5 Lessons from Mindfulness

A kind soul gifted me Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s How to Live When a Loved One Dies to guide me on my journey through loss and grief.

I am still absorbing its soothing wisdom.

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It also makes me curious: What are the enduring lessons from mindfulness that apply to our work as Employee Experience Professionals and HR Designers?

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These are my initial reflections on select quotes from the text I am currently reading:

“When we look deeply into a flower, we can see that it’s made of many different elements. In fact, it is made exclusively of non-flower elements. The entire universe can be seen in a flower. We can see the sunshine that helped it grow, the rain, the soil, the seed, and even the gardener. If we took away any of these elements, there would be no flower left. The flower does not exist on its own; it is inextricably interconnected with everything else.”

My Reflection: While this is meant as a metaphor for the inter-connectedness of all things, I couldn’t help but think how well it describes the essence of employee experience. I often get asked for a definition of employee experience. I think I am going to try this one for a while as I find it so beautiful and poignant.

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“We know that understanding our suffering gives rise to compassion, not only for ourselves, but also for others. And we know that compassion is essential for joy and happiness to be possible.”

My Reflection: This is a deep and hard truth to digest. In design thinking, we use the term “empathy” to describe the part of the method where we are trying to walk in someone else’s shoes so we can design solutions that truly meet their needs. Is there a connection between the realization that we have to have suffered ourselves first in order to be compassionate enough to be meaningfully empathetic? I wonder… I think it becomes especially important when we are co-creating with people around a topic where we might trigger past trauma.

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“When we try to grow a flower, if she doesn’t grow well, we don’t blame her or argue with her… If we take care of her well, she will grow beautifully. If we take care of her poorly, she will wither. To help a flower grow well, we must understand her nature.”

My Reflection: This reminded me of career development and the age-old debate of whose responsibility it is to develop our employees. Should they take ownership? Their leader? HR? I’ve long been a proponent of the philosophy that it is on us (HR and leaders) to create the conditions so our employees can thrive. Given the right conditions, team members will naturally take ownership. If the conditions are not right, taking individual ownership will have little impact and ultimately result in frustration and cynicism.

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“We need to know that everyone makes mistakes and is unskillful at times, but we can learn from our mistakes.”

My Reflection: At first glance, this quote reminded me of the “fail forward” principle we subscribe to as human-centered designers. I sat a bit longer with the “unskillful” aspect of this. I think it speaks to the fact that our mistakes can hurt others. It reminds me of the important work we still have to do in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion space. As a woman in a white body, I am sure I have been unskillful in my actions towards people of color - even when they were well-intended. But the reality is I can only become more skillful if I make mistakes and learn from them. It’s about extending grace to yourself instead of giving up. [Note: I am collaborating with Sonya Kaleel of The Inclusion Practice on an upcoming workshop to create a space for us to become more skillful in designing equitable workplaces. Join us!]

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“We are like candles. We send light out all around us, radiating in all directions. All our thoughts, words, and actions are our light. If we say something kind, our kind words will go out in many directions, and we go along with them.”

My Reflection: Wondrous! I think I will print this quote and post it visibly as a daily reminder to guide my interactions with others. Imagine a world where kindness was an integral part of all business models and the way we operated. What a world that might be!

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I am curious: What insights do YOU draw from these quotes? Do you know of other mindfulness texts that might inspire our work?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Design Thinking for HR is a biweekly LinkedIn newsletter that aims to inspire HR professionals to experiment with the human-centered design framework. The newsletter is curated by?Nicole Dessain who is the Chief Employee Experience Designer at talent.imperative, Founder of the HR.Hackathon Alliance, and a Northwestern University instructor. Nicole is currently writing her first book about Design Thinking for HR. Join the Early Readers’ Community here.