Living Mindfully with Aruna Manathunge

Mindfulness in Organisations:

Being productive in unexpected ways

Improving productivity is a primary task within both private and government organisations. It has become a buzz word within the organisations, most of which have numerous programs, systems and measurement criteria to implement and monitor productivity.

Regular practice of Mindfulness helps develop productivity in unexpected, fulfilling and longer lasting ways. Its mechanism is deceptively simple and at times somewhat difficult to understand. Mindfulness improves productivity of the organisation by developing the potential of the workers as total human beings. Let's examine this further.

There are numerous proven methods used by organisations to uplift the productivity measurements. Some of these do produce results by making the organisations more productive at least in the short term. However, unless the pursuit of productivity is approached and addressed with a balanced human outlook, the methods used for gaining productivity can actually be detrimental to the organisations in the long run in immeasurable ways. This is well-known to the highly experienced Human Resource Managers.

Employees can be more focused and productive, but they could still feel a vague sense of dissatisfaction at the end of the day. Often, when they are productive, they feel the day has passed in a blur. They sit at the desk or at the respective workstation for hours and don't pay any attention to the tasks other than what they are doing. They eat the food while working and don't really taste it. They could be productive - but perhaps at the expense of other equally important things - which can actually hinder the productivity in the long term.

The limitations of a fixed productivity mindset

Our organisational cultures usually measure our worth by our efficiency and our abilities to perform various tasks. This focus on productivity has to have its place. However, an over focus on productivity actually robs us the very capacity to be productive in innovative and long lasting ways. This happens at two levels.

At the first level, an over emphasis on productivity - day in and day out can damage our natural capacity for joy and wonder as human beings. We will start to doubt whether it is worth to live our lives in this automated manner.

Secondly, we are always aiming at some future goal and judge our days by what we managed to produce - when we care only about productivity.

How we spend our Days is how we spend our Lives

Presence or awareness is a far more intricate and a rewarding skill that can help to develop the productivity of an organisation both in the short and long term in fulfilling ways. It develops gradually through Mindfulness training.

Mindfulness develops this presence by learning to focus on the present moment and judging our days more in term of our internal experiences and interactions. If we focus too much only on productivity - at the expense of presence or awareness, we might find our lives slipping away in a monotonous blur.

It is possible to get a good balance between the productivity and the presence through regular Mindfulness practice.

Rethinking productivity

Productivity has become such a buzzword that it can seem like it's a goal in itself. However, productivity is useless if what we are producing isn't meaningful or helpful to others or to us in some way. The reason we should really care about productivity is that it allows us to do things to our customers (whether private or government) as 'meaningfully' and as 'effectively' as possible. In other words, productivity isn't a goal but rather a tool for better achieving the goals of the organisation.

Productivity with Mindfulness

When we approach productivity as a tool, it is possible to produce while also being present as total human beings. Through Mindful exercises such as 'Listening to the Bell of Silence' and Eating a Single Raisin for Desert' we learn to slow down and appreciate the value of living in the moment with a presence and awareness. We learn to pay attention - naturally, as to how we feel at any given moment, acknowledge when we are distracted or unmotivated and understand why and what we can do about it.

Productivity through Mindfulness is invigorating and long lasting.

(Aruna Manathunge has practiced Mindfulness for over 42 years. During the past 7 years he has closely followed the development of Mind Science in the Western world. He has had a long career as the Country Head of Sri Lanka and the Head of the Indian Sub-Continent of an American Pharmaceutical Multinational company. Presently Aruna conducts Coaching in Mindfulness to Schools and Companies. Aruna can be contacted at [email protected])