The Effect Of Mindfulness On Creative Thinking Within Organizations

Abstract

Objectives Research on the effects of meditation practice on creativity performance is a new and promising area of research. Although this field is still young, there are already enough studies showing a correlation between Mindfulness training and improvements in creativity, especially in the field of organizational psychology. In this study, we aimed to determine the efficacy of a 6-week Mindfulness-based intervention in improving creativity in organizations’ workers.

Method For this longitudinal study, a 6-week specific protocol was used with a group of workers at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya, (n = 10). At the beginning of the training, the subjects were tested in Mindfulness and creativity using, respectively, the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire and Crea tests. After the six sessions, the group was tested again.

Results The analysis of the Crea test results showed an improvement in the subjects’ creative skills: On the first test, the mean total score was 573, and on the second test it was 694. Therefore, we can confirm that Mindfulness increases creativity; however, this improvement was observed only in the female subjects. Furthermore, we analyzed the effects of different aspects of Mindfulness on creativity and noted that the aspect of observation, (the ability to pay close attention to and carefully observe sensations, thoughts, and emotions) and   the aspect of observation, (the ability to distance oneself from what is happening in the attentional field without instantly reacting to the stimulus), yielded better results in our research.