Mindful Strategic HR

About Science-based Mindfulness

Our brains are programmed to survive in a world that no longer exists. We’re hard-wired to constantly scan for threat, and to unconsciously react with negative assumptions, anxious thoughts and compulsive behaviors. Our human default is to fear change and uncertainty, ruminate in the past, worry about the future, and be obsessively self-absorbed, unconsciously biased, and lost in imaginary scenarios.

But science shows that mindfulness interrupts these unconscious patterns - and over time, can entirely rewire the networks that govern our default mindsets, traits and behaviors. These are unique capabilities for mental and emotional control.

About Mindfulness for Performance

Mindfulness is practiced by the world’s highest performing individuals and organizations, including the U.S. Olympics Team, the U.S. Navy Seals and Special Forces, world-class athletes and professional sports teams.

It’s also been incorporated into the leadership curriculum at the world’s top business schools, including Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, London School of Economics and INSEAD - and is a mental fitness routine for many accomplished business leaders, including the CEOs at 7 of the 10 most valuable companies, worldwide.

About Mindfulness for Strategic HR

Help Yourself

HR can be a high-pressure, emotionally challenging, exhausting role in the best of times. But now -  on top of that already demanding job - many of us are suddenly coping with volatile health, family, financial and social disruption, and a growing mental health crisis at work.

How can you effectively help others, when you’re facing down the same fear, anxiety, confusion and frustration? By understanding recent breakthroughs in brain science, and learning science-proven mindfulness skills for managing mental and emotional challenges.

Help Your Team

Today, 71% of HR professionals say they’re experiencing the most difficult period in their career. They need more than a woo-woo, feel-good class, or a mobile app. They need a systematic, scientific method for changing how they perceive their thoughts, how they are triggered by emotions, and how they are unconsciously reacting to the world around them.

These mindfulness skills go way beyond simple stress reduction. They are becoming core capabilities for effective leadership, human performance and organizational success.

Help the Organization

The whole notion of strategic HR is rooted in the premise that people are our most sustainable competitive advantage - and that we can intentionally educate, motivate and deploy them to create enterprise value far in excess of our tangible product and services.

Mindfulness represents an inflection point in our ability to unlock that value. Strategic HR should be the standard-bearer for training in brain management - and champions for mental and emotional skills in the workplace.

About the Course

Mindful Strategic HR is designed to be flexible and time efficient. It kicks off with a live introduction to the science, hands-on practice, and outcomes of mindfulness - and continues with a series of 30-minute weekly lessons, 5-10 minute daily practices, and unlimited coaching - supported by pre-and-post course assessments, progress checks, and a final exam.

Each week’s lesson and daily practices work together to strengthen an important skill, or solve a specific leadership challenge.

The Course Includes:

• A live 90-minute master class
• Pre-and-post course assessments
• 8 weekly self-study lessons
• 8 weekly progress exams
• 8 weeks of daily video practices
• 8 optional coaching sessions
• A comprehensive final exam
• Membership access to IOM research, information and tools
• Unlimited 24/7 phone, text, chat and email support

Graduates Earn:

• IOM-ML Certification
• IOM-ML Digital Badge
• Free annual recertification
• SHRM and HRCI recertification credits

Course Outline

Week 1 - Introduction to Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a process of neural training that helps us intentionally change our mindsets and behaviors. This class is a comprehensive introduction to the nature, hands-on practice, outcomes and application of science-based mindfulness.

You will learn:

• The neuroscience, biology and psychology of mindfulness, including research outcomes in health and wellbeing, cognitive performance and emotional intelligence.
• The essential practices of mindfulness: Present Awareness, Breath Control, Breath Meditation, Visualization and Insight Meditation - and how to apply them to optimize your physical, mental and emotional states.
• The foundational attitudes of mindfulness: Non-judgment, Patience, Beginner’s Mind, Trust, Non-Striving, Acceptance and Letting Go - and how to apply them to intentionally solve real problems in the real world.

Week 2 - HR Stress and Anxiety

HR now ranks near the top of stressful occupations. A recent CIPD study showed that in contrast to 63% of legal, and 54% of retail workers, 79% of HR professionals are impacted by severe stress at work - with 62% also reporting unmanageable workloads.

You will learn:

• To recognize the onset of negative states, and the simplest and most effective ways to intercept and diminish them
• To apply mindfulness to shift perspective and reframe regret and rumination in the past, self-critical and depressive thinking in the present - and worry and catastrophic thinking in the future
• Mindfulness practices to reduce chronic stress and illness, and to increase mental and emotional strength

Week 3 -  HR Focus and Attention

A CareerBuilder HR survey reports that a staggering three-quarters of employees estimate two-hours or more a day in lost productivity due to workplace distractions - with 43% estimating they lose three or more hours a day. This class explores how mindfulness helps us to engage and stay focused on what’s most important.

You will learn:

• To recognize digital distraction, compulsive multi-tasking and switching costs
• To mindfully pay attention, maximize your focus, engage fully, and do deeper, better work
• Mindfulness practices that strengthen focus and train neural circuits to sustain interest and concentration

Week 4 -  HR Change Management

As mergers, reorganizations and market disruptions continue to accelerate, HR is often required to initiate and lead a change project, as well as facilitating changes made across other departments. This class explores ways that mindfulness can be a positive and effective part of the process.

You will learn:

• How change triggers fear circuits in the brain that can hijack our emotional state - and how to disarm them
• How mindfulness can help us navigate successfully from the known and familiar, to an uncertain future state
• Mindfulness practices that help us accept the inevitability of uncertainty, and to embrace change with an open and curious mind

Week 5 -HR Relationship Management

HR is a people-facing, relationship-critical discipline that depends on effective interpersonal skills. At the top of the list are capabilities for earning trust and building relationships through observable acts of fairness and care for others. This class shows how these attributes are born in our beliefs and values, and how they can be strengthened through mindfulness.

You will learn:

• To cultivate self-knowledge, authenticity and personal presence
• To strengthen and act on your intentional beliefs and values
• Mindfulness practices that develop the behavioral traits that inspire trust, confidence and loyalty

Week 6 - HR Social and Emotional Intelligence

Social and emotional intelligence are foundational HR capabilities. This class shows how mindfulness develops the pillars of EQ - self-awareness, emotional control, empathy, compassion and social skills - to help us create positive connections and successful relationships.

You will learn:

• The most current skills framework for social and emotional intelligence
• Mindfulness practices that develop self-awareness and self-control
• Mindfulness practices that cultivate care, kindness and compassionate behaviors

Week 7 - HR Communication

HR leaders and professionals make important decisions on what they see and hear, and how accurately they can interpret meaning. Mindfulness trains us to communicate more effectively by paying closer attention to aural tone, non-verbal cues and body language - which helps us unlock our intuition, and create deeper connection and rapport.

You will learn:

• To listen with patience and respond with compassion
• To connect and create attunement with others
• Mindfulness practices that help us communicate more effectively

Week 8 - HR Mental Strength and Resilience

HR is a complex discipline, and it can be frustrating, discouraging and exhausting at times. Mindfulness can help, by reducing the negativity that saps our energy - and increasing our ability to cope with difficult situations. This class explores mindfulness practices that develop mental strength and resilience.

You will learn:

• The principles and practices of peak performance and the flow state
• The principles and practices of grit and mental toughness
• Mindfulness that helps us withstand, adapt, and recover from challenging circumstances