This is a topic I care a lot about, as a CEO and Founder, an entrepreneur, and Master Intuitive Psychology Coach... I hear a lot about innovation from leaders. Everyone is seeking change and innovation to stay ahead, BUT you can’t innovate from a dysregulated nervous system, you can’t disrupt old patterns if your brain is stuck in survival mode, and you can’t think differently when your unconscious mind is clinging to safety.
Let me explain...
The innovation gap no one talks about
We spend so much time investing in tools, tech, frameworks, and systems to support change, but the human behind the innovation often gets overlooked.
When change is on the table, something very primal happens. The brain - in particular the amygdala - scans for threat. Uncertainty activates our survival instincts and our attention narrows. In this state our creativity shuts down as we default to the familiar, because to a brain familiar = safe.
Our logical mind may be saying "yes I want change!" but this is not a mindset issue, it’s a nervous system response. It goes beyond our logical, analytical mind, and into our deeper unconscious world.
So, in short, what does this mean for business? If you want people to ideate, create, and innovate: you first need to create safety. Psychological, emotional, and physiological safety. That’s when the brain can shift gears from protection to possibility.
What is cognitive agility, and why does it matter?
Cognitive agility is your brain’s ability to shift perspectives, adapt to new information, and generate novel solutions - even under pressure. It’s the foundation of innovation, and it relies on more than logic. It depends on:
Most organisations train teams in tools, but not in the state required to use them well.
That’s where the human lens comes in.
The Human Lens: A new front-end to innovation
Imagine if, before jumping into problem-solving, your team had the space to:
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Understand how their brain and body respond to ambiguity
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Regulate stress and shift into a state of creative alertness
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Surface limiting beliefs about what's possible
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Align emotionally with the challenge at hand
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Rewire unconscious resistance to change
Instead of brainstorming ideas from a default place of urgency or tension, they’re ideating from a calm, clear, open inner state.
From this place, innovation feels less like a push — and more like a pull.
Tapping into the unconscious: Where the real leaps happen
Some of our most powerful insights come not from conscious effort, but from unconscious integration. When we bypass the filters of fear, ego, and habit, the unconscious mind can offer bold, intuitive connections the rational mind would never dare to suggest.
Techniques like:
…aren’t “soft” practices. They’re prerequisites to true innovation. Because the future doesn’t come from rehashing what we know; it comes from becoming willing to know something new.
The future of innovation is embodied, not just engineered
If you’re serious about unlocking innovation, not just managing it, it’s time to look inward as well as forward.
The most underutilised innovation tool in business isn’t a software, a framework or a canvas.
It’s the regulated, open, curious human mind. And it happens to be accessible to every single human - if we only take the time to go beyond the analytical mind, and unlock the power that lies beneath the surface.
When you integrate the human lens into your innovation culture, you don’t just generate more ideas, you generate more aligned, courageous, intuitive ones.
Curious to experience this for your team or event?
I run bespoke immersive sessions that blend neuroscience, nervous system regulation, and subconscious coaching to shift your team into the real state required for bold innovation.
Get in touch to explore how we can co-create your next innovation sprint, from the inside out.
