John Fanning reviews a book which extols the virtues of mindfulness
Being a sceptic of faddy enthusiasms emanating from techie El Dorados like Silicon Valley or Silicon Dock, David Gelles’s Mindful Work was approached with some trepidation. But I was reassured by the author’s credentials: a journalist whose career began with the Financial Times and who is now a business reporter for the New York Times and blogs on DealBook.
Gelles, who writes on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and corporate governance, defines mindfulness as being about increasing our awareness of what’s happening in our minds, throughout our bodies and in the world around us. He is at pains to normalise the whole subject reassuring the sceptics that it does not require the wearing of robes, to chant in a foreign language or sit with our legs folded; it’s simply a matter of taking time out to observe and examine our thoughts, emotions and sensations and as a result it can strengthen our immune systems, increase our powers of concentration and rewire our brains.
The level of understanding can only be achieved through meditation, a practice at the core of mindfulness. The book is mainly concerned with the growing number of US companies that have formally introduced meditation in the workplace. Two factors appear to be behind this phenomenon. The first is the stress epidemic, which has mushroomed in the last few decades. Apparently, the most popular form of mindfulness today is MBSR; mindfulness based stress reduction. In the words of the author “mindfulness frees us from stress by giving us the mental flexibility to choose one experience over another to direct our attention away from negative experiences and instead focus on positive or neutral ones”.
No doubt that’s true, but perhaps a better solution would be to stop jabbering about being “stressed out” all the time and accept that it has always been part of the human condition and always will be; stress is as common as the common cold. Or, as the admirable Lucy Kellaway says “stress is like yawning, when someone else does it, I feel like doing it”.
The second factor is more convincing: we are living our lives in a state of “continual partial attention” due to being ‘always on’ and we need to focus a little more if we are to function intelligently and productively. Interestingly, Gelles regards multi-tasking as a myth; it’s impossible to do two things at once. He has criss-crossed the US looking at businesses which encourage their employees to meditate with a view to clearing their minds of extraneous clutter, thus enabling them to focus more clearly on the task in hand.
In one company, at 3pm each afternoon, a giant bell is rung, work grinds to a halt and everyone focuses on their breathing, “taking time to re-centre themselves amid the hustle and bustle”. At another establishment, a bell is rung before every meeting and everyone sits in silence for a few minutes, checking in with their bodies and their minds in an attempt to bring a heightened sense of clarity at the start of every meeting.
An impressive range of businesses have now institutionalised meditation in the workplace ranging from the predictable; Google, Apple and Patagonia to the less obvious – Ford, General Mills and even the old vampire squid itself, Goldman Sachs. One of the most interesting examples quoted is the New York fashion brand, Eileen Fisher.
The brand’s long-running press ads impressed me they combine pure simplicity with high-level sophistication. As well as ringing the bell before meetings, they have sustainability as a priority, pay well above average in production facilities in less developed countries and distribute 10 per cent of profits to staff through an employee stock ownership plan.
The author suggests that there’s a high correlation between mindfulness at work and a commitment to sustainability and high standards of ethical behaviour. (What about Goldman Sachs? Ed.) Gelles also says the increasing popularity of the mindfulness approach risks diluting the whole concept and reports that there are already signs of McMindfulness!
After centuries of Westernisation we are now seeing signs of Easternisation and the growing interest in mindfulness could be seen as part of this trend. For that reason, we are likely to see more of it in Ireland but I suspect it will evolve on an individual basis rather than being formally introduced in the workplace. Reading the book I couldn’t help thinking of a well-known Dublin ad agency owner in the 1950’s who wouldn’t allow staff to leave in the evening until everyone had said the Rosary. Not sure we’re ready for a return to that.
John Fanning lecturers on branding and marketing communications at the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School and author of
