work of the future

Stephen Daneluttiwww.dharmahacker.com

TRENDS SHAPING

MINDFUL

OVER MIND FULL

BETTER FOCUS AND DECISION MAKING IN A BLURRING, INFO OVERLOADED WORLD

Preface

Thanks for downloading this eBook and I’d love your feedback.It’s very short (maybe a 30 minute read) but filled to the brim with Mindful goodness. I hope you enjoy it and would love to get your feedback which you can provide via the contact form at www.dharmahacker.com or on Twitter: @stephenwrks. Please let me know if you would be okay for me to capture your message on my website.

The context of the trends covered in the series of eBooks that this one is a part of is Dharma Hacking. A unique approach to our evolving human condition that combines Eastern philosophical aesthetics and modern technological influences.

This eBook is one in a series covering trends impacting on the world of work. Ultimately, they will all be combined into one eBook. They are all trends that, if not quite mainstream, are about to break or will be highly impactful but niche.

I’m Stephen Danelutti, author of this eBook. I work in the technology business covering its impact on work, innovation and change. I understand this goes beyond just technology. I am chief architect of the Dharma Hacking approach.

Technological innovation is advancing at breakneck speed. We are inundated with choices and overloaded with information. The pace is outstripping our coping mechanisms. Can technology itself help us catch-up or is it time for a new approach?

MINDFUL

OVER MIND FULL TREND 1

We live in an age where there is a dizzying array of options in new products and services, proliferation of digital media channels, a chorus of signals from social media and accelerating pace of change. We are inundated with information and choices and demand for our time and attention like never before. Not only in the commercial field are we faced with this barrage. In every sphere of life, we are faced with greater complexity as humanity advances at breakneck speed.

INTRO

he growth rate of humans on the planet is staggering. The encompassing pace of technological change and general innovation is astounding. As we grow and as our

knowledge grows, we create and develop more. Many new developments are solutions to intractable problems. Sometimes we create just for the sake of it - consumption has almost become the means itself, instead of the end. All this generates a need to convey information around these new developments and also a need to organise our lives around this new information. At work the need for more effective management of information and improved collaboration around it has never been greater. This applies on political, social and personal levels too.

We have established some wonderful mechanisms to help us cope with the need for greater collaboration and sharing of information. The written word in the form of books, modern day marketing, the internet and World Wide Web and machines capable of crunching trillions of bits of data every

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Section 1

The web is a leading cause of information overload

Image Credit

THIS TREND COVERS:

1. Intro

2. What Mindfulness is

3. What are organisations doing

around Mindfulness

4. How might it apply at work

and in your company

5. Exploration and feedback

T

hour are all ways we have established to cope with information flows in our rising ascendency. We have also developed machines to help us cope.

The question now is not so much whether we have the tools to help us cope but whether we have the mental capacity to cope. The exponential rise of information may be outstripping our mental capacity to deal with it. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are potential solutions we have already considered and even devised. These may be the answer but that is far from certain.

Studies have shown that we are inundated to the point of distraction. This could mean we are now starting to become unproductive as a result. Productivity in the western world has not improved in the last few decades despite all the advances we have made. People at all levels are being effected. The ability to multi-task is held up as a solution that we will all learn to master and supposedly the younger generations are already doing just that, but this is far from proven and the contrary is often the case.

Western civilisation has been driving a lot of the most modern and advanced of technologies and innovations that are at the heart of many of the distractions. The internet and social media are a force for much good but also many of our modern afflictions, at least when it comes to focus. Could it be that it is to the East that we now look for salvation, or to be a little less dramatic, to an effective coping mechanism for all this information that is often overloading our minds. To this always on world of constant distractions. Of second by second notifications and shiny new gadget syndrome. 

In an age when our minds are struggling to cope, it could be through the practice of Mindfulness that we may find lasting solutions. The solutions are within reach of every one of us and don't depend on external factors, like more technology and devices to solve the very problems these mechanisms often cause. Mindfulness practice is not new and has its origins in the East.

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A recent study by US based analysts Apex Performance, entitled ‘Attention in the 21st Century’, showed that using email is beginning to slowdown workers productivity due to the high number of messages received daily, and the instinct to repeatedly check ones inbox. According to the study, 70 percent of respondents said they received more than 21 emails per day, with 50 percent saying they checked their email more than eleven times a day.

Dr Louis S Csoka, Apex’s president and founder, said: “That equates to opening your inbox once every 20 minutes. Prolonged focus on one thing at a time is required to efficiently accomplish a task. However, two-thirds of respondents are

indfulness is about awareness, attention to the present moment and minimising distraction. At its essence it is about practicing awareness, ultimately to understand the true nature of things

and our place in the world. It stems from ancient Buddhist practice and origins.

The word sati, which can be translated into ‘mindfulness’, means ‘memory’, and was originally used by Brahmans for memorising Vedic scriptures. To effectively recall large bodies of text, they got into a zone of clarity and presence, free of distractions. This was one of the influences in developing what we today call ‘meditation’.

The Buddha adopted this Brahmanical usage, and used sati for both ‘memory’ (of texts) and ‘presence of mind’ in meditation.

One of the primary means through which mindfulness and awareness is attained today is through meditation. Through meditation the mind becomes still and one becomes aware

WHAT MINDFULNESS IS

MINDFULNESS BASED APPROACHES

Rooted in a meditation tradition more than two and a half thousand years old, mindfulness skills can be learned and practiced by anyone, whatever their background. They are practices which strengthen and deepen the human capacity to live more meaningful, balanced and peaceful lives.

The two main approaches that have been developed in recent years are Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), both of which are taught over eight sessions and are completely secular in nature.

Section 2

M

Buddha in lotus position. Image Credit

Mindfulness practice has its origins in the East and is based on ancient Buddhist practice rooted in meditation.

of the present moment. Most importantly we become aware of our thoughts and other forms of distraction and in this way we are able to control them or at least to let them come and go and not get caught up in them. Ultimately the point is to achieve a state of nothingness almost where the only awareness is of the present moment as it comes and passes.

Basics of meditation 1. Choose a conducive environment. Find a nice, quiet place where you won’t be disturbed for fifteen minutes or longer. Sit down, relax and rest your hands on your lap. You can sit on the floor cross-legged with the support of a meditation cushion, or on any chair with your feet resting on the ground. It is not necessary to force yourself into a lotus position if you are not used to it. Regardless of how you sit, it is important to maintain the natural curve of your back. That means no slouching. 

2. Breathe slowly and deeply. Close your eyes softly. Direct your soft, unfocused gaze downwards. Begin by taking a few slow and deep breaths — inhaling with your nose and exhaling from your mouth. Don’t force your breathing; let it come naturally. The first few intakes of air are likely to be shallow, but as you allow more air to fill your lungs each time, your breaths will gradually become deeper and fuller. Take as long as you need to breathe slowly and deeply.

3. Be aware. When you are breathing deeply, you will begin to feel calmer and more relaxed. That is a good sign. Now, focus your attention on your breathing. Be aware of each breath that you take in through your nose. Be mindful of each breath that you exhale with your mouth. Continue focusing on your breaths for as long as you like. If you find your attention straying away from your breaths, just gently bring it back. It may happen many times. Don’t be disheartened. What’s important is to realize that you have wandered and bring your attention back to where it should be. As you develop greater focus power, you will find it easier to concentrate.

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Mindfulness practice can be used for both personal as well as professional purposes.

An introduction to Mindfulness

Video here

4. Ending the session. When you are ready to end the session, open your eyes and stand up slowly. Stretch yourself and extend your increased awareness to your next activities.

Why might we need it or find it useful?A state of increased attention and ability to avoid distraction has many observed and documented benefits (see gallery). The most beneficial outcome is to achieve a state of calmness where we are not effected by stresses and pressures around us. Decision making and interactions with others is carried out in a calm manner and when things go wrong you are more able to remain unaffected and unemotional about the impact and in this way respond with greater clarity and insight.

Concentration is also one of the other more well observed benefits. With clarity of thought and mind, the argument goes, you are better able to concentrate on the tasks at hand. With signs that we may increasingly be growing into a distracted society, we can see why practices that will allow us to be more mindful to concentrate better and make better decisions might be attractive.

Many today have reached a position where they are unable to focus, where multitasking is celebrated at the expense of clear outcomes and where our depth of attention is waning. Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows which was a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. He argues that we are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.

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If you’ve ever considered (but instantly dismissed) the practice, this ones’s for you.

The Skeptics Guide to Meditation

indfulness is no longer an edge pursuit practiced only by strict Buddhist adherents or the odd individual. As more start appreciating its benefits, those in leadership positions at many of the

worlds largest companies are bringing the practice inside their organisations. The benefit to them is obvious - more productive workers make for a more successful company. They appreciate that productivity can no longer be only a question of wringing out more effort from a person or process and with Mindfulness, it's actually the opposite, less is more.

Employees are also bringing it into their organisations through their own personal practice. They are practicing at an individual level and in some cases are passing on the benefits out of a desire to share the learning. In other cases, colleagues are noticing the sometimes remarkable changes amongst their meditating peers and on discovering the causes, starting to practice in their own right.

WHAT ARE ORGANISATIONS DOING

THE MINDFUL REVOLUTION

Kate Pickert, writing for TIME, notes that "We're in the midst of a popular obsession with mindfulness as the secret to health and happiness—and a growing body of evidence suggests it has clear benefits."

Calling mindfulness the "latest self-help fad" totally ignores how the practice is gaining acceptance among those who would otherwise consider meditation a bit flaky: Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Pentagon chiefs, FORTUNE 500 titans, among others.

Section 3

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Many understand mindfulness makes good business sense

Its not just the individual that is cottoning onto Mindfulness. Organisations have understood that its a means to healthier and happier employees which leads to better results for the company. Employees are happier, more focused, stress free and more productive.

Employees at corporations including Google, Starbucks, AOL Time Warner, Toyota, Reebok, Apple, Volvo and McKinsey practice mindfulness as a matter of course.

A study by researchers at business school INSEAD showed that mindfulness can help at each stage of the decision-making process: framing it, gathering and processing information, coming to a conclusion and learning from feedback.

It can also be used to avoid making decisions needlessly. The researchers cite an example of a new manager being expected to make sweeping changes on taking the helm.

“More time will be dedicated to assessing the issues that require action to ensure achievement of organisational objectives. Similarly, mindfulness may help individuals realise when they spend too much time on ‘micro-decisions’. Decisions that have little if any consequence for their objectives and wellbeing in general.” Read more.

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From the valley

Enlightenment EngineersIn Silicon Valley, Meditation Is No Fad. It Could Make Your Career, Across the Valley, quiet contemplation is seen as the new caffeine, the fuel that allegedly unlocks productivity and creative bursts. Read more.

Silicon Valley's Next Big Hack? Consciousness ItselfIs there something that lies beyond the quantified self movement? This MIT trained, former NASA robotics engineer says yes. Read more.

More business sense

Wellness Is Good BusinessA growing body of research suggests that nurturing employee wellness through mindfulness training has a significant impact on productivity and company profitability. Read more.

Why mindfulness makes business sense

A “Search inside yourself” class at Google.

Mr. Bertolini runs one of America’s 100 largest companies by revenue. In recent years, following a near-death experience, Mr. Bertolini set about overhauling his own health regimen, as well reshaping the culture of Aetna with a series of eyebrow-raising moves. He has offered free yoga and meditation classes to Aetna employees; more than 13,000 workers have participated. He began selling the same classes to the businesses

that contract with Aetna for their health insurance.

Taken together, these moves have transformed a stodgy insurance company into one of the most progressive actors in corporate America. Most health insurance companies are thriving, largely because of increased enrollment. Aetna’s stock has increased threefold since Mr. Bertolini took over as chief executive in 2010, and recently hit a record high. Read more.

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Mindful work

Get the book"Mindful Work: How Meditation Is Changing Business From the Inside Out," by David Gelles, is published by Eamon Dolan Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and you can get it on Amazon here. It tells, in part, the story of how Aetna’s CEO Mark Bertolini is changing his business based on Mindfulness practice.

Personal productivity

How paying attention can change your career.A mindfulness expert reflects on more than 35 years of research, finding we perform better when we turn off the auto-pilot. Read more.

The Power of MeditationHow It Helped Me Rediscover Happiness and Boost Productivity. Read more.

Aetna C.E.O.’s Management by Mantra

Mindfulness ScienceMindfulness Can Literally Change Your BrainThe business world is abuzz with mindfulness. But perhaps you haven’t heard that the hype is backed by hard science. Recent research provides strong evidence that practicing non-judgmental, present-moment awareness (a.k.a. mindfulness) changes the brain, and it does so in ways that anyone working in

today’s complex business environment, and certainly every leader, should know about.

Research in 2011 was conducted with a study on participants who completed an eight-week mindfulness program. Significant increases in the density of their gray matter

was observed. In the years since, other neuroscience laboratories from around the world have also investigated ways in which meditation, one key way to practice mindfulness, changes the brain. This year, a team of scientists from the University of British Columbia and the Chemnitz University of Technology were able to pool data from more than 20 studies to determine which areas of the brain are consistently affected. They identified at least eight different regions. Read more.

Can you physically change your brain with your thoughts? In this video above, neuropsychologist Rick Hanson outlines his idea that we can use our minds to make physical changes in our brains to transform the mind for the better.

Studies have shown people who meditate frequently have a measurably larger neocortex in the pre-frontal regions of the brain, the area responsible for concentration.  As a result, these people are more able to concentrate and pay attention. Dr. Hanson states that if one does not change their brain for the better, outside negative forces such as stress, work pressure, and other people will do so.

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How Your Thoughts Can Rewire Your Brain To Make You Happy

there are many ways you can create a more mindful organisation through team practices or by making space for individuals to practice on their own. Here are just a few. If you run teams or

an organisation, think about implementing some of these:

1. Team meditation retreats could replace the standard team outing where better team performance through competitive game playing is normally the objective. Stilling the mind in order to achieve greater clarity of thought could be the new way to achieve better effectiveness in team creativity and collaboration. 

2. Bliss out zones are not inconceivable at a time when the drive to enhance worker productivity through better office ergonomics and workplace design are at their peak. The purpose of these zones would not just be for working privately, entertainment or sleeping as is currently the case, but for recharging frazzled nerves or focusing unruly

APPLY IT AT YOUR ORGANISATION

AS AN INDIVIDUAL

1. Move more throughout the day

2. Take three deep breaths

3. Visualize positive outcomes before meetings

4. Listen fully without an agenda

5. Find the positive in any situation

From 5 ways to embrace Mindfulness at work.

Section 4

T

More ideas in this book Buy from Amazon

There are actions and activities you can conduct at work that will help individuals become more mindful and ultimately, productive and focused.

minds.

3. Streamlining change efforts or shifting culture. All change is disruptive no matter how well prepared you or the organisation are. Setting aside mindfulness sessions and training as part of the roll out of the change could well guarantee a better result. And if you want an organisation that is more empathetic, well rounded and focused then mindfulness training could be a way to shift the organisation’s culture towards these ends.

4. Mindfulness coaches. Bring in some experts. These are not in short supply nowadays, from London to San Francisco. They don’t have to to be experts at bringing Mindfulness to organisations since the practice itself is key. Get them to train individuals that can pass on the learning.

5. Adopt some technology. Counterintuitive maybe but there are increasingly cases where technology can help keep us on track with our various practices. See next page. Make these available in the organisation.

13

YES, we could do with being more Mindful

Are you going through a major

change?Some clear thinking and focus might help set a

clear path forward.Is your culture

up for it?It may be just a step too far for anyone in your

organisation to contemplate.

Is there discontent and

departures?Low employee engagement/

satisfaction is prime mindfulness territory.

Have you recently

adopted a lot of tech?

Maybe you need to cut users some slack.

Do you want a higher purpose?Mindfulness could be the

way to find it.

Will your organisation benefit from Mindfulness? Ask these questions first.

Its not for everyone.While you may conclude the findings in this book are interesting and you want to implement them, it may not work. Ask some key questions first.

Scroll through screenshots Click on the screenshots at left to take a brief look at each App. Head to the store for your respective operating system and search for the app by name where you’ll find more info.

there’s an app for thatCounterintuitively, although technology sometimes causes a lot of the problems, it can also provide some good enablers for your mindfulness practice.

enablers

1. Buddhify. iOS and Android

2. Calm – meditation and relaxation. iOS and Android

3. Smiling Mind. iOS and Android

4. Simply Being Guided Meditation. iOS and Android

5. Headspace. iOS and Android

6. Room to Breathe Meditation. iOS and Android

7. Meditation helper. iOS and Android

Seven best meditation apps

Buddhify

Watch this video in full screen. When you click on it, it will expand automatically and play in full screen.

Buddhify

Video on YouTube

WebsitesReboot

Zen Habits

eMindful

The Mindful Project

Mindfulness at Work

Buddhist Geeks

Mindfulness Works

Wisdom 2.0 Conference

Mindful

Authentic Leadership in Action

Institute for Mindful leadership

Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute

The American Mindfulness Research Association

Mindfulnet

The Potential Project

Articles9 Top Meditation Retreats Around The World

Meditation for Beginners: 20 Practical Tips for Quieting the Mind

Is this the answer to office stress?

Developing Mindful Leaders for the C-Suite

Mindfulness Helps You Become a Better Leader

BooksThe Mindful Workplace: Developing Resilient Individuals and Resonant Organizations with MBSR

The Mindful Manifesto: How doing less and noticing more can help us thrive in a stressed-out world

exploration and feedback

FEEDBACK

Section 5 Some great additional resources to be explored when you have the time. Each bullet is linked to a website, book or article. Please also take a moment to provide some feedback so my next eBook can be better.

Thanks for reading this eBook. I’d love to know what you thought and how it could be improved. You can send feedback via a tweet to @stephenwrks or use the form in the contact section on www.dharmahacker.com.

And if you would be okay for me to capture your message on my website, please let me know.

Copyright

xvi

© 2015 Stephen Danelutti

A lot of the content in this eBook is not the authors original content and where that is the case, clear attribution has been made to the original source. The rest of the content is all original and this together with the concept and design of this eBook should be considered the property of the copyright holder (the author Stephen Danelutti). If you would like to share or reuse any of the content please attribute the original sources or the author of this book.

Artificial Intelligence

The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.

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Index

Chapter 1 - INTRO

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Brahmans

Members of the highest or priestly caste in the Hindu caste system.

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Chapter 1 - WHAT MINDFULNESS IS

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Dharma Hacking

A unique approach to our evolving human condition that combines Eastern philosophical aesthetics and modern technological influences. It can be seen as the yin and yang of modern existence, the combination of right and left brain, the intersection of technology and the humanities, etc. Specifically, it is the marriage of:

Dharma, which has many different meanings. The one associated with Buddhism is the one being referenced here. Particularly how it represents a pathway to various teachings, truths and natural laws. It's a kind of pathway to enlightenment.

Hacking has its roots with tech developers and startups. It often takes a quick fix approach through simple coding workarounds or solutions. These often end up enduring. It has its dark side but thats not what a Dharma Hacker is concerned with. Nowadays startups apply it to growth and even culture, innovation, life, productivity, the mind and consciousness are all open to hacking. Hacking is a very experimental approach where you learn by doing and observing outcomes, progressing quickly with what works, discarding what doesn’t.

Dharma Hacking is a proposed approach to how we can progress as human beings.

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Preface - PrefacePreface - Preface

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Machine learning

Machine learning is a subfield of computer science that evolved from the study of pattern recognition and computational learning theory in artificial intelligence. Machine learning explores the construction and study of algorithms that can learn from and make predictions on data.

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Vedic

The Vedic period (or Vedic age) (ca.1750–500 BCE) was the period in Indian history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. During the early part of the Vedic period, the Indo-Aryans settled into northern India, bringing with them their specific religious traditions.

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