Introducing Mindfulness in Organizations

A topic that often comes up – especially among coaches – is the challenge of introducing mindfulness into an organizational setting. My colleague and a key adviser to Google’s Search Inside Yourself curriculum, Mirabai Bush, has vast experience with introducing mindfulness methods to a wide range of organizations. Of course she’s run into some resistance – at first. Her rule of thumb for overcoming obstacles? Pay close attention to the situation that exists in the organization and the culture. Below she explains why that’s important.

“When I meet with prospective clients, I listen not just for what they need – but what they perceive that they need. That helps me determine my approach. There are so many different ways to talk about mindfulness and its effects. For example, in the military, where we worked with caregivers, chaplains, and medics, they talk about mindfulness as situational awareness, and they refer to it as S.A. – it's abbreviated. At Google they talk about searching inside yourself.

You have to understand the language that an organization uses to express these ideas, and their needs. Obviously it’s different in each place. For example, an organization may say they're undergoing huge amounts of stress. I did work with the Federal Trade Commission once – it wasn't so long after 9/11, and their building was right in between the White House and the Senate. Every time a truck went by or stopped outside their window, people were just getting stressed immediately and leaving, or losing their attention on their work. So, they wanted us to help them look at factors of stress and how mindfulness could help.

Every organization has a different need – and opinion – about mindfulness. In my experience, listening and framing accordingly has been more successful than pitching a one-size-fits-all program. When you try to understand what the actual business and organizational needs are, the usefulness of mindfulness approaches to their obstacles and opportunities becomes more obvious.”

Learn more in Mirabai’s new ebook collection, Working with Mindfulness: Research and Practice of Mindful Techniques in Organizations.

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Emotional Intelligence author, Daniel Goleman lectures frequently to business audiences, professional groups and on college campuses. A psychologist who for many years reported on the brain and behavioral sciences for The New York Times, Dr. Goleman previously was a visiting faculty member at Harvard.

Dr. Goleman’s most recent books are The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insightsand Leadership: The Power of Emotional Intelligence – Selected Writings. (More Than Sound). Goleman’s latest project, Leadership: A Master Class, is his first-ever comprehensive video series that examines the best practices of top-performing executives.