Hr Library
Trending

Why Your Team Should Practice Collective Mindfulness

Source | hbr.org | Megan Reitz | Michael Chaskalson

Evidence suggests that mindfulness can help to reduce stress and anxietyincrease resiliencedivergent thinkingjob satisfaction and improve focus and leadership flexibility. But is it enough? Having researched mindfulness in organizations and for leaders for many years, we advocate its implementation in many situations. But we also believe that when it comes to the ability of individuals and teams to thrive at work, a team’s culture will repeatedly trump most individuals’ mindfulness practice. It’s not enough for people at work to build their capacity for emotional regulation if they’re persistently bullied or work in a toxic team.

That’s why we also advocate the practice of team mindfulness. Just as someone practicing individual mindfulness becomes more self-aware and less judgmental, with team mindfulness, the team becomes more aware and accepting of itself as a team. Its members are collectively aware of the team’s objectives, tasks, roles, dynamics, and structures. That awareness emerges as a result of the team regularly paying attention to these factors, openly and non-judgmentally. This is different from each team member practicing mindfulness on their own — which has its own benefits — instead, it’s about what the team does together.

Groups that develop team mindfulness are demonstrably concerned for the wellbeing of their members. They are collectively aware of the tasks and goals that they share; and they are aware of, and able to address, the dynamics that inevitably flow between team members.

In our work with teams we’ve seen that such groups experience less unhelpful team conflict and are psychologically safer. Whether face-to-face or virtual, groups that are mindful at the team level will do better — especially when faced with a crisis.

Based on our research over the last five years we’ve come to understand individual mindfulness as consisting of three key aspects: allowing, inquiry, and meta-awareness. We now find this a helpful way of describing team mindfulness as well.

Click here to read the full article

 

Source
hbr.org
Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button