© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 Judi Neal Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation 10.1007/978-3-319-29587-9_27-1
Bringing Mindfulness and Joy to Work Action Research on Organizational Change Kathryn Goldman Schuyler1 , Michelle Olsen Taylor2 and Orit M. Wolberger3 (1) California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University and Coherent Change, San Francisco, CA, USA (2) Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah, USA USA (3) California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University, San Francisco, CA, USA
Kathryn Goldman Schuyler (Corresponding author) Email:
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Michelle Olsen Taylor Email:
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Orit M. Wolberger Email:
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Abstract We sought to enhance levels of mindfulness and joy in a 1,000-person Student Affairs organization of Utah Valley University (UVU) and used qualitative action research to assess the impact as we moved forward. We write here as a collaborative team sharing our voices as leader of change, process and organization consultant, and researcher. Mindfulness most often is brought into the workplace through trainings that focus on teaching and encouraging individual practice. The process tends to be one of the learning skills that are regarded as fundamentally individual. Instead, our intention was not only to support individual practice but also to generate a more mindful organizational culture, gradually, without pressure or force. Rather than training participants in specific skills, we invited them to seek mindful moments or “wake-up” and to chart their own path. This chapter defines our approach to mindfulness as awareness-based systems change, relates this to other approaches to mindfulness research, describes the value of a process approach to change, and tells our story. While many studies show the impact of mindfulness practices on productivity and stress management, our outcomes appear somewhat unique, in that the most consistent themes distilled from one-on-one confidential interviews with participants were an increased connection with one another, with nature, and with the meaning of their work. In other words, this approach, both here and in an earlier phase of this program of action research, seems to encourage people to sense their interdependence with the human and natural worlds in which they live. Keywords Mindfulness - Action research - Compassion - Healthy organization - Culture change Awareness - Leadership - Process philosophy
“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love [or work with], they will bloom like flowers.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
Introduction For centuries writers have described most human minds as being akin to monkeys or wild horses running and jumping where they will, dragging us about, leaving us restless, unquiet, and with at best a somewhat forced clarity in difficult situations. In contrast, they describe the awakened mind as being present, spacious, and somewhat like the sun in the sky: able to shine and illuminate all situations whether mountains or oceans or huge plains, populated cities, or uninhabited deserts or forests – shining and illuminating everything without judgment or attachment. Throughout history, people have sought teachers to help them shape and train their minds – whether to lead wisely or simply to live a good life. Such mind training and change can be seen as fundamental to both personal and organizational transformation. The authors of this chapter speak as a team who collaborated to enhance levels of mindfulness and joy in a 1,000-person Student Affairs organization of Utah Valley University (UVU). We approached this challenge through action research, which is one way that people can bring change into their lives and learn from the process of doing so (Reason and Bradbury 2008/2013). There are various ways of defining and doing action research projects. We accept a widely used definition that: Action research is a participatory process concerned with developing practical knowing in the pursuit of worthwhile human purposes. It seeks to bring together action and reflection, theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons and their communities. (Reason and Bradbury 2008/2013, p. 4) For this chapter, we are describing our project through three lenses that are considered core to action research. (For a description of how these three voices are essential for action research, see Reason and Torbert 2001, and for an example of their use with regard to meditation practice in an organizational context, see Bradbury 2013): The “I”: We offer our individual experiences from the perspectives of (a) the leader who sought to see happier faces in the room in meetings, (b) the consultant knowledgeable about both mindfulness and organization development , and (c) the researcher, gathering rich data about the process in order to learn more about change in organizations. This is the first person voice in action research, yet it is relatively uncommon to see what happens in a change process through the eyes of those in these three key roles. The “we”: This chapter is a synthesis distilled from our shared perspectives as a group of three people working together. This is the second person voice in action research. The third person: To create an assessment of the whole project, we had to step out of action to reflect together, in order to create something with value for others in comparable situations. We see two aspects of the third person in such collaborative action research: One aspect involves the shift of mind needed to relate our individual project to the scholarly world of research on mindfulness; a second aspect involves connecting our project to others’ action in the world. We write together to enrich understanding of the simplicity and complexity of doing a project like this, showing how such an approach
to mindfulness and change looks from these three different perspectives, providing an overview so that you can find your own way, in your own organization. This is the third person voice in action research. Kathryn Goldman Schuyler supported Michelle Olsen Taylor, the leader of the organization, and her team in adapting an approach to mindfulness that had been previously developed through another action research project (Goldman Schuyler et al. 2017). Because we wish sometimes to speak for ourselves in this chapter and at other times to speak with one voice, we will make clear at all times who the pronoun “I” refers to. Kathryn writes: I believe deeply that developing your own approach to shaping the organizational practices that translate into culture has the best likelihood of success. When one tries to create culture change by copying other organizations, it just doesn’t work. Culture comes from one’s own values and practices and history, and imitating anyone else’s is not a formula for success. Creating a healthy organizational culture means finding one’s way to listen to those in the organization and those it serves, nourishing both. We appreciate the contribution of the World Health Organization’s definition of health to our thinking about this issue: In 1946, the WHO defined health not in terms of preventing disease but of establishing wellness with regard to mind, body, and spirit (Goldman Schuyler et al. 2016). We also look at a healthy organization as Chris Argyris ( 1958) did: It is one that enables mature human functioning, which for us means being able to care compassionately for oneself and for others without losing sight of either, while moving comfortably between supporting organizational goals and taking initiative to create what is missing. The three authors of this chapter have a long-standing interest in creating a work environment that is joyful and nourishing. This was true for each of us for many years, before we began to collaborate for our work on mindfulness. We came to mindfulness from vastly different experience bases, yet all of us share a common sense of what is important at work and what is feasible with regard to creating an organizational culture and shifting norms toward such a culture. This is our story, yet it is more than just our story. We have studied and personally experienced varied approaches to mindfulness. We position our work in the context of what is known through research and also with regard to what each of us knows about organizational change and leadership . In writing this chapter, we intentionally asked each author to draft her own section without specifying exactly what it should address so we would get each one’s unique perspective: as the person conceptualizing the process, the leader in the field, and the researcher wanting to understand what actually happened in people’s experience. The skills for managing an organization and for writing chapters like this require a very different type of mind training from the practices we were inviting the participants to explore. To manage and write require structuring and planning – a very different part of cognition than being fully present. The two are quite distinct. This is also true in the work itself: To be effective in Student Affairs work, one needs to train and work from both aspects of the mind. We will first discuss mindfulness as a force in the world of organizations, then introduce you to our change process and the action research that led to it, share our three stories that give you a uniquely multi-lensed understanding of mindfulness and change as a living process, and finally explore the implications for developing your own version for your organization.
Mindfulness as a Force in the World In this section, we discuss three topics: How we define mindfulness and why
What research suggests about mindfulness How mindfulness fits with a process view of change
Defining Mindfulness The term mindfulness has roots in Buddhism, although many who are now using it in workplaces are not personally familiar with these roots, nor do they see value in remaining connected to them. Our experience suggests that it is of great value to learn from wise teachers who have experienced the farther reaches of human development that such practices can enable before attempting to distill a simple, practical approach for people at work. We value the possibility of such deep learning and feel the importance of working within the context of a particular organization and its culture. Therefore, our definition comes from these foundations but is expanded to suggest its relevance in organizational and societal change processes. As described by Sutcliffe et al. ( 2016), there is increasing convergence among researchers on defining mindfulness as attention to the present moment, either including only external awareness or also including attention to one’s mind. Most of the definitions currently in use are derived in some way from Kabat-Zinn’s ( 2011) groundbreaking work in developing the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Although we appreciate what mindfulness means coming from the context of South Asian Buddhist practice as Kabat Zinn brought it into medicine and psychological research, we find it more useful to conceptualize it as Otto Scharmer ( 2016) describes it in his large U-Lab courses which bring tens of thousands of people together worldwide to explore how to create change across existing platforms in many different countries around the world. As he has said: Mindfulness is the capacity to connect to the now and to pay attention to your attention. To not just be absorbed by the objects around you, but switch on this meta awareness, where you not only see something outside of you, but you also see your own seeing. … that meta-level awareness is what we refer to as mindfulness, the self-navigation capacity. (Scharmer 2016, No page) This seems appropriate because it defines mindfulness not only in terms of paying full attention but also includes the desired outcome – a meta-awareness of the system in which we are functioning: the social field. It refers to training one’s mind, as do all approaches to mindfulness, but it adds an intention toward the broader, systemic implications. As Scharmer continued, this moves “people from a mindset where the source of the problem is really ‘all these idiots around me’ towards a view of the system that includes my own contribution to the current situation” (Scharmer 2016, no page). Similarly, Senge ( 2012) has emphasized how meditation and related contemplative practices (he often speaks of “cultivation” rather than “mindfulness”) are essential for leaders of complex systems. Like Scharmer , he describes the importance of developing highly attuned listening – both to oneself and to others – so as to recognize how the ability to recognize things that are triggering you, to recognize the habits of your own thought, habits of your own emotion, and how they shape what you hear, is the first step in actually being able to listen to another, or to listen to anything. (p. 319) This connects directly with the role of mindfulness in facing global problems: most of the problems in the world, … like climate change, destruction of species, et cetera, have a common root in our consciousness, our ways of thinking that shape our ways of acting. …. From this perspective, change starts when you go upstream. You’ve got to deal with the lack of understanding and the lack of cultivation that all of us have in this world of how we perceive and what we perceive. (p. 320)
There is an old tradition that you see in many parts of the world that if you’re going to be in a position of authority, you should be a cultivator. Leaders should be people who are deeply involved in their own realization of becoming a human being. … in traditional Chinese culture it’s well understood that to be in a position of authority you must be a very advanced cultivator. The old saying was that the Emperor should be the wisest person in the land, and if not, then the Emperor’s advisor should be. While that’s an ideal that was not always reached, it symbolized an important connection between cultivation and leadership authority. (p. 326) During our collaboration, we have been influenced by this combination of Buddhist roots and awareness-based systems change. We seek through our work to support people at work in paying attention and being present to the moment, to themselves, and to one another in ways that help them to be more aware not just of traditional ways of focusing and calming the mind but also of noticing how each of us is part of a larger system of interactions. This focus is somewhat unique in current research, as we have not found any studies that have used action research combined with an organization development orientation to bring mindfulness into an organization.
What Research Suggests About Mindfulness in the Workplace Around the world, interest has been growing rapidly in the potential for mindfulness to make a difference in the workplace. Over the last decade, there has been increasing research with regard to how mindfulness can improve performance (Good et al. 2016), and it has also been widely researched in the fields of psychotherapy (Shapiro and Carlson 2009) and psychology (Brown et al. 2015). However, until recently there were relatively few studies about its value at work. Authors of newspaper articles, essays, and blogs made many claims, but very little research was being done to show what actually happened. This has been shifting, but the field is still in a relatively early stage of development. Initial evidence indicates that mindfulness affects interpersonal behavior and improves communication quality (Burgon et al. 2000). Dane and Brummel ( 2014) found that workplace mindfulness is positively related to job performance and work engagement. Glomb et al. ( 2011) suggested that mindfulness improves social relationships, increases resiliency, and improves task performance. Hülsheger et al. ( 2013) found that mindfulness positively impacts emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Shonin and Van Gordon ( 2015) concluded that meditation training among managers facilitated a change in attitudes toward work. Cleirigh and Greaney ( 2015) examined the effects of mindfulness training on task performance, further highlighting a possible association between increased group performance as a result of mindfulness training and increased group cohesion. For a recent thorough review, see Sutcliffe et al. ( 2016), who discussed how mindfulness has been defined when studied at both the individual and organizational levels and also considered areas for future research. Having reviewed over 100 studies and conceptual papers, they concluded that the research: suggests that mindfulness is a more social construct than its name, implied mechanisms, and measurement implies. As revealed through our organizational and cross-level investigation, mindfulness is embedded in and powerfully shaped by multiple aspects of context, both in how it is triggered and how it connects to other processes and individual and organizational outcomes. (p. 58) Because we are interested in how a leader can influence an organization to foster a healthy culture , much of the research is not particularly pertinent: The focus has generally been either on individual behaviors or else, at the organizational level, on avoiding error and maintaining technical high
performance (Sutcliffe et al. 2016). As mentioned above, we are interested in the contribution of mindfulness to creating a healthy system, one that is nourishing to its people, where they in turn are able to see their role both in creating positive outcomes and in contributing to unintended barriers along the way. From this perspective, one of the most important discoveries for managers coming out of mindfulness research is a recent finding that showed statistically significant improvement in “three capacities that are important for successful leadership in the twenty-first century: resilience, the capacity for collaboration, and the ability to lead in complex conditions” (Reitz and Chaskalson 2016, p. 3). Their study also showed the value of regular, daily, short formal practice sessions. Recently there has been a fair amount of controversy about whether mindfulness can be misused by being applied in corporations. Purser and Milillo ( 2015) dubbed such uses of mindfulness to improve performance in the workplace McMindfulness. They argued that in most cases, it has been used at a distance from its original roots and the larger ethical context. In the context of this debate about McMindfulness and how awareness practices are used in business, we find Kathryn’s earlier research (Goldman Schuyler et al. 2017), Reitz and Chaskalson’s ( 2016) important study, and Kathryn’s interviews with Margaret Wheatley, Bill George, and Peter Senge (Goldman Schuyler 2012a), and this action research project are all particularly valuable – as all of these enable us to see how mindfulness contributes to wise leadership and healthy organizations . Most research on mindfulness has been done quantitatively, specifying agreed-upon “variables” and measuring changes in them after participants follow a curriculum. We believe that self-report scales are problematic for assessing the development of mindfulness. In the first place, many of the research studies to develop and test these scales have been done with college students who did not have any depth of experience in mindfulness. In these and other studies, what is being measured is not what has been meant over the centuries as mindfulness, but a much weaker version of it, as historically mindfulness goes together with deep compassion: a combination that tends to require years of practice. It is not simply a series of behaviors that can be measured, but involves a quality of heart and mind that is natural for some people, yet which others do not arrive at despite training. Therefore, although it is evident from many studies that something can change through 8 weeks of training in either compassion or mindfulness, we wished to help people find their own way, within the work context, to pay attention to what mattered to them.
How Mindfulness Fits with a Process View of Change Traditional approaches to organizational change depict a linear model of change that involves a series of predictable steps that can be planned and managed (Graetz and Smith 2010). In contrast, over the past 15 years, theorists of organization behavior have expressed a growing awareness of change as a nonlinear and continuous process, often characterized by chaotic dynamics, in contrast with theories of planned change and emergent change that seem less valid for a world of constant flux (Macky and Chia 2013). A central tenet underpinning these approaches is the Heraclitean belief in the fluidity of an ever-changing reality. Rescher ( 1996) noted that Heraclitus may be seen as the founding father of process philosophy , which was influenced by his sixth-century BCE perception that “The river is not an object but an ever-changing flow; the sun is not a thing, but a flaming fire. Everything in nature is a matter of process, of activity, of change” (p. 10). Later, Van de Ven and Poole ( 2005) categorized scholarly work in the field of organization change and identified two different ontological views of organization: One pictures organizations as comprised of things, and the second focuses on organizing as processes. Van de Ven and Poole ( 2005) traced these differences back to the philosophies of Democritus and Heraclitus and summarized
Democritus pictured all of nature as composed of stable material substance or things that changed only in their positioning in space and time. Here the identity or substance of things does not change, only their development and adaptation in relation to other dimensions and properties. In contrast, Heraclitus viewed reality not as a constellation of things, but one of processes. (p.1378) Inspired by process philosophers , some scholars who study organizations have begun to see change in more fluid ways. For example, Antonacopoulou and Tsoukas ( 2002) wrote that “change is an intrinsic feature of reality, and we need to find new ways in which change may be studied and reported” (p. 859). Van de Ven and Poole ( 2005) and Tsoukas and Chia ( 2002) drew attention to “the … fluidity, pervasiveness, open-endedness and indivisibility” of change (Tsoukas and Chia 2002, p. 570). Chia ( 2014) has increasingly suggested looking at change as an organic process that can be better managed through acts of adaptation to an ongoing, ever-changing, and naturally occurring phenomenon. He proposed a radical shift in the way change management can be depicted, looking at change as a state of being in a reality that is in continuous flux. From this perspective, managing change does not require active interventions that become the source of anxiety and resistance. Instead, Chia ( 2014) suggested the concept of letting happen, inspired by the notion that “the world is perpetually changing, and that uncertainty, incompleteness of understanding and even lack of coherence lies at the core of all human endeavors” (p. 20). This contrasts with the traditional approach, which he views as “effort-intensive, energy-wasteful and, therefore, highly costly; much heat and friction is generated and wasted in overcoming incipient resistance” (Chia 2014, p. 22). Instead, Chia suggests a strategic approach to letting change happen – one that involves quiet and effortless insertions of silent transformation. When change is viewed as an ongoing state of being, mindfulness practice can contribute significantly. Through mindfulness practice that encourages being present to whatever is – allowing the mind “to simply relax again in objectlessness attention” or to “let go and simply rest our minds in bare attention” (Mingyur Rinpoche and Swanson 2009, pp 150-151) – people can allow genuinely novel ways of responding to emerge spontaneously as a consequence of local interactions. In place of “managing change,” the leader articulates a direction and engages people in exploring options and “letting change happen” (Chia 2014, p. 10). This worldview of change is similar to that of ancient Eastern thinkers and to much of Buddhist philosophy and practices. The possibility that such an outlook is available today for managers of change in organizations is very exciting.
Why Are We Bringing Mindfulness to Student Affairs? The Leader’s Perspective (Michelle Olsen Taylor) The roots of my interest in mindfulness go back to my early professional training and experiences. After completing a bachelor’s degree in educational psychology with an endorsement in special education in 1983, I began teaching students with disabilities in a locked behavioral residential facility. I found the work fulfilling but not creative, so after 6 years I transferred from teaching to marketing the residential treatment programs, which satisfied my creative juices – but I soon missed my first love, education. After obtaining a master’s degree in social work using the company’s tuition assistance program, I pondered what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I knew I wanted to be in a place where students chose to be, rather than had to be because they were locked up and forced to attend school.
I remember walking on the campus of what was then Utah Valley State College, which was created in 1941 to support training for World War II as Central Utah Vocational School. By 1995, the total head count had grown from under 200 to approximately 10,000 students. I could see students were thriving; there was a positive dynamic vibe. I loved it! I knew I could embrace a long career in this environment. I applied for a position as the director of accessibility services department (services for students with disabilities). At my final interview, my future boss asked me if I would be willing to complete a PhD if I got the position. “Of course,” I replied, not understanding what that entailed. I got the job and started a social work administration program the following year at the University of Utah. It was challenging to work full time while completing the doctoral course work and dissertation, but I relished learning how to think and write more critically. Because my first degree was educational psychology, I had a strong foundation in metacognition: thinking about one’s own thinking and learning about one’s own learning. As a special education teacher and later as an administrator in an open admissions’ higher education institution, I saw how teaching students the value of being aware of their own thinking and learning process developed a critical capacity in learning how to achieve educational success (Dunlosky and Metcalfe 2009; McGuire and McGuire 2015; Proust 2013; Staley 2015). This metacognition background primed me for a future interest in mindfulness: being aware of one’s own mind and thoughts. Over the next twenty years, I learned the culture of higher education while systematically taking on increasing responsibility as a director, associate dean, assistant, and associate vice president for student affairs. I believed I had found my lifework. I entered the position of Vice President of Student Affairs feeling confident that I had the skills and experience to do the job. However, I was not prepared for the firestorm I encountered when one of my first assignments was to terminate a long time employee, which unfortunately happened simultaneously with the forced departure of several other staff members. I quickly went from being a beloved employee on campus to being seen as the “ax woman,” (a water cooler title I abhorred) – clearly the most hated woman on campus. During this period, while attending a conference on leadership, I joined a breakout session on “Waking Up at Work” featuring Kathryn Goldman Schuyler discussing her action-oriented research. I became intrigued during the discussion. I had become so focused on problem solving, critical thinking, and resolving long-term difficulties in the Student Affairs division since becoming Vice President that I had transformed myself into a perpetually driven work machine. I was accomplishing goals and objectives, but my enjoyment of my dream job had hit an all-time low. How ironic: The job I had prepared and worked so hard to attain was deeply unpleasant. After the conference, I ordered Kathryn’s book Inner Peace—Global Impact: Tibetan Buddhism, Leadership, and Work (Goldman Schuyler 2012a) and read it cover to cover. Because the concepts of combining mindfulness with deep compassion for self and others were mind-blowing, I had to read it several times. At that point, I knew I understood just the tip of the subject matter. What I did know was how imperative it was to make changes in my work life by embracing the concept of focusing on the journey rather than the destination. The concepts of incorporating mindfulness and compassion into leadership were refreshing and different. The idea of it was exciting, to be present and mindful, instead of being compulsory about change. I was tired, overworked, and burned out. I missed the exhilaration I had felt in creating new pathways to education at the start of my career. One day, after walking to my car in the parking lot after a 12-hour grueling workday, I noticed that someone had keyed it from end to end! Not only did I not like my job at that moment, I felt that people actually disliked me. I was defeated. Either I had to make changes to improve things or I needed to leave higher education and pursue something different. If I could not give my best to the students (now 35,000) and employees (1000, 400 full time, 600 part
time) in the division to which I provided leadership while enjoying what I did, I did not want to do it anymore. If being mindful could create some peace and joy in my work again, I was ready. Then, while visiting Alaska at a higher education conference, I was filling a rental car with gas and noticed the mountains in the background. The scene was so beautiful; it took my breath away. Inside the station, I commented to the clerk how amazing the scenery was. I asked her if she was in awe every day going to work in such a beautiful setting. She looked at me strangely. “No,” she said. “I don’t even see it. I’ve got work to do.” I realized I was just like her. I saw the gorgeous landscape in Alaska, but I completely missed it living in Utah. Starting with awareness of my surroundings, I began to practice ways to be mindful during the workday. I did not want to miss that daily beautiful experience again. Each day on my 35-minute commute to work, I made a conscious effort to look at the Wasatch Mountains as I drove the freeway, especially Mount Timpanogos at sunrise. The colors were different every day, spectacular, and aweinspiring. Each day, coming and going, I made a conscious effort to enjoy my physical space. It was not long before I started looking forward to this experience. I began to focus on my breathing throughout the day and noticed how often I would hold my breath when I got nervous. Before each meeting, discussion, or project, I intentionally took deep calming breaths. I noticed an improvement immediately with focus and concentration (Hanson and Mendius 2009). I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier so I could meditate. Before I fell asleep, I would do the same thing. I quit working nonstop. I started taking a break for lunch and focusing on the taste, texture, and appeal of the food rather than keeping up with my emails (Hanh 2014). I declared my commute times to be work-free zones. I stopped thinking about work and creating lists of things to accomplish while driving and started listening to audio books on issues and topics that had nothing to do with work and everything to do with my own curiosity and personal growth. As I focused on the present, I was able to notice intrusive thoughts and let them go. I became aware of my own thinking in a way I had never done before. I set aside times to be grateful and used it to think, write, and visualize things I enjoyed and valued. I started being compassionate with myself as well as others (Salzberg 2014). I noticed I was feeling peace and joy throughout the day, not all day, but during moments throughout the day. I looked forward to getting up and having the opportunity to work each day, providing access to education and assisting 35,000 students to reach their educational goals and dreams. It all seemed too simple, perhaps even backwards. Doing less was actually helping me do more. About a year into my mindfulness journey, I was conducting the monthly Student Affairs directors’ meeting and became acutely aware of the pain that filled the room. The stress on the faces of the 50 directors who administered the support programs in the Student Affairs division was unmistakable. Instantly, I recognized my former self in the faces of the defeated employees in front of me. I wondered if I had caused this. Moreover, if I had caused it, I wanted to change it. Because I had personally experienced this transformation, I knew it was possible by making simple changes in the way the organization approached the work each day. I contacted Kathryn Goldman Schuyler and inquired if she would assist me in bringing mindfulness to my division. During her first visit, she interviewed many of the directors and gave a presentation on mindfulness. We also provided Kathryn’s books for them to read. Nothing was forced. If employees chose to participate, they were welcome to do so, if they did not, no problem. There was nothing attached to their performance evaluations. I invited directors to share their experiences with mindfulness if they felt comfortable doing so. Since then, many of them have volunteered to share their experiences at monthly meetings. A smaller group chose to meet separately to explore mindfulness at a deeper level, taking turns at leading the discussions.
Suggestions by directors for additional reading material resulted in choosing several books to discuss and explore together as a team. The first book, 10% Happier by Dan Harris ( 2014) was well received, highlighting how the author embraced mindfulness after having a panic attack on national television. Directors related to the author’s feelings of burn out, anxiety, and exhaustion. Utah Valley University (UVU) has experienced unprecedented growth at a time when state higher education funding has decreased. Because the mission of the university is to provide access to education (38% of students are first generation), every effort has been made to keep tuition and fees low (approximately $2,700 per semester). UVU is an open admission institution serving the region. Juxtaposed with the state rewarding performance (graduation rates) as opposed to growth (open access), employees are extremely dedicated to the mission of UVU but are continually expected to do more with less. Over the years, it had taken its toll on the morale of even the most dedicated employees. The second book we read together was Real Happiness at Work by Sharon Salzberg ( 2014). Directors appreciated the multiple quick mindful exercises that could be used as a toolbox for creating happiness at work under different situations. These steadfast Student Affairs’ employees did not see their work as a job, but as a calling. The significance of finding moments of joy during the workday cannot be understated. For most Student Affairs program directors, their work is not just a job, it is their lifework. They take their responsibilities and the impact they have making education accessible very seriously, not only for the students they serve but also for the generations who follow. Although the results of this new program have been very positive, there were obstacles to overcome. Directors were not interested in a belief system that would undermine the predominant religion in the state of Utah, with the epicenter being Utah County where the university is located (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as Mormon). Kathryn and I intentionally offered mindfulness practices that could be used creatively, not promoting a new belief system that could be seen as competing with employees’ religion. We did not present them as a formula or cookbook but also did not present them as a system of beliefs. The way we presented mindfulness invited all to design their own paths. This was done with upmost sensitivity to the importance that Mormons place on the eternal perspective rather than the present moment. If done with respect for all religions, a focus on mindfulness and compassion can complement any belief system and enhance, not hinder, any faith. It has been three years since I began exploring mindfulness and almost two since we began incorporating it into the Student Affairs organization. I no longer feel pain in the directors’ meetings. The 50 faces in the room are not full of stress and anxiety. The Student Affairs’ division has new energy and excitement. The heavy workload has not changed, but how we perceive and approach it as a team has. As a leader, I have been amazed that as I have been able to make positive changes personally, my employees have mirrored those changes. As I became less stressed and experienced moments of joy throughout the workdays, so did they. In many ways, we transformed together. It is a pleasure and an honor to have the opportunity to go to work each day. My excitement is as palpable as when I was a young idealistic college student who wanted to dedicate my life to education and change the world. The bureaucracy, complexity, and frustrations of working in a large organization have not changed. The communication exchanges with extremely difficult people and personalities have not changed. I have fundamentally changed, and it has made all the difference for me and the outstanding team members I have the honor of working with every day.
How Can “Waking Up” Contribute to Organization Change? Dreaming up a New Approach (Kathryn Goldman Schuyler) In working together, we (Michelle Olsen Taylor and I) made certain choices based on our own experience and study that are not common in bringing mindfulness into organizations. Most of the mindfulness programs we are familiar with involve bringing in trainers with a set curriculum. We instead chose to use Michelle’s wish to explore the value of mindfulness in her organization as an opportunity to further develop an approach that encourages the leader and community to find their own way, keeping it as simple and heartfelt as possible (see Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers ( 1998) for a book in this spirit). Coming out of a lifetime of work as both an organization development consultant and teacher of embodied awareness practices, I had been wanting to build on the exploratory approach to waking up that Susan Skjei and I had been exploring for several years through our action research (as described below). Michelle, with her depth of experience in assorted approaches to learning and individual development, sensed that the insights and awareness that she had gained personally from mindfulness after reading my book Inner Peace—Global Impact (Goldman Schuyler 2012a) would be invaluable to those members of her organization who were open to experimenting with it. We appreciated one another as people and as professionals with different skills (Kathryn with organization development and awareness/leadership training skills and Michelle with management and leadership skills). Both of us value collaborative work and saw this as an opportunity to create something new together that would, we hoped, benefit the 1000+ people in her organization. What is different here from the more typical approaches? While I had an approach, I did not have a specific curriculum or format: There was no assumption that people needed to learn over a weekend or over 8 weeks, nor even that there were specific skills to master and practice. What I believe is critical is the mindset of the leader and people involved. The process and my own terminology come from Buddhist ways of training the mind, but that is because I sought a long-lived tradition to find a way of teaching that has lasted. I regard Buddhist practice as something in between a laboratory studying human development and artists evolving themselves. I did not approach it as a curriculum or a religion, but as a way of working with what is hardest to address in human transformation and change, after years of studying and practicing many different approaches. The main foundation for this project is described in detail in “Moments of Waking Up: A Doorway to Mindfulness and Presence” (Goldman Schuyler et al. 2017). Some years ago, Susan Skjei and I became interested in merging research and practice. I had become intrigued with Tibetan Buddhism after looking for decades at varied paradigms of healthy organizations and leaders. I had explored Abraham Maslow’s studies of self-actualizing persons, Clayton Alderfer’s Existence-RelatednessGrowth approach, and Robert Kegan’s and William Torbert’s levels of adult development, looking for people manifesting special qualities of human development (Goldman 1979). I had experimented with use of various scales while teaching human development in a program I created and directed for 10 years at a community college. In attempting to use self-report scales to assess levels of adult development, it did not seem to me that the scales matched the students’ behaviors as I experienced them. I therefore grew less interested in measuring behavior or levels of development but retained my passion for facilitating such development. As I moved from working primarily with students at a community college to executive coaching and then to a combination of consulting and graduate teaching, it seemed to me that a qualitative approach, focusing on people’s experience, would help place solid ground under the measurements. It would help those of us interested in understanding the
relationship between human development practices and daily experience. I grew interested in Tibetan Buddhism, noticing the qualities of the Dalai Lama as a global thought leader (Goldman Schuyler 2012a). When people’s underlying attitudes shift from wanting fixity to accepting that being alive means being immersed in ongoing change – that is a meaningful transformation. What evolves is not complicated or complex. It means that gradually, through paying attention to being present and to one another, people start sensing one another’s basic goodness and the presence of what is often called the nature of mind – an appreciation we may feel for simply being human and connected with other beings and life itself. Note that we did not teach or preach these values. We simply asked people to notice moments in their lives when they were more present. During the first phase of our action research project we called these waking up moments (Goldman Schuyler et al. 2017). At UVU, we called them mindful moments. The intent was the same. As mentioned previously, in both the initial research project and at UVU we regarded our work as action research. Action research is ideal for such a process, because it reminds us of our commitment to action and to learning from what we do. It helps us remember to reflect, even where there doesn’t seem to be enough time. We used a grounded approach to our research, meaning that instead of making assumptions and starting with variables or fixed intentions as to what outcomes to expect, instead we asked the participants to simply look with interest at their own experiences. We would then learn from what they noticed. Action research is used in different ways, but fundamentally it involves taking a disciplined approach to learning from one’s actions and then taking further actions based upon what one learns (Reason and Bradbury 2008/2013). Too few consulting-based projects include such research. Too little research is based on the needs of organizations and their leaders (Austin and Bartunek 2003). In Phase 1 of our project on Waking Up, we had asked the participants to seek moments several times a week when they found themselves to be particular present or awake and take notes on these moments. This gave us their first-person comments on experience as data, and we later asked them to reflect on their experiences as well. Although I thought that what we had invited them to do was simple, Michelle repeatedly asked to make it simpler and more practical. She emphasized that people in her organization were already overworked and overwhelmed with paperwork, from strategic plans to accreditation reports. She didn’t want anything that would take additional personal time, such as asking participants to take notes on their practice (which had been core to Phase 1 of the process), but rather wanted something that had the quality of “less is more.” This focus on being practical was a key part of the design, along with our familiarity with a variety of awareness practices, so that we could be flexible as we saw how participants responded. In addition, the fact that we had no intention of relying on training was a key element of the way we approached bringing mindfulness to Student Affairs at UVU. This was very much an organization development approach , and we described it as such in meetings at the university. We thought a great deal about the culture of Orem, Utah, where the university is located. The culture surrounding an organization always affects those who work there and their beliefs and values. This may be particularly true in an area like Orem, where Mormon values are so prominent. The role of the leader is important in any change process. Without a leader whose way of being is consistent with what he or she wishes others to be and do, it is pointless to aim for deep or systemic change. However, while the change process was grounded in my deep familiarity with varied methods for developing mindfulness and compassion, we did not feel that Michelle needed to know these methods: what was important was that she live them. To teach mindfulness or sustain long-standing traditions of mindfulness, one needs extensive study of these practices, but leading means being mindful and compassionate – not being an expert or scholar in methods for becoming mindful (see
Goldman Schuyler 2016). Mintzberg ( 1987) worked to shift the paradigm in strategy development from multi-year, structured “planning” to “crafting” the new ways of doing business. We approached bringing mindfulness to Student Affairs at UVU similarly: We have been crafting a mindful culture, growing out of slow and natural shifts in people’s way of being with themselves and one another. I am excited about this as a model that can be adapted by other leaders for their own organizations.
What is Happening? The Researcher’s View (Orit M. Wolberger) In working toward my PhD in organizational psychology, I grew increasingly interested in both mindfulness and how change really occurs in organizations. Before beginning my studies, I had previously worked in marketing, with clients across industries in the United States and Israel, so I was familiar firsthand with the challenges of implementing change in organizations. Upon starting my studies, the typical descriptions of organization development (OD) that I read in my courses simply did not seem to fit what I saw. At a basic level, OD practitioners and theorists may use Lewin’s ( 1951) model of three phases of change (unfreeze-change-refreeze) as a generic recipe for organizational development (Weick and Quinn 1999). These approaches generally follow a linear, rational model controlled by a strong leader or guiding coalition (Graetz and Smith 2010). Moreover, many change consultants assume that organizational change involves a series of planned and managed steps, with change unfolding in a linear and predictable manner (Collins 1998). I realized that traditional approaches to the study of organizational change have been dominated by Western assumptions emphasizing stability, routine, and order as the fundamental features of reality (Chia 2002; Gersick 1991). Through my personal and professional experiences, I noticed that change is much more complex and multidimensional; our attempts to somehow control and manage it seem contradictory to its true, continuous nature. As I grew more interested in Eastern philosophies, I was intrigued by the notion that the world is a continuous becoming, nothing is fixed and permanent, and everything is subject to change and alteration (Hanh 1998; Rahula 1974). I began to think about mindfulness and how it might support change as I view it. I realized that I wanted to be part of action research, so my work would not only deepen scholarly knowledge but also empower an organization and the participants within it in continuing reflective practices at work. My interest in studying mindfulness and change fit perfectly with the project already in process at Utah Valley University’s Student Affairs (UVU), and I was invited to conduct my research as a part of this action research project. I first heard about this project from Dr. Goldman Schuyler (my dissertation chair) while I was on a work trip to a Bedouin village of Lakia in the south of Israel. I visited the village to meet with local leaders who decided to transform the early childhood education services in the village. I was thousands of miles away from Orem, Utah, but nevertheless the story of Michelle leading her organization with mindfulness was very compelling. I didn’t know much about Orem, had never visited Utah, and had very little knowledge about it. It was really late at night when I finished my conversation with Kathryn, and I recall thinking about the research. I looked around me, caught in a surreal sense, with a strong feeling that these worlds have more in common than it seems. Change was unfolding in a small Bedouin village in the Negev desert while another change was emerging in Orem, Utah. A few months later I was on my way from San Francisco to Orem. I visited UVU for a week in October 2016 to interview the participants in this project and see their world for myself. While there, I
conducted a total of 19 in-depth semi-structured interviews of approximately an hour each with people from across Student Affairs and participated in two of their meetings. Seventeen of the interviews were in person, one interview took place afterwards by phone, and the final interview was with Michelle Olsen Taylor at the Mind & Life International Symposium for Contemplative Studies several weeks later, where we presented a poster on our work ( https://www.mindandlife.org/ international-symposium-contemplative-studies/). The purpose of the interviews was to find out how participants would describe their experiences with mindfulness practices and how these interrelated with their experience of work-related change. I wanted to understand how whatever they did as their practice of mindfulness influenced how they are thinking about and talking about change in the workplace, and also in what ways these practices are supporting them through change. I hoped to learn to what extent mindfulness practice enhances a person's willingness to take responsibility and action for the good of the whole in the face of change, or to foster change in an emergent, collective, self-organizing way. I transcribed all of the interviews and finally had more than 250 pages of text which, for the dissertation, I will carefully code. For this chapter, I did not do a full analysis as one does in research, but instead analyzed the data more quickly as we generally do in consulting, to convey to clients the core of what is important. However, I have already read both the transcripts of the interviews and my field notes many times, highlighting, bolding, and color-coding rich and significant participant quotes and passages. The majority of the participants have been involved with UVU for many years, some even as students and later as employees of the university. They told with pride the story of how the organization had been growing rapidly over the years, as it changed from being a community college to becoming a university. UVU has been in a state of consistent flux: Given the growing demand and its historical role as an open admission institution, enrollment in the fall of 2016 reached 35,000 students. Most of the participants have witnessed firsthand the growth of the school; a number of participants in this group were students at the school when it had only 12,000 students and saw it grow over the years. UVU’s Student Affairs service line expanded due to this tremendous student growth, but with a relatively lean way of operating. The participants described burnout, fatigue, and struggles in finding healthy work/life balance. Although I am still analyzing the data in depth, I already see that reflective practices affected their experience of change through an alteration in their perspectives on three levels: how they related to here and now, how they connected with the meaning and purpose of work, and how they connected with others. At each of these three levels, participants described an enhanced quality of awareness and clarity. In addition, through all of these levels, their experience of the natural world surrounding them grew more important than it had been before they began to explore mindfulness practices. In many of my conversations with the participants, they described an experience of engaging at a deeper level with the mountains surrounding the valley. They described how the natural environment appeared with more clarity as an expression of here and now and a source of balance, stability, and reassurance. Participants also spoke about how nature became a reminder for them to maintain a healthier separation between work and home. As several said, Being present was a big piece of my mindfulness. It's being focused here: be here now…. I get off the freeway, and I have about ten minutes until the turn off to my house. At that turn off, I try to physically leave what I need to leave…. Then [I] drive home.… I drive up, and there's this mountain right here. … It's gorgeous. I focus on that. (2) It's different every day, and it's beautiful every day. Again, it helps me remember. Yeah. It is majestic to live here, and I am lucky to live here. It gives me that little bit of “yeah, this is all right.” (5)
I noticed that when I’m walking outside I can refocus and come back and look at something, and I feel I have more answers … more clarity I guess is the right word for it. (10) When I get to a certain point on my way home, at that point I say, “Okay, I’m done. I’m not working anymore.” (15) The majority of the participants described how mindfulness helped them get more in touch with the purpose and meaning of their jobs. It enabled them to connect with the aspects of work that provide them with meaning and satisfaction. Two of the participants described it this way, Take a moment and really think about it. Really think about how fortunate we are and that’s something …. I’m lucky. (5) That’s really why I’m here … to help them (the students) to grow and learn about how they interact with their community and the world around them … I feel like I’m trying to be more conscious of them, helping them talk through their feelings. (3) In addition, participants became aware of how they react and connect with others. This awareness allowed them to see with more clarity how their own behavior affects others and as a result, they were able to respond less unconsciously to negative situations around them. Participants described emotional clarity during meetings and conversations and connecting better with their own feelings and understanding the broader impact of their words and actions on others. As several described this process, I noticed that the interactions that I have with individuals are more positive, even if they're more stressed, and they come to my office, I've noticed that I'm more calm, and I sit back and just listen to them. (4) I think I set that tone right for my team. When I'm getting all worked up and unbalanced, and I'm not seeing those mindfulness moments, that falls onto my team as well. They can feel it. That just continues to cascade down. I can definitely tell a difference when I am not doing that, and the impact that it's having on my staff and others around me. (2) I think I have more compassion … I feel like I don’t judge or I don’t jump into conclusions maybe as fast as I used to. I want to listen more and try to listen and just understand from the other person’s point of view or where they are coming from. (7) Many participants described how they were able to have more awareness and clarity in performing their work, communicate better with others, and improve work-life balance. The interview data revealed processes of change as they were emerging in a continuous, open-ended, collective, and self-organizing way. Daily life at Student Affairs was described by the participants as having been stressful: associated with exhaustion and lack of focused attention both at work and at home. They described what happened as Michelle introduced her personal experience with mindfulness and invited them to explore it without forcing specific practices. They came to appreciate the quiet and effortless insertion of silent adaptation to a new way of doing things at Student Affairs. As routines of the reflective practices emerged for each of the participants, Michelle introduced more opportunities to engage in mindfulness and created a place and space for managers to share with each other mindful moments , practices, and experiences. These experiences were shared in small groups and larger groups, and a new language is starting to emerge. As one of the participants said, …the terminology, the verbiage, it now doesn't seem amorphous or theoretical. It's like … it's something I can talk about. (16) As I write this chapter, I am still analyzing the data in depth. However, I already see how our action research has implications both for implementing reflective practices in the workplace and for understanding change as it unfolds. The project shows how reflective practices can have positive effects on how individuals experience change. I believe that by moving toward a new model of
change management that integrates contemplative practices, change leaders and consultants can become better attuned to the self-organizing and ongoing nature of change.
Implications and Conclusions
Strategies for Introducing Mindfulness in Your Organization Based on our experience, we believe that mindfulness practices can be incorporated into any organization regardless of size or complexity, if this is done with thoughtful consideration of the culture and beliefs already established, working in harmony with the suggestions and ideas of the employees themselves. For this to happen, it is important to allow enough space for each individual in the organization to find his/her path. One needs to stay open to be able to see what is coming. There is no need for an agenda, but rather the leader can hold a vision, chart a path, and embrace the fluidity. Some points may be helpful. First and foremost, understand the culture of the organization and design a program that acknowledges and validates the complex situation employees are currently navigating. Ross and Nisbett ( 2011), in their groundbreaking book, The Person and the Situation, highlight the power of situational influences on behavior, whether focused on the individual or the organization. These situational factors include social pressures and expectations, which are both more important than what researchers have previously acknowledged. The very nature of traditional approaches to research is to control the variables as much as possible. Thus, the subtle details of the situation may not be accounted for and often come back to disrupt the implementer’s best intentions. Ignoring these factors may invite the failure that often accompanies taking a tightly controlled research design and implementing a large-scale organizational social intervention with disappointing results. Introducing change by designing a path that offers both structure and freedom for individuals to develop “their own handwriting,” as Kathryn’s teacher Moshe Feldenkrais used to say, may enable transformational change to evolve, rather than be imposed. Second, simple is better. Force is the enemy. The more effortless you can make the introduction of mindfulness, the more open will employees be to participating. Organizations are made up of individual employees who are often wary of the latest program or training they have been assigned to complete. Yes, they will complete it, if it is required. But that doesn’t guarantee that they have embraced it. Most often, it becomes one more item they can check off as completed on their everexpanding list of things to do on time and under budget. As Thich Nhat Hanh ( 2015, p.61) stated “Do we need a special effort to see the beauty of the sky? Do we have to practice in order to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy it. Each second, each minute of our lives can be like this.” Invite employees to experience mindfulness on their own terms, not as another work assignment. Third, create a collaboration between a knowledgeable consultant and the leader in introducing mindfulness to the organization. It is tempting for an overworked executive to want to turn over the change process to a consultant or to someone within the organization. However, the role of the consultant is not to create change in an organization: It is to work closely with the leader and organization as they craft a path that is right for them in the change process. The consultant needs to bring deep knowledge of what is being introduced (mindfulness) – not just as a set of tools but as a process that has already influenced his or her life through practice. And the consultant should also have deep experience with organization development and change, as facilitating such systemic change
is both a profession and an art. The journey is as important as the outcome (Goldman Schuyler 2012b). This is a core tenet both of genuine mindfulness and of effective organization development. And the leader should have an authentic voice, embody reflection, and role model these qualities to the group, holding space for participants to create their own paths within a view of a mindful organization. Certain questions seem important to consider if you are contemplating introducing such change in your own organization. How can you craft it so that it fits with the local beliefs and culture? Do you see value in connecting mindfulness with the culture of the organization, so that it is about “us” and how we do things, rather than being viewed as an individual process? Are you, as leader, willing to find the time to live this, rather than trying to bring in an expert to train others? Can mindfulness be something you personally embody, rather than it becoming another set of manipulative tools? Finally is this going to be another “flavor of the month” or can you craft a process that will allow it to slowly seep into your own and others’ ways of being with one another at work, so it becomes a richly nourishing meal that brings light and life into the workplace?
Mindfulness Practice at Work It has been exciting to sense that our approach may be generating outcomes that have a distinctly different quality than other approaches to mindfulness in organizations. Some researchers have seen improved performance (Dane and Brummel 2014; Good et al. 2016) and others have found executive learning with regard to resilience, the capacity for collaboration, and the ability to lead in complex conditions (Reitz and Chaskalson 2016), but none have commented on what we have found in both phases of our action research: the way that an enhanced connection to nature seems to develop and nourish a deeper sense of purpose (for discussion of outcomes of the earlier phase, see Cortés Urrutia 2016; Goldman Schuyler et al. 2017, and Koskela and Goldman Schuyler 2016). This consistency of results in two different action research projects suggests that the way we are approaching mindfulness may add something qualitatively distinct and valuable. In today’s world, finding meaning in work seems very important to younger workers, as does the sustainability of the planet, so a simple, nonsectarian approach to training our own minds that yields these outcomes may have broad value. In Buddhist traditions, how one approaches practice is called the view: the underlying assumptions that color what we do. The view underlying our action research was one that emphasized letting the mind rest in open awareness, encouraging each person to seek mindful moments with no constraints placed about where or how to do this. They were not given a “right way”: They had to find their own way. This is different from most of the mindfulness training being brought to organizations and business, as they language mindfulness in terms of relief from stress or improved work performance at an individual level or else enhanced accuracy and precision at an organizational level. Neither of these speak about deeper purpose, as our participants have done, both at UVU and in the earlier study. Hougaard and Carter ( 2016) define mindfulness as having two components. Focus, defined by them as “the ability to concentrate on what you’re doing in the moment” (Hougaard and Carter 2016, np), is similar to traditional Buddhist shamatha or mind-calming practices. However, they describe the other component, awareness, as the ability to avoid or reduce distractions. Open awareness on the other hand, can be defined as letting the mind rest undisturbed so as to sense its spaciousness and ease (Dalai Lama 2007; Mingyur Rinpoche and Swanson 2009). While it does seem that for many people a minimal amount of training is needed to let the mind rest, and for some of us many years of training are needed, our research suggests that when people experiment creatively with being present to themselves and the space where they are, they become aware of or connected to a larger sense of
purpose. Rather than simply calming the mind or disciplining the mind, it appears that our approach has, with two different populations, led to the participants feeling more connected with the world around them. The results of both projects showed clear themes of increased awareness of the importance of connection with nature and of sustainability. The participants at the university developed increased awareness of themselves emotionally and physically in their environment, as well as a sense of increased connection with the purpose of their work and with those they serve (the students). This suggests that our approach to waking up moments supports people in connecting with what Scharmer and Senge call a social field and with what so many regard as essential for meaningful work: a sense of purpose.
Action Research and Organizational Change Our approach to mindfulness and organizational change assumes that we, as human beings, already have within us the capacity to be awake to ourselves and one another. At the individual level, rather than training people to concentrate and learn methods that they experience as extrinsic to their mind and being, we have sought to help people notice moments of waking up, beauty, richness, or peace within their ongoing, busy lives. This invites more attention and intentionality in our daily lives. At the organizational level, our approach is to allow to things to evolve and emerge in an open-ended and self-organizing way within the context of providing a sense of direction – a path. This may enable individuals to find what fits for them and, as time progresses, create the right balance of what is right for them as a group. The three roles we have lived and described here as being important to action research – the leader, process consultant and coach, and researcher – each contribute in unique ways to formulating and creating a viable process of change. Working collaboratively enhances the capacity for meta-level awareness where all parties can see themselves, reflect upon their doing, and engage in an ongoing process of adaptation. A key value of action research is to create and sustain a space for conversation/dialogue among these three viewpoints/voices, whether they are embodied in three distinct people or are simply different voices within one person. A team of this sort can support the evolution of an organization through action research to become a lively and nourishing place to work. We were particularly interested in fostering the development of more mindful organizations, but we suspect that our approach is valuable for most types of organizational change and hope to see such change emerge in organizations around the world.
Cross-References An Overview of Mindfulness as a Transformative Practice for Individuals and Organizations It’s Not What You Do, It's Who You Are The Spiritual Wellspring of Being Leader Self Development, Maturation and Meditation: Elements of a Transformative Journey
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