Why and How to Introduce Mindfulness into Your Organisation

“We should base our decisions on awareness rather than on mechanical habit. That is, we act on a keen appreciation for the essential factors that make each situation unique instead of from conditioned response” – The US Marines Corps Book of Strategy

The first question is “What is Mindfulness?” The most quoted definition is that of Jon Kabat Zinn which defines it as “the awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, non judgementally“.

The second question is “Why would we want to introduce Mindfulness into our organisation?”

Well at this stage the internet abounds with countless scientific studies and reports about the benefits of Mindfulness in organisations. So rather than quote these, let me offer a personal experience from a Global organisation where I delivered a training course on “Mindfulness Leadership for Managers“.

During a break on the course, one of the managers asked to speak to me in private. She told me how two years previously, her new manager had reprimanded her so badly that she felt and I quote “my confidence had been destroyed and my soul had been ripped out!” She continued “only now am I beginning to regain my confidence!“.

So what has this got to do with Mindfulness? Well mindfulness teaches us to “pay attention” to what’s “important” at any moment and very importantly manage our emotional responses in a positive and appropriate way.

Clearly in the above example neither the Senior Manager nor the Middle Manager were doing this. If the Senior Manager had been he would have been a lot more mindful that his “emotional outburst” could not only negatively impact his relationship with his Middle Manger but also have a very detrimental impact on her performance and more importantly on her personal wellbeing.

However as a consequence of his “emotional outburst“, the Middle Managers performance was not anywhere near as good as it could be … for two whole years! Also apart from the personal cost to the Middle Managers performance and well being, what was the cost to the performance of her team and consequently how much did this cost the organisation financially over two years?

Also if the Middle Manager had been practicing mindfulness she may also have been mindful that she could recover from an emotionally charged reprimand much quicker and indeed not taken it as personally as she did. She may also have, through mindfulness practice, found the courage to have a win/win “difficult conversation” with her Senior Manager.

So what steps can you take to introduce Mindfulness into your organisation

1. The Why – decide “Why” you want to introduce mindfulness into your organisation – how will it benefit the organisation, teams within the organisation, the people within your organisation and very importantly how will it benefit your clients?
2. The “Buy-in” – Once you’ve decided on the “Why“, aim to get “buy in” from the top management. Look up case studies of organisations that are already developing mindfulness cultures and ideally measuring the benefits. Relate the benefits to your own organisations needs and also outline an overview of “How” you will run the training. One CEO from a global electronics firm, who had said “no” to the training on a number of occasions, finally decided to go for it once he saw the scientific evidence of the benefits.
3. The How – create a pilot training plan. A simple one could be a half day training in mindfulness, followed by 6 weeks of 90 minute workshops with the aim of improving the practice and its integration into the workplace. So you might start the training on a Tuesday with a half a day workshop and then the following 6 Tuesdays the group meet for the 90 minute workshop.
4. The Who – ideally the group will be about 20 participants, across different levels within the organisation. You need to have a big enough group so that they “champion” the training after realising its benefits for them, their teams, the organisation and its clients (of course it needs to be good quality Mindfulness training to achieve this).
5. The Training – The training must cover at least these two key areas – 1. Training in Mindfulness – theory and practice 2. Training in integrating it into the workplace. For example applying it to have more effective meetings, to having difficult conversations, to improving performance, to building stronger relationships, to managing emotions, to improve communications and other key core skills.
6. The Measurable Results – again aim to keep it simple create a pre-course questionaire and post-course questionaire. Put the same questions on both questionaires and measure the difference before or after the training. The questions can relate to key core areas such as – overall work performance; relationships, personal wellbeing and satisfaction. (to receive a sample questionaire email me at sean@seanmkelly.com)

Provided the pilot training has been successful, you then need to build on it with more trainings, practice and integrations.  Once the people within your organisation realise the positive benefits of mindfulness and its integration into the workplace, you will also realise that the benefits are cumulative – they keep getting better and better, not only in your organisations peoples professional lives but also in their personal lives!

Six weeks after I facilitated the “Mindfulness Leadership for Managers” workshop I facilitated a follow-on workshop. During it, the Middle Manager from the above case study, stood up in front of  the other managers and described how through applying what was learnt, she was now much more confident, content and positive within herself, with her team, with the organisation and most importantly with her … Senior Manager!

Would you like to discuss how to introduce Mindfulness into your organisation? Simply email Sean on sean@seanmkelly.com all enquiries are welcome!

Sean has delivered Mindfulness training into companies in Spain, the UK, Luxembourg and Ireland and is a certified trainer of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership course which was developed in Google. He has been practicing meditation and mindfulness for over 25 years and has trained with Deepak Chopra, the SYDA yoga foundation, the Life Foundation and with the School of Practical Philosophy and Economic Science.

Here’s what some course participants had to say:

• “The course moved at quite a pace and was thoroughly enjoyable!”
• “Very interesting and I’m looking forward to the follow up!”
• “I don’t give the above ratings lightly – this was the best course I was ever on! Excellent job”
• “Excellent knowledge. Amazing real life examples which really proved his belief in his topic. Brought fun and energy to the session when needed”

Sean M Kelly is an International Organisational, Professional and People Development Trainer/ Coach and Inspirational Speaker with over twenty five years experience in the training industry. He has created and delivered training to many globally successful businesses and organisations in countries including Ireland, UK, USA, Luxembourg, Italy, Russia, Lithuania, Israel, Poland, the Czech Rep. and South Korea. Sean focuses on providing interactive, experiential and empowering training and coaching which can have an immediate positive impact in the workplace.

If you would like to discuss your training needs with Sean just email him on sean@seanMkelly.com

---

If you would like to have your company featured in the Irish Tech News Business Showcase, get in contact with us at Simon@IrishTechNews.net or on Twitter: @SimonCocking