The Idea Of Mindfulness
The emergence of the concept of mindfulness is often traced as far as 2500 years back. However, despite its old origins, it is finding widespread application is all spheres of life now more than ever. Mindfulness is generally understood as a form of sustained present-moment awareness of oneself, others and the environment. Kabat-Zinn, one of the foremost scholars of mindfulness and the person who introduced the concept to organisational science describes it as a ‘way of paying attention: on purpose, in the present moment and non – judgementally.’
By ‘on purpose’, he meant that when one pays attention to the present moment, one is always aware of doing it. One is also aware of one’s thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. This capacity to be aware of one’s cognitive processes is referred to as the ‘metacognitive’ dimension of mindfulness. This metacognitive dimension is what separates and accentuates the experience of mindfulness, and leads individuals to make better choices. The insistence on the present-moment is equally important as it breaks us out of our fixation on the past or the future, as well as on mindless day dreaming or going through tasks on autopilot. By being fully aware on the present moment, one is able to experience life better and react better to stimulus. Lastly, when Kabat-Zinn gives ‘non-judgmental’ as one of the key attributes of mindfulness. He means that a mindful person is someone who has rid herself of the tendency to constantly judge herself for not doing enough in life. Instead of constantly feeling dissatisfied with our lives, mindfulness allows us to experience all aspects of life with warmth and uncensored curiosity.
Mindfulness At Workplace
The work environment has become highly disintegrated over the last two years with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing employees globally to work from home. As both work and family life now coexist in the same physical space of one’s home, it has become harder to keep boundaries between the two intact. This sudden shift is causing a higher than usual degree of stress for employees, as they find themselves struggling to strike a balance between work and personal lives. Constant distractions and inability to connect with co-workers are some of the other negative by-products of working in a post-pandemic world. It would be interesting to explore if a solution to some of these problems can be found in mindfulness-based practices.
- Reduced levels of stress and anxiety
Already significant research work has been done to apply the benefits of mindfulness practices to work environment in order to reduce stress and anxiety experienced by employees. One of the foremost and most popular organisational mindfulness intervention programmes called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was introduced by Kabat-Zinn himself. Several Research works to test the efficacy of this programme have proven that it leads to a significant reduction in stress levels and other measurable parameters, including those related to the potential for depression, anxiety and rumination. In addition, the programme was also was found to enhance interpersonal sensitivity, adaption of coping strategies and an increased level of self-compassion.
- Higher emotional intelligence and good work relationships
Research suggests that people who are stronger in self-management competencies on an average add 78% more profits than those who lack in these. Studies conducted in some of the large firms suggest that partners with a high amount of emotional intelligence contributed 110% more than those who don’t. Mindfulness research suggests that those who practice mindfulness are shown to have higher levels of self-regulation and emotional intelligence. The more mindful a person is, the better she is able to experience her own thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations. This experience is important as it allows one to accurately perceive the thoughts, feelings and sensations of others. This is highly significant to develop high emotional intelligence, as the capacity to give someone our full attention is vital for building a good relationship at work.
- Higher attention span and work productivity
One of the most exciting benefits of mindfulness is better attention span and reduced mental distractions. How many times in a day do we find ourselves thinking of the past or the future or day dreaming about something? This phenomenon of constantly losing attention is neither new nor uncommon for people. The response towards these mental distractions is mostly of guilt and judgment experienced by people on account of not being focussed enough. Mindfulness practice trains one to retain attention for longer. It also teaches one to approach distractions from a neutral, non-judgmental perspective and focus instead on training oneself to be attentive. This is highly significant in a work environment as if the focus on the work at hand is higher, it would lead to better productivity, as proven through research.
Future of work
The future of work will come with many challenges, some of which we are already beginning to experience. From a highly disintegrated workspace, to high amount of digitization to the need for constant skilling, deskilling and reskilling, it is important now more than ever that individuals become self-aware and are capable of managing their physical, mental and emotional well-being.
We are experiencing multiple distractions while balancing personal and professional commitments. In such a scenario, it’s very common to see employees putting up to long hours or work and end up experiencing stress, anxiety, and mental exhaustion. Integrating mindfulness practices in workspace is one of the ways in which a more stable work environment can be fostered where every employee experience well-being and contentment with respect to their work.
At Kognoz, we are working on integrating mindful practices at workplace and researching the impact of such practices on the quality of decision making. To know more about our work in this area, please click here
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As we look into the future, we firmly believe that self-managed are the way forward to create an agile organization and solving business-critical problems to sustain the competitive advantage.
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