Mindfulness and Business

Is the 2500-year-old spiritual technology called Mindfulness pertinent to business today? Mindfulness—simply defined as present moment awareness—is popping up in workplaces for a very good reason. We live and work in what the Harvard Business Review calls the “attention economy.” The ability to maintain focus and concentration has become every bit as important as technical or management skills. Our ability to pay attention is challenged daily by a culture that values —indeed demands—handling numerous tasks with the adroit precision of a juggler. How do we manage this?

The Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute was founded by a Google engineer and has become a well-supported Mindfulness training program. Why is Google offering Mindfulness training to business professionals?

The practice of Mindfulness is a systematic return to the present moment, so that we can listen attentively, focus on a task or respond to a colleague in a helpful way. Mindfulness is staying present to what is happening with the mind and body right now.

Mindfulness is most readily practiced in meditation—a focus on the act of breathing, a gentle noting when thought, feeling or surroundings distract from the breath and a subsequent return to the breath. Noticing the way our thoughts hijack us becomes key—it is the occasion for release of self-judgment and a reminder to return to the present.

Mindfulness was most carefully elucidated by Buddhist teachers starting in India in about 563 B.C.E. The inspired teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, are an examination of the nature of existence and an invitation to reduce suffering and promote happiness. “Right mindfulness” is one of eight features of what is known as the Eightfold Path, each aspect elucidating ways to reduce suffering and increase happiness.

Email, social media and text messages have a way of seducing our attention and redirecting it to lower-priority tasks. Our quick response may provide a nice shot of dopamine, but it may deplete us when we need to be focused elsewhere. When exceptional creative thinking is required for a task, a mindful choice to sidestep email for a later moment may enhance our attention.

Mindfulness can help leaders conduct shorter, more effective meetings. David Whyte, the poet and organizational consultant speaks of being “on the edge of a conversation.” This is a practice of Mindfulness that involves listening to what is being said, a letting go of planning what we will say before we say it and staying with the dialogue in real time.

As the day progresses and our brains start to tire, taking a mindful performance break may prevent resorting to autopilot and lapsing into action addiction or poor decisions.

Is Mindfulness a science? Perhaps. The term neuroplasticity has gained wide attention since scientists have begun to study long time meditators. Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections in response to learning. Richard J. Davidson, a scientist studying neuroplasticity at the University of Wisconsin in Madison has significant research that shows increase in emotional resilience in people who practice mindfulness.

Approaching the practice of Mindfulness has no prerequisites. Releasing expectations of a cure-all is likely wise. There is no such thing as a winning grade in Mindfulness. It is simply an invitation to awaken to life as it presents itself now—an increasingly precious skill for work and life.