For almost two decades psychologist Ruth Langer and her Harvard colleagues have been examining the difference between “mindful” and “mindless” activity, and exploring what that difference could mean to the way we live and work.

Langer has concluded that mindlessness can be costly and even dangerous, and that an increase in mindfulness results in an increase in competence, health, happiness, creativity, charisma and job satisfaction.

We all engage in mindless activity, like when we’re driving our car and suddenly realize that we have no recollection of the last 20 miles. And we know what it’s like when other people are mindless. There’s the waiter who repeats the specials from rote but doesn’t really seem to hear our questions. The sales clerk who is lying when she says we look great in that dress. And the bore at the cocktail party who drones on about himself while scanning the room to find somebody more important to talk to.

In our professional life mindlessness might arise from a lack of opportunity to innovate or could spring from a total focus on outcome, crowding out our awareness of process.

According to Langer, mindlessness:

• Causes us to freeze our understanding, and makes us oblivious to small changes that could cause us to take new action; • Can show up as prejudice, rigidity and an unwillingness to consider new ideas; and • Can lead to learned helplessness and underachieving.

In contrast, when we are mindful we are engaged in what is going on around us. We speak honestly, and we listen when others are speaking. Langer’s research suggests that when we are mindful:

• We are sensitive to small ways in which our situation is changing, and we can act accordingly; • We feel centered, rather than depressed, bored or disconnected; • We recognize that no single perspective explains a situation, and we remain open and curious; and • Other people – and even animals – sense that we are present and are more likely to see us as genuine and charismatic.

The great news is that mindfulness isn’t complicated, it doesn’t require an altered state of consciousness, and anyone can modify their own state of mind or quickly be coached to become more mindful.

Langer says that achieving mindfulness simply involves learning to see new things. In her research, Langer encouraged subjects to become more mindful by leading them to make more distinctions. In others words, she caused them to notice and process information by sorting it into new categories.

For example, in a classic early study, nursing home residents were asked to choose house plants to care for and then to make a number of small decisions about their daily caretaking routine.

After about 18 months, the decision-making, plant-minding residents were happier, healthier and functioning at a higher level than other residents not provided with a similar challenge.

Later research confirmed that the more decisions and control were required of the plant caretakers, the more likely they were to become less depressed and more confident, independent and alert. Even mortality rates improved among the residents who were encouraged to engage in small periods of mindful activity with their plants.

In her most recent book, Langer writes about the way she transformed her own life, and enriched her career, by taking up painting. She argues that anyone can be mindfully creative. What is required is to engage in an activity that allows us to focus our attention fully on something outside ourselves. She suggests that by taking up a new creative endeavor we may find a way to a richer, more rewarding life.

Mindfulness may increase productivity, innovation and leadership ability. We can encourage mindfulness in the way we frame our tasks, vary our assignments and situations, and focus on process instead of just on outcome. Managers can foster mindfulness and innovation by introducing outside viewpoints, tolerating uncertainty and flexibility, and finding ways to make work feel like play.