Ever wondered how we can really innovate and bring mindfulness into the corporate and organizational settings?  How can we get around the challenge of asking busy executives and leaders to take time out of their schedules in order to sit and practice mindfulness? Yes this would be great if they can do it, but it takes a huge amount of effort and dedication, and the results within the wider organization can be slow to appear. What would happen if we applied the kung fu principle of “kung fu in everything you do” and thought about how to bring a mindful approach to an activity that is done all day everyday in organizations (and is often very dysfunctional and the opposite of mindfulness)? What is that activity? Yes, you guessed it ….meetings!  Something that senior leaders do everyday, and where huge amounts of time, energy, money and effort are wasted. A place where automatic habits are enacted with no-one even questioning them. 

Tamara Russell and Jenny Nabben from the Mindfulness Centre and Excellence have partnered to create the Brain-Wise Meetings process. This is the systemic application of mindfulness in the organizational setting, and using this process, every meeting can be  transformed. Making sure that you really want every brain in the room to be there and contribute is the first step. Creating the conditions for deep thinking and honouring every voice in the room is next. Having really great questions and staying on track are skills that need to be practice, BUT with repetition, this becomes easier.  All of this is possible and senior leaders and teams who have gone through this process are shocked and astounded when they realise what is possible in meetings and how different Brain-Wise meetings are from their “normal” meetings. This project represents the next evolution of mindfulness at work …..watch this space or check out the Brain-Wise webpage.