Which Swan is Yours? Fostering Individuals’ Resilience and Performance Through Mindfulness
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Which Swan is Yours? Fostering Individuals’ Resilience and Performance Through Mindfulness Drs Jutta Tobias and Andrey Pavlov The research is ongoing. 45 out of 57 Full-Time MBA students and 37 out of 99 MSc Finance students are currently participating in the programme. Jutta Tobias, PhD, and Andrey Pavlov, PhD, Lecturers in Performance Management. For more information, email [email protected] www.cranfield.ac.uk/som The Phenomenon Unexpected adversity – or “Black Swan” events (Taleb, 2007) – are becoming increasingly common in today’s world. Some people bounce back in the face of surprising extreme challenges, and may even benefit from its silver lining (the “White Swan”), while others give up and close down at the first sight of trouble. The former type is what child psychologist Norman Garmezy (1973) called “resilient”: capable of cognitively evaluating conditions of significant challenge, stress, or trauma in a way that enabled them to thrive, rather than crumble. The Insight According to psychologist Carol Dweck (1999, 2008), a person’s Mindset causally affects persistence and resilience during stressful performance situations. Dweck distinguishes two Mindsets: 1.A Fixed Mindset: Based on a belief that intelligence and achievement are innate and cannot be changed. 2.A Flexible or Growth Mindset: Based on a belief that performance is based on effort and persistence, and that learning itself may be more important than achievement. The Link with Mindfulness Mindfulness is a cognitive style (Langer, 1999), concerned with our ability to pay attention to the situation at hand in an open, curious, and flexible way, before evaluating it. Mindfulness may be operationally equivalent to a Flexible or Growth Mindset: Looking at any given situation in a learning oriented or growth focused way instead of judging it prematurely. Rather than a fixed personality trait, Mindfulness is a state that can be trained. How can Mindfulness training foster Resilience and Performance? In other words, what is in the black box between Mindfulness and an Individual’s Resilience? • Quasi-experimental research study measuring the effect of a six-part professional Mindfulness training programme on Cranfield SOM Masters students’ individual resilience and academic performance, as well as several potential mediating factors (such as individual Mindset, self control, and psychological flexibility). • Random assignment of volunteer participants into treatment vs. waitlist control group conditions. • Mindfulness training is provided by a professional Mindfulness facilitator trained in the evidence-based Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) curriculum (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Mindfulness training Performance Resilience Mindfulness Practice Practicing Mindfulness is mental exercise – akin to the physical exercise many people engage in to build up physical muscle and to keep their bodies healthy. Even brief Mindfulness training can result in higher performance (Zeidan et al., 2010; Hafenbrack et al., 2014).
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Tobias J, Pavlov A (2014) Which Swan is Yours? Fostering Individuals’ Resilience and Performance Through Mindfulness.
Transcript of Which Swan is Yours? Fostering Individuals’ Resilience and Performance Through Mindfulness
Which Swan is Yours? Fostering Individuals’ Resilience and Performance Through Mindfulness
Drs Jutta Tobias and Andrey Pavlov
The research is ongoing. 45 out of 57 Full-Time MBA students and 37 out of 99 MSc Finance students are currently participating in the programme.
Jutta Tobias, PhD, and Andrey Pavlov, PhD, Lecturers in Performance Management. For more information, email [email protected]
www.cranfield.ac.uk/som
The Phenomenon
Unexpected adversity – or “Black Swan” events (Taleb, 2007) – are becoming increasingly common in today’s
world. Some people bounce back in the face of surprising extreme challenges, and may even benefit from its silver lining (the “White Swan”), while others give up and close down at the first sight of trouble.
The former type is what child psychologist Norman
Garmezy (1973) called “resilient”: capable of cognitively evaluating conditions of significant challenge, stress, or trauma in a way that enabled them to thrive, rather than
crumble.
The Insight
According to psychologist Carol Dweck (1999, 2008), a person’s Mindset
causally affects persistence and resilience during stressful performance situations.
Dweck distinguishes two Mindsets:
1. A Fixed Mindset: Based on a belief that intelligence and achievement
are innate and cannot be changed.
2. A Flexible or Growth Mindset: Based on a belief that performance is based on effort and persistence, and that learning itself may be more
important than achievement.
The Link with Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a cognitive style (Langer, 1999), concerned with our ability to pay
attention to the situation at hand in an open, curious, and flexible way, before evaluating it.
Mindfulness may be operationally equivalent to a Flexible or Growth Mindset: Looking at any given situation in a learning oriented or
growth focused way instead of judging it prematurely.
Rather than a fixed personality trait,
Mindfulness is a state that can be trained.
How can Mindfulness training foster Resilience and Performance? In other words, what is in the black box between Mindfulness and an Individual’s Resilience?
• Quasi-experimental research study measuring the effect of a six-part professional Mindfulness training programme on Cranfield SOM Masters students’ individual resilience and academic performance, as well as several potential mediating factors (such as individual Mindset, self control, and psychological flexibility).
• Random assignment of volunteer participants into treatment vs. waitlist control group conditions. • Mindfulness training is provided by a professional Mindfulness facilitator trained in the evidence-based
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) curriculum (Kabat-Zinn, 1994).
Mindfulness training
Performance
Resilience
Mindfulness Practice Practicing Mindfulness is mental exercise – akin to the physical exercise many people engage in to build up physical muscle and to keep their bodies healthy. Even brief Mindfulness training can result in higher performance (Zeidan et al., 2010; Hafenbrack et al., 2014).
