BlueSkyMinds
science based mindfulness for organisations

In 2017 we partnered with BlueSkyMinds to develop a Mindfulness programme and ran our first pilot late that year. Participants were asked a number of questions before and after the 10 week course and the results showed an impressive increase in resilience and decrease in self perceived stress. Throughout 2018 we’ve continued to develop our mindfulness strategy with Debbie from BSM. Over 100 employees have now attended a mindfulness course, which we’ve branded as High Performing Minds. We’ve trained a small number of employees as mIndfulness champions, are developing quiet areas and providing resources, where employees can practice mindfulness and are working on getting our executive to ‘walk the talk’ and roll put the program to our other regions, outside of NZ.

Of those who have been on our High Performing Minds course, we continue to see reductions in stress and increases in resilience, engagement, satisfaction, productivity and retention. It’s been a real game changer for Xero and we’re continuing to work on embedding mindul practices into our culture, so it becomes part of who we are and what we’re about.

In 2018 we partnered with BlueSkyMinds to offer ongoing eight-week mindfulness programmes, called “Being Present”, to our employees at AUT.

The results from the workshops to date have been very encouraging. We have seen an average of 20% reduction in self-reported stress, and a 15% increase in resilience, as well as a 42% increase in personal productivity as reported by the groups before and after each of our last two programmes.

Anecdotal feedback from the participants have also been very positive, with many recommending the programme to others and commenting on the transformational impact this course has had on areas such as wellbeing, achievement and compassion to themselves and others.

We recently invited Debbie Schultz from BlueSkyMinds to run a series of one-hour ‘Managing our Minds’ Mindfulness seminars as part of our employee wellbeing programme, Switch2well. We had a great turnout with approximately 300 of our people attending across six seminars.

A survey was completed by our people after the seminars and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Debbie is an insightful and engaging speaker, and did a great job of keeping the topic relatable. She also offered a lot of ideas on how to put the theory into practice.

Debbie did a wonderful job of busting the myths surrounding mindfulness, explaining the neuroscience, and helping us in understanding how mindfulness can support wellbeing and performance at work. She also gave us a lot of practical takeaways to immediately implement at both work and home. Thank you Debbie for making these seminars such a success!

Debbie is extremely knowledgeable about the practice of mindfulness and has an engaging and warm manner. She is someone who has personally proved that ongoing mindfulness practice can improve your life significantly…

it has enabled me to plan and prioritise better… focus on tasks more easily and therefore be more productive… really listen to what people are saying, monitor my stress levels.

I found the course extremely worthwhile. Debbie [is a] fantastic facilitator. The course has a wonderful blend of theory and practice. I learned a lot about mindfulness from an academic perspective and had the opportunity to put it into practice.

Debbie [was] available between classes and provided excellent guided meditation resources.

Debbie presented a fantastic session to an audience of 170 University of Auckland alumni on “The science of mindfulness: Changing people and organisations from the inside out”. This session had the largest audience in our Careers Seminar history.

Debbie shared with the audience how global organisations are using the science of mindfulness to increase the happiness and success of their people and ultimately the success of the organisation.

The session was very well received, with members of the audience taking the time to feedback their interest and thanks for the informative and interesting session.

It was marvelous!

I contacted Debbie to arrange a mindfulness course for the broader office to help our team develop new ways of managing the pressures of modern work life – effective stress and time management, avoiding reactive behaviour, and how to screen the myriad of competing distractions present every day. We found the course very rewarding. Debbie is an experienced, positive teacher and the mindfulness techniques have enhanced focus, listening skills, and personal awareness across the team. I would highly recommend Debbie to anyone considering a mindfulness course.

Our team really loved this programme. At first, some were a little hesitant due to misunderstandings of mindfulness and past experience. However, the benefits were noticed very quickly across the team at both work and home.

There has been a greater sense of focus and clarity. There is also a much better understanding of the need for mindfulness in all aspects of our lives.

I think this comes down to the way the course was run. The content was really engaging and explained in a way that was relevant and interesting. We were also given quick and long practices that we can do in a range of different situations.

Debbie is passionate about mindfulness and sincerely wants you to gain the benefits of it. After completing the eight week programme I now choose to respond, not automatically react. I slow down, listen to people more, and make fewer assumptions. This is the way to enjoy life more now and in the future!