Has happiness anything to do with being mindful? Are worries a result of actions that were taken without being mindful? Should the gains acquired through unmindful actions be termed gains? Can such gains bring happiness? Can they be called achievements in an organisation? How important it is for an organisation to feel ‘collective happiness’ and ‘collective growth’ than just collective growth in terms of profits? Without practicing mindfulness, can an organisation grow and more importantly sustain?
“Mindfulness” generates “Value” and the expression value comes from the French root ‘Valoir’ meaning ‘worth’ and ‘that which are worthy’ are things that make any organisation or for that matter, any individual ‘worthy’ for enabling the organisation or personal life truly successful and more importantly sustaining.
Mindfulness is one of the main ingredients that constitute “Dharma” a spiritual concept prescribed as one of the four “Purusharthas” or ‘goals of life’ in Vedas and they go as, “Dharma” –to lead a virtuous life—“Artha”—endeavor to achieve material success—“Kama”—to enjoy the pleasures of life and “Moksha” or liberation to ‘rest in peace.” Mindfulness therefore has ‘virtue’ embedded in it and that which has virtue embedded in it cannot help but create ‘value’ in every aspect of life and that of the life of an organisation. This is the reason when mindfulness is practiced; employees generate ‘new possibilities, new solutions, new ideas, better coordination, understanding, cooperation, strategies that are more human than ‘clinical’ and arrives at better decisions which result in better productivity and ‘sustainability.’
Every time when man creates value, he experiences happiness. As a matter of fact man feels happiness only when he feels valuable or generates value for the ecosystem around him and this justifies the broad definition of ‘Dharma” as ‘Behaviour and actions that are necessary to make life and universe possible” which the modern word too accepts as the collective responsibility of human race. The work place is ‘a universe’ for an employee and for an organisation, it is ‘the universe of the organisation!” Happiness is an integral part of Emotional Intelligence and in an organisation, among other things; it results in longevity of both the employee and that of the organisation itself!
Prof. C Devidasan,
Vice-President, WOW Factors