Mindful I-Corps

Well Entrepreneur recently had an exciting opportunity to collaborate with the NSF I-Corps Site of Southeastern Wisconsin team (an affiliate of the Great Lakes I-Corps™ Hub ), Brian Thompson (LEC / Executive Director), Dr. Ilya Avdeev (LEC / Director of Innovation) and Dr. Jennifer Gutzman (Department of Biological Sciences ) to share mindfulness practices during the I-Corps Boot Camp. This workshop –  a cohort of 24 Ph.D. students with research areas ranging from Cognitive Neurosciences to Labor Economics to Cybersecurity – helped students understand the broader impact of their research and how to better position them for successful careers.

With a growing need to support the well-being of entrepreneurs and innovators who face high demands, we were curious to explore how we might apply well-being tools – a set of self-regulatory skills that can be learned over time to cultivate a healthy, resilient mindset – to the Lean Launch process taught in the workshop.

Participants were introduced to a variety of different mindfulness based practices that aligned with session concepts and themes to support the learning, strengthening and integration of agile thinking, discernment, navigating ambiguity, empathy and compassion, story-telling and much more. One participant shared, “I really enjoyed the mindfulness practices. What an amazing way to end each session.”

Just like Lean Launch methodology, the core elements of mindfulness and mindfulness practice itself, are an iterative process, requiring regular practice, reframing and adjustments. Each are interwoven aspects of a single cyclic process and occur simultaneously, informing and feeding back into each other. Even though mindfulness does not necessarily change our experience; it can change our relationship to what is occurring in the moment in a way that can help us to better adapt. And because life and the entrepreneurial experience is different from one moment to the next, mindfulness is a tool that can meet us exactly where we are to help us stay present and make a conscious choice about how to navigate our experience. 

With the benefits of these practices including and ranging from a decrease in stress and anxiety, improved mental clarity, focus and creativity, and resilience, we are excited to keep exploring the intersections of well-being, entrepreneurship and innovation!