Mindfulness as the 21st Century Capacity to Survive the Disruption of the Fourth Industrial Revoluti
Abstract
As years go by, it has become evident that what we have learned through the education system and through the corporate world, it is not enough to cope with life pace and demands brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Through this paper I intend to demonstrate how mindfulness may be the core 21st century capacity that will allow the workforce to go through the changes this revolution entails, allowing us to search within and develop our capabilities, humanness and uniqueness to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world, in an effective and healthy way.
Mindfulness as the 21st Century Capacity to Survive the Disruption of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution
A Review of the Literature
Statement of the Problem
Looking back on when I became part of the labor market, back in the 1990’s, I recall how society shaped me to define success in a certain way. My experience living in a capitalist economic system, where the means of production are owned and operated by private individuals whose main objective is to maximize profits, plus the accelerated pace that we live on, success, if not well managed, might be at the expense of our mental and physical health. After 25 years in the workforce, I would have imagined that things would be different; I would have expected the corporate world to be “more mature”, “wiser”, in our interactions, relationships and in how problems are handled or solved, but it is no different than when I was an adolescent.
Through my self-reflection and learnings, I have become curious about how we as humans have evolved, why we do the things we do, our habits, why we behave or react in certain way and have come to understand that a lot is expected from us in our different life’s roles (son, daughter, mother, father, wife, husband, neighbor, employee, subordinate, manager, leader of other, etc.) without much knowledge on what can make us succeed in each of these roles. Even though we spend years educating ourselves, little is spent by the education system teaching us why we are the we are, why we behave the way we behave, why we feel the way we feel, what makes us humans and less is spent on how we can improve, develop or heal ourselves. According to Paulo Freire, education must consider man as a subject and not as an object. The man becomes subject when he reflects on himself, he identifies himself and is aware of his situation. The man as an object does not develop his conscious, therefore does not transforms or evolves and it’s a mere spectator.
As years go by, it has become evident that what we have learned through the education system and through the corporate world, it is not enough to cope with the current life pace and demands. To complement my beliefs, I recently came across an article from the World Economic Forum that stated the following:
We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society. (Klaus, 2016)
A lot it is asked of us as humans and we are still trying to figure ourselves out and while we do that, the evolution of humanity continues, at a faster and in a more complex way, probably beyond our understanding. The Futurist Gerd Leonhard denotes that we are in the most transformational times in human history and we have come to a place in humanity where everything is equally excellent, where performance is reaching perfection and there is only one space left to innovate in and it is in within each of us. (Leonhard, 2016). In these times of change and “chaos” there is opportunity for us to search within and develop our capabilities, our humanness, our uniqueness, that what technology cannot replicate. As stated in the article of the World Economic Forum:
In the end, it all comes down to people and values. We need to shape a future that works for all of us by putting people first and empowering them. In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the Fourth Industrial Revolution may indeed have the potential to “robotize” humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart and soul. But as a complement to the best parts of human nature—creativity, empathy, stewardship—it can also lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. It is incumbent on us all to make sure the latter prevails.
The article “How a humanities degree will serve you in a disruptive economy”, references how the skills of communication, observation, empathy and logical thinking are the needed skills for an age of disruption (Moro,2018). Since the Second World War, the pragmatic, empirical disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as well as business, have risen to prominence. They have been hived off the traditional, all-purpose liberal arts education, which was designed to prepare students for full participation in the grownup world. The tide now appears to be turning, as it becomes clear that essential skills enable us to adapt and thrive in our rapidly changing world and bring the technical skills to life.
What we think, and feel is often overlooked, which is the base for any change to take place. This is where resistance tends to arise — cognitively in the form of fixed beliefs, deeply held assumptions and blind spots; and emotionally, in the form of the fear and insecurity that change provokes. All of this rolls up into our mindset, which reflects how we see the world, what we believe and how that makes us feel (Schwartz, 2018).
Volatile markets, challenging consumer demands, and the technological disruptions resulting from digitization and Industry 4.0 are producing unprecedented rates of change. In response, companies have worked to increase organizational agility, hoping to foster innovation and shorten go-to-market cycles. Yet organizational experiences and sociological conditioning often impede true agility. As a result, many of these efforts fall short of their objective to manage the uncertainty generated by change (Greiser, 2019).
How are we, in an effective and healthy way, will be able to cope with all the disruption and demands that are currently in place and that will keep coming?
Why mindfulness might be the solution?
With the proven effects of mindfulness, I foresee it as a vital component in our day to day, that will unlock, untap and sharpen human capabilities, enabling us to cope with the current time of disruption. As described below, mindfulness is comprised of (Lippincott,2017) :
1. Clear focus of attention on the present moment, including experience and events.
2. Ability to change the level of non-judgmental attention.
3. Awareness of shifting attention between the inner self and the outer world.
Using mindfulness as the enabling methodology, I suggest a framework that will allow ourselves to develop what is needed for the disruption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which goes from: 1) knowing ourselves, 2) managing our attention and 3) developing our essential skills.
Everything starts within: the first step is to know ourselves
In an article published in March 2013 on a journal of the Association for Psychological Science indicates that mindfulness might help us to learn more about our own personalities (“Know Thyself: How Mindfulness Can Improve Self-Knowledge”, 2013). “What is to be mastered, transformed or transcended, has to be known and understood” (Thera, 1996, p.57). Mindfulness prepares us to manage and respond to change, difficult and stressful situations. It brings the best out of us, “mindful practices give you the space to respond differently under pressure” (Alidina,2016). In the article, Aldina shares several ways mindfulness aids in getting to know ourselves:
1. You become more aware of your thoughts. You can then step back from them and not take them so literally. That way, your stress response is not initiated in the first place.
2. You don’t immediately react to a situation. Instead, you have a moment to pause and then use your “wise mind” to come up with the best solution. Mindfulness helps you do this through the mindful exercises.
3. Mindfulness switches on your “being” mode of mind, which is associated with relaxation. Your “doing” mode of mind is associated with action and the stress response.
4. You are more aware and sensitive to the needs of your body. You may notice pains earlier and can then take appropriate action.
5. You are more aware of the emotions of others. As your emotional intelligence rises, you are less likely to get into conflict.
6. Your level of care and compassion for yourself and others rises. This compassionate mind soothes you and inhibits your stress response.
7. Mindfulness practice reduces activity in the part of your brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is central to switching on your stress response, so effectively, your background level of stress is reduced.
8. You are better able to focus. So, you complete your work more efficiently, you have a greater sense of well-being, and this reduces the stress response. You are more likely to get into “the zone” or “flow,” as it’s termed in psychology by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
9. You can switch your attitude to the stress. Rather than just seeing the negative consequences of feeling stressed, mindfulness offers you the space to think differently about the stress itself. Observing how the increased pressure helps energize you has a positive effect on your body and mind.
Understanding ourselves is vital. Without self-awareness, we are often reactively in autopilot mode. When we take the time to examine life we are able to understand our patterns of behaviors. By deeply contemplating of our day to day we can understand our subconscious which is what controls our life. If we do not make time to understand our subconscious we will be unconsciously living a repetitive life with no meaning.
Once we know ourselves, we must manage our attention
Our attention is more or less adulterated by wrong associations, by emotional and intellectual prejudices, wishful thinking, etc. Attention, presence, have become a commodity, a luxury, because we are virtually connected round-the-clock. We are working longer hours, more weekends, pressured to produce more with less, overwhelmed with continuous streams of information, and seemingly much less personal time for ourselves, for relaxation, and restoration. As a result, we have a mind hard-wired for relentless activity- routinely shifting & wandering-impulsive & reactive- unfocused & exhausted. To cope with what is required of us, we have become multitasking, yet multitasking is a survival skill. Multitasking gives us the illusion that we are getting things done, while multitasking is not an effective way of handling our day to day endeavors, as stated in an article “Multitasking Damages Your Brain And Career” (Bradberry,
2016):
Research conducted at Stanford University found that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.
The study found that heavy multitaskers (multitask a lot and feel that it boosts their performance) were actually worse at multitasking than those who did one thing a time. Multitasking reduces our efficiency and performance because our brain can only focus on one thing at a time. When we try to do two things at once, our brain lacks the resource to perform both tasks successfully.
If multitasking is making us worse at sustaining attention, it’s actually making us worse at our jobs (Baer, 2014). Our attention works like a flashlight: whatever you direct it toward, you will be able to see and understand better. Now, with so many things to distract us, meditation is more popular—and necessary—than ever before. (Bayes-Fleming, 2018)
Mindfulness meditation helps us become more aware of unawareness. The work of mindfulness isn’t to never get distracted since that’s always going to happen. Instead, it’s about recognizing that the meandering has occurred and returning to the task at hand–thereby “filtering out” the irrelevant info (Baer, 2014). Specifically, mindfulness has been shown to improve three qualities of attention -- stability, control and efficiency. The human mind is estimated to wander roughly half of our waking hours, yet mindfulness can sustain attention in the present. Individuals who completed mindfulness training were shown to endure vigilant longer on both visual and listening tasks (Case Western Reserve University, 2016).
Benefits of Mindfulness in the workforce and how can it support the development of essential skills
Essential skills are what are known as soft skills, which I have renamed since “soft” might be misleading. Why? Because these are skills that require our full attention in order to acquire mastery on each one of them. Essential skills are personal attributes, personality traits, inherent social cues, and communication abilities needed for success on the job. These skills characterize how a person interacts in his or her relationships with others. Essential skills include attitude, communication, creative thinking, work ethic, teamwork, networking, decision making, positivity, time management, motivation, flexibility, problem-solving, critical thinking,
and conflict resolution (Doyle, 2018).
According to Bristow (2017) there are three ways mindfulness training can support us in developing the essential skills and help us meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution by :
1) Develop our capacity for compassionate thinking: Mindfulness practice is about more than just attention training. It’s also largely about developing kind curiosity towards inner experience and provides a framework for deep inquiry into the psychological mechanisms of distress and wellbeing. So, through mindful awareness, leaders have the opportunity to learn about the human condition by exploring their own hearts and minds.
2) Provide a competitive edge for the core 21st century skill sets: Mindfulness is a natural capacity, present in all of us to some extent. But we are all too familiar with its opposite: a default, heedless, distracted state often described as ‘autopilot’. It goes without saying that anything that we can do on autopilot, robots and AI will soon do better. Mindfulness may come to be seen as the core 21st century capacity, because it concerns our only competitive advantage over the machines: awareness itself.
3) Expand our ability to live a life of meaning: Even though practices like mindfulness will help us to create unique value by exploring and developing our ‘humanness’, we may still be progressively less able to do tasks of significant economic worth. If we’re successful in creating a human-centered economy that plays to our best qualities, then this may mean that we work fewer hours, or fewer days. But it may also mean that many of us will be unemployed. If this is the case, how will we use our time? What will education teach us? How will we deal with the tensions that these changes unleash in society? What will give our lives meaning?
Certainly, many changes may arise, and mindfulness, as mentioned above, may be the core 21st century capacity that will allow us to go through the changes the 4th revolution entails. Currently organizations such as Google, Aetna, Mayo Clinic and the United States Marine Corps use mindfulness training to improve workplace functioning. Among the new study's conclusions (Case Western Reserve University, 2016):
• Mindfulness appears to positively impact human functioning overall. Research in such disciplines as psychology, neuroscience and medicine provide a wealth of evidence that mindfulness improves attention, cognition, emotions, behavior and physiology.
• Although mindfulness is an individual quality, initial evidence suggests that it affects
interpersonal behavior and work-group relationships.
• Mindfulness may improve relationships through greater empathy and compassion -- suggesting mindfulness training could enhance workplace processes that rely on effective leadership and teamwork.
As John Kabat-Zinn states in an interview, mindfulness must now be harnessed in a bigger way than so far seen, to do nothing less than challenge the way the world is run. Meditation is the “radical act of love and sanity” that can help manage the fear and aversion he believes underpin so many of the world’s problems. (Booth, 2017)
Our humanity is at the perfect time to take advantage of the new knowledge of the human brain availing itself to a conscious experience of self-discovery, mindfulness, and beneficial social cognition (DePriest, 2018). There is enough evidence to make mindfulness part of the corporate world and in return, we will have a more compassionate, focused and centered workforce, prepared to deal with the new challenges that are already taking place as part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
I conclude by citing a quote of Thick Naht Hanh from his book “The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation”:
“Work is only a part of life. But work is life only when done in mindfulness. Otherwise, one becomes like the person “who lives as though dead” (Hanh, 1987).
May our day to day endeavors bring us to life, to a fulfilling life and not just merely exist.
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