What can a Buddhist monk tell us about business?
Phra Anil Sakya, one of Thailand’s most senior Buddhist monks, teaches mindfulness to business executives and to criminals. In Rayong Central, a high-security prison with more than 7,000 inmates, his mindful cognitive therapy programme has an impressive record. Overall, a third of prisoners released from Thai prisons reoffend and are jailed again within three years but, according to Phra Anil, nine out of 10 inmates who do his course never return.
“I asked one murderer who had been paid to kill his victim, why?” Phra Anil recalls of one exchange. “He told me, ‘Venerable Sir, because killing is my job.’ Being mindful is knowing what is wrong or right for humanity, so when I speak to business executives, I teach them they have to put people before profit. Mindfulness is coming back to who you are, changing yourself first before trying to change others.”
“If we replace the word ‘mindfulness’ with ‘reflection’, it becomes a lot more approachable. We’re simply encouraging people to take time out and to reflect, abstract from the immediacy of the situation and look at the decisions they have to make from more of a distance,” Fenwick adds.
Yet, while studies have shown that mindfulness can improve self-esteem, reduce anxiety and help manage depression among many employees, psychologists have also warned that, for a small minority, some mindfulness practices can have an opposite effect, making people more anxious, even to the point of panic attacks. So, with many business schools rushing to add mindfulness and reflection to their syllabuses, how can executives discern what is promotional fluff or even counterproductive from what is genuinely effective?
“It’s our responsibility to use thoroughly researched, scientifically proven tools, methods and concepts,” says Tom Lindholm, managing director at Finland’s Aalto University Executive Education. Aalto’s programmes include a built-in personal development process designed to enhance self-development and self-awareness.
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Ian Wylie
