2015 Bits of Wisdom
How do you take the intention to be mindful and integrate it into work in the technology industry? What does it mean to be mindful in business? Leaders of organizations in the S.F. Bay Area met at the 5th annual Wisdom 2.0 conference to share, well, their wisdom.
I have intentionally practiced mindfulness since 1999 and have a particular interest in exploring how awareness changes communication. Here are paraphrased quotes from those who inspired me at the conference. I hope they inspire you to pause and pay attention.
Where neurons fire, they wire. Practicing good communication reinforces a positive brain pattern. – Dan Siegel, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine; Co-Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center; Author, Mindsight
Mind science shows that anxiety increases when we are around people of difference. Mindfulness helps people be with that anxiety and that allows people of difference to interact. – john a. powell, Executive Director, Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society; Professor of Law and Professor of African American Studies and Ethnic Studies at University of California Berkeley
Weapons of mass distraction are everywhere all the time . . . we must go offline in order to process. – Pico Iyer, Author, including TED Book – The Art of Stillness
Compassion is putting yourself in the shoes of those you don’t like. It is not easy. And it is certainly not soft. – Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn
There us a vicious circle of the flight from conversation. People are afraid to be with self, and, therefore, can’t truly be with others. Rule of three – we found that college students maintain a group conversation so long as three people in a group are looking up from their device. There is permission in the conversation to look down and then back up. This leads to very surface conversations – ones that can be maintained even when attention is fading in and out. – Sherry Turkle, Founder and Director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self; Author, Alone Together
Diversity is about brining together people of different background and characteristics to perpetuate innovation. Inclusion is about creating an environment where people feel they can bring their whole self to work. – Nancy Lee, Director of Diversity & Inclusion, Google
The reason you are here on earth deserves time, so make physical and psychological space for MUST. – Ella Luna, Artist; Author, The Crossroads of Should and Must
Instead of building identity by having, millennials are building identity by doing – using experiences to build social capital. – Julia Hartz, Co-Founder & President, Eventbrite
We bring mindfulness to BlackRock by connecting it to performance. People understand being in the past and being in the future: they pull experience from the past to make good decisions about the future. We position mindfulness as adding to that with the Present. Having skills to move between past, present, and future increases performance. Our Meditation Program offers training and resources to more than 1300 employees. – Golbie Kamarei, Global Program Manager, Global Client and Sales Excellence, BlackRock
Impact Hub Oakland is a perfect petri dish for addressing how we create a more equitable, compassionate society combining business and social justice. – Konda Mason, Co-Founder & CEO, Impact Hub Oakland
Political leaders need to talk about the science of Mindfulness and the hits if people are not ready to hear about it yet. – Tim Ryan, U.S. Congressman, Ohio; Author, A Mindful Nation
There needs to be a shift to full system optimization within an organization. That happens through awareness – it is not about anyone person it is about the mission. Evaluations need to be based on meeting the mission, not individual goals. – Fred Kofman, Vice President for Leadership and Organizational Development, LinkedIn
Leadership is about inspiring others to meet common objective through vision, conviction, and communication. – Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn
Effortless power is a place where you feel both the greatest ease and the greatest strength. – Christine Carter, Sociologist, UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center; Author, The Sweet Spot & Raising Happiness
Follow me @jennkammeyer to read more perspectives on communication