TEAM RITUALS IMPROVE TEAM OUTCOMES
Our 2018 initiative was to launch a corporate-wide meditation & mindful leadership program. We call this program, “The Power of Pause” (trademark pending). What happens when we start our task, our meeting, or conference call by taking a pause? Human behavior research shows that performing a team ritual together it helps to build trust, bring everybody together towards a common goal, and make people feel like they are part of a collective community. Our team ritual at Evo is going to be taking a one-minute mindful minute before corporate meetings, or their stand-up or team huddles at hotel properties.
THE BRAIN POWER IN TAKING A PAUSE
Why is taking a team pause important? Let’s talk about the brain science and psychology of how stopping to pause helps us to speed up and move forward in collective goals.
How many times a week does this happen to you? You’re ready to go to a meeting, and you get a last minute text, or phone call, or email you must answer. The message in the email or text was not pleasant and may have irritated you a little bit. Oh, wait, but now you realize that you’re getting late for the meeting, and you have to discuss important issues at the meeting.
It is small moments like this that can lead our minds to think that our work-day or personal lives are about to fall apart. We’re moving so fast that we forget to pause. Consequently, our brain doesn’t have a chance to slow down, pause, breathe, and then respond. Instead, we become reactive, or even worse, we may forget all the critical issues that we need to discuss, let alone remain calm while we do so. This is known as a “brain freeze” and triggers the flight, fight, or fright response in our brains. (see figure below)
CORPORATE MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS MADE EASY
I think it’s so exciting to bring that intersection human behavior research, brain science and psychology, and mindfulness together to create an environment where every employee can feel like they’re living and working up to their full potential. I can’t wait to take you on this journey with all the exciting initiatives we’re putting in place here. So, maybe it will inspire you to take some things back to your workplace because after all, my sincere wish is that more companies are like Evolution Hospitality where they put the focus of employee health and wellness at their forefront.
TAKE A PAUSE
What’s one thing you can take away to your that we’re doing here at Evolution Hospitality? Could you spend one minute before your next meeting doing some deep controlled breathing? We’ll put the script down below in the blog article, or a link here on YouTube, if you’re watching the video there, and start by focusing yourself in the meeting, you’re going to be. Ask a couple of people to join you. Create a team. It may just be a couple of your office mates that sit in cubicles around you. When we take a moment to pause and breathe, we then learn how to respond instead of being reactive or having difficulty focusing. It’s that simple to start bringing concepts of mindfulness and meditation into the workplace to be the best version of yourself.
I’m Dr. Romie. I bring the world of brain science, integrative medicine, and mindfulness into companies as a speaker, and a consultant at Corporate Health and Wellness. If you want to learn more about all the great things that we’re doing at Evolution Hospitality CLICK HERE.
I hope you’ll take a mindful minute to reset and show up as the best version of yourself.
Dr. Romie
