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Mindfulness in Business - Industry Research Report

2016

TRENDS, ISSUES & CHALLENGES 2016

Language, Challenges, & Trends

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Executive Summary Over the past four months, The Eventful Group, in collaboration with Mindful Magazine and Whil.com, has canvased an extraordinarily diverse group of corporate professionals, thought leaders, and experts who see the potential for mindfulness to aid in business success. Phone calls and individual interviews were conducted for several weeks, culminating with roundtable discussions with leaders in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago. These roundtable discussions were moderated by Joe Burton, Founder and CEO of Whil, and Jim Gimian, Publisher of Mindful Magazine. This reports summarizes the results of that research.

What is Mindfulness to you?

Performance Metrics Effectiveness Change Culture Stress Reduction Awareness Lower Costs Resilience Creativity Emotional Intelligence Leadership Listening Engagement Management

What are the Top Challenges facing business?

Culture - Generational differences, knowledge transference, creativity, maintaining culture through growth, communication, work/life balance

Leadership - Growth, disruption, communication, effective management, safety, metrics & measurements, high-performance teams, stress management

Talent - Recruiting, retention, development, global connectivity, knowledge transference

Top Issues from research participants 1. Talent – Acquiring, Retaining, & Developing

a. Sustaining High Performance & Productivity

2. Leadership - Setting an example for high-performance and empowering others 3. Innovation & Creativity – the mental capacity to create and the clarity to see new ideas 4. Changing Culture - Employee engagement and the agility to navigate change

5. Resilience & Stress – Managing Stress & Reducing Stress 6. Evidence & Measurements – Input & Output, Top line & Bottom line

a. Science & Data – Evidence based practices relying on neuroscience

7. Tools & Techniques – Give people a roadmap & toolkit, tailored to individual need

a. Integration – Enmesh in pre-existing processes, don’t create another one

8. Communication – listening, negotiating, exchanging

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Detailed Findings

Introduction Over the past four months, The Eventful Group, in collaboration with Mindful Magazine and Whil.com, has canvased an extraordinarily diverse group of corporate professionals, thought leaders, and experts who see the potential for mindfulness to aid in business success. Phone calls and individual interviews were conducted for several weeks, culminating with roundtable discussions with leaders in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago. These roundtable discussions were moderated by Joe Burton, Founder and CEO of Whil, and Jim Gimian, Publisher of Mindful Magazine. This reports summarizes the results of that research. Many leading corporate executives have recognized that integrating mindfulness practices into the workplace can result in an impressive list of positive business outcomes. To provide a common and simple definition, mindfulness is the act of paying attention on purpose in the present moment. In practice, the act of being mindful can manifest in a wide variety of ways. In the past 5 to 10 years, mindfulness has gained momentum and traction within the mainstream of American consciousness and is now enjoying wide adoption in the corporate world. Though some associate mindfulness with a particular ideology, it’s important to note that the act of regulating one’s attention is an innate human ability – the ability to be mindful is not tied to any one school of thought. We interviewed CEOs, EVPs, CHROs, industry leaders, innovators, and neuroscientists who agree that mindfulness can have a real and measureable impact on their business. As stress continues to be one of the highest ranked detriments to employee and organizational health, the potential for mindfulness to address issues born of stress shows considerable promise. We spoke with lawyers, bankers, consultants, investors, real estate developers, software engineers, mechanical engineers, and dozens more who see a positive relationship between mindful practices and key performance indicators. The following pages outline the topics that corporate America identified as the most important areas where mindfulness can have an impact on business.

Methods Our research spanned over 3 months and consisted of phone interviews, individual meetings, and round table focus groups in six major cities. Our phone and individual interviews total over 100 hours and represent nearly as many unique organizations. To conclude our research, we conducted six round table focus groups across the country in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago. At the round tables, we engaged with over 75 individuals representing 55 different organizations, including 13 Fortune 500 companies. Individuals attended from within the industries of banking, investing, software development, retail, wholesale, medical care, insurance, asset management, higher education, legal services, technology & hardware, consulting & training, energy and others. Our exhaustive analysis of mindfulness within business has culminated in this report, detailing the language surrounding mindfulness in business, the challenges industries face, and the top identified issues that mindfulness can address.

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Results

Participants explored an interesting “book end” problem with the language of mindfulness.

On one hand, there was recognition that words like “compassion” and “loving kindness” which are foundational to a traditional mindfulness practice can sometimes be seen as too soft or “woo-woo” for a corporate setting.

On the other hand, you have certain companies looking to mindfulness purely to improve productivity or lower absenteeism and healthcare costs. While these are important for any company, participants noted they can also produce suspicion in employees who are more interested in health & happiness than they may be in solely increasing productivity.

As mindfulness continues to go mainstream, the challenge will be to serve the middle ground where most participants agreed that mindfulness is good for people and it’s good for business.

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Beyond these two questions that we asked of our roundtable participants, we compiled answers and data from all our interviews into several main categories. The following issues emerged as the most common, pressing issues facing the participant’s business. Each section includes a summary of the important concepts followed by a list of the most pressing questions participants wanted answered regarding how mindfulness can have a substantial effect.

1. Talent – Acquiring, Retaining, & Developing a. Sustaining High Performance & Productivity

2. Leadership - Setting an example for high-performance and empowering others 3. Innovation & Creativity – the mental capacity to create and the clarity to see new ideas 4. Changing Culture - Employee engagement and the agility to navigate change

5. Resilience & Stress – Managing Stress & Reducing Stress 6. Evidence & Measurements – Input & Output, Top line & Bottom line

a. Science & Data – Evidence based practices relying on neuroscience

7. Tools & Techniques – Give people a roadmap & toolkit, tailored to individual need

a. Integration – Enmesh in pre-existing processes, don’t create another one

8. Communication – listening, negotiating, exchanging

1. Talent Acquisition & Retention The fight for the best and brightest employees has never been more difficult as corporations focus more energy on acquiring and retaining highly talented individuals. Participants shared the struggles employers face in attracting the most qualified people and the arms race that some organizations find themselves in as they compete with each other to provide the best perks to their employees. And as the workforce now spans four different generations, the perks that draw in the best talent vary wildly across industry and individual.

In the effort to acquire increasingly talented employees, organizations must place a strong emphasis on the purpose and values of their business to connect employees with the company rather than have their job serve only as a means to an end. Surveys disagree on the exact number, but less than a third of employees report feeling engaged in their work according to 14 years of Gallup polls. Given the extreme level of disconnect that most employees experience, the company that can create a powerful connection between employee and organization stands to benefit hugely from the sense of purpose that drives people to seek out employment and opportunity there, not to mention higher quality work.

A common theme in our conversations tied the retention of talent to the culture of the organization. Referencing the importance of leadership, the participants stressed that people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. Corporations must place a high level of importance on effective leadership and management if they want to keep the talented people they hire.

Armed with teams comprised of the most talented individuals, the best organizations strive to create environments that enable sustained high performance over long periods of time. This means effective tools to handle the stress of operating at high levels, management and leadership who recognize the true value of their human capital, and a culture that engages employees to connect with purpose and meaning. Key needs highlighted by participants included:

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How can mindfulness help differentiate a company in seeking to acquire talented individuals? To what extent are qualified candidates seeking an organization that espouses mindful

practices? What impact does mindfulness have on retaining talented

people and through what metrics can we measure this impact?

How can mindfulness impact the development of talent and the succession of leadership within an organization?

What are the most important behaviors to measure and evaluate when developing talent? How much should factors like emotional intelligence be weighted in the search to acquire

talent? How can companies engage 4 different generations of workers with different needs and

expectations?

2. Leadership Participants made very clear that the example set by leadership has an immense impact on the culture and performance within an organization. It’s important that leaders and managers have the skill to lead and manage. Many managers are promoted into their role as a means of natural job progression or placed there based on seniority regardless of whether they possess effective management skills. And while leaders aren’t always defined by position or title, those in management roles are expected to demonstrate leadership for those they manage. Our participants stressed that a mindful culture builds and reinforces the skills of effective leadership and management. By developing leaders who value employee wellbeing, who identify and mentor emerging leaders, and who model effective business and interpersonal skills, organizations establish a strong basis for long term success. Key themes include:

How does mindfulness promote effective leadership and management skills? What can leaders do to role model and promote a healthy culture? Who are the best candidates to tap for future leadership positions and how do you transition

those people into new roles? How can leaders ensure they stay current with changing ideas, norms, and information? How can formal leadership empower others to act in leadership roles?

3. Innovation & Creativity Without innovation, businesses stagnate and fall out of market relevance. Without creativity, habits and routines inhibit growth and business processes become stale. It takes a certain type of environment to tap into the creative and innovative mindset where new ideas are generated and new perspectives on current issues arise. Businesses are using mindfulness as a basis to create the conditions where employees have the mental capacity to create and the clarity to see new ideas.

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Our research showed that companies who truly value the innovative process create spaces where employees feel confident to iterate on ideas, often resulting in several lesser versions before the best ideas come through. It becomes much more difficult for your workforce to operate creatively when they are highly stressed, reinforcing the idea that the effects of mindfulness are not limited to just one issue within organizations, but taps into the relationships of those issues - like the impact of stress on creativity and innovation. Key themes include:

How does mindfulness enable a culture that encourages innovation and creativity? What specific processes can be implemented or adapted that better encourage innovation and

creativity? What are the necessary ingredients for innovation and what does mindfulness have to do with

them? How do you change expectations around the fear of failure and vulnerability?

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4. Culture Among the corporate leaders we interviewed, the word culture came up time and again. At first blush, culture seems a vague and ambiguous term that could apply to any number of things. Truly, culture does factor into retention, stress, leadership, performance, and more. But culture has a deeper and more central meaning. Culture is the fabric of the organization. Culture is what sets the tone for internal communication and external relationships. Culture is what enables an organization to plan for long term growth and success rather than short sighted gains with huge long term cost. Key themes include:

How does culture lay the foundation for strategy and long term growth? What are the elements of a mindful culture? How do you introduce components of mindfulness to change culture? How does culture change as the organization grows and scales globally? In what ways does your culture manifest in leadership styles and management? Does your company live your culture or is it just on paper?

5. Resilience & Stress Management Regardless of industry, stress is one of the biggest pain points that companies encounter. Called the health epidemic of the 21st century, stress costs the US economy hundreds of billions each year in lost time, healthcare issues, and reduced productivity. As employers and employees alike are expected to do more with less and produce results faster and cheaper, stress management has become an incredibly important component of any organization. HR departments are expected to help employees cope with stress through a variety of programs and wellness offerings, but companies are looking for better ways to reduce the impact of stress that don’t live solely within the human resources wheelhouse.

Beyond stress management, corporations want to build resilience among their workforce, keeping employees from becoming as stressed in general and increasing their ability to recover quickly from high stress situations. As stress becomes ever more present in the daily operations of business, corporate America is turning to strategies that teach and build resilience and mindfulness has emerged as one of the key tools to do so. An entire treatment methodology has developed in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), drawing on medical research from University of Massachusetts Medical School. Companies are beginning to look to treatments like MBSR as options to address the massive impact of stress on their costs and profits. Key themes include:

What techniques are unique to mindfulness that can have a significant impact on stress?

How can mindfulness be incorporated into existing structures without creating new work?

How do you establish habits and support long term involvement in mindful practices that reduce stress?

What should be done to balance extrinsic motivation with rewards and incentives?

Who should take primary responsibility for measuring & monitoring stress?

How do we change the mentality from glorifying overwork and overstress?

What can be done to make the actual culture and expectations of the workplace different?

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6. Evidence Based Best Practices –

Measuring the Impact of Mindfulness No smart business decision is made without understanding the evidence or data behind the options at hand. Executives, managers, directors, and leaders want to know what sorts of measurements exist in regard to the impact of mindfulness before they consider implementing it inside their own organization. And then, after incorporating mindfulness as a part of their culture and actions, corporate professionals want to know what systems exist that will measure the return of mindfulness on their top line and bottom line. This means being armed with the right questions to ask and the right data to examine. Key themes include:

What criteria are used in evaluating mindfulness and its effectiveness?

How do we measure the impact of emotional intelligence skills?

What is the impact of mindful practices on absenteeism?

How does mindfulness affect healthcare costs?

How do we track engagement and the changes in engagement due to mindfulness?

What are the industry specific metrics that mindfulness can impact?

How can measures of mindfulness fit into already existing inventories used for employee wellness?

Which measurements are most important to the organization and which are most important to the employee?

How do you make meaning of the gathered data and use it to powerful effect?

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7. Tools & Techniques Overwhelmingly, participants were looking for instructions on how mindfulness can be used practically and on a daily basis. Organizations struggle to find easy ways to incorporate mindful practices into their day to day operations. Without clear direction on ways that mindfulness can impact already existing processes, many teams lose momentum and fall back into their business-as-usual way of doing things – and miss out on the multiple ways that mindfulness can improve those same functions.

For those who already understand mindfulness and have incorporated it into their lives, the transition to business applications comes easily. This isn’t the case for the vast majority of people though, and it takes a kind of roadmap to outline the specific tools and techniques derived from mindfulness that can have a direct impact on tangible business outcomes. While most are still questioning what those tools are, our research unveiled a number of organizations that have developed and refined those techniques to increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, diminish the impact of stress, and drive high-performance teams who create and innovate. Key themes include:

How is mindfulness implemented into already existing processes without creating new work? What does mindfulness look like in small, practical, day-to-day applications? Can mindfulness take forms other than meditation? How do you gain buy in from all levels of an organization to make use of mindful practices once

they are introduced? How do you create an easily translatable and transferable set of tools for multiple offices,

divisions, and departments to use?

8. Communication This is not the first report to describe the importance of communication within business. However, our research participants placed an emphasis on what mindful communication looks like and its impact on an organization at multiple levels. Mindful listening engages conversation participants who find that they hear and retain much more of a conversation than they had previously without practicing this skill. Mindful leadership enables the effective flow of information from higher levels throughout an organization.

Perhaps most importantly within the realm of communication, running meetings with some of the elements of mindfulness can have a dramatic impact on meeting effectiveness. As one of the largest portions of the way many executive leaders spend their days, mindful practices and habits can dramatically change the way meetings run, from improvements to the logistics of meetings like starting and ending on time to actually achieving stated goals (making a decision, setting a timeline, engaging multiple parties, etc.). Key themes include:

What is mindful listening and how do you implement it? What benefits do mindful practices have on external communication?

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How will mindful communication impact relationships with customers and other key stakeholders?

What does a mindful meeting look like and how can it be easily introduced?

Conclusion Our research with close to 175 corporate executives, thought leaders, and experts showed that organizations implementing mindful practices and processes have derived significant value, manifesting in happier and healthier employees, lower health care costs, reduced stress levels, and improved effectiveness. This report lists the biggest questions, challenges, and topics that are most important to corporate America and will form the blueprint for “The Mindful Business Conference” taking place in New York City on May 9 & 10, 2016.

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About the Moderators

Jim Gimian, Mindful Magazine

Jim Gimian is the publisher of Mindful Magazine. Mindful’s purpose is to inform, inspire, guide, and connect all those who want to live a mindful life, to enjoy the scientifically supported benefits of mindfulness practices, and to create a more mindful and caring society. Mindful’s goal in this venture is to increase the understanding of mindfulness and to demonstrate the relevance of mindful practices within the corporate world.

Joe Burton, Whil Concepts, Inc.

Joe Burton is the founder and CEO of Whil.com, the leader in digital training in mindfulness meditation, yoga, and leadership for individuals and companies. Joe is an entrepreneur and investor in the digital health & wellness industry, former President of Headspace, and spent fifteen years as a global C-level executive running some of the world’s largest public sector advertising agency networks. Joe is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and an advisor to nonprofits including Holistic Life Foundation, iBme and the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.

Steve Morris, The Eventful Group Erick Randolph, The Eventful Group

The Eventful Group is a research and conference production organization with 20 years of experience creating industry leading events for businesses looking to solve some of their most pressing issues. Our conferences focus on creating a community of common interest that thrives and grows based on our commitment to making each person feel heard and valued. We spend months – not weeks – researching what delegates really want to learn and what pushes their buttons. We then create space for people to come together and meet, share, learn, discover, and establish important relationships. Steve Morris, Managing Partner of Content & Global Production, and Erick Randolph, Conference Producer, have taken point in creating The Mindful Business Conference.