“Building peace is more often about creating space, persevering in spite of overwhelming pessimism, and being flexible enough to respond to emerging opportunities, meager as they may be.”
— John Paul Lederach, Writer
VIM Executive Coaching knows quite well that this is the time of year when executive leaders are inundated with messages about “peace.” The missives arrive by snail mail cards, email, texts, tweets, podcast and “personalized” gifts from ceramic cups to calendars. The communications are uniformly predictable and most often gratuitous.
Who doesn’t want peace? That said, it’s a throwaway sentiment and an easily spouted word. We must differentiate between sentiments of peace in our personal lives and in business. Of course there is some interconnection. However (and referring to the quote above) cutting through all of the sentimentality, the “space” executive teams treasure comes from responding to pressure rather than blind reaction and knee-jerk posturing.
The second element for reaching peace within the work environment must be the responsibility of everyone on the team to persevere; to endure with a common mindset. Mindset is allowing everyone on the team to be authentic. Mindset is inclusive; the team works together with purpose or falls apart as individuals.
The third key element to preserving greater peace is flexibility. Flexibility or team elasticity, can only occur when options are open and possibility is placed ahead of shutting down to negativity.
On Mindfulness
The elements we described are all functions of mindfulness. As the writers of Psychology Today describe mindfulness, it is a state of:
“…active, open attention to the present. This state is described as observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.”
Any executive member of a team must be allowed to contribute, respond, have a voice and be respected. A mindful team must be able to get out of its own way and to believe that input to any issue being explored must be free and open. When such a dynamic is allowed, mindfulness ensues and with it, greater peace within the work team.
Just talking about establishing greater peace and mindful behavior isn’t enough. Mindfulness requires work and development. Mindfulness can be taught and cultivated. Even if there is a sense of “overwhelming pessimism,” mindfully examining the problem in an open, honest and authentic manner, can at least offer room for possibility.
Pessimism is always a convenient fallback, and while sometimes there can be overwhelming obstacles, solutions have occurred when everyone on the team has the opportunity to interact and problem-solve.
There are sometimes no automatic solutions, even with a spirit of team mindfulness in place however, the best chance for group success in when mindfulness is allowed to survive.
One final note on mindfulness training: teams have shown us time and again that when the team is motivated and serious about improvement in problem solving, groups as well as individuals can gain from training.
Peace is a beautiful concept, on that point, we can all agree. Executive leadership can benefit from that notion as well, within a mindful and authentic atmosphere of team collaboration and purpose. Ask for mindfulness; peace will follow.