Chaskalson - The mindful workplace: developing resilient individuals and resonant organizations with MBSR

Foreword

We are entering a world of work where the combination of ever increasing globalization and technological advances are breaking our work up into ever smaller fragments. Faced with a continuous barrage of emails, constantly ringing phones, ever more demanding Twitter feeds and insistent Facebook updates, its easy to let the instant, the pressing and the immediate overwhelm the important and the longer term. We are becoming overwhelmed by the sheer size of connectivity: over five billion people will soon potentially be connected to each other.

Its no surprise that, for many of us, three minutes is about as long as we can concentrate before being interrupted, and our relationships are becoming increasingly virtual and alienated. The results can be devastating. Skills become denuded as less time is spent in precious concentration, anxiety rises as the immediate overwhelms any sense of boundaries between us and our work, and loneliness becomes the central motif of much of our working lives. Faced with the sheer volume of stimulation, we are living our working lives on automatic pilot.

Yet, faced with the challenge of fragmentation and loneliness, what we need is not yet more careful time-management skills to eke out every last second; it is not the future promise of cognitive assistants capable of managing our inboxes; it is not even another programme to network and influence people. No: what we need is a way of thinking more mindfully about ourselves, our work and our companies. This message of mindfulness becomes ever more insistent when we consider the potential joy that longevity will bring to our working lives. The 50 years that many of us can expect to work could be a period of great meaning and satisfaction. But it also has the possibility of simply elongating what is already an energy-draining activity. Our working lives are rapidly shifting from a race to a marathon. Burnout for peak performance may have worked for a race but it does not provide the resilience that a marathon takes.

The forces of technology, globalization, connectivity and demography together are creating an increasingly urgent need to shift the way we think about work and the skills and competencies we develop to build resilience. These mindful habits, skills and techniques will be crucial to navigating the road ahead.

It is these habits of mindfulness, the skills of self-awareness and the practices of meditation that Michael describes with so much wisdom and clarity. When we understand ourselves more profoundly, accept ourselves more fully and give ourselves an opportunity to reflect, then we build resilience for the path ahead.

The simplicity of Michaels message is underpinned by profound thought, insight and wisdom. Resilient lives are not made from grand gestures and the construction of grandiose theories. Resilience is built through the everyday, every-minute habits and exercises that punctuate our daily lives. When we consciously and mindfully choose to change the way we work and live, and consciously and mindfully build the habits of meaning into our lives, then we have the chance the promise of working with the forces that will shape our lives, rather than working against them.

Lynda Gratton

Professor of Management Practice

London Business School

Author of The Shift: The Future of Work Is Already Here