Why Innovation Can’t Happen in Unsafe Environments

Reading even just the headlines of any business or tech journal these days inevitably ties my stomach in knots: four months into the year, the U.S. tech sector has already shed more than 180,000 jobs. This is concerning for the obvious reasons around overall job market and economic stability, as well as the effects of these cuts on the individuals who suddenly find themselves out of work. If you’ve been there, which I think we all have at one time or another in our lives, it’s impossible to read about layoffs without reliving at least a sliver of the dread, fear and loss of those experiences.

Another facet of this wave of layoffs that deeply saddens me is the impact that this new overarching sense of insecurity is bound to have on innovation and growth in general. It is particularly noteworthy that some of the biggest layoffs have happened at the companies that have long been considered not just “most innovative,” but also extremely stable – Apple, Meta, Google, Amazon, Disney…it’s a dizzying “who’s who” of America’s most successful companies, suddenly unable to make their numbers without cutting jobs. It’s saddening both because it means that these innovation powerhouses will likely slow their rollout of game-changing new products and services, and also because it signals that the tech sector is, for now at least, not “safe” – anyone’s ability to earn a living can be snuffed out at a moment’s notice. And without safety, innovation does not happen.

Why is safety a necessary precondition for innovation? Because hundreds of thousands of years of survival instincts have programmed our autonomic nervous systems, which cannot be overridden by conscious thought, to protect us whenever a threat is sensed. Without going into a whole dissertation on Polyvagal Theory (for that, I’d suggest instead reading the excellent work of Bessel van der Kolk, Stephen Porges and Deb Dana), the five autonomic responses to danger are fighting, fleeing, freezing, appeasing and dissociation. These primitive (meaning, among other things, that they emerged very early in human evolution) nervous system responses are of course essential for basic survival, but they counteract any sort of innovation, growth or exploration – imagine, for example, being in a brainstorming session with someone who is in “fight-or-flight” mode and, instead of exploring new possibilities, responds by starting a fight, leaving the room, going numb and silent, agreeing with everything that’s said, or switching to an alternate personality!

The feeling of safety is created by a higher, more evolved (and evolutionarily newer) branch of our autonomic nervous systems. When our nervous systems detect safety, not only are our heart rates and breath regulated, but we become able to trust, connect and cooperate socially, see the “big picture” (rather than obsessing myopically about the tiger that is poised to attack us), play and explore new possibilities. In other words, our bodies need to feel safe in order to innovate and grow. And because all of these feelings of safety or danger are controlled by a nervous system that evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago and which reacts much faster than our conscious minds do, there is no circumventing or overriding that primal “fight-or-flight” response – if it is triggered (whether by a lion attack or by layoffs), our bodies are evolutionarily programmed to survive at all costs, and this means no stopping to imagine “What if?” or experimenting with new ways of doing things.

I once worked under a very talented, visionary CEO of a large company that was undertaking radical, system-wide change. This CEO was good-looking, personable and very gifted at communicating transformative, big-picture visions to diverse groups of people, so he was in many ways a natural and inspiring leader for this kind of big-scale change. At one point during my time working there, he kicked off a major innovation workstream with a Town Hall meeting of 500 people in which he brought his vision to life in very moving ways, shared the personal stories that connected him to this vision, and even led a 20-minute meditation on LOVE. At the end of the meeting, all 500 attendees were in a state of inspired bliss, and so was the CEO. And then this CEO - whom I genuinely liked and admired - did the most stunning about-face I’ve ever seen: I heard from a senior executive in the company that a day or so after that inspiring Town Hall meeting, the CEO announced to his leadership team, “Now let’s get moving with this innovation plan and start firing the people who aren’t on board with it!” Thud. This seemingly benevolent CEO had somehow forgotten his more evolved self and transformed into a lion on the attack. And even though he didn’t make this “innovate-or-else” threat in front of the whole company, word got out very quickly, the way animals in the wild communicate news of a predator lurking in the bushes; with this invisible danger seeping into every corner of the company offices, everyone visibly went on alert, became more careful, and reverted to the “safe” ways of doing their jobs that had earned them promotions and positive performance reviews in the past - in one fell swoop, innovation was cut off at the knees.

So, to all of our friends out there who have lost their jobs or are fearing for their livelihood, I say: take deep breaths and be patient; you will soon be back in a place of safety within which your nervous system will allow you to be your most awesome, creative, collaborative and inquisitive self, and once there you will continue to make the world a better place. To the companies out there contemplating layoffs or job-loss threats, I say: the savings you might create with those exits will not even begin to outweigh the damage you will do in terms of your ability to create safety and thereby innovate, evolve and grow. Please talk to us at Satya Rasa Consulting before you turn your entire corporate culture into the Hunger Games – we can realign your company toward creating safety so that your employees can focus on the big picture and the path ahead.