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In this weeks podcast, Mike and Ryan talk about mindfulness at work. Mindfulness at work is about being open and present in the moment and actively thinking about how to add the most value for your organization, rather than practices like meditation and yoga that are characteristic of personal mindfulness.
Mike and Ryan explain what mindfulness at work entails and why it is so important, and share some of their own mindfulness practices as well as tips on how to get started on being more mindful at work.
Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs where we help unlock the potential in you, your teams and your business. Hosted by Ryan Castle, along with Dr Mike Ashby, we share insights, experiences and stories on achieving breakthrough successes in business and life. In addition to a podcast, The Breakthrough also specialises in delivering management training that actually sticks, is cost effective, and easy to implement at scale to sustain change from the inside out.
Welcome to Business Leader Breakthroughs where we help unlock the potential in you, your teams and your business. I'm your host Ryan Castle along with Doctor Mike Ashby. We share insights, experiences and stories on achieving breakthrough success in business and life. In addition to a podcast, The Breakthroughs is a coaching and advisory business that provides programs for business leaders, owners, and managers to develop your skills and capabilities to boost your business and enjoy a better life. Learn more, click the link in the episode show notes or go to thebreakthrough.co.
Ryan Castle:Let the breakthroughs begin. Mike, welcome into this week's episode of the podcast.
Mike Ashby:Thanks
Ryan Castle:Ryan. Yeah. Great to be here again.
Mike Ashby:Great to be here.
Ryan Castle:We've got a topic we'd like to discuss today and it's around mindfulness. Something that many of us have probably associated with meditation, yoga, there's probably an entire movement currently around people living their lives in a more mindful way. Everything from taking care and thinking about how you're eating to taking time out to ponder life. What's our context around mindfulness?
Mike Ashby:Our context is mindfulness at work and it's at both levels of physically at work and mindfulness in kind of operation, if you like. It's based steeped in the Eastern tradition, particularly around Buddhism. And it is about simply being present and open in the moment. Now, you know, at the moment, yeah, for the last few years, the last maybe twenty years, it's probably been, well, ten to fifteen years, it's been coming into vogue pretty heavily. A lot of association with meditation, which is wonderful.
Mike Ashby:We're both proponents of meditation. But mindfulness at work is a different piece. And it really is quite a fundamental philosophy that we've got in our programs about the stuff at work is they're actually all vehicles for exercising mindfulness. And there's no meditation involved. Mindfulness is simply being present and open and engaged in the moment.
Mike Ashby:I guess the setting for that is that most of us live in default settings. We cruise on autopilot, we do what we've always done, our brains, you know, they use a lot of energy so what we what our brains like to do is seek out the familiar. Our brains, our minds are always likely to go for the easy answer over the right answer.
Ryan Castle:And habit.
Mike Ashby:Because Habit. We know
Ryan Castle:Because habit takes very little conscious thought. Yeah. It's something we can just cruise on through. We've probably all done that one where we've driven to work. Yeah.
Ryan Castle:And gone, you know what, can't remember a single part of that drive because it was all on autopilot, it was through through habit. And if we bring that autopilot state into our workday life, our chance of greatness is reasonably slim.
Mike Ashby:Our path to greatness is somewhat is. And I think the autopilot bit is again our brains, the habit bit enables our brains to switch off. And our brains, because they consume 75% of our energy in a day, even the thought process consumes energy. So quicker just to go to what you know, stick with the habit, stick with the instinct as opposed to the conscious thought.
Ryan Castle:Before we get to how you might build mindfulness into your work environment, what does the lack of mindfulness look like?
Mike Ashby:More of the same. It looks like doing the same thing over and over and somehow expecting a different result doesn't happen.
Ryan Castle:I observe a lot of people operating in the busy and they are in this mindset, I've just got so much to do and I don't have enough time to do it and they're really just jumping from one thing to the next, not really being very present around what is this task or this next project that I'm doing? Is it gonna add value to the organization? Is it the best next use of my time, my resource, my energy? And really just jumping from one thing to the next. We see a lot of, or I observe a lot of people doing inbox reaction.
Ryan Castle:So what's the latest thing that's arrived on top of my inbox? Has it got an urgent marker on a call? I'll just jump in and start start doing that. Totally. Not actually stopping to reflect and and be mindful about is that the next best thing to be doing.
Mike Ashby:Kinda kind of mistaking activity for results.
Ryan Castle:Yep. That's great insight.
Mike Ashby:We we saw a recently a very good example of someone who is in the middle of a project and they've got lots of bits and but they're all just bits and they're just transactions and solutions to this problem and that problem and that problem. And he's trying to juggle all these pieces. In fact, what's missing is a thought about what is the bigger picture here? Yes. You know, we've got a whole agenda of things that need to get done and move forward and shove through, etcetera, etcetera.
Mike Ashby:What is the overall piece and how does this fit and would we be better? There's a whole layer of thinking missing. You can just see that it's kind of unrelated bits as opposed to starting from, you know, we talked in a podcast about principles. Yes. And one of the principles being, know, what is it that we're trying to achieve here?
Mike Ashby:And then which would be the bits that would make sense? You might come up with the same answer. I bet you wouldn't. I bet you'd come up with more patience, a more thoughtful approach, a more thought through approach, which is going to be more sustainable and enduring. I mean, you just chuck solutions at things and random activities, all you're really doing is kind of, you know, you're like one of those lovely swans, beautiful and graceful and underneath your feet are going like this, right?
Mike Ashby:So they're not actually moving things through mindfully, you know, deliberately and with purpose. It's always a challenge at work when there's a lot on, is to step back and say, you know, and we've got a lot of activity at the moment this in these last few and there's a lot going forward and part of what I'm trying to do and I can feel myself sort of struggling with it, want to get in and do this and do that and do that. Hold fire, hold on, think. Think about what it is that we're trying to get to the much bigger picture, just the next, you know, the next few weeks or the next month or even the next three months. It's think, what do we do now that takes us towards where we want to be in three years, not three weeks.
Ryan Castle:Correct.
Mike Ashby:And that doesn't mean, you know, I can't always sit there and contemplate and because that wouldn't work, would it? No. No.
Ryan Castle:Certainly not. Look, I find some things that work well for me. Firstly, the acknowledgement that there will always be more things to do than there is time to do it. Like, let's just acknowledge that fact. I've been asking business owners and business leaders for years, have you ever left the office at the end of the day and not have another single thing you could do?
Ryan Castle:I'm yet to have someone say that's been my case. Alright, so there's always will be more to be done. That suggests that we have to get really clear on we've got more to do than we've got time so what are we going to spend our time on? Exactly. Yeah.
Ryan Castle:Second one that works well for me is my development day, which we've talked about previously. The importance of stop doing the task activity, spend the time on the business, going how are we going to grow and evolve and what does our three year picture look like not our three week picture and then I or we as an organization we use a application called Asana for our task and project management and figuring out what we need to do. So I really have two core projects that I run. One I call my helicopter project
Mike Ashby:Right.
Ryan Castle:Which is looking at the organization overall, giving consideration for where we're headed, what's our vision, what are the core components, people, customers, products, know that really high level helicopter view literally. I review that once a week going you know where are we headed, are we still trying to nail these things and then I have my simply called my to do project, which is where I go right from what is my next most important activity and and that good approach of to do, doing, and done, and there can only ever be one thing in the doing column.
Mike Ashby:Yeah. Yeah. We can be systematic about mindfulness. We can have systems and processes that support mindfulness and that's one of them, know, the principles that we've talked about. So one of the principles we operate on, as you say, is there's only one thing in the doing column.
Mike Ashby:There can only be one thing. It's actually a good mindfulness thing because the easiest thing in the world is to just start this, start that, start that, and you've 17 things that are underway and none actually getting finished. Whereas if you've got to go, and we've talked about this, choose one. That's such a great mindfulness principle. Of all the things you could do, you may only choose one.
Mike Ashby:That will force you to go, of all of those, that one there is the most important. That's an act of mindfulness. You are present, you're engaged, you're going, there's all this stuff going, you know, you're actually thinking about as opposed to just going in alphabetical order or date order or
Ryan Castle:the list
Mike Ashby:of, you know, whichever one's been kind of written over the most with the most exclamation marks, you know? So even that is an example of mindfulness. But if you want to go further, that's in the project and that kind of prompt. The challenge is that in the normal course of events to get yourself into that mindfulness. Go into active mode.
Mike Ashby:When this happens, when you're trying to make a decision, when you're trying to have a difficult conversation, stop. That's what you're do first, Is stop. And what you're stopping is your brain. Because your brain's going, it's running through that program. It's like when you turn on your computer, you know, if it's a Mac, goes very fast, right?
Mike Ashby:The Windows
Ryan Castle:We don't have time in this podcast to review, you know, Apple versus Windows. So let's
Mike Ashby:So after the kind of fifteen minutes, Windows takes to kind of start. But that's, you know, that's what goes on in our brain. Right? Is there's a whole lot of worrying going on as all our programs of what we know, what we've learned, and the habits of thought. They all run and take us to a place.
Mike Ashby:Stop the program. Stop it there and go, what's the best thing to do in this situation? What is really There's a lovely quote from, I think it's the Tau of Leadership' something I read years and years and years ago. Something that stuck in my mind. The wise leader looks to what's really going on.
Mike Ashby:And it's such a lovely concept that there's all the stuff and the events and the conversations and everything else. What's the pattern? What's the meaning of what's going on here? And that's, you know, that is mindfulness. Mindfulness at work.
Ryan Castle:Yep. So if someone was wanting to start with being more mindful at work, what would be some easy tips for them to get started?
Mike Ashby:Well, guess the next time that you're gonna start an activity, the next piece of work you're going to do and whatever it is, stop and say to yourself, Is this something only I can do?
Ryan Castle:That's a question.
Mike Ashby:That's a great first question because they're like, Oh, well no, actually somebody else could do it well so why are you doing it? And you might choose, you might go, there's another opportunity for mindfulness because you can go, ah, no I didn't answer that question and just do it. It's bloody annoying, know, mindfulness question. Or you might say, well because they don't or I don't or whatever and then you're suddenly there and looking at the reality of the situation as opposed to the appearance of the situation. So the symptom is, I've got to do this thing.
Mike Ashby:But the reality is, I'm doing it because I don't have confidence in this person's ability because I haven't trained them because etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Great place to start.
Ryan Castle:I think that's a really good place to start and then trying to identify the next piece that's going to add value or is literally important, not urgent. And we've mentioned previously that idea of going just pausing for a moment going, how important is this thing going to be tomorrow, next week, next month, next year? And it really gives you some space to go, actually, you know, maybe this thing is not that And we've done that with our members and quite often what they thought was the next most important thing when they've given it the space to go how important will this be in a month's time. They're actually like, you know what? That is not the most important thing I should do next.
Mike Ashby:And that's another great mindfulness at work prompt. How important is this? Because it makes you stop and it makes you think and you have to engage your brain. Because when you're saying how important is this, you're doing something that our brains actually really try to avoid. You know, you're asking your brain to do the hardest thing in a way because you're saying it's like priorities.
Mike Ashby:It's going how important is this relative to that and that and that?' And then you imagine a future where you've done that and you imagine a future where you've done that and you say, well, that's a better future than this. You know, it's actually quite a calculation. That's mindfulness. As opposed to just going, oh, that. Because it's either easier or faster or somebody's screaming for it or whatever else, which is just default thinking.
Mike Ashby:Actually choosing, mindfully choosing this over that, it is an exercise in mindfulness. So you've been deliberate to that extent.
Ryan Castle:For those of you who may be a little skeptical around mindfulness, and I think there is a certain amount of the population that are like, oh mindfulness it's that, all that stuff. Just think about if you had every single person in your organization thinking very what we call actively or mindfully every time they're about to start something they were going asking some of these questions. We've seen it. We know what a difference it makes to organizations. It's transformational having having your whole organization thinking through in that way.
Ryan Castle:So give that mindfulness a try when you're about to start your next task. Stop and ask some of those questions about what's going see how it works for you and I think that's a wrap for today.
Mike Ashby:That's a wrap. Thanks Ryan.
Ryan Castle:Okay thanks guys bye bye. Cheers.