Unknown: 0:04

mindful work is the official podcast brought to you by the mindful life mindful work team. In each episode, we bring you conversations with corporate leaders and mindfulness professionals to help you create a high performance culture in your organization. Amidst these rapidly changing times, our conversations will explore the intersection of self awareness and team performance and help you to optimize your efforts through mindful work. So be sure to subscribe and check back so that you don't miss out on new insights from our regular episodes. On this episode of the mindful work podcast, Calvin Niles explores the meaning of working mindfully followed by insights from the mindful life mindful work team.

Calvin Niles: 0:44

Hello, and welcome to the mindful work podcast. I'm your host, Calvin Niles, one of the team members here at mindful life mindful work, will hope to support you to develop effective leadership, greater team alignment, real employee commitment, and a company culture that is deeply connected to your mission. I'm looking forward to this first episode of our podcast, where we will explore this theme of mindful work. This idea that we can work more mindfully to enhance our performance, connect to our sense of pride and responsibility and the purpose of the work that we do. We're going to hear from a number of contributors from the mindful life mindful work team around the idea of working mindfully, what does working mindfully even mean? So we're going to explore that in this episode introduced this concept of mindful work, get really familiar with it, because later in this podcast, we're going to delve into granular themes, which include leadership, performance, decision making creativity, how we relate to each other, and a lot, lot more. But before we get stuck in and I introduce some of our team members here, it's really important that we set the tone for how we want to continue working for the rest of our day, whether we're working for the next hour, or in my case, for this entire podcast series. So I'd like to introduce to you, the mindful, cause.

Jonathan Reynolds: 2:42

Pausing is so very important. So just take a minute. And today we're going to notice sensations as they arise. And we're going to notice something in particular about sensations, noticing them as either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. And of course, some will be very unpleasant or very pleasant or just subtly pleasant or subtly unpleasant. The neutral is sometimes very hard to discern. So as you either sit here, with the tall spine, or if you're walking or if you're sitting in a chair, wherever you are in your day, just pause and notice the sensations that come your way some will be generated internally inside of the body. Some will be thoughts and emotions. And some will be generated externally, they'll be coming from stimuli outside of ourselves. But again, give a little bit of attention as a foundation to the breath. And then notice sensations as they arise. Notice them as suddenly pleasant, unpleasant, or perhaps neutral. And pausing like this gives us a chance to reset and really check in really notice how we're doing in this moment. It's so essential to re engaging and engaging in the tasks at hand throughout the day. So give yourself this time just a moment. And as a practice, you might carry this throughout the day, you might notice how you engage with certain people in certain contexts. Notice what's pleasant or unpleasant or neutral about those experiences. This can really flavor and inform how we engage the skillfulness or the success with which we engage. Have a wonderful day of practice.

Calvin Niles: 5:05

Thank you, Jonathan for that mindful cause, I always feel so rich, centered and ready to do meaningful work after I take a moment out. And this is going to be a regular feature on all of our episodes. But now, let us move forward and get stuck into this subject about mindful work, and what it means to be working mindfully. But first, I actually just want to zoom out a little bit and take the temperature of the modern workplace and the direction of travel, where we seem to be going as a collective workforce. And for this, I just want to share some thoughts from a couple of the big four consultancies, who tend to share and shape some of the thoughts of where we might be going as a collective workforce. A report from PwC says that we will be working in a world where there are four potential futures. They describe it as the red world where innovation rules is the perfect incubator for innovation with organizations and individuals racing to give consumers what they want. This is a very digitally dominated world, and constant innovation and personalization and services. The next thing they mentioned is the blue world where culprit is king, capitalism reigned supreme, where bigger is better and organizations see their influences the best way to protect their profit margins against intense competition. Corporations grows such a scale, their influence is exerted quite significantly, and they are more powerful and larger than many national economies. In the green world, companies care. PwC mentions here that this is where a world of corporate responsibility isn't just a nice thing to do. But it's really an essential part of doing business is characterized by a strong social conscience, a sense of environmental responsibility, focus on diversity, human rights, and a fundamental recognition. That business goes well beyond the financial. And finally, humans come first in the yellow world. This is a world where workers and companies seek greater meaning and relevance and what they do a social first and community business that will find its greatest success and prosperity. In togetherness, they crowd fund capital, there is ethical business there blameless brands, and meaning and relevance from organizations, from organizations which have a social heart are key. So these are four for competing potential futures, that PwC shares and their insights as to what the world of work may look like in the not too distant future. But how do humans relate to this new workplace? I mean, we're gonna be here after role, humans aren't going anywhere in a hurry, at least I hope not. So. So unless some cataclysmic event wipes us off the face of the earth, then we shall still be here to interact and interface with our organizations, and how we relate to them becomes key. So I had a look at what one of the other big four Deloitte had to say about the working relationship between people and the companies that employ them. And they also see four potential competing futures. So the law sets out one potential worker employer relationship, which they're calling workers fashion, employers are in constant motion as they chase worker sentiment, competitor actions and marketplace dynamics. The worker and employer relationship is reactive where employees feel compelled to respond in the moment to work as expressed preferences. Then they describe this war between talent where workers compete for limited jobs due to oversupply of talent and the worker relationship is impersonal. Employers view workers as interchangeable and easily replaceable, and workers are more concerned with competing with each other for jobs and with the quality of their relationship with their employer. Describe another scenario which they call work is work, where workers and employers view organizational responsibility and personal and social fulfillment as largely separate domains. The worker employer relationship is professional. Each depends on the other to fulfilled work related need Both expect that workers will find meaning and purpose largely outside of work. And then finally, purpose unleashed. This is where they describe. The purpose is the dominant force driving the relationship between workers and employers, the worker employer relationship is Kamino. Both workers and employers see shared purpose as the foundation of a relationship, viewing it as the most important tie that binds them together. So what's interesting in these two perspectives, as we zoomed out and took one view from one consultancy house, about how they perceive the future of work and the trajectory of the future workplace, but also how humans in another consultancy house in Deloitte, the first one was PWC. The second one's Deloitte, how do we relate to our employer? What is the worker employer relationship like? So there is clearly something here about the relationship between the employer is clearly about how we work and what motivates us and drives us about our work and the purpose involved in our work purposes. Another big theme coming through purpose led companies and purpose led individuals. So as we discuss and explore this in this episode, let us also explore how can we then bring our best selves to this new workplace dynamic? How can we optimize our performance? How can we build meaningful relationships with our employer, as a worker employer relationship, but also individually within the organization? And what does it mean to work mindfully in this future workplace in this trajectory in this direction of travel, that we're going in modern work and modern world, and what does mindful work even mean? So I asked a number of our team members here at mindful life, mindful work, to share what they think working mindfully means and how that could benefit us as a collective in the workplace now and into the future. So starting with Varun Venugopal Gupta, who is a man on a journey to harness both rational thinking and intuition. Based in Goa, India, he helps businesses worldwide achieve stellar results by simply tuning in. Veterans work draws upon his experience as an improv theater actor, and his understanding of human dynamics and complex business processes. Here's what my colleague Viron had to share about working mindfully,

Varun Venugopal Gupta: 12:59

I work with a range of organizations, a lot of startups, to a lot of organizations who've had a generation and are now transforming to the second generation or third generation enterprises. And one of the things I realized is a lot of business is unintentional. You know, when you start, then you have all these purist dreams, that the company would have a healthy workspace would be making impact would be profitable, would do ethical things. And then on the way a lot of things happen, which are not intended. So you know, in India, for example, we have a lot of policies, which many times inhibit the way you function as an enterprise. So companies then now and then have a choice of either being ethical completely or here or there cut corners, not out of choice many times. And with all these cut corners, you know, similarly, you realize, oh, you I want to be a humanistic and people loving organization, but then you realize, oh, you have to take some non people friendly moves. So over time, you realize that you're at a place where you're unintentionally reached a place. What mindful work allows an organization at whatever stage to do is come and become sensing to where they are, to say how many of our processes and where we are, are unintentional, and not something we want. How many of these aid us and are still functional? Many times it's also about, you know, something being functional at certain point of time, and then it becoming dysfunctional. So mindful work also brings that awareness to see what is now being dysfunctional for us. What does it take to make it functional? So that's one aspect that I see of mindfulness, which is being intention No, I also think that there is a second part which is ability to bring people into business. You know, organizations like many other things, like, if you look at politics, it goes through generations, right. So you had a certain time where you had monarchies, then you had a certain time where you had democracies, now you have places which are reaching, which are more people friendly democracy is not just the power of majority, but its inclusion. So organizations, similarly, I've also been moving through stages of consciousness, if I may say, from starting to being very top down, to moving into cults, so you had the churches of the world, to then they became very machine like, you know, and productivity was paramount. You also had in the last decade or so organizations, which are more pluralistic, you know, taking everyone together, to now there is a time when you're reaching places where your personality can reflect on how your organization is, and how your work is they don't need to be so disparate. So who you are, as an individual, can be how your organization is in terms of one how you work, and you're fast paced person, are you like, slow? You know, are you just growing for the sake of growth? Or do you have a certain appetite for which you see growth. So organizations can be more humanistic and allow for more people to come in. And that's another aspect which I see as of a mindful organization. And it constantly questions that it constantly questions How many more people? Are we able to bring it? There's a last and this is pretty much the last bit which I feel is the ability of an organization to sense and not just sense within, but also sense in its immediate vicinity. What's happening to our environment? What's happening to our waters, what's happening to our customers, what's happening at the policy level, they're able to sense this sooner than later. They're, they're able to also sort of evolve with their environment, they're able to take leaps, which are not just inward looking, but also realizing that alone, we can't stand. It requires the environment the systems to come in. So a mindful work would also mean how much are you able to sense.

Calvin Niles: 17:37

I also spoke to George Peter Gorski. He is one of our leadership coach, Team facilitators and project and process improvement experts here at mindful life, mindful work. And his mission is to guide people to create healthy, happy and highly effective teams, organizations and communities. for over 50 years, George has applied mindfulness meditation and yoga, in work, and family life with decades of experience as a globally recognized project program, and process management expert. Here's what George has to say about what working mindfully means to him.

Unknown: 18:17

Mindful work is there. When we look at mindfulness, there's the quality of mindfulness that is kind of on the surface, which is basically being mindful of all of the nuts and bolts and various angles that are associated with whatever one is doing at work. So the more than mindful of the details, and then, taking it a step. Further, we had this idea that mindfulness is a quality of being able to objectively observe whatever it is that's occurring. And through that objective observation, moved from reactivity to responsiveness. So one is mindful of the details, and one is mindful of being mindful of the details. And working in that regard, now supports emotional intelligence supports effective decision making and conflict management, communications, all of the so called soft skills that are from my point of view the most essential skills in any kind of work environment.

Calvin Niles: 19:30

Renny metti is another one of our team here at mindful life mindful work. She's a Coach and Trainer who specializes in leadership development, business consulting and high performance coaching. Having over 20 years of experience working with individuals, teams and organizations in high pressure situations. Renee is skillful at facilitating change with ease, navigating uncertainty and making the seemingly impossible possible, her unique blend of experience from corporately. Ship coaching and development education and entrepreneurship has allowed her to understand the inner workings of human capacity. Here's what Renee has to say about working mindfully. And what it means to her.

Renee Metty: 20:13

Mindful work to me is about getting closer to what I'm setting out to do, are through the past couple of years and working with my own high performance, mentors and coaches, I've learned about how our brains are wired to orient towards more. And I found in my years passed in, I have a mindful this base preschool, I used to have a wedding and event planning company, I was always looking for more, what's the next thing. And in that process, I realized that getting really clear on what I actually want in my life, I claim to be purpose driven, I have to do things for you know, a higher purpose than just, you know, a means to the end of a job or a client or a project. And so, mindful work is really being intentional about the way I'm working, who I'm working with, what my goals are, for both myself and my business and my family. I claimed I was working as an entrepreneur, so that I could spend more time with my family. And what was I doing, I was working so hard on the business so that someday I could work or be with my family. And entrepreneur life has allowed me to, you know, to be a little more flexible, but I'm squeezing in, you know, student award assemblies or sports activities or things at school in between clients and running around like a chicken without a head. And so, for me mindful work was being more conscious and intentional about knowing exactly what I wanted, and how do I get closer to what I want rather than just more for the sake of more.

Calvin Niles: 22:01

I'm also delighted to share Hedy Kaplan's view on what mindful work means to her head. He is one of our coaches here at mindful life, mindful work and specializes in team coaching, dialogue, facilitation, leadership, coaching and programs, living and working in Paris, France as an executive coach and leadership development consultant for more than 20 years, as enable Hetty to develop the skills and sensitivity that lead to effectiveness and working with diverse populations, ages, and national and corporate cultures.

Unknown: 22:35

I think working mindfully is a lot like living mindfully. And essentially, what that means is that we're paying attention, both in a focused way at work that might be on task or objectives or responsibilities. But we're also paying paying attention in a more spacious way. So we're looking at what we're doing, but we're looking at how we're doing it. And we're giving equal value to both what we do and how we do it. Whether that's in our life, or in our work, I think it's important to highlight that at work, we may have to get there intentionally. Because often people leave the better part of themselves outside of work. And so of course, our job and you know that because it's yours as well is to help people come to work in a more wholehearted fashion. And not to forget that the way they work is the way they live. Work is their life. It's not all of their life. But it's an aspect of life where we give the better part of our energy, the better hours of our day. And it's a wonderful arena to develop and cultivate qualities that enhance our lives. And always. So I think working mindfully is like living mindfully. It's like how awake am I? How aware am I and we can look later if you like a little bit more granularly what are we paying attention to. But for me, essentially, it means not just paying attention to task, or to results or to outcomes, but also to the experiences we're creating as we move toward those results and deliverables.

Calvin Niles: 24:13

Finally, let's hear from Jonathan Reynolds, who is the founder and CEO of mindful life mindful work. based in San Francisco Bay Area, Jonathan's business and leadership coaching clarifies and leverages value propositions and key relationships of his clients. And you will also be familiar with Jonathan because he is the one leading our mindful pauses that you have enjoyed in this episode, and you will continue to enjoy as this season continues. But let's hear what Jonathan has to say about what working mindfully means to him.

Jonathan Reynolds: 24:51

It's really a way of being in work. From the outside it can maybe look exactly the same as anybody who is working Um, but it's it's sort of this inner orientation. And this attitude that thing gets expressed outwardly. And affects things outwardly, I really see it as concentric circles, the more mindful we can be as an individual, the more likely that those that we interact with those immediately, a concentric circle out, but then also greater teams. And wherever we are embedded in our work, if it's in a large company or a small company, I really see mindful work and working mindfully, as that capacity to be awake to, in a sense, what's not seen, you know, when we talk about culture, we talk about relationships. There's this space between that should feel spacious. And I'd like to distinguish between space and distance, there can be this sense of spaciousness without feeling disconnected or distant. And so I think this capacity to be awake to the subtle is really useful, intending to those relationships, and making our days more mindful whether that's professionally or personally.

Calvin Niles: 26:15

Okay, well, now you have heard from a number of our team member here at mindful life, mindful work about what working mindfully means to them. How can we show up intentionally, which is something that is very common across our peoples experiences? How can we bring attitude, a constructive attitude that is, and develop an awareness that leads to what we've heard some invisible elements, and sensing, helping us to develop our quality of relationships, communication, and a lot, lot more. All of these things underpin optimal performance. So the good news is, we're going to explore this even further for the remainder of this podcast series, and number of episodes coming out on a bi monthly basis. And our guests will include not only members of the mindful life, mindful work team, who you've met today, but also we are going to be having experts and professionals from outside as well. So make sure you subscribe, stay tuned, so you don't miss any future episodes as we get stuck in too many more of these subjects together. Oh, and one more thing. I would love to take your questions, or any comments that you may have and put them to my guests as we develop this show. So please do submit any questions you have to Calvin Niles at mindful life mindful work.com and I will be happy to explore your questions in a future episode. Okay, here's to working more mindfully and I look forward to seeing you in episode two. Bye for now.

Unknown: 28:02

Mindful work is the official podcast brought to you by mindful life mindful work Incorporated. To learn more about our work visit WWW dot mindful life mindful work.com