Mindfulness Routines for Innovating with Information Technology

Formal structures and systematic practices have considerable promise for helping to foster mindfulness in information-technology innovation, especially when it comes to organizations' reflective assessments both of their readiness for innovation and of their own mindful processes. In relation to structures and practices, this essay proposes a number of "mindfulness routines" and considers also the proposals offered by the other authors in this special issue. It also examines two paradoxes entailed in such "organizing for mindfulness," one structural and the other temporal. The first paradox is that routines for mindfulness run the risk of undermining the very thing that they are meant to support, in part by tempting complacency and in part by fostering a limiting role structure for mindfulness. The second paradox relates to the dual role of past history both as a burden on the mindful regard for the present, and as a potential source of experience and insight. The discussion concludes by considering the value for mindfulness in explorations that go beyond the reach of routine and historical reflection.