IQ-Magazine-Issue-17

How to: Introduce
Mindfulness at Work
by Jacqui Kemp, of Namasté Culture
IQ HR
From Google and the Marines in the USA, to asset
management companies and primary schools in the UK,
it seems that more and more businesses are choosing
to adopt mindfulness into daily business practice. But
how do so many organisations manage to implement
something that is, on the face of it, not related to
business?
In my last article I talked about the benefits of
mindfulness applied in business environments as well
as individual wellbeing. The benefits for businesses are
becoming increasingly well documented, yet there is still
a lot of scepticism about introducing something that is
based on meditation.
How to make mindfulness
operational for businesses
People are motivated to adopt new practices if they
can see meaning and purpose in what they are doing.
Before introducing mindfulness to your business, I
suggest you may want to consider the following:
1. Create an understanding.
Why are you introducing mindfulness?
In our experience, we have found that offering a two
hour introduction to mindfulness, including information
on the history and benefits of mindfulness, and an
invitation to practice one mindful meditation technique,
helps organisations to introduce the concept to their
people and to find out if there is a desire for more.
2. Set objectives.
Why is mindfulness important to your business?
If there is an interest in mindfulness, you should set
individual or business objectives to
be met during a full programme,
which is typically eight weeks.
These may include:
Personal Objectives
• Increase personal resilience
• Increase self-awareness
• Deal more effectively with
stressors
Business Objectives
• Decrease sickness
absence
• Increase productivity
Building
mindfulness
into business
routine
Regular practice of
mindfulness is key to
changing individual
behaviours to meet your
business objectives, so
individuals must commit to practising mindfulness daily
during a programme. This helps to create a new habit,
which is easy to continue after the programme ends
Not everyone is ready to undertake a full programme
of mindfulness, so before accepting people onto a
programme, they should be assessed in terms of
their current wellbeing and ability to commit to the
programme and home practice.
More Information
For more information call 01954 267640
www.namasteculture.co.uk
issue 17 | page 37