مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

When we are in a state of mindlessness, we act like automatons who have been programmed to act according to the sense our behavior made in the past, rather than the present. Instead of actively drawing new distinctions, noticing new things, as we do when we are mindful, when we are mindless we rely on distinctions drawn in the past. We are stuck in a single, rigid perspective, and we are oblivious to alternative ways of knowing. When we are mindless, our behavior is rule and routine governed; when we are mindful, rules and routines may guide our behavior rather than predetermine it. (Langer, 2000, p. 220)

Much has been written about Steve Jobs as an innovator, visionary, and leader. What is now emerging is that Jobs was a long-term practitioner of what is now termed mindfulness. In Jobs’ own words (Isaacson, 2011, p. 48):If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear subtler things–—that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before.

Today, mindfulness is increasingly transitioning from the monastery to the mainstream. It has been shown to be beneficial in a wide range of fields, such as medicine, sports, education, and, more recently, management. Studies have explored the effect of mindfulness on psychological and physical well-being (e.g., Brown & Ryan, 2003), as well as task performance (e.g., Dane & Brummel, 2013). Faced with the empirical evidence of the positive effects of mindfulness, large corporations such as Google and General Mills now offer mindfulness training to their employees. In this article, we introduce managers to the two main views of individual mindfulness and discuss their effects on service encounters, including the personal interaction between consumers and service providers (Guiry, 1992).