It wasn’t that long ago that “mindfulness” was confined to Buddhism, meditative practices and spiritual retreats. Yet over the past eighteen months, the concept of mindfulness has become the go-to strategy in business for reducing workplace stress, eliminating conflict and improving productivity. From Google and Sony to the NHS and Transport for London, everybody seems to be jumping on the mindfulness bandwagon.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness put simply, means awareness. It’s about becoming aware of those things that we often find ourselves ignoring.
For example, imagine that you’re busy working on a report for your company. Perhaps you’ve got a mug of coffee that you’re sipping but you’re not actually tasting it. Maybe, once you’ve finished the report, you realise that you’re actually very hungry because you’ve been working for five hours straight and forgotten to have lunch.
These are things that ordinarily our mind informs us about. Yet, when we’re focused on one thing, we can become ignorant of others. Thus we ignore the taste of coffee because it’s not important to the report, and we suppress our feelings of hunger because it will slow us down.
We all experience this in some shape or form. On the one hand, not tasting our coffee as we work might not seem like a huge issue, but forgetting to eat most certainly is. It probably isn’t the only thing we forget either.
Some people completely zone out during their daily commute. Others become so accustomed to fiddling with their phone that they continue to do so even in the presence of others.
Mindfulness is about retaking control from our self-imposed autopilots. It is about learning to be aware of everything in our surroundings.
How Does Mindfulness in Business Help?
Practitioners of mindfulness point to improved emotional intelligence as one of the driving factors that improve the workplace experience.
Think about conflicts that have arisen in the workplace. What are the root causes of those conflicts? In the vast majority of cases, conflict stems from one or both parties are unaware of how words or deeds impact another. These can be rather simple, such as the woman who forgets to refill the coffee pot or the guy who hums the same five notes repeatedly while tapping his pen on the desk.
These little irritations are not caused by malicious intent but by one person simply zoning out and forgetting about others around them. Instead of actively managing their brain, they’re allowing an automated process to do it for them.
Furthermore, we can consider our own reactions to those annoyances. Why do we find it irksome? Is it because they actually negatively affect us, or is it because it’s just our default emotional stance to do so?
Imagine yourself at an art gallery. A particular portrait catches your eye and you lean in for a closer look. Yet by leaning in, the surroundings are lost to you. You will no longer see the full picture or the way it is presented. Instead, you only see the comparatively small portion that you are focused on.
Taking a Step Back
By taking a step back, you see the whole picture and more. Mindfulness experts argue that by taking a step back emotionally, you can learn to see more about the surroundings that you often ignore in daily life. You will see the eye-rolling of the next person to reach the coffee pot or the cringing of co-workers trying to tolerate the humming.
In the workplace, if we learn to look at the whole then we can better manage the problems that arise. We can start to consider why people forget to fill the coffee pot, and why people hum or tap pens on the desk? Then we look for solutions to these minor problems long before they escalate into major problems that threaten productivity and potentially damage the business.
By becoming more aware of your surroundings, and of the people in those surroundings, you gain a greater control over your behaviour. You’re no longer simply zoning out during the boring commute. Instead, you’re resolving to make it interesting and to keep your brain stimulated.
Taking Back Control
The more you stimulate your brain, the greater control you have over your mind. By taking back control from the autopilot, you regain your awareness to recognise those things that you’ve ignored. You remember to eat lunch, take pleasure from the taste of a fresh cup of coffee, and better interact with your colleagues. From this, you lay the foundation to more adeptly acknowledge and respond to conflict that arises in your workplace and your personal life.
Practitioners suggest starting with a simple one-minute meditation daily. Close your eyes, clear your mind and focus only on your breath. It’s one of the things we take most for granted in life, yet it’s also one of the most important things we do. By beginning to take notice of breathing once again, we begin a path where we can start to take notice of all those other things we’ve been missing for so long. Eventually, you can conjure up a landscape in your mind’s eye. Perhaps it’s somewhere you’ve been, or somewhere you’d like to go? Craft and pay attention to every detail.
Another method involves listening to your favourite pieces of music. Instead of focusing primarily on the vocalist, encourage your mind to concentrate on what’s beyond that. Try and hear the bass, or the rhythm guitars, for example. They’re so easily overlooked, yet they’re very much a part of the whole. That’s what mindfulness is – learning to look at and appreciate the whole.
Encouraging Others
Once we understand mindfulness, we can encourage others to follow. We can inspire them, as leaders should, to be more mindful of their fellow workers and to take control of their actions.
When your people are in control, and not relying too heavily on the autopilot, then the workplace becomes calmer and fewer interpersonal issues arise which threaten that.
Perhaps most importantly, by investing small amounts of time in mindfulness for your business, you can increase productivity, increase business performance and even increase the potential for personal development among your people. You may even encourage development that inspires the next generation of leaders in your group.
