We’re moving into a new era of business and commerce where individuals demand the ethical sourcing of goods, the local sourcing of goods, the minimisation of the footprint of those goods on the planet, harmony between the goods, packaging and the waste created. The imprint left during the path of creation, use, and then finally, destruction or recycling.  This new environment and view on business is part of being a mindful organisation

 

What is Mindfulness?

Having the mind fully attending to what you’re doing, what’s happening, what’s going on, otherwise said, it’s the state of being conscious or being aware.

 

Mindfulness & Business

Mindfulness is not only doing good but will be a strategic advantage.  When properly used mindfulness is how we can change the way in which:

• customers interact
• employees interact
• how we bring happiness and a value outside of money because there is now enough money for most of us that we are nowhere near the poverty line anymore,
• we bring health and happiness back in balance, so we continue to profit from amazing experiences and things that we could never have dreamed of before.

 

Mindfulness now needs to be brought into all organisations, because we are at a point where
we have (relatively speaking to only a generation or two ago) so much money, yet no time, and little to no happiness – because as a society all we’ve done is pursued money relentlessly, and that has not made anyone happy ever.

 

Why Now?

Technology has enabled communication on a level that we’ve never had before, specifically the internet and our changing expectations socially

• The Internet has allowed anybody to have access to any information about anything. And so now because of that transparency, it’s easier for people to understand what companies are doing, but more to the point what the options are for companies to behave differently.
• Also, socially our expectations have changed. We now have money and freedom and travel like we never had before, and because we have all those things, we have the opportunity and the space to start desiring that companies we buy from become more ethical.
• We’re in a situation where we’re being told everyday that our planet is suffering, whether that is a consequence of a “big business” being mindful or not, is not the point.

 

Consequences of a Business not being Mindful

If companies aren’t mindful, they’re going to miss the opportunity to be able to service the new needs and wants of today’s customers and soon they will find that they no longer have their customers. These businesses will find they’ve been disrupted.  The consequences for companies and society if businesses are not mindful? Well, we don’t have to look very far. We can just go back and look over the last 30, 40, 50 years.  We’ve gone from pristine water, pristine skies, to a toxic environment (although there is so much hope – this can change in a heartbeat – as I will explain later).

 

Consequences of Society not being Mindful

If we don’t become mindful, we’re going to pursue being unhappy longer.  We’re going to see more problems in the workplace. We’re going to see more employees who are apathetic.  We need to be mindful so that we can be conscious of our patterns of behavior that no longer serve us.  We can’t keep doing the same thing we’ve done previously and expect different results. What we’re now able to do is choose. The actions we take will need to be made from mindfulness and self-awareness.

 

The Mindful Transformation

The transformation we are undergoing due to rapid growth through technology is remarkable.  Part of this transformation is for companies and people to move away from doing what they have always done.  This learned behavior doesn’t leave much space for creativity, innovation.  Being mindful is a path and companies now need individuals to be mindful, to be fully present with what they’re doing so they can suggest new ways of doing things and suggest new possibilities and be creative and innovative. Once we have mindful staff in companies, all of the actions within that company are going to be observed and so, therefore, companies are going to need to be more ethical or will be more ethical as a result of having mindful staff.

 

When we become Mindful

Businesses want profit, they’re mandated to produce a profit, but if we can produce that profit with purpose and the underlying tenant behind any growth is, healthy growth happens quicker; healthy growth happens broader, wider, and is more resilient than unhealthy growth (which is just unsustainable).

 

When we start evolving our capacity to innovate, to be creative, to work with technology, to bring out a new healthy way of doing business (new business models), it means we become disruptive and resilient.