FINDING LOVE ON THE JOB

The headline blared “Why You Hate Work.”

The New York Times article in the Sunday Review was about issues such as lack of work satisfaction, authenticity, employee engagement, freedom and leadership — things on which Jamie and I have built careers. Of course I was intrigued.

And then. And then…. Nothing new or surprising. Not a single revelation, illumination or expansion of the issues that have plagued the modern workplace for at least 30 years appeared in that valuable media real estate. It was a little disheartening.

The article included this statement of the what-should-be-obvious:

Employees are vastly more satisfied and productive, it turns out, when four of their core needs are met: physical, through opportunities to regularly renew and recharge at work; emotional, by feeling valued and appreciated for their contributions; mental, when they have the opportunity to focus in an absorbed way on their most important tasks and define when and where they get their work done; and spiritual, by doing more of what they do best and enjoy most, and by feeling connected to a higher purpose at work.

This article (which one friend of ours categorized as “advertorial”, but that’s another story for another day) cataloged a bundle of workplace woes that have been exposed ad nauseum in myriad ways. It also includes a 2013 worldwide survey of 12,115 workers (94 percent white collar, 6 percent blue collar) done by The Energy Project. This project underscores the rarity of the modern workplace that offers fulfillment and satisfaction. Among the 10 workplace deficits people cited were:

• No regular time for creative or strategic thinking

• Inability to focus on one thing at a time

• Few opportunities to do what is most enjoyed

• Low levels of meaning and significance

• Lack of connection to company’s mission

• No sense of community

• Few opportunities for learning and growth

• Lack of opportunities to do what you do best

• Inability to prioritize your tasks

• Lack of overall positive energy

For decades, thousands of books, consultants, leaders and organizations have been dedicating themselves to recognizing and addressing these problems. And yet the problems seem ever more intractable, leveraged by technology that plugs in people 24/7 yet drains them of energy. In addition, the propensity to put profits before human well-being is deeply entrenched, along with an unwillingness to make the connection that the two are intimately connected for true sustainability. We don’t have THE answer, but we know where answers can be easily found:

Yoga.

Everything on this list is something that yoga’s philosophy addresses. Not the Westernized version of “Tara Stiles in a glass box” yoga. This is yoga with no mat required, nor is it necessary to touch your toes, do a handstand or work your feet behind your head. It is ancient wisdom of yoga that offers the modern workplace culture simple, elegant (and free) ways to address all these issues.

The solutions offered up in this NYT article could have been ripped from the Yoga Sutras authored by the ancient Indian sage Patanjali. These simple practices, consistently lived, would quickly and easily solve the top 10 issues named on the The Energy Projects’ survey. Here are a few examples taken from yoga precepts:

• Practices in meditation, sense withdrawal and non-stealing (of time, energy, etc.) would create time for reflection and creativity. They also help people develop presence and compassion for others.

• The Sixth Limb,  dharana, translates as focus — which is about developing and strengthening the mind’s ability to be fully present in a given moment.

• Lack of connection to company mission and sense of community could be addressed by non-violence (compassion for others, recognizing human potential); practices in surrender (individual ego is surrendered to the good of the whole, fostering non-attachment); non-stealing (including the time and energy of others); discipline and zeal (ability to hang with the discomfort of change to experience growth) and more.

• The practice of non-greed would put a stop to the corporate practices that foster ever-increasing disparity (outlandish CEO bonuses, corporate jets and other unnecessary perks) as well as elevate compensation for people who do the work (the Costco vs. Sam’s Club example in the article illustrates this.)

Companies such as Aetna, General Mills and the Huffington Post are incorporating  yoga principles into the workplace. Other companies, such as Netflix and Zappo's, have policies that aren't called yoga, but certainly reflect the principles. This wisdom is simple but not simplistic. The practices are pragmatic and easily customized. Why not turn to this time-tested wisdom to create modern workplaces that people can fall in love with? In the end, everyone will reap from the benefits.

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"I HAD A FANTASTIC DAY!"

During our “working vacation” (is that an oxymoron or what?), we did a book event at the Boulder Book Store. Two of our children are recent Denver transplants, and we were delighted when our daughter, son-in-law, son and grandson came to support us.

Among the points we stress in our presentations is that yoga’s guiding principles are ultimately pragmatic, and we share ideas with people in the audience around creating personal practices that are useful at work.

The next day we were preparing for a family dinner with Sonnet and Chris, our daughter and son-in-law. Chris had just returned from a long day at Elevation Cycles, where he works. I asked how his day went. “Fantastic,” he said. “I had a fantastic day.”

“Well, that’s a good report,” I said. “What made the day so great?”

He revealed that using a meditation technique we had talked about during our book event helped him deliver outstanding service to a customer who presented some challenges.

Chris is passionate about cycling, and hence, bicycles. His shop is in a city that boasts one of the highest fitness levels in the country, and many of the customers who wander in are familiar with cycling and have ideas about what they’re looking for.

This day he was helping a woman with a speech impediment that made it difficult for him to understand what she was saying. She was overweight and wanted to start cycling as a path to fitness, but had no clue about what she wanted or how she should start. As he worked with her, Chris used breathing and the unobtrusive meditation practice to stay present to her needs and remind himself to be patient and compassionate. It was slow going, but together they chose an affordable bicycle that suited her needs. She left the shop happy with her purchase and excited about her plans to ride her way to better health.

The meditation practice Chris used came from our friend and fellow Berrett-Koehler author Noah Blumenthal (Be the Hero: Three Ways to Overcome Challenges in Work and in Life ). We began using it, and found it so useful that we included it in Yoga Wisdom at Work.  It’s short, simple, and yields immediate benefits that grow stronger with practice. Only a few seconds at a time are required. Here is how it works:

1. Deep inhale through the nose
2. Scan your body for stress, consciously relaxing any place you are holding tension
3. Silently say a focus word or intention (Chris used the word “patience”)
4. Release your breath, again through the nose
5. Smile

The technique is based on neuroscience. The idea is to connect a desired intention or behavior with breathing, body awareness, and a positive mood. (The smile is important!) Repetition is key, since each experience fires neurons in your brain that eventually “rewire” it in a way that creates good habits around your intention. Noah suggests doing the technique 20-30 times a day. He uses a phone app that gives him a quiet signal every 15 minutes. Because it’s so quick and unobtrusive, he can do it even if he’s on the phone or working with clients.  

We were tickled that Chris chose to employ the technique we described, and even happier that it helped him transform a potentially aggravating situation into a “fantastic” experience for him and his customer. Plus, it gave us one more story to tell about the usefulness of yoga wisdom at work.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR YOGA

Yoga was among many unexpected gifts I got from my journalism career thanks to a yoga class sponsored by the Sun-Sentinel, a Florida newspaper where I worked for several years. On Tuesday nights, several coworkers and I would gather in an empty conference room and practice with a teacher who was paid by the paper. The class was simultaneously relaxing and energizing, and I’m convinced those classes helped me work better.

Employees at General Mills do yoga.

It’s heartening to hear about other companies that have discovered yoga’s workplace benefits. Free yoga and meditation classes are one of the perks Google offers to its employees, for example. Other large companies such as General Mills, Apple, Forbes, GE and Microsoft also have found ways to integrate yoga and meditation into the workplace.

Wish you had yoga at your workplace? Make a business case for it! Here are just a few selling points you could use to persuade your employer that it is a good investment to provide or subsidize yoga classes:

Yoga practices such as meditation enhance emotional intelligence. Chade Meng Tan, who developed a mindfulness meditation course at Google, says it has increased emotional intelligence in employees that practice. That helps people be more effective at work. After doing a story on meditation, Oprah Winfrey began practicing twice daily with a handful of colleagues, and soon everyone wanted in the action. In an interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz, she said the office benefited from improved relationships and more meaningful interactions.

Oprah Winfrey meditates at work

The health benefits of yoga could lead to higher productivity and less absenteeism. Oprah also told Oz that after meditation, employees reported getting better sleep, making for more refreshed, alert employees. Some even said they stopped getting migraines. A study published in a 2008 issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine showed that after taking up yoga, military veterans with chronic low back pain reported a significant reduction in pain, along with improvements in mood, energy, and quality of life. And the Mayo Clinic website recommends yoga as a method of stress release, physical fitness, weight management, and managing chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, cancer, depression, and insomnia.

Employees improve their ability to handle stress. In an interview we did for Yoga Wisdom at Work, the Human Resources director at an internationally known U.S. health resort said that a meditation practice become the deciding factor for hiring a Technology Director. Although three finalists for the job were equally qualified, decision makers believed that meditation practice would help him better handle the demanding, high-stress job. He proved them right. “He is always smiling and serene, and made a big impact in a short time,” the HR director told us.

Developing the ability to “be present” leads to better focus and happiness: One of the precepts of yoga is dharana, or focus, a practice of training the mind to stay full present. Instead of encouraging multi-tasking — which scientific research has shown to be impossible and counterproductive  — yoga practice can help people learn to focus and stay on task. Research highlighted in a Tedx talk by Matthew Killingsworth shows that learning to control mind wandering is a key factor in reported happiness.

Happy, healthy, focused employees will affect profitability: Numerous research studies have linked health and happiness in employees to improved customer service, greater productivity and loyalty to the enterprise, lower healthcare costs and lower staff turnover — all of which improve the bottom line.