Recently, Idanim held a webinar on ‘Mindful Productivity: Moving from coping to thriving’. The session was conducted by one of our teachers, Toby Ouvry, who is a mindfulness coach at INSEAD Business School, Singapore. It was a very insightful session where Toby talked about the benefits of mindfulness for organizations and their employees and how it helps you move from coping to thriving in the workplace.
We will be covering some of the key takeaways from the webinar in this blog.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present moment, experience without evaluation, being aware of where we are and what we're doing, and not being overly reactive to what's happening around us.
Why is mindfulness important for an organization?
There is always a business cost associated with loss in productivity of the employees. According to a report by teamstage, companies lose out on substantial profit and 720 hours a year per person working. Mindfulness helps employees increase their focus, competence and effectiveness in life. Not just this, it also makes them feel a sense of enjoyment, pleasure, and happiness. This creates a win-win situation for employers and employees.
What are the main causes that lead to loss of productivity?
In the webinar, we discussed the two main reasons for loss in productivity i.e. Distraction or Multitasking and Stress or Burnout.
Multitasking can be fascinating for many people, and it gives the idea that if you do two things simultaneously, you will be able to do them faster. However, the truth is when you do multiple things simultaneously, you get distracted, and there are high chances you will screw either of the things. Doing one thing at a time will help you focus on that particular task leading to better quality output. Here, mindfulness comes into the picture as it helps reduce distraction and increase focus.
Job stress is estimated to cost American companies more than $300 billion a year in health costs and around 40% of job turnover is caused due to stress.Talking about stress, mindfulness is not designed to get rid of it; it's designed to turn negative stress into positive stress. When you are fully aware of your surroundings and try to focus on things that are important to you, the task is done more effectively and efficiently, leaving you with a sense of fulfillment and hence reduced stress.
Mindful Productivity – Moving from coping to thriving
Mindfulness involves specific forms of attention & awareness practices that are designed to release our natural intelligence & our potential for experiential learning in the moment. There have also been studies that prove that mindfulness increases your gray matter density and thus your intelligence. Through mindfulness practices, employees can:
Pay attention in a high-quality manner to their work and be more successful at it without necessarily working harder (i.e. working smarter)
Create high functioning interactions that lead to great teams and stable relationships.
Learn to pick up on inner cues and signals from their body-mind, and regulate their energy in a way where they feel they are thriving not just in the short term, but in the medium and long term.
Mindfulness helps you improve focus, reduce distraction, and enhance self-regulation and problem-solving.
The webinar ended with a live meditation practice with Toby and a few Q&A from the audience. You can learn about the audience's doubts and their answers in this blog by Idanim.
