Overview
As illustrated below it is not unusual for Insight to lie at the heart of Professional Maps, yet it can be easy for this core capacity to be overlooked amongst the day to day demands of work.
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https://www.cim.co.uk/membership/professional-marketing-competencies
https://peopleprofession.cipd.org/profession-map
The inner and outer environments within which we live and work can, without conscious effort, be far from conducive to insight and creativity, particularly during times of challenge (personal, professional, organisational, societal) when arguably skilful and insightful responses become ever-more important.
We work with organisations and teams who are committed to nurturing skills, approaches and environments conducive to insight and creativity
Our a range of introductory workshops. training packages and continued personal and professional development offer the opportunity to
- explore the topic of insight
- cultivate individual skills supportive of insight, and
- nurture working environments and practices supportive of insight.
Introductory workshops
- Nurturing your Inner Creative
- Mindfulness for Insight and Creativity
- Insight-based HR
- Insight-based Marketing
"Fascinating and want to learn more – well presented thank you"
Training packages
- Mindfulness for Insight and Creativity
- Insight-based HR
- Insight-based Marketing
Continued personal and professional development
Continued development sessions to deepen personal practice and nurture working environments and approaches supportive of insight.Working in partnership with the CIPD locally
In addition to offering workplace mindfulness training we are pleased to support North Yorkshire CIPD branch members in their cultivation of inner resources by offering a discounted rate on our public 8 week mindfulness courses. Public course information is available here. To book a discounted rate on a public course simply select ‘organisational discount rate’.Published Work
Examples of the Centre’s work and a thought leadership piece on the role of insight in Human Resources are shared as contributory authors in Chapman-Clarke’s ‘Mindfulness in the Workplace: An Evidence-based Approach to Improving Wellbeing and Maximizing Performance'.
Mindfulness is a skill which takes time to be learned. Whilst participants may well experience a change in ‘state’ as a result of an introductory session, the researched benefits of mindfulness come from the regular practice of mindfulness meditation and the possibility of changes in ‘trait’*. Organisations interested in mindfulness are therefore encourage to consider in-house mindfulness training or, in the absence of this, how they can support any staff who would like to go on to learn mindfulness.
* ‘From States to Traits: the Latest Science on What Meditation can and Can’t Do’
Course options
We offer a range of mindfulness and compassion courses designed to meet a wide variety of organisational needs. An overview of course types, length, group size and individual commitment to meditation practice is available below.
Expected outcomes
Please see individual course outcomes.
For those engaging in the full ibHR training package individuals will develop:
- a deeper, experiential understanding of the nature of insight
- practical skills and inner resources supportive of both health and insight
- the ability to identify habitual patterns that can inadvertently reduce insightfulness
- space to consider how they as individuals and their organisation might nurture working environments supportive of insight
The cultivation of mindfulness is a foundational element of ibHR. As an upstream intervention, course participants would also be expected to experience the general benefits associated with a meditation practice as detailed below.
Mindfulnet.org, generously developed and maintained by Juliet Adams, brings together research focussing specifically on workplace applications of mindfulness. The site provides the following overview of studies (June 2016) linking mindfulness and desirable workplace outcomes.
- 58 studies link mindfulness to factors that improve employee wellbeing
- 46 studies link mindfulness to factors that improve leadership capability
- 38 studies link mindfulness to factors that improve employee performance
- 34 studies link mindfulness to factors that impact on change and organisational transformation
- 33 studies link mindfulness to factors that improve safety in high reliability organisations
We use, and would expect to see improvements in, the following recognised measures of mental well-being, stress and mindfulness:
- Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS) 14 item scale for assessing positive mental health (mental well-being)(NHS Health Scotland, University of Warwick and University of Edinburgh, 2006).
- Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) 10 item scale tested and validated to measure perceptions of stressful experiences during the past month (Cohen & Williamson, 1988).
- Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) 39 item scale tested and validated to assess ability to perform mindful attention (Baer, 2006)
Being the change we seek
Many people would like to live and work differently. Despite genuine commitments to doing so, beginning to actually live and work differently can be difficult, requiring a surprising amount of commitment, sometimes even courage. Our 8 week mindfulness courses encourage both an intellectual understanding of the neurobiological elements at play in this conundrum and importantly the skills through meditation practice to cultivate and develop new ways of being.
Leadership behaviours impact strongly on organisational culture. Leaders are also under a significant amount of pressure - stress is something which in itself activates the circuitry of habit therefore making change even more challenging despite the best of intentions.
If your senior management are willing to participate in a mindfulness course, that is to say, willing to sit down and explore how an understanding of neuroscience and the practice of meditation might be of benefit to themselves as an individual. And through this inner exploration within the laboratory of their own minds how they might begin to create more ‘brain friendly’* organisations then please contact us about our ‘Being the Change We Seek’ Special Offer.
* Hilary Scarlett, Neuroscience for Organisational Change.
FAQs
These questions relate specifically to the commissioning of in-house mindfulness training. For general questions about mindfulness please see our general FAQs.
I would like to put forward a business case for offering mindfulness training, do you have any advice?
Following on from the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group's 'Mindful Nation UK' report (a great resource for anyone interested in the application of mindfulness interventions in education, health, the workplace and the criminal justice system) 'Building the Case for Mindfulness in the Workplace' offers a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to make the business case for Mindfulness in the Workplace.
You may also find the following articles helpful
- Mindfulness Works but Only if You Work at It by Megan Reitz and Michael Chaskalson for Harvard Business Review
- Here’s What Mindfulness Is (and Isn’t) Good For by Daniel Goleman for Harvard Business Review
- Mindfulness at Work: What do we really know? by Juliet Adams, Mindfulness at Work Facilitator and Author.
How can I be assured of good practice?
In addition to providing details of mindfulness instructors meeting the UK Good Practice Guidance for Mindfulness-Based Teachers the British Association for Mindfulness Based Approaches is also a helpful resource for anyone interested in training to teach mindfulness, offering guidance on good practice and pre-requisites for teacher training.I’m interested in exploring a particular area of research, do you have any advice?
In addition to more mindfulness resources than you can begin to imagine Mindfulnet.org, generously developed and maintained by Juliet Adams, offers an overview of research focussing specifically on workplace applications of mindfulness.
Can you give examples of organisations you have worked with?
We have been offering mindfulness training in organisations since 2010. In addition to the clients section offered on our website several examples of our experiences of working with local organisations are shared, as contributory authors, in Chapman-Clarke’s Mindfulness in the Workplace: An Evidence-based Approach to Improving Wellbeing and Maximizing Performance, alongside a thought leadership piece exploring the potential within the cultivation of skills which are conducive to insight as a means of responding to personal, professional and organisational challenges.
Is my organisation ready for mindfulness training?
Requests for mindfulness training often come from staff themselves, be it through curiosity or a personal interest. In circumstances where this isn’t the case those considering offering mindfulness training sometimes have concerns about how it will be received in their organisation. Whilst understandable we find that these concerns are generally unfounded, with most workshops and course places filling easily.
It is helpful though to try and find a good fit in terms of your choice of instructor. As a team we benefit both from different personal and professional backgrounds so will always do what we can to ensure this, be it through ourselves or another provider.
Given the many misconceptions about mindfulness we strongly recommend that courses are preceded by an introductory workshop. This allows misconceptions to be addressed, hence raising general awareness within the organisation and also allows individuals to understand the level of personal commitment required before choosing to attend a course.
How many people can attend an introductory workshop?
We generally say up to 25 people per workshop.We would love to offer mindfulness and compassion training but are not in a position to fund a course.
We are happy to work in partnership with local organisations to offer staff discounts allowing staff to benefit from our public programme of 8 week mindfulness courses at a reduced rate. Where organisations wish to cultivate a shared sense of responsibility for health and wellbeing it is also possible to offer staff discounts in conjunction with organisationally funded taster sessions.
We would love to offer mindfulness and compassion training but are not based in your area.
If you are interested in a particular area of our practice such as Mindfulness for Change, Compassionate Care or Insight-based HR/Insight-based leadership please get in touch as we may well still be able to offer training in partnership with other providers.
If you are looking for mindfulness training from a health and wellbeing perspective then please visit British Association for Mindfulness Based Approaches where you will find details of mindfulness instructors meeting the UK Good Practice Guidance for Mindfulness-Based Teachers.
Contact us
We welcome your interest in mindfulness and are happy to discuss any particular questions you have.
Please note though, we are a small team who spend much of our time out of the office. If you would like to arrange a time to speak the easiest way to do this is to email us suggesting times when you are available during the following week.
We aim to put our team’s wellbeing and our wish to model alternative ways of working above and beyond commitments to unrealistic response times. We are conscious that this can be counter-cultural and thank you for your patience.
