Whitepaper
THE CHALLENGE
Mission personnel, mediators, managers and leaders are operating in unfamiliar, demanding, and often volatile environments, exposed to many external and internal stress factors. High levels of complexity, uncertainty and change present further challenges.
These circumstances naturally affect our capacity to produce excellent results in the most efficient way. A growing body of scientific research, (see Mindfulness Research), reveals how even small amounts of stress affect our mind and actions, our cognitive and emotional faculties.
Yet missions require us to act and make decisions wisely at any given moment, with a strong sense of presence, creativity, foresight, stability of mind, focus, agility, flexibility and attention. Vast bodies of knowledge and intelligence need to be applied effectively and responsibly.
At the same time there is an increased need for cross-cultural and cross-organisational cooperation, sensitivity and empathy, the ability to build trust and confidence and to motivate with integrity and courage.
We can accomplish this by assuring that mission preparation includes training to strengthen personal/inner competencies and character, mental-, emotional-, intuitive- and physiological strength and control. These ‘soft-skills’ are essential to tough warriors of peace.
MINDFULNESS TECHNIQUES AS TOOLS TO ADDRESS OUR CHALLENGE AND TRAINING NEEDS
Recent research studies from the field of neuroscience, behavioural-, workplace- and leadership psychology, education and health, into the effects of ancient mindfulness disciplines have revealed a substantial body of knowledge relevant to our needs (See Scientific Research Studies’). Several universities and institutions in the United States and elsewhere have now established ongoing study programs and departments for further scientific and experimental research on this developing subject.
Mindfulness techniques are now being applied by the US Military as part of pre-deployment training and over 250 hospitals use mindfulness techniques with staff and patients, for trauma-, pain- and stress relief. These techniques are also used in social services, in schools, for leadership development, and in psychology, mentoring and coaching.
These studies point to highly beneficial opportunities for our field of application: Training for Peacekeeping missions, Conflict- and Security Transformation, Crisis-, Disaster-, and Humanitarian Relief Operations.
The study findings lead to the conclusion that mindfulness techniques substantially support the development of those human capacities mentioned above, which in our field of application are identified as fundamental and critical for excellence in mission deployment and leadership. The implication is that mindfulness disciplines better prepare and help us operate, act, learn and lead more effectively in complex, challenging, fluctuating and stressful environments and tasks.
Our experience at EastPoint confirms these results. We have applied these mindfulness techniques for the past 30 years in training programs and operations in the context of an international unarmed security organisation that has worked with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, U.S. State Department, and various U.S. Police and Defense Departments to handle crowd control and personal-security for dignitaries including the Dalai Lama, United Nations Secretary-General U Thant, and others.
At EastPoint we train mediators, personnel and leadership in these mindfulness techniques and how to apply them in action, while providing understanding into their science, principles and benefits. We join these techniques with experiential learning, focusing on specific issues and challenges of mission responsibilities through the use of scenarios, role-playing, and experiential reflection exercises. We also offer ongoing support and mentorship for continuous learning and development after the formal course has ended.
The use of these techniques will not only accelerate the training and learning progress for mission personnel and leadership but will also increase capacity for more effective application of knowledge and skills in the field and add valuable, practical ‘tools’ to deal with a variety of challenges more effectively on the spot.
Based on the conclusions from the research studies cited below, we can group the documented benefits of mindfulness techniques into four categories:
- Enhanced sensitivity, empathy, presence and self-awareness
- Greater capacity for situational-, cultural-, emotional-, organizational- awareness-intelligence
- Strengthened motivational skills, integrity and authenticity
- Trust and confidence building, mediation, and mentoring
- Better control, management and relief of stress factors and effects
- Increased resilience and health
- Reduced burnout and staff turnover
- Increased mental agility, attention capacity and focus
- Improved decision making and multitasking in complex and challenging situations
- Enhanced creativity and flexibility
- Accelerated learning and training development
These categories represent the breadth of what EastPoint’s mindfulness based experiential scenario training can offer to peacekeeping training centres, staff colleges, learning institutions, NGOs and other training organisations.
Most organisations address two elements of pre-deployment training:
1) Mechanical and Macro Skills, General-, task specific and mission specific knowledge/education; and 2) Experiential learning through simulation or scenario exercises. Both of these components are unquestionably valuable and essential.
EastPoint's training constitutes the 3rd and crucial element of pre-deployment preparation, which is not explicitly being addressed by other organizations. This greatly increases the effectiveness with which mission professionals apply the first two elements, - their knowledge, experience and skills.