What if innovation isn’t about pushing harder, but about creating the conditions where people can truly think, feel, and thrive? In this article, Steve Peralta, speaker and co-founder of Unmind, shares why humanity is at the heart of business success.
Innovation is about people, not products
When Fast Company named Unmind one of the top 10 most innovative workplace companies this year, I felt proud. But also reflective.
Because I don’t believe innovation is about the flashiest ideas or fastest wins. At its core, innovation is about people.
And people don’t do their best thinking in environments where they feel afraid, burnt out, or invisible. They innovate when they feel valued. Trusted. Free enough to experiment… and supported enough to recover when things don’t work out.
That’s the kind of organisational culture we’ve tried to build at Unmind over the past nine years; one that puts humanity at the centre. Where wellbeing isn’t seen as a ‘perk’ or afterthought, but as the foundation for creativity. And this isn’t just a nice idea, it’s neuroscience.
So when I see the word “innovation” next to our name, I don’t think about product features. I think about culture. About people. About how they feel at work.
Because how people feel shapes what they dare to say, build, and question … especially when the stakes are high.
Balancing speed with soul
Two of Unmind’s values sit in creative tension: Innovate At Speed and Be Human.
It’s easy to see how they could pull in opposite directions. One demanding momentum, the other presence. But that tension is the point.
Innovation in a scale-up is messy, fast, and full of unknowns. We’ve had to move quickly. When COVID hit, we gave the NHS free access to Unmind. Overnight, we were serving millions of new users in a world no one had planned for. We had to rebuild, reimagine, and respond in real time.
But we didn’t do it by chasing speed for its own sake. We did it by showing up for each other. By listening, adapting, holding space for the fear and uncertainty. Speed mattered, but care led the way.
That’s the balance I believe more organisations need to find. Because speed without humanity creates fragility. You might ship faster, but the creativity dries up. People stop bringing the ideas that matter most. The risky ones, the vulnerable ones, the ones that make a dent … especially when they’re needed most during difficult times.
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Who you are as a leader shows up in the hard moments
I think that who you are as a company shows up most clearly in the hard moments. When timelines tighten. When markets wobble. When pressure’s high and energy’s low. When ‘doing more with less’ becomes common lingo. (Remind you of the last few years?)
Those are the moments leaders face a choice: retreat into control, or lean into trust.
One of my proudest executive leadership decisions didn’t come from a strategy session … it came from a gut sense that we needed to protect our people, not just stretch them.
In the middle of a particularly intense period, we introduced something called Revive & Thrive days. Every second Friday of the month, the whole company was given a day off work. Time and space to breathe, rest, reconnect.
On paper, it made no sense. But it’s still in place today. Because people need recovery to stay bold. And because the only innovation that lasts is the kind that doesn’t cost us our humanity.
Because people need recovery to stay bold. And because the only innovation that lasts is the kind that doesn’t cost us our humanity.
Measuring what really matters
Of course, we track the usual business metrics. But one of the numbers I care most about is an internal one. Each quarter, we ask everyone at Unmind:
“What impact is working here having on your mental health?”
We track the score on a scale from “very negative” to “very positive.” And we treat it as seriously as revenue. Because it is. A workplace that drains people will never be a truly innovative one.
That question — and the data behind it — reminds us that people aren’t just here to perform. They’re here to flourish. And we have to build workplace cultures and leadership that support their wholeness if we want their best ideas, their boldest thinking, their full creative selves.
A more human way to lead
Innovation gets ugly when it costs people their health, their spark, or their sense of self.
What we need today is soulful leadership. Leadership that knows how to move fast, but never at the expense of the human beings behind the work. One that sees culture not as a brand exercise, but as the primary driver of creativity, high-performance, and trust.
It’s the thread that runs through every conversation I have with leaders. Whether I’m working with executives, HR teams, or purpose-driven founders, the invitation is always the same:
What if we designed work in a way that actually works for humans?
Because when we do that, innovation takes care of itself — and it’s beautiful.
What to read next:
- Keynote Speakers For Wellbeing And Engagement In The Workplace
- Innovate, Lead, And Grow: Book Top Disruptors For Your Team
- Authentically Adopting a Culture of DEI
💡 Would you like to book Steve to talk to your team about transformational leadership? Email us at hello@getapeptalk.com or send us a message via the chat. You can also call us on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US). Remember, it’s always a good time to get a PepTalk!
