Mindfulness as a concept has been known to us from centuries. With the growing uncertainties and volatilities in the market along with increased digitization, organizations are now looking at solutions which make them focused, productive and resilient.
We will look at a few organizations who have implemented Mindfulness successfully and made it a part of their fabric.
SAP : A very successful Mindfulness program was instituted in SAP by Peter Bostelmann, who is currently heading their Global Mindfulness Practice. More than 6,500 employees went through the 2 day ‘Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute’ Mindfulness training programme. (They still have a waitlist of 5,500+ people eager to attend). Peter attributes much of the success to the efforts put to align with the internal sponsors, managers, HR officers, along with exploring external collaborative partnerships - all these connecting with employees’ learning and development plans. Through their programme they reported decreased stress and absenteeism as well as increased leadership trust, focus, clarity, and creativity.
Aetna: Aetna is a US healthcare company and one of the pioneers of developing a successful mindful organization. Mark Bertolini, their Chairman and CEO, himself a practitioner of yoga and mindfulness meditation, wanted his employees to experience the benefits of those practices too. He hired Andy Lee as the Chief Mindfulness Officer to spearhead the initiative. They have trained 13,000 employees on mindfulness practices and reported a reduction in stress levels by 28%. They launched their initiatives gradually - first for the leadership and then for the rest of the employees.
Bosch: Bosch is a multinational engineering company that has introduced various agile methodologies in the organization which include new business models and technologies. They adopted Mindfulness to support them with these changes. According to Petra Martin, who is responsible for leadership development at Bosch Automotive Electronics, “Mindfulness is an essential lever to shift from a culture of control to a culture of trust. Communication has fundamentally changed since we introduced our mindfulness training to more than 1,000 leaders in the organization.”
In order to derive most value in implementing mindfulness initiatives, companies need to identify their needs and then plan the interventions. While some organizations could implement the well-being solutions, others could look at implementing mindfulness programs as a blend with the leadership trainings and retreats. With a good mix of the right approach and solutions, organizations stand to gain much.
References
www.mindfulleader.org
knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu
www.bcg.com
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