The crimson sunrise over the Canadian Rockies sets the maple trees ablaze in a glory of autumn colors. Silently we sit together. Leaders, change champions. Mostly engineers. All are members of the Change Strategy teams from 6 leading companies: four major oil companies, one large utility corporation, an international construction company, and a University Hospital. Linking us are many shared concerns, aspirations, and challenges.
We are gathered here as the crew for a "Corporate Learning Expedition", sponsored by ICOD, the International Center for Organization Design for which we are senior faculty members. Our mission is to support each other in designing the most sustainable and successful organization for each company to meet the challenges of the next ten years. Over the course of the next year, we will meet together for four retreats, to share our knowledge, our experience, and support each team in formulating its most viable and sustainable organization design to meet the challenges of the decade ahead.
At the end of last evening's opening session, a leader from one of the four oil companies suggested that we set a time and place for some "focusing and centering" at the beginning of our intense and busy days. "Let's get together in the Glacier Vista Lounge at 7 a.m.," he said to the 50 expedition members. "Everyone is welcome and I've asked Joel and Michelle Levey to help us get focused with some coaching tips from their personal mastery training for the Green Berets, Olympic athletes, and other businesses like ours. I don't know about you, but I can use all the help I can get to keep my energy high on these long days where the stakes are high and the pressure is on. If you are interested, set your clock and join us in the morning."
As 7 a.m. approached I walked across the campus of the Banff Center toward our meeting room. Walking through the autumn leaves, I dodged the grazing elk. Round a corner I overheard a couple of engineers as they walked ahead of me. "I've read about this personal mastery stuff, but I've never really done anything like this before," said one. His buddy nodded and replied, "Yeah, me too. But look, if they did this kind of work with guys in Special Ops and with Olympic athletes, it can't be too new age. You know me, if it works, I'll use it. Who knows, maybe I'll pick up a few ideas to improve my golf game!"
We settled into the room just as the first rays of dawn ignited the maple tree outside into a blaze of autumn colors. By 7 a.m. nearly a third of the whole team had arrived. Most of them had never done anything like this before, especially at work, and the air was charged with a sense of curiosity and self-consciousness. "Amazing! I thought we'd only have a handful of people here. Look at all of us here," said our sponsor looking around with surprise and delight.
At the request of the group, Michelle and I offered a few simple suggestions to help people organize and focus their attention in preparation for the work to come. We explained that we'd take a three phase approach: first a few minutes to create context, then some brief instruction followed by 15 minutes to practice, and finally some time to share insights or ask questions before breakfast.
To create context we pointed out the value of doing the inner work necessary to improve the quality of our outer work. We introduced the notion that "control follows awareness" and explained that we can only manage what we are mindful of. We discussed the performance advantages of being mindful by contrasting it to mindlessness. When we are mindless, we noted, we lapse into reactivity, habit rules and it is impossible to be creative. Third, we explained how our capacity for complex and creative systems thinking is directly proportional to our development of the quiet mind skills which determine the quality of our attention.
"If you are like most people, you have already mastered mindlessness and distraction. This morning we would like to introduce you to some new skills and challenge you to learn how to be wholeheartedly present or mindful, focused here and now in the present moment. Upon reflection you will notice that this moment has two important characteristics. First, it is the only place that you have any leverage to create change in your life or work. Second, it is elusive, fleeting, and constantly changing. Recognizing this, you will understand that mindfulness represents a flow or continuity of attention. Our challenge is to build this continuity of mindfulness by learning how to catch the wave-form of awareness and ride it without falling off into mindlessness or distraction."
"With this in mind, let's learn how to develop our mindfulness." Having created some context for why to train, we offered a few guidelines for how to train. We suggested that people begin by focusing their intention or motivation. We explained that one of the first steps in focusing the mind is to be clear on intention. Knowing what is important to us can help to stabilize and focus the mind. To do this, we invited everyone to bring to mind the circle of "stakeholders" who would be influenced by their decisions: their co-workers and loved ones supporting them back home; their suppliers and customers spread all over the globe; the members of their local and regional communities who would be influenced by their work; and the generations to come who would live with the impact of their decisions.
Building on the clarity of intention, we invited people to begin to build the power of their mindfulness by focusing their attention on the natural flow of their breath. "As you inhale, simply know that you are breathing in. As you exhale... simply know that you are breathing out. As you breathe, begin to collect all your wandering thoughts or gather your loose ends, and to arrive fully focused right here and now. As you use your breathing to help you get focused, stay relaxed. If you have a tendency to try too hard, one strategy to keep from taking yourself too seriously is to hold a sort of half smile to your self inwardly as you enjoy your breathing. Use some discipline to keep your mind on what you are doing, so that when the time comes, you'll be better able to keep your mind on your work. As you are mindful of your breathing, be attentive to the emergence of distracting thoughts. If or when your attention wanders off notice if it is drawn to a fantasy of the future or to a memory of the past. Make a mental note of the distraction, and then as you inhale, simply draw your attention back to focus mindfully on what you are doing, being mindful of your breathing."
To help the people who were particularly distracted by the chatter of their internal dialogue, we suggested that they experiment with synchronizing their breathing with the quiet mental repetition of two words. We explained that since the mind is busy thinking or talking to itself most of the time, using a quiet mental recitation is an effective strategy to harness and focus mental activity in a more intentional and productive way. With each inhalation we suggested making a brief mental note, "Arriving..." and breathing out the mental note, "Home...". "Arriving..... Home..... Arriving... Home...". As an alternative we suggested that people could also experiment with, "Here.... Now..... Here..... Now..." if they preferred.
Having created some context and offered some simple instruction, we suggested that people simply stay with this mindful breathing for about 10 minutes in order to quiet, calm, and focus their minds.
After about ten minutes, I suggested that each person turn their attention to quietly think deeply and clearly about the work and strategic challenges of the day. We offered a reminder that if the mind wandered to unrelated thoughts that people be mindful of the distraction, and use discipline to return the focus of their thoughts to the subject they had chosen. At the end of these 15 deep and quiet minutes, we invited the group to debrief and to discuss their insights and inspirations about how their inner work had informed their outer work.
One of the engineers in charge of a new refinery commented, "I've done this kind of mental fitness training on my own for years, but never with a group of people that I work with. I've always wondered how it would be to work with a group of people who knew how to get focused and work in a more focused mind state together."
The foreman of a new drilling site commented, "I never knew that my mind could get so clear and quiet in such a short time. This is like learning how to push the clear button on my mental calculator. I never realized how learning to clear the slate could help me to think more deeply and clearly."
One of the senior vice presidents said, "You know I think my greatest learning from this morning is that other people that I work with are interested in this inner work too!" People nodded. Looking around his gaze met the eyes of people whom he worked with on a daily basis and people he had known for years from the other oil companies.
A plant manager for another drilling operation said, "You know I coach rugby and I've worked with some of these mental focusing techniques. What we did this morning was real affirming of what I've sort of learned from the inside out."
Then, the Director of Human Resources for another company spoke up, "It's really great to have others that I work with engaged in this inquiry. Just imagine if we were to begin our working sessions back at the office with some quiet time like this to get focused and collect our thoughts. It's inspiring to see how clear, calm and focused my thinking can be after such a short time. If we could do more of this work on an ongoing basis, we'd really be an unbeatable team!"
"My doctor's been telling me I've got to learn how to relax and let go of my stress or I'm going to have another heart attack," said one of the men, "I always thought this stuff was kind of strange, but you know this mindfulness of my breathing gives me a sense of my self like what I touch when I'm out fishing on a warm spring day. If I work at it, I bet I could tap into this sense of presence, clarity, and calm whenever I want. Wait till I tell my doc, will he ever be surprised." At that point someone laughed and chimed in, "OK, it's time to break this huddle and get to work. We've got 45 minutes before the whole team circles up. Who's ready for a cup of coffee and some breakfast?"
For the days that followed we continued to meet in the mornings before breakfast. Each day the circle grew as more of the team joined us. Some of the others who preferred to run, walk or sleep in made a point to join us for breakfast where the conversation tended to focus a lot on how the quality of mind is related to the quality of life and work. Questions about finding more balance between personal and professional life, and on how to improve one's golf game were common. For some, these quiet morning sessions provided a deep sense of communion and connection with themselves, their team, their natural surroundings, and what was most essential or sacred in their lives.
After one of the strategic planning meetings with the staff, some of the leaders who hadn't been attending the morning sessions invited me to lunch. They started talking about how the energy level and performance of the whole team had bumped up a notch since the morning focusing sessions had begun. As one of the Senior VPs put it, "You know, the members of our team who've been attending your morning sessions have really made some significant contributions to the breakthroughs that our team has had. I'm not sure what you've been doing in your morning sessions, but we'd like to encourage you to keep up the good work! We need all the inspiration and clear thinking we can get on our team if we're going to meet our goals, and this inner work seems to be making a real difference."
Over the months to come, this momentum continued and took different forms among the different company teams. When we flew in to Calgary to do some strategic work with one of the teams a month later, the Director of Operations gave us a call at the hotel, "Welcome back! Say, I forgot to tell you two to plan on showing up forty five minutes before our meetings start while you are here. Some of us have taken over the board room in the mornings to do some focusing work before work. Not everyone comes, but for those of us who do, it has made a difference. Some of us have some questions and want to see if we can bump our personal mastery work up a notch while you are in town. Will you come and join us?" I smiled at Michelle and said to him, "You've got a deal, we'll meet you at your office at 6:55 in the morning."