Ten employees at the Palo Alto headquarters of software giant SAP take their places for their regular Tuesday gathering. But this afternoon has nothing to do with pumping up enthusiasm to meet sales goals or brainstorming ideas for an amazing new application.
Instead, the group — a mix of men and women, executives and engineers — remove their shoes and arrange themselves in a circle on cushions and yoga mats. For the next half-hour, they will do nothing more than sit quietly, eyes closed, while focusing on the steady inhale and exhale of each breath.
Leading the meditation session is Hermann Lueckhoff, a chief development architect, who rings a bell and gently urges his colleagues to notice sensations in various parts of their bodies, as well as any thoughts that come up.
“But don’t analyze, don’t judge, just observe,” he tells them. “Then bring your attention to your breath.”
SAP’s twice-weekly meditation sessions represent one of the many ways that a growing number of companies — including Facebook, Twitter, eBay and insurance company Aetna — are incorporating the seemingly esoteric, non-Western practices of meditation, yoga and mindfulness into their workplaces.
Encouraging employees to take time out of a busy workday to enjoy some deep breathing and self-compassion seems antithetical to the hard-charging, high-tech nature of modern American business. Then again, the hard-charging way, mindfulness proponents say, has made many American workplaces toxic and draining. Perhaps it’s a reason why fewer than a third of American employees feel engaged by their work, according to a 2014 Gallup survey.
Improving employees’ “emotional intelligence” might be a better investment in time, experts say. Workers who feel more clarity, creativity and self-confidence may in turn become more innovative and engaged in contributing to a company’s success.
The mindfulness approach is the latest game-changing idea getting the Silicon Valley push, with Google leading the pack ever since 2007, when engineer Chade-Meng Tan developed its internal Search Inside Yourself training program. That program is the basis of the training that Germany-based SAP has rolled out to about 1,600 of its 76,000 employees.
Mindfulness in the workplace is also the subject of a Nov. 13-14 conference put on by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Panelists include Marc Lesser, former director of the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center who helped Meng develop the SIY program at Google and now runs the nonprofit SIY Leadership Institute in San Francisco, and Peter Bostelmann, a former SAP industrial engineer who brought mindfulness training to his company. About 400 attendees, including employees at conference sponsors Facebook, Google and Wells Fargo, expect to hear experts offer practical strategies on mindfulness as a way to transform corporate culture and employees’ lives.
Rich Caballero, SAP’s vice president for enterprise social software, says his work and home life have significantly improved since he began meditating four years ago as a way to deal with anxiety left over from childhood. He also wanted to become more patient with his kids, 7, 9 and 11, and less prone to anger at work.
“I was very much a success-oriented, goal-driven person,” he says. “I used to brag about not having any compassion. I realized that approach is great if I’m in a cubicle by myself, coding or doing Excel spreadsheets. It doesn’t work very well when you’re trying to get things done. Mindfulness has been huge in getting me in touch with myself, my body, my emotions.”
Through meditation, he’s learned how to focus on the places in his body where he holds emotions, and then on how to regulate them.
“I hold stress and anxiety in my stomach. Your body influences your mind, and your mind influences your body. I breathe into it. I find if I can settle my stomach and put it at ease, it stops sending those worry signals to my mind. Then I’ve got a clear mind and clear body, and I’m not stressed about the meeting I have later in the day. I’m actually getting stuff done and being productive.”
Since Caballero began meditating — he does it either in the SAP exercise room or at home in the evenings — he no longer fires off angry emails to colleagues and is better able to keep small misunderstandings from blowing up into major conflicts.
“People think this is touchy-feely ‘Kumbaya’-in-the-meadow stuff. But this is cutting-edge mental training,” says Bostelmann, who is now SAP’s director of mindfulness.
He likens meditation to working out to build physical strength and endurance. The concept of “neuroplasticity” holds that the brain forms new neural pathways in response to changes in behavior, environment, thinking and emotions. “Just like you work your muscles, you train your brain.”
Meng, who helped develop Google’s first mobile search service, said he initiated the SIY training at Google after discovering the growing number of studies that show how meditation positively affects brain physiology.
“First, being very skeptical and scientifically minded, I would be deeply embarrassed to teach anything without a strong scientific basis,” Meng has written.
For SAP’s Lueckhoff, who had been meditating on his own since his early 20s, learning about the science was revelatory.
“This was my aha moment, when I realized this has a measurable impact on how the mind works and how you perceive reality,” he says. “It’s also very relevant, not only for your life, but for your work life, which in the end, is not two different things.”
While intrigued by the science, Janaki Kumar, head of SAP’s Design and Co-innovation Center, simply liked how approachable the program is: “The best thing is the small steps. There are a variety techniques you can weave into your life and in any way you want.”
For her, that usually means 10 minutes of morning meditation and five minutes of evening journal writing. But because she’s adopted another mindfulness concept — self-compassion — she doesn’t beat herself up if she sometimes skips a day.
Kumar adds that mindfulness has made her a better listener, which has been extremely useful in improving customer relations. Increased self-awareness and an ability to manage uncomfortable feelings also have made Kumar and Caballero OK with not jumping in too quickly to solve problems and not knowing all the answers to questions posed by harried bosses or customers.
“It sometimes builds credibility to say, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Caballero says. “It’s also me saying, ‘Rich is human,’ so I build credibility in that respect.”
So far, an internal survey of 184 SAP employees suggests the company’s investment is paying off — at least in creating a more satisfied, engaged workforce among those who regularly meditate, write in their journals or engage in other mindfulness practices.
One employee wrote of feeling valued by the company for the first time in years, while another felt “peace,” despite an internal reorganization that led to job cuts.
Kumar, who juggles the demands of a large team and her own expectations to do well, likes knowing that all she needs to do is take a 10-minute break to settle her mind.
“With social media and so much technology around us,” she said, “it’s easy to get overwhelmed.”
Conference
What: Mindfulness and Well-Being at Work conference,
Who: Hosted by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center
When: Nov. 13 and 14, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Where: Zellerbach Playhouse, UC Berkeley (Nov. 13) and DoubleTree Inn, Berkeley (Nov. 14)
Cost: $279-$479
Info: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu (under “News and Events”)
Mindfulness IN SIX STEPS
Chade-Meng Tan, co-founder of mindfulness training at Google and of the nonprofit Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, says there is nothing mysterious about meditation. In his book, “Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace),” he offers some simple steps to give meditation a try:
1. Create an “intention,” a reason to meditate, whether it’s wanting to reduce stress, feel happy or increase your emotional intelligence for fun and profit.
2. You can meditate in any position — sitting, standing, lying down — as long as it allows you to “be alert and relaxed” at the same time.
3. Start with three slow deep breaths to draw in energy and relaxation.
4. Breathe naturally, bringing attention to your breath, for as long as you choose.
5. If, at any time, you feel distracted by a sensation, thought or sound, acknowledge it, experience it and gently let it go. Always, bring your attention back to your breath.
6. You can end the meditation by inviting joyful inner peace to arise, saying. “Breathing in, I am calm. Breathing out, I smile. The present moment. Wonderful.”
