When I was in the corporate world, I spent 11 years in one company There was a lot of constant change. We had a lot of restructures, quite a few different leaders and leadership styles, acquisitions, new processes, new software reporting tools and don’t forget all the “new rules”. I noticed that a lot of my colleagues found it disruptive and quite stressful.
In my experience, most corporates have great intentions to support their employees through all the change. The responsibility of support was usually residing with human resources, project managers and busy leaders. Unfortunately, most of these folks were caught up in the busyness and achieving their own KPIs and the desired outcomes like saving money or meeting deadlines. There was little time to really support the teams through all the change. Some people did not cope well with the change. Some voiced their displeasure. Some were very stressed and became unwell. Some even decided to move on. This ended up costing my company a lot of money.
With my 30 years of corporate experience and now that I am a fully certified Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence Facilitator, I understand how combing change management techniques with mindfulness to help people through difficult change can be beneficial. Individual staff can be guided through the complicated change journey in a private but very effective manner. They can become more self -aware and learn how to regulate their emotions and reactions to things. So many people tend to run on autopilot and are unable to stop and reflect on what is happening in their lives and how it may be impacting them.
I have first-hand experience of this scenario myself. I was running on autopilot through some major changes in my company and I was very stressed. On reflection I was quite often very anxious, frustrated and sometimes bitter about what was happening in my workplace. I ended up getting cancer and this changed my life forever. I have since made a great recovery from that challenging time in my life.
My advice would be to every HR Manager and Leader out there to think about combining Change Management with Mindfulness, so everyone feels supported and honoured in some way. It can also be a fabulous team building exercise and may just have a positive impact on your company culture. People often feel empowered and supported when they are well informed, and it can assist them with having control on how they will react to a situation.
In my experience Change Management and Mindfulness Meditation if done authentically can teach your staff:
- How to develop self-awareness
- How to communicate and work collaboratively
- How to focus attention and reduce mind chatter
- Strategies to enhance creativity and improve decision making
- Ways to reduce mental and emotional stress
- Practical ways to increase resilience and wellbeing
If you are about to go through some change in your workplace and would like to know how you could support your staff through the process get in touch NOW.