The Mindfulness Initiative is a policy group that developed following mindfulness training for British MPs, peers and staff and now works with politicians from around the world. It helped UK politicians to establish a Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG).
It is interesting to note that the primary patrons of the policy group are Emeritus Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn and Ruby Wax, comedian, who has completed a Masters in mindfulness-based, cognitive therapy at the Oxford University Mindfulness Centre.
The Mindful Initiative also assisted the MAPPG to undertake a parliamentary inquiry into mental health in a number of arenas, resulting in the production, after 8 parliamentary sittings, of the Mindful Nation UK report.
Shortly afterwards in 2016, The Mindfulness Initiative published a new document, developed by the Private Sector Working Party, which was called, Building the Case for Mindfulness in the Workplace. This document is the primary focus of my post.
The latter document focused on mindfulness in the workplace and provides an explanation of mindfulness, identifies the potential benefits for business and discusses workplace implementation issues and strategies. The ideas advanced in Building the Case are strongly supported by reported research and shared experience captured in documented, organisational case studies.
It provides an excellent starting point for any organisation envisaging the development and implementation of a mindfulness program for their executives, managers and staff. Besides individual mindfulness training, it also touches on organisational mindfulness as a cultural approach.
One significant point that Building the Case makes is that mindfulness is not the province of a particular religion, such as Buddhism. The report contends, based on the work of Dane (2011) and Kabat-Zinn (2005), that:
mindfulness is best considered an inherent human capacity akin to language acquisition; a capacity that enables people to focus on what they experience in the moment, inside themselves as well as in their environment, with an attitude of openness, curiosity and care.
The problem of course is that with life in our fast-paced world, obsession with social media and concerted efforts by interested parties to disrupt our attention, we are fast losing the power to concentrate and focus – we increasingly experience “disrupted attention” and recent research confirms that our attention span is declining rapidly. Additional research demonstrates that we spend almost 50% of our time thinking about the future or the past and not being present to our internal or external environment.
We also carry with us memories, emotions, prejudices and biases that distort our perception of reality. This, in turn, results in workplace stress, mental illness and declining productivity.
The Building the Case report highlights the potential business benefits that accrue from the pursuit of mindfulness, focusing on:
- enhanced well-being and resilience
- improved relationships and collaboration
- enhanced performance
- improved leadership
- better decision-making
- growth in creativity and innovation.
To ensure that people approach the implementation of workplace mindfulness programs in a level-headed way, the report challenges a number of myths about mindfulness and addresses the issues involved.
Of particular note, is the emphasis on regular practice of meditation and organisational support mechanisms beyond the initial training to sustain mindfulness within the organisation.
It is clear from the research and case studies cited, that as people in the workplace grow in mindfulness and sustain their meditation practice, they experience real personal benefits that, in turn, flow onto the organisation, work teams and colleagues.
By Ron Passfield – Copyright (Creative Commons license, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives)
Image source: courtesy of Free-Photos on Pixabay
