OUR WORLD
MINDFULNESS
The New Paradigm in Corporate Culture?
The Mindful Leadership Summit, Washington, DC
By Ken Reed, Author/Mindfulness Teacher
Somewhere towards November 2014, we received an email notice announcing the first Mindful Leadership Summit to be held in the DC area.
Over the next weeks, I visited the site several times trying to look deeper
into what it was all about: its mission, goals and who would be presenting. The site announced that more than 500 leaders from 37 countries
would be present. Quite honestly, for the most part I did not recognize
the vast array of 25 presenters, their backgrounds and books.
H
aving been exposed to many
Eastern and Western traditions over 45 years and as
a former monk and practitioner, I knew the various lineages, the masters, Gurus,
and current teachers teaching some form of mindfulness and meditation toward self-discovery and liberation. Clearly, almost
none of these presenters were on the roster or circuits I was aware of.
Over my years as an instructor and meditation
guide to many, through my retreats, events and
tours, and sharing my books, I was not familiar
with what I will call another whole development
in the spread of the dharma. These were the guys
in suits, “The Suits”. I dug deeper to see what had
been the sources of their inspiration, their training
to be able to bring this ancient practice of mindfulness to a world class summit for leaders, leaders
who were now taking the ancient instructions into
the Fortune 500 arena, government, non-profits,
healthcare, and international relations.
I was aware of the recent scientific examinations
in labs where brain science experts charted the
outcomes of mindfulness and meditation on the
pre-frontal cortex and how it affected the amygdala in stimulating compassion and empathetic sen-
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sitivities. Further, I was aware of the notable claims
by sports teams, performers and corporate management here and there employing mindfulness as
an overall strategy in the workplace.
I was curious and decided to attend the summit,
participate and learn more about this groundbreaking movement. I had a lot of questions. How
is mindfulness being presented to those whom
may have no prior interest, training or background?
How are, or will they be proposing the use, measurement and effectiveness to orgs that we usual-