How to Create Innovation Culture with Mark Brown

This podcast is all about innovation culture, and I am really pleased to welcome Mark Brown. Mark is Chief Executive of the Dolphin Index, a business that helps individuals and teams be more creative and shape more successful workplaces. Mark is also a published author on innovation and a real superstar in the innovation world.

 

Mark explains how he is particularly interested in the work that referred to The Three Principles, which is a sort of DIY guide to having a quieter mind at work. He thinks that if you look at a lot of businesses it’s actually unhelpful to have a busy, rushing mind all the time.  Mark shares that by being a bit quieter and more centred, people actually perform better, make better decisions and are more creative.

 

Mark shares his first memory of being interested in innovation. He says: “When I try to go back the story, I probably go back to age 18, when I remember standing by a particular gate at a house we had in Wales, and making a decision that went along the lines of, I am not going to believe anything, because so often when you believe something, people seem to become too certain and stuck. So, I sort of made my first vow, to try to think openly, but of course, what I didn’t realise, is the decision not to believe anything was in itself a fixed mindset, so I was already caught in my own dogma! I’ve got a dogmatic dislike of dogma, and that may have something to do with my family. That was one angle. Some people seem to be more open, and some people a bit more closed.”

 

Mark explains that in many jobs he thinks it is now possible for people to have really quite brilliant lives at work because they are deeply engaged, in a way that drives a brilliant organisation and helps to create a more brilliant world.

 

He references Daniel Pink’s book, called Drive, which is a summary of the research on motivation that shows clearly that if you give people autonomy, an opportunity to learn, and a purpose larger than profit, they really are unstoppable.

 

In our discussion, Mark also mentions Kelly’s Repertory Grid, a tool that helps us to see the 'personal constructs' which we use to view the world. Everyone has their own unique model.

 

To contact Mark, his website is www.dolphinindex.org or email mark@dolphinindex.org.