functions through the body fluids.
In every person these three Doshas differ in permutations and combinations and thereby determine the psycho-physiological constitution (Prakriti) and the physical-emotional-mental energy pattern of an individual.
Ayurveda’s goal is to keep these three Doshas properly balanced not just in your body, but also your mind. Indeed, if your Vata is in balance, we found out, you can be very creative and super-active but if Vata is in excess, you will experience anxiety and frustration more often.
Similarly we learned that, if your Pitta is balanced, you act as a very focused, intelligent, and passionate person but if imbalanced, Pitta will fill your mind with anger and make you judgemental. Finally, if your Kapha is in balance, you may be very grounded and act as great decision-maker and manager but if imbalanced, Kapha can make you sluggish and inflexible and too attached to your ideas and plans.
Most of us tend to have two predominant Doshas – Vata-Pitta or Pitta-Kapha or Vata-Kapha — which determine our psycho-physiological profile throughout our lifetime. End of the Ayurveda primer.
Now coming back to the topic of this article, let’s say you want to set up an innovation team to spur growth. Based on our explanation above, you can extrapolate that your team’s collective Dosha (energy pattern) will be shaped by the Doshas of its individual members.
Ideally, see whether you can gather a team with a balanced Dosha – with the right mix of people with Vata (unbridled creativity), Pitta (passion and determination), and Kapha (grounded and cautious). But ‘ideal’ is contextual: it all depends on the objective of your innovation project. As such here are three team configurations you could consider depending on the type of innovation you are pursuing:
Vata-Pitta (VP) dominated teams are ideal for driving disruptive innovation. VP teams have potential to excel at blue-sky ideation, yet their Pitta element can channel and focus the Vata-induced creativity to develop a well-crafted solution that meets, and even exceeds, clients’ needs. Hence, VP teams can produce disruptive innovation with less effort than teams with other Dosha combinations.
One could posit that the creative teams at advertising agencies like Ogilvy and design firms like IDEO may have primarily VP types. Similarly, it’s not hard to conceive that Apple consists of many VP teams which are the brains behind the iPad and iPhone (and if we extend our argument, you can see that Steve Jobs epitomises VP).
Vata-Kapha (VK) dominated teams typically yield evolutionary innovation. We posit that large conservative corporations with R&D departments tend to have innovation teams with a VK profile.
Their R&D researchers are given the creative freedom to innovate within defined boundaries. PV teams may have to work extra hard to produce breakthrough products or services but are more tuned to developing a breakthrough process that drastically cuts the cost of manufacturing. US carmakers such as GM and many IT providers — including IBM and Microsoft — are very likely to boast many VK teams.
Pitta-Kapha (PK) dominated teams will primarily produce incremental innovation. PK teams are ideal for driving innovation in firms that operate in mature industries and regulated sectors as their creativity can be very focused and grounded. For instance, Boeing’s engineers have to innovate with customer safety in mind.
PK-dominated teams, however, could have a dampening effect for firms in fast-moving industries like high-tech where new competitors can emerge out-of-the-blue. Deprived of the Vata element’s disruptive thinking, PK teams tend to innovate with passion, but always ‘inside-the-box.’ Hence their innovation approach is usually incremental. One could imagine that Toyota is made up of a large number of Pitta-Kapha teams.
Source:The Economic Times
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