Program overview

Stress and time pressure undermine our ability to listen, be patient, and be open to others’ ideas. In addition, the bias for action in most organizations forces us to rely on automatic, reactive thinking instead of deep, creative reflection from which we could learn more effectively. The result is a plethora of distracted minds, scattered attention, and anxiety. Even if we’re coping, the effort and personal cost is great. We need to get our heads above water.

Working Mind, a collaboration with the Kalapa Leadership Academy, is an evidence-based program that combines neuroscience and mindfulness to measurably improve focus, attention, and productivity. This program teaches how the brain and mind work to support or frustrate common workplace objectives, such as communication, collaboration, time management, focus and attention, teamwork, and decision-making.

How will my effectiveness improve from attending this program?

Using mindfulness practices, including meditation, this program prepares participants to experience measurable improvement in attention, awareness, engagement, and satisfaction at work. Together these new capacities and tactics enable participants to remove obstacles to being present, innovative, and optimistic – moving from distracted and disaffected to more satisfied and measurably more productive.

In this program, you will develop and learn how to:

  • Focus your attention and limit distraction in the workplace

  • Boost your emotional intelligence

  • Cultivate happiness in order to motivate performance

  • Reduce stress through mindful use of time and flow

  • Improve key relationships through expressing sympathy, empathy, and compassion

  • Communicate more effectively one-on-one

  • Build trust and collaboration with colleagues

Who should attend?

Working Mind is designed for senior leaders, managers, and emerging leaders in all functions who have responsibility for directing and inspiring people in their organizations.

What’s the program structure?

A series of six-to-eight 90-minute weekly workshops with an impact assessment at the start and end of the program. Each participant receives a personalized report showing program impact, and an aggregated report of program impact across each cohort is delivered to executive sponsors at the end.

Throughout the program, you will be applying course frameworks and tools to real workplace scenarios. We will support your learning and engagement through a mobile app containing content, learning activities, and encouragement from instructors.

How many people can attend?

A maximum of 24 participants.

What will be covered?

Introduction to mindfulness

  • How the pace, complexity, and stress of modern working life challenges our leadership by eroding focus, collaboration, and learning

  • What is mindfulness and what benefits it provides in the workplace

  • How mindfulness meditation works and how to practice

Time and flow

  • How time is perceived in the mind

  • How stress is caused by the mind being stuck in the past or future

  • Using mindfulness to create the right environment for experiencing flow

Attention and focus

  • The neurophysiology of attention

  • The harm and ineffectiveness of multitasking, and how our use of email trains the brain

  • Mindful practices for improving attention and focus

The intelligence of emotion

  • The role that sub-conscious mental processes play, and how emotions can help and hinder us

  • How emotions are embodied, and how we can tune into our emotional state through our body

  • Tools for mindfully regulating emotions

Happiness and engagement

  • The origins of happiness and the role it plays in motivating performance

  • What neurological states support or erode happiness

  • How mindfulness cultivates happiness

Compassion

  • How developing compassion provides benefits to cognition, stress reduction, and engagement

  • Techniques for developing sympathy, empathy, and compassion

  • Using rituals to ground behavior change

Mindful communication

  • How our brain is wired for social interaction

  • How our colleagues influence our effectiveness through mood, empathy, and emotions

  • How mindfulness can improve interpersonal communications

Trust and collaboration

  • How social cohesion drives productivity

  • Techniques for mindful presence and creating trust

  • Approaches for conducting mindful meetings and improving team performance