It gives us the ability to shift gears between 'being' and 'doing' to deal with different work challenges, write Darren J. Good and Christopher J. Lydd

Good, Darren J.

Lyddy, Christopher J.

LSE Research Online

4/3/2017Explaining how mindfulness consistently brings positiveworkplace outcomesblogs.lse.ac.uk /businessreview/2017/04/03/explaining-how-mindfulness-consistently-brings-positive-workplace-outcomes/Mindfulness training has become a hot management trend, as leading organisations like Aetna and BritishParliament increasingly offer mindfulness programs for employees. This growth is fuelled by research supporting thebenefits of mindfulness for workplace functioning, from focus and burnout to job performance and leadership. Yetthis interest has glossed over the almost-comical reality of applying contemplative practices like meditation in themodern, frenetic workplace. While the research evidence is compelling, we lack clear theories of why individualsbenefit from something that seems so counter to how people typically work.In simplest terms, mindfulness involves being present, while the primary purpose of work is to achieve future goals.Accomplishing work objectives demands that people think and act quickly, and rely heavily on past experiences toautomatically guide their present behaviour. While it might be nice to imagine operating with slow deliberation andpresent focus, this is not how managers tend to operate. In fact, work often seems to demand the exact opposite!So how do we explain, in practical terms, why studies of mindfulness consistently demonstrate positive workplaceoutcomes? Our recent study helped to answer this question. We interviewed 39 professionals with existingmindfulness practices. Among other things, we tried to understand how they perceived mindfulness as helping themat work. This understanding should be invaluable for designing and benefitting from workplace mindfulness training.Understanding how mindfulness changes how people think is crucial for explaining its apparent workplace benefits.Leading mindfulness scholars, like Jon Kabat-Zinn and Mark Williams, have theorised people as using two basicmodes of relating to the world: Doing and Being (see Table 1). Doing mode is what we typically use to work and torealise future goals. Engaging in Doing mode involves using a specific set of cognitive properties, including thinkingand acting automatically, focusing on past and future, and quickly evaluating events and outcomes. Being mode istantamount to mindfulness, intentionally attending to and accepting the present moment.1/3Table 1. Being v. doing modesWhile relying on Doing mode is undoubtedly crucial for workplace success, our study suggests that over-relying onthis mode can be problematic. The properties that come with this mode can be limiting. Just like using a hammer tofix a leak, this typical way of thinking is often the wrong tool for a task. For example, imagine you are managing asubordinate and discover they made an error on an important client email. If you are relying solely on the Doingmode, as is typical for most people, this may trip you up. You may start to call your subordinate names (hopefullyjust in your head!), while your thoughts race towards placating the client and obsessing about how this will affectyour reputation. While this may prompt a quick response to the client, this train of thought is also really limiting. Theself-oriented thoughts about reputation drive a stress response. The negative evaluation of your subordinate canundermine that relationship and the real work of management — finding ways to grow, motivate, and retain talent.Interviewees in our study offered many such examples of Doing mode creating such limitations.Now take the same scenario, but imagine you are mindful and have activated Being mode and its cognitiveproperties. Unlocking this toolkit may help you to enact more appropriate responses. Experiencing acceptance of theerror may help you to avoid silently cursing your subordinate. Focusing on the present may leave you feeling lessself-centred and anxious about your professional reputation. These different tools help you to avoid falling into thesetraps, which could get in the way of effectively managing your subordinate and correcting the error.This example helps to demonstrate why mindfulness may be valuable to work. Many situations are effectivelyaddressed through the toolkit provided by Doing mode, but not all. Often Being mode added tools helpful foreffectively engaging these situations in which Doing mode was problematic. This partially reflects emerging theoryfrom clinical psychologists, who have suggested that “Doing mode … becomes a ‘problem’ when it volunteers for atask that it cannot do. … When this happens, it pays to ‘shift gear’ into ‘Being’ mode. This is what mindfulness givesus: the ability to shift gears as we need to, rather than being permanently stuck in the same one.”However, our interviews revealed an interesting adjustment to this theory, with big implications for work. In somecases, when individuals were mindful, they reported that they had both Being and Doing modes operating together.Rather than shifting gears, they reported employing both ways of thinking simultaneously, effectively expanding thetools they could use.Rather than Being or Doing, we described this condition as “Being while Doing,” an ideal state of mindfulness at2/3work. This allowed individuals to harness the power of Doing mode while avoiding many of its limitations. In this way,mindfulness at work offers an array of crucial benefits that supports feeling and functioning well. While intervieweessometimes struggled to maintain this combination, they also reflected its significant benefits. By relating mindfulnessto our typical ways of thinking at work, we are starting to understand not only what mindfulness may offer to work,but why it offers these benefits. This is an important step towards understanding how to harness this quality and itsbenefits for work.More broadly, we see this as an emerging frontier for management in today’s complex workplace, one meritingfurther innovation and research. The growing movement around mindfulness at work will involve managing thesetensions to foster “Being While Doing” to realise organisational benefits. We call this new body of practice“Contemplative Management.” In time, understanding how to manage mindfulness at work may produce substantialbenefits to individuals and organisations, benefits difficult to attain through typical training intended to augmentthinking as usual.♣♣♣Notes:This blog post is based on the authors’ paper  Being While Doing: An Inductive Model of Mindfulness at Work .Frontiers in Psychology, (2017), 7, 2060.Read the authors’s previous blog post Mindfulness has big impacts for performance, decision-making andcareer longevity.The post gives the views of its authors, not the position of LSE Business Review or the London School ofEconomics and Political Science.Featured image credit: Abstract details, by Tookapic, under a CC0 licenceBefore commenting, please read our Comment Policy.Darren J. Good is an Assistant Professor of Applied Behavioral Science at the Graziadio Schoolof Business and Management at Pepperdine University, serving as core faculty in the MBA andMasters of organisation development programmes. He researches the intersection of mindfulnessand leadership. Over the past decade, Good has regularly coached executives and consulted as atrusted advisor to organisations. He was named a 2014 Ascendant Scholar by the WesternAcademy of Management. Good holds a Ph.D. in organisational behaviour from the WeatherheadSchool of Management, Case Western Reserve University.Christopher J. Lyddy is an Assistant Professor at Providence College School of Business inRhode Island, US. His research explores the integration and impacts of mindfulness at work, withcurrent projects exploring how the quality and practice of mindfulness intersects managerialcognition, loss of self-control, and organisational routines. He previously earned degrees inEconomics and City Planning at the University of Michigan and MIT, and worked as a researcherat the Brookings Institution and MIT-Sloan School of Management. Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics3/3

Explaining how mindfulness consistently brings positive workplace outcomes

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