Last night I delivered a talk on “The Mindful Way of Working” for the first time, sort of. I qualify the statement because I have guided people in meditation and mindfulness for a few years now, and have taught some of the techniques for decades as a martial artist. But I had not taught these practices in a business context, a meeting of the IS Committee of the North Carolina Project Management Institute (NCPMI). Part of the reason is I didn’t want people to think I was pushing my religion, Zen Buddhism. So I probably went overboard in making the point Buddhist practice is compatible with any other religion (my “sangha” in Seattle was founded by devout Catholics) and meditation is used by Protestant ministers, Moslems, Hindus and secular humanists, among others. Another point of discomfort for me is that the topic strays far from my primary practice of using scientific findings to support group work.
But I decided to offer the course anyway, primarily to expand my marketing possibilities, I will admit. Of course, I also could have done that by offering team–building games despite there being no scientific backing that they provide any return on investment (ROI). There is little research on productivity or other benefits from mindfulness in the workplace yet, but there is significant research on the stress-reduction capabilities in medical practice. In fact, the method called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has proven effective in a variety of settings, and the few studies in the business world are encouraging as well.
For the class and my Zen practice, I say “mindfulness at its most practical level is simply keeping your mind on what is going on in this moment. As in meditation, you try to focus your mind on one thing and let all extraneous thoughts go on their way. For example, if at work you are writing a report and you think, ‘I need to pick up some bread,’ don't go on to making out your grocery list in your head. Put your mind back on your writing.” Purists will rightly argue there is a lot more to it, and I touched on aspects such as recognizing automatic thoughts for what they are and noticing the impact of certain physical sensations on our emotions and relationships.
What it boils down to is self-control, perhaps the most critical skill to business success. We all have to do things we don’t want to in order to accomplish routine tasks, act professionally with colleagues we don’t like, guide employees to do things we think should be obvious to anyone, and so on. Mindfulness, and the meditation practice that supports it the way working out supports athletic performance, are powerful options to achieve that self-control.
The class participants seemed either to get it or not know what to make of it, and either response is fine with me. But I know they stayed very engaged throughout the class and walked out with a choice of new tools to help their working or personal lives. To me, that makes overcoming my fears worth the risks.
