7 powerful ways to create a better culture with mindfulness

Usually, organisations offer mindfulness in the workplace to improve employee wellbeing, concentration and calmness under pressure.

What people don’t always realise is that it can help the whole organisation to perform at a higher level.

Studies have shown that leaders who have trained in mindfulness make better decisions by thinking more strategically (Goleman and Davidson; Wharton Education).

Mindfulness has also been shown to improve collective intelligence – a team’s ability to solve complex problems – which is a crucial skill in today’s business world. Collective intelligence is not affected by the IQ of individual team members, but by unconscious processing – things like emotional regulation, a sense of trust and feelings of psychological safety.

So, how do you embed mindfulness into your work culture and reap these benefits? Here are seven simple, powerful, tried and tested approaches.

1. Start with yourself

Organisational or team transformation will not happen unless you change yourself. As a leader, if you are busy, stressed and exhausted, you will be contributing to a wider culture that reflects that. The more you practise mindfulness yourself, the more likely you are to create a culture of good decision-making, wellbeing and collective intelligence.

And remember, you don’t have to do it alone. In A Better Place to Work: Daily Practices that Transform Culture, Dr Michael West suggests forming a small group of committed people who share the same vision. Find others who are passionate about mindfulness and support each other to practise and promote it within your organisation. If you’re met with scepticism, remember to practise mindful listening!

2. Hold a launch event

Take a day, a half day or even just an hour to introduce your team to what mindfulness is, the benefits it has and how to do it. This normalises the practice, starts conversations about it and increases people’s motivation to keep doing it.

It’s best if you have a trained mindfulness teacher to do this – someone who really knows what they’re talking about and who, most importantly, walks the talk.

3. Designate a space where people can practise

It really helps to have a space that’s quiet, comfortable and relaxing to be in. Some offices have a room designed especially for this. If you’re short of space, you could designate a meeting room to be used at certain times of the day.

4. Mindfulness training 

The most common ways for organisations to embed mindfulness into their organisation is through courses, workshops, talks, coaching and apps. Courses are usually 8–10 weeks of 1–2-hour sessions per week, with meditation practice to do in between.

This guided support is significantly more impactful than one-off sessions, as habits take a while to develop (and kick!). 

5. Mindfulness challenges

Launch a one-month challenge to meditate every day, even if only for a few minutes. If people are doing it together (even if they’re not physically together when they meditate), they are much more likely to stick to it.

Celebrate people at the end of the challenge for their consistency, and get them to talk about the benefits they have experienced from their practice. 

6. Get new colleagues on board straight away

If your workplace is truly committed to mindfulness in the office, then having an onboarding process that includes these practices will be key to sustaining them. One way to do that is to offer them a mindfulness course as soon as they join. You could offer them free membership to a meditation app or point them to some recommended resources.

7. Mindful meetings

Introduce some practices that you all do together. Here are some ideas:

• Start with intention setting. What is the purpose of the meeting? How does it connect to the purpose of the organisation?

• One minute of silence at the beginning of the meeting, to help increase attentiveness throughout the meeting.

• Device-free meetings to keep the focus on the conversations happening in the room.

• Learn mindful listening to improve how you communicate and support each other.

• Personal check-ins at the beginning of the weekly team meeting to allow people to share how they are feeling (emotional awareness.)

Dr Michael West says that the single most powerful behaviour that people can learn is mindful listening: focused, non-judgemental attention while you put your own agenda to one side.

If you’d like to learn more about How To Thrive As A Manager, come along to our free workshop on 24 May. 

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