Bringing Mindfulness Practices to Corporations
11 April 2015
On March 18th 2015, Geneva went through an innovative transformation: a public conference was held to support CEO’s and managers to include their existing Mindfulness practice in the corporate world. An article from the local newspaper, Tribune de Genève, was published to mark the event:
“Corporate CEO’s meditate to better manage their business.”
What has been found is that, in fact, many people in the workplace have some form of practice which they are apprehensive to share with other colleagues. There are several reasons for this: apprehension of reactions and judgement from colleagues, lack of support from management and stressful working conditions all contribute to a constrained environment for people to mention the importance their hold for personal development practices. Even when some of these activities are proposed within the workplace, such as meditation, yoga, and self-expression/self-development activities, there is still a general lack of knowledge from CEO’s and management as to implement them successfully. As I mention at the conference regarding a previous intervention I conducted at Lenz & Staehelin, Switzerland No.1 and biggest law firm:
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“It works better when demand for these resourcing practices comes from higher levels of the command chain. If the leader has the courage to engage himself/herself, suddenly emerges a lot of interest from the workforce. Those already practicing reveal themselves and curious ones become interested. At Lenz & Staehelin, already 10 sessions have been conducted.” |
These practices, helps them align their personal goals to their work in several ways:
- Stress reduction
- Teambuilding
- Self-care and burnout prevention
- Bridging personal needs for meaning and corporate needs for efficiency
- Developing person-centered leadership skills
A more elaborate series of modules for the public will be proposed in Geneva, Switzerland in the fall of 2015.
