At all levels of organizations, increasingly greater demand is placed upon us to manage ever greater complexity. Demands on attention, focus, processing, energy, health, relational & mental capacities and more. All too often, as Doug highlights above, the old methods prove to be no longer ‘fit for purpose’ in such an evolved, rapid-fire environment. The negative downstream effects on creativity, communication, innovation, productivity, well-being and ultimately bottom-line are inevitably apparent throughout the organizational ecosystem.

Clearly, an evolution is also required of us in order to optimally meet this upgraded environment—as leaders, as teams and as individuals. This leaves us facing two fundamental issues: 1. An upgraded skillset is required. 2. Once clarified, it must be developed as a new way of being.

In my experience, most of us attempt change as either a top down or an outer to inner process. If we mandate change from above (ie. executive decision), or perhaps we just gain a few more skills, or maybe if we make the outside (physically or behaviorally) look like we want it to, and we then hopefully presume this will become that. While doing so may give a temporary impression of shift, real transformation — be it personal, team or organizational — will never truly be effected at program level in the system. This is akin to simply telling oneself to be a different way (Just be more efficient!) and optimistically expecting that alone to have a lasting impact. The well-worn grooves of habit, the ingrained ruts of our conditioned neuro-biology, will still be deeply committed to the old way of being, and inevitably that programming wins out over the new resolution no matter how ardent. Developmental psychologist Robert Kegan from the Harvard Graduate School of Education describes this built in effect as an ‘immunity to change’. System program ultimately overrides top-down decision. Clearly we need a strategy which works on a systemic level. But what?

My approach integrates research-driven change methodologies drawn from cutting-edge work in organizational and human potential development and some of the latest directions in cognitive science. An awesome, ground-breaking company requires awesome, upgraded leaders and this means drawing upon and integrating the most current developments out there. My process has unsurprisingly emerged via my role as creator and head of the leading-edge, internationally-regarded, professional coach training programs at the Human Potential Institute. Though coaching is not all of it!

Alongside of that, I integrate several simple yet empirically-verified and highly-effective skills which address the key issues arising from todays high-pressure organizational and life environments. In order to create resilient whole leaders who can function and respond optimally in the face of these conditions we need such skills.

We all know how stress, dysregulated focus and attention, poor communication, lack of energy regulation and so on all play havoc both at work and home. For leaders to function at the top of their game these areas simply must be addressed.

In order to manifest wholely competent leaders—those who are capable of leading with mind, heart & body—we need to work on all those levels . One key tool for addressing several of the challenges and bringing our full capacities online is that of mindfulness. Drawn from ancient contemplative practices this has rapidly morphed into a central component of employee development programs across the globe, with Silicon Valley stalwarts such as Apple and Google right through to industry leviathans such as General Mills running inhouse mindfulness programs as part of their internal offer. Aetna Insurance Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini is quoted saying of even the bottom-line benefits that,