{"id":3351,"date":"2018-01-29T22:57:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T22:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.culturesummit.co\/?p=3351"},"modified":"2022-04-20T09:37:18","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T13:37:18","slug":"culture-of-mindfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.culturesummit.co\/culture-of-mindfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindfulness in the Workplace: The What, Why and How of Building a Mindful Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"
Your employees are busy, but nothing is getting done.<\/span><\/p>\n Your team is working hard, but projects fall behind.<\/span><\/p>\n Everyone\u2019s inboxes are abuzz with activity, but decisions don\u2019t get made.<\/span><\/p>\n Individual members of your team are talented and hardworking, but as a whole, the team is not as productive as it could be.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026. Does any of that sound familiar?<\/span><\/p>\n We live in a distracted age. Phones buzz, watches tweet, and even the commute to work has dissolved into an endless array of options: radio? Streaming? Podcast? Sirius XM? There is a constant influx of information battling for your employee\u2019s attention, a constant risk of distraction not just pulling them away from the work at hand but draining their mental energy and leaving them unable to perform at the level they\u2019re capable of.<\/span><\/p>\n So, as a leader within your organization looking to protect your team\u2019s ability to consistently do good work, what can you do?<\/span><\/p>\n The answer many high-performing companies are turning to is mindfulness.<\/span><\/p>\n Mindfulness in the workplace is not just an excuse to splurge on branded yoga mats for the office (after all, not everyone\u2019s flexible enough for One-Handed<\/span> Tree Pose!). Rather than a specific physical practice like yoga or meditation, mindfulness is an approach to work and time that respects the mind\u2019s ability (and need) to concentrate on one task at a time<\/span> and an approach to work that leaves room to reflect on the implications of our actions and decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n The technical definition of mindfulness is an awareness of yourself and your surroundings in the present moment. In practice, mindfulness in the workplace is \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason that industry-leading companies like McKinsey & Company, Procter & Gamble, and Apple<\/a> implement mindfulness programs for their employees: it\u2019s been proven to deliver significant and long-lasting benefits in three areas that are critical to maintaining high levels of creativity and productivity: focus, attention, and behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n The ability to focus is really an ability to avoid distraction. By practicing mindfulness techniques, employees increase gray matter in the brain<\/a>, thus increasing density in the areas of the brain responsible for learning and memory. As a result, they can maintain higher levels of attentiveness and concentration and spend more time on a given thought, project, or task, than usual.<\/span><\/p>\n Mindfulness stabilizes attention in the present and helps employees pay attention to visual and audio information longer. In particular, mindfulness has been shown to improve the \u201cthree qualities of attention\u201d: control, stability, and efficiency<\/a>. As a result, instead of allowing our minds to wander for approximately half of our waking hours, we gain back control over that time, and we can put it to good use.<\/span><\/p>\n Mindfulness techniques have been shown to enhance the function of parts of the brain <\/a>and result in superior performance in self-regulation, learning from past experiences, and decision-making. In one report, 80% of senior executives<\/a> at General Mills who took a company-sponsored mindfulness course reported a positive change in their ability to make better decisions and 89% said they became better listeners.<\/span><\/p>\n Mindfulness has also been shown to have a positive impact on resilience, collaboration, and complex leadership ability. Click here<\/a> to read more.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nWhat Is Mindfulness?<\/h3>\n
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What Are the Benefits of Mindfulness in the Workplace?<\/h3>\n
Focus<\/h3>\n
Attention<\/h3>\n
Behavior<\/h3>\n
How to Incorporate Mindfulness Into Your Culture<\/h3>\n