Intense psychological stress tends to shut down the part of the brain responsible for innovative, creative thought. Instead, we tend to revert to the familiar and the well-rehearsed.
What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447 is the chilling story of the cockpit conversations aboard an Air France plane that inexplicably crashed into the Atlantic in 2009. Turns out the accident wasn’t so inexplicable after all. Instead, it’s a sad story of confusion and miscommunication. Innovation projects don’t tend to have quite such high stakes (lives are rarely at risk, though millions of dollars might be) but it’s interesting to think about the conditions necessary to nurture creativity and the idea that too stressful an environment might biologically impair those looking to innovate. See also designer Stuart Karten’s piece in Fast Company about innovation’s “secret sauce” — friendship.
