The pandemic introduced a lot of new terms into the workplace vocabulary, from hybrid workspace to remote-by-default to Zoom fatigue. While most of these terms defined a change in how we work, one word focused on how work affects us and how we respond—resilience.
Like most workplaces, we quickly moved to remote work at the pandemic's start. Thankfully, our team was already used to working remotely for our clients across Canada and worldwide. But we didn't want to make sure we didn't push our team's flexibility too far without ensuring they could make time to mentally, emotionally, and physically recover.
Finding peace of mind during turbulent times
The search for more information about resiliency led me to discover Peace of Mind (POM). This anti-burnout training platform combines live group coaching and interactive mind-body exercises to improve resiliency.
I discovered POM while reading a newsletter article about the importance of workplace resilience and how this company built a resiliency program focused on fighting workplace stress. Like any good startup origin story, Peace of Mind came from a challenge that founder Aras Toker saw in workplaces—burnout.
"We saw that people were really burned out during the pandemic. We'd already been playing with the hypothesis that you can change behaviors if you get people into small groups rather than trying to get them to do things in an application. We believe in communities. We believe in the power of human touch," Toker said.
Putting learning into practice
One of the significant differences I noticed between POM and other mental health or well-being programs is the focus on not only education but putting that learning into practice. Toker said their early customers understood the value of combining education and action.
"It's not saying here's a set of content or curriculum, you're on your own. The value is in having a third party come in and run the program in an engaging manner. Teams practice together as a group. I think that helps implement a mindset that is very much, 'hey, we're in it together.'," Toker said.
Our team participated in an initial six-week program with POM trainer Serena Jain, a mindfulness educator and facilitator at POM. We then continued with monthly coaching sessions to further hone in mindfulness practices that we experienced in the pilot program.
Each session included an online mindfulness practice and discussion. While some of the team initially hesitated to do another virtual program, we quickly realized its impact on our daily lives. Jain said she noticed that delivering the programming over Zoom helped improve participation.
"The delivery of all this online was quite a gift because we were really able to eliminate commute time. From a mental health, meditation, and mindfulness practice standpoint, the practices are as effective, the coaching is as effective, and the power of community is as effective," Jain said.
Our team is now hybrid, with employees coming into the office one to two days a week. We also added our first out-of-province employee during the pandemic, so our team truly operates as remote-first. We wanted to ensure that our culture continued flourishing even though we weren't working together in the space daily. Toker said that the POM team realized resilience was critical to making this happen.
"We were able to observe that with remote-first teams, many felt isolated or lonely. Even though you may feel more productive and efficient, you're not working as a team. The coaching is designed to bring team building elements into the sessions," Toker said.
Why resiliency matters
POM started during the pandemic when almost every organization and employee reacted in real time to constant change. Today, tech workers across the globe are dealing with a new set of changes and challenges due to economic uncertainties. While resiliency can help, Jain said it's critical to start building those skills before you need them.
"Resiliency is the ability to recover quickly from something. By learning these practices, you're building a mental skill to be able to recover quickly—that's the core of it," Jain said.
She gave an example of a study done with two groups—one that regularly practiced meditation and a control group that did not practice meditation. Both groups were exposed to a jarring sound, something they would need to recover from.
"The group of meditators had a very high stress reaction to the jarring noise, but they recovered quickly returning to their original baseline. The group of non-meditators had a high stress reaction to the noise, but their stress levels stayed elevated for much longer then the meditators," Jain said. "With resilience training, we are not eliminating challenge, we are learning practices and skills to be able to cope with and recover more quickly from challenge."
You can learn more about POM and resilience practice training at peaceofmind.us.
