Uniting the Virtual Workforce: Transforming Leadership and Innovation in the Globally Integrated Enterprise

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Re-imagining Innovation

Innovation can include everything from coming up with great new products to new ways of solving business problems. However as we define it, innovation is what allows companies to remain vital and to grow. But what are the implications for innovation when it comes to working virtually? We discuss some of the key issues surrounding innovation and how virtual relationships can be harnessed not only to keep new ideas flowing but to translate those ideas into reality and re-imagine innovation in the globally integrated enterprise.

BRAINWAVES AND MUSICAL CREATIVITY

At the Royal College of Music in London, one might find young musicians lying restfully listening to headphones. Not so unusual, you might think, except what they’re listening to is the sound of their own brains. Our brains are constantly producing electrical signals in the form of wave patterns that can be captured by an electroencephalogram (EEG). The patterns vary as our brains become more or less alert or relaxed. High frequencies occur when we are excited or agitated, and low frequencies occur when we are relaxed. Students connected to an EEG can learn how to control the frequency of their brainwaves through audio feedback. The goal is to enter a theta wave state—a state between sleep and wakefulness. The theta state is when a lot of ideas come to us, where our minds are more open and we make connections that our alert brain would filter out. John Gruzelier, a neuropsychologist, hypothesized ...