Mindfulness for Change Management Programmes

Recently, I was chatting with a friend who is the CEO of a large retail organisation in the UK – with tens of thousands of employees.  As many of you will be aware, the shape of retail is changing very quickly now; so retailers need to be able to adapt rapidly to new consumer demands, buying habits and service expectations.  It seems the only thing that isn’t changing is the need to embrace change itself!

With this in mind I went back and looked a number of case studies and research publications investigating the impact of mindfulness training in support of large change management programmes.

These studies from “change management initiatives” demonstrate that training in mindfulness makes employees:

More open to new ideas – less resistant, less anxious, less denial

Better able to deal with stress and challenges

Improved self-confidence and self-esteem – to embrace change

Mindfulness studies showed: –

  • 83% said meditation helped them through a significant change (processes, systems and jobs)
  • Those who rated their resilience as “High” increased from 10% to 70%
  • Those who rated their ability to handle stress  as “High” went from 11% to 66%
  • Emotional awareness (11% to 89%) positivity (16% to 84%) feeling in control (28 to 72%)
  • Prevents loss in trust and increase in job satisfaction

Moreover, it turns out that the major issues that reduce job satisfaction are:  “difficult relationships”, depersonalization (lack of control) and lack of personal accomplishment – especially as “change” may wash away the work and processes that staff have previously strived to implement or to master.  Yet mindfulness has been shown to improve each of these aspects.

So using “mindfulness to build resilience” must be a key activity when preparing for a period of corporate change.

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