Abstract
Why and how can mindfulness practices have a positive, measurable impact on individual and organizational change within a school? This chapter considers this question by looking closely at two established models of transformational change that have been used in educational settings. It then engages the thought experiment: How might mindfulness strengthen the recommended interventions? After specifying a definition of mindfulness practices, the author examines the Immunity to Change framework of Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey and the Constructivist Listening framework of Julian Weissglass and describes how the introduction of mindfulness practices could accelerate the process of transformation prescribed in each model. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that mindfulness can be effective in these two instances because both models of change involve parallel processes of organizational and personal transformation, and parallel processes of cognitive and emotional development. When change processes require that individuals within organizations alter their mental models and their behaviors as well as take responsibility for self-monitoring progress and self-regulating emotional responses, mindfulness can play a crucial role in bringing about the desired transformation. The chapter concludes by recommending the testing of this hypothesis with an educational change process that has these characteristics.
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Notes
- 1.
The forms of emotional release that Weissglass names include: crying, tantruming, trembling, laughing, yawning, excessive talking, and perspiration (1998).
- 2.
A variation of this ongoing dyadic support is found in the Focusing model of Eugene Gendlin (Gendlin, 1988). Developed to support personal change, its distinguishing characteristic is its encouragement of attention to somatic clues as an indication of the need for curiosity about and processing of experience and feelings. David Rome (2014) explores this potential in his book, Your Body Knows the Answer: Using Your Felt Sense to Solve Problems, Effect Change and Liberate Creativity.
- 3.
The internal supports provided by mindfulness are also beneficial to individuals who are engaged in therapeutic processes, whose “aha” moments are not enough to translate into daily behavior change.
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Wilensky, R. (2016). Mindfulness and Organizational Change. In: Schonert-Reichl, K., Roeser, R. (eds) Handbook of Mindfulness in Education. Mindfulness in Behavioral Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3506-2_15
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