By: Nathalie Heynderickx and Zen Goh
Research has shown that mindfulness has benefits for individual and organisations (Bartlett et al., 2019; Good et al., 2016; Sutcliffe, Vogus, & Dane, 2016), and the good news is that it can be trained. Given the promise of mindfulness, corporate mindfulness has become nearly mainstream with fortune 500 companies investing seriously to support their employees developing a mindfulness practice (Hansen, 2012). The giant SAP (24b revenue in 2018) even assigned a Global Mindfulness Director, indicating how seriously organizations take mindfulness.
So if you are a Head of HR or L&D keen to introduce a Corporate Mindfulness Program to your organization, you might have realized that despite the many offerings in the market, the key to a successful program is in picking an effective and credible service provider who provides a unique blend of extensive corporate life experience and a true understanding of mindfulness practice applied at the workplace.
Read on the Top 5 tips below on how to select your business partner:
1. Credentials
Check the companies in their clients list. Are you able to contact one of them? Have their programs been delivered to senior leadership teams?
2. Tailoring
Do they have expertise in your industry? Are they able to customize the content and collaterals for your unique needs?
3. Metrics
What results have they measured and are able to share from previous programs delivered to their clients?
4. Facilitators
What is the corporate and leadership experience of their facilitators, trainers and consultants?
What are their qualifications around neuro-science, organisational psychology and mind training?
5. Digital
Do they have a digital platform to allow your organisation to reach remote teams and self-service solutions to complement face to face training?
Take action:
- Identify your personal top 3 concerns and 3 potential benefits about driving a corporate mindfulness training in your organisation.
- Complete the Harvard Business Review quiz to identify your mindfulness score and share with your team. This is a great tool that can help you with a pulse check of your organisation. It could help you build a business case and secure budget for your Corporate Mindfulness Training Program.
Hansen, D. (2012). A guide to mindfulness at work. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/ sites/drewhansen/2012/10/31/a-guide-to-mindfulness-at-work/.
Good, D. J., Lyddy, C. J., Glomb, T. M., Bono, J. E., Brown, K. W., Duffy, M. K., … & Lazar, S. W. (2016). Contemplating mindfulness at work: An integrative review. Journal of management, 42(1), 114-142.
Reb, J., & Choi, E. (2014). Mindfulness in organizations Psychology of Meditation. (pp. 279-309): Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge, NY.
