Consulting More Mindfully

This client is one of the world’s largest professional services firms whose people work under pressure and are expected to perform to high, often elite, standards to meet the needs of the firm and its clients. In order to achieve that, the firm needs its people to build confidence and to back themselves to deal with the fear and ambiguity that can come with the drive towards being unassailable in the marketplace.

Could mindfulness training help their people maintain high levels of resilience and agility in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world of professional services today?

To answer this question, the firm commissioned Michael to lead an 8-week Mindfulness for Resilience and High Performance training course designed for partners and senior directors – and to research the outcomes of that course. 

The training was delivered face-to-face to a group of around 15 attendees before the start of the working day in 8 x 75-minute sessions each week.

Using online research questionnaires, an independent researcher measured participants’ resilience and their overall levels of mindfulness before and after the training. Comparing these shows what had changed for them as a result of the course. Participants were also asked to log the amount of formal mindfulness practice that they undertook.

Findings in Brief

The data from those who completed both pre- and post-course surveys shows that following the course there were significant increases in both resilience and overall mindfulness.

The findings suggest that as a result of the training participants 

•       became more agile and were better at adapting to change. 
•       were better at responding to stress and pressure
•       responded better to uncertainty
•       had better understanding of other people’s perspectives
•       were more creative and better at generating options, opinions and choices
•       had greater awareness of themselves, others and the world around them 
•       and they were less mindlessly reactive.

 Mindfulness practice

While the course ran, the large majority of participants who reported undertook 3 to 5 days of formal mindfulness each week and practiced for at least 10-minutes a time (sometimes more).

A post-programme survey looking at qualitative outcomes from the course suggest:

•       82% of respondents said that the programme made a significant positive impact on them.
•       73% would recommend it to colleagues.

Although it had always been intended that the course be voluntary, communication slips meant that this wasn’t always seen to be the case and it is interesting to note that in the surveys respondents for whom attendance on the programme was seen to be voluntary appeared to get more from it than those who felt that it was not. 

 

Back to events