Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business from the Inside Out (Eamon Dolan) Paperback – March 22, 2016

Mindful MindsDavid Gelles has given us all a gift--explaining both the state and practice of mindfulness in his readable, accessible narrative. Here's an overview: Mindfulness meditation is like taking your brain to the gym for a workout. In fact, I believe it will become as popular as running has become for fitness. Sit quietly and focus on your breathing—that’s meditation in a nutshell. When thoughts come—about an argument you had yesterday, about a deadline that’s looming, or about the lawn to be mowed—simply acknowledge the thought and go back to concentrating on your breathing. The more you practice this, the stronger your mind gets. It’s like doing mental pushups—you get more resilient and stronger over time. The clinical findings have proven its effectiveness: mindful meditation helps reduce heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression and anxiety, fatigue and muscle pain. In experiments, it has reduced cortisol levels, aided immune systems, increased happiness, and even calmed kids down. Many companies, from Google to General Mills to Goldman Sachs, have significantly invested in mindful meditation for their employees. ~Steve Gladis

Mindful Work, by David GellesThe author, Gelles, has been a business reporter for two of the world’s best papers, the Financial Times, and the New York Times where he currently covers U.S. mergers and acquisitions. With the same thoroughness as one expects from a financial reporter, he addresses mindfulness in the workplace, and has produced the most intelligent, compelling and thorough contribution to this subject.Mindfulness, put simply, is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. It is responding from a place of clarity and compassion, rather than fear, insecurity, or greed. Mindfulness is about being fully present, in meetings, on the telephone, while doing work, and being fully present with family and friends.Jon Kabat-Zinn, an MIT PhD in molecular biology, and the doyen of academic programmes on mindfulness, developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). There are now over 720 clinics teaching this approach, making it one of the fastest-growing forms of meditation, with more than twenty thousand people trained at the Massachusetts centre alone.The success of Kabat-Zinn’s method is in no small measure because he secularized it. If a meditation technique can reduce stress, improve concentration and general well-being, and produce a sense of compassion, it carries considerable weight. Tens of thousands of graduates of MBSR over decades attest to it being a reliable method to achieve these results. Presented in this form, mindfulness can’t be considered Buddhist, any more than the law of gravity can be considered English, just because Newton discovered it.The focus on stress is a valuable entry point with increases in stress levels of 18 percent for women and 25 percent for men over the past thirty years. “Stress finds you. You have to go looking for relaxation”, explains Dr Mark Hyman.Mindfulness also helps practitioners grow more compassionate through the “Loving-kindness” meditation. It hones one’s ability to “conjure up feelings of compassion, goodwill, and caring on demand.”“I began to hear about mindfulness being practiced in corporations and I knew it was something I had to investigate,” Gelles explains.What he found was that companies such as Monsanto, General Mills, Google, Goldman Sachs, Apple, Medtronic, and Aetna all had their own mindfulness programmes.Phil Jackson, the most successful professional basketball coach ever and a Zen practitioner, used mindfulness to get the most out of his players for 20 years. This included the likes of Michael Jordan. In a study of employees at a bank in Johannesburg, university researchers found an inverse correlation between mindfulness and job burnout.Green Mountain Coffee Company offers “Mindful Stretching” to its 5,000 employees. Though meditation is no guarantee of a rising stock price, Green Mountain’s market capitalization did increase fifteen-fold in the five years after it introduced this mindfulness program.At the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos, world leaders from all sorts of arenas attended the mindfulness training session. It had standing room only.Harvard Business Review’s article on Mindfulness was their most-shared article of the year and Gelles’ Financial Times story about meditation, “The Mind Business”, went viral.Bill Ford, the former chief executive and chairman of the Ford Motor Company, told Galles how practicing mindfulness meditation had changed his life, and the fortunes of his family’s company.Mindfulness meditation requires only that you assume a comfortable position which could be sitting, lying, or even standing, and observe your thoughts, emotions, and sensations. This can also be achieved by following the movement of breath in and out of the nostrils, and focusing on it.Through the use of FMRI brain activity measuring machines, we have evidence that a person’s neural circuitry can be rewired to make mindfulness and compassion as instinctual as breathing. Mindfulness appears to increase activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex, the region of much of our higher-order thinking – judgment, decision making, planning, and discernment.All these higher-order benefits probably explain why one of the most popular meditation courses targets the development of mindful leaders.A Massachusetts General Hospital study showed that meditation reduced the size of the amygdala after just 8 weeks. The effect makes the meditators less likely to overreact, and less likely to let their anger get the better of them. It also showed that “emotional regulation” increased by meditation endures long after the meditation.The growing academic interest in meditation is evident in the number of academically rigorous, “peer-reviewed papers”, that deal with mindfulness. Meditators have been shown to perform significantly better than non-meditators on all measures of attention, processing speed, and inhibitory control.People’s lack of focus has always existed, but was more visibly evident in “channel surfing” a few decades ago, and then in Web browsing. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter followed with their ever-refreshing bits of easily digestible nuggets of news and gossip, further decreased our span of attention. What has been left out of the observation of the negative impact of these technologies and multi-tasking, is any mention of an antidote.Enter mindfulness.I have read a number of books on mindfulness and work. I believe in the personal, social, and financial benefits of mindfulness.The author, Gelles, has been a business reporter for two of the world’s best papers, the Financial Times, and the New York Times where he currently covers U.S. mergers and acquisitions. With the same thoroughness as one expects from a financial reporter, he addresses mindfulness in the workplace, and has produced the most intelligent, compelling and thorough contribution to this subject.Mindfulness, put simply, is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. It is responding from a place of clarity and compassion, rather than fear, insecurity, or greed. Mindfulness is about being fully present, in meetings, on the telephone, while doing work, and being fully present with family and friends.Jon Kabat-Zinn, an MIT PhD in molecular biology, and the doyen of academic programmes on mindfulness, developed the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). There are now over 720 clinics teaching this approach, making it one of the fastest-growing forms of meditation, with more than twenty thousand people trained at the Massachusetts centre alone.The success of Kabat-Zinn’s method is in no small measure because he secularized it. If a meditation technique can reduce stress, improve concentration and general well-being, and produce a sense of compassion, it carries considerable weight. Tens of thousands of graduates of MBSR over decades attest to it being a reliable method to achieve these results. Presented in this form, mindfulness can’t be considered Buddhist, any more than the law of gravity can be considered English, just because Newton discovered it.The focus on stress is a valuable entry point with increases in stress levels of 18 percent for women and 25 percent for men over the past thirty years. “Stress finds you. You have to go looking for relaxation”, explains Dr Mark Hyman.Mindfulness also helps practitioners grow more compassionate through the “Loving-kindness” meditation. It hones one’s ability to “conjure up feelings of compassion, goodwill, and caring on demand.”“I began to hear about mindfulness being practiced in corporations and I knew it was something I had to investigate,” Gelles explains.What he found was that companies such as Monsanto, General Mills, Google, Goldman Sachs, Apple, Medtronic, and Aetna all had their own mindfulness programmes.Phil Jackson, the most successful professional basketball coach ever and a Zen practitioner, used mindfulness to get the most out of his players for 20 years. This included the likes of Michael Jordan. In a study of employees at a bank in Johannesburg, university researchers found an inverse correlation between mindfulness and job burnout.Green Mountain Coffee Company offers “Mindful Stretching” to its 5,000 employees. Though meditation is no guarantee of a rising stock price, Green Mountain’s market capitalization did increase fifteen-fold in the five years after it introduced this mindfulness program.Gelles’ Financial Times story about meditation, “The Mind Business”, went viral.At the 2013 World Economic Forum in Davos, world leaders from all sorts of arenas attended the mindfulness training session. It had standing room only.Harvard Business Review’s article on Mindfulness was their most-shared article of the year.Bill Ford, the former chief executive and chairman of the Ford Motor Company, told Galles how practicing mindfulness meditation had changed his life, and the fortunes of his family’s company.Mindfulness meditation requires only that you assume a comfortable position which could be sitting, lying, or even standing, and observe your thoughts, emotions, and sensations. This can also be achieved by following the movement of breath in and out of the nostrils, and focusing on it.Through the use of FMRI brain activity measuring machines, we have evidence that a person’s neural circuitry can be rewired to make mindfulness and compassion as instinctual as breathing. Mindfulness appears to increase activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex, the region of much of our higher-order thinking – judgment, decision making, planning, and discernment.All these higher-order benefits probably explain why one of the most popular meditation courses targets the development of mindful leaders.A Massachusetts General Hospital study showed that meditation reduced the size of the amygdala after just 8 weeks. The effect makes practitioners less likely to overreact, and less likely to let their anger get the better of them. It also showed that “emotional regulation” increased by meditation endures long after the meditation.The growing academic interest in meditation is evident in the number of academically rigorous, “peer-reviewed papers”, that deal with mindfulness. Meditators have been shown to perform significantly better than non-meditators on all measures of attention, processing speed, and inhibitory control.People’s lack of focus has always existed, but was more visibly evident in “channel surfing” a few decades ago, and then in Web browsing. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter followed with their ever-refreshing bits of easily digestible nuggets of news and gossip.What has been left out of the observation of the negative impact of these technologies and multi-tasking, is any mention of an antidote. Enter mindfulness.Readability Light --+-- SeriousInsights High +---- LowPractical High -+--- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.

I listened to this on Audible first and then downloaded in on Kindle just so I could take notes! Waay too much data here to absorb at one listen and so many great insights. By far the best book I've discovered on the topic, written in a very human and approachable voice.Whether you are looking for ways to incorporate mindfulness in your own life or business or data and use-cases to share with your team and managers to help work mindfulness practices into your work life this book is absolutely a must read.

This book was required for a class I took at work. There are some decent points and things to consider. Overall, if you are looking for some Yogi/Top of the Mountain/enlightened talk to make you feel like you are not just part of the corporate machine, then this is for you!

Mindful work is a very useful perspective that creates calm in the mind and therefore the body. Minding your affairs keeps you present and open to a world of possibilities.

Very astute and thorough. Gelles takes on the daunting task of explaining where the mindfulness revolution came from and answering the backlash calims that have arisen in recent times. He explains what mindfulness is, what it promises, and how it delivers and when. I found his book very helpful in putting ideas and concepts surrounding mindfulness in order.

There are currently many publications on this topic; but, this is one of the better resources and a good buy. Very clear and practical presentation. You will not be disapointed.

Chronological description of mindfulness and meditation being practiced in the United States. Many examples and citations of scientific studies of mindfulness improving happiness and productivity of people at all levels in corporations.

Premetto che leggo esclusivamente ebook e questo fa parte dei tanti che acquisto online, molto spesso in versione Kindle. Poiché sto compiendo ricerche approfondite su Mindfulness in ambito lavorativo, ho acquistato questo libro e ne sono molto contento. Contiene esattamente il genere di informazioni che cercavo. Non aspettarti istruzioni su come meditare o cose simili. Il testo fa la cronistoria dell'introduzione della Mindfulness nelle grandi e medie aziende statunitensi (e spero anche di altre nazionalità dato che sono solo a metù del libro).

excelent insight into mindful in business

Amazing book .loved reading it..would prefer gifting this book to dear friends

Interesting book providing useful insight into the affect of mindfulness in organisations.

questo prodotto è ottimo, anche la spedizione è stata veloce. Il problema è l'affidabilità di Amazon su alcuni prodotti. Una parte (non indifferente) dei venditori terzi che operano su Amazon vendono articoli e prodotti falsificati. Nel mio caso ho comprato un iPod per mio figlio, pur non costando poco, che è risultato contraffatto e difettoso. Non è stato così facile riavere i soldi indietro (ho perso ore e ore di tempo, di energia e di pazienza) e comunque non mi hanno rimborsato i soldi delle tasse doganali in quanto Amazon sostiene che è un problema legato al mio paese, l'Italia! Quindi ho pagato delle tasse doganali per avere un prodotto contraffatto, che poi ovviamente ho restituito. Ho arricchito un po' le casse della finanza italiana per niente. Tutto questo perché pensavo ci si potesse fidare di Amazon!