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In our rush to do more, we’ve lost the critical space to think deeply. Leaders may trap themselves and others in “doing mode,” where quick actions overshadows thoughtful reflection - with hefty consequences like poor decisions, burnout, and stifled innovation. The SPACE framework (safety, people, attention, conflict, and environment) can help you enter the “spacious mode” – a different way of paying attention that enables better collaboration and wiser choices.
Professionals today are focused on doing mode— achieving goals and checking items off of to-do lists to satisfy their managers and companies. But better relationships, bigger-picture strategic and creative thinking, and personal well-being and satisfaction rely on pausing from doing mode and entering into spacious mode. To do this amidst daily pressures, people should recognize that they first need to give themselves permission to pause, adopt practices to train their minds to be more spacious, build a safe space for pausing around them, and keep the company of those who help them enter spacious mode
As HR and employees become increasingly obsessed with the 'doing' mode, now might be the time to activate the ‘spacious mode’.
Numerous employees, among them HR professionals, are returning to work this January with new year's resolutions, aiming to redress work/life balance, get less stressed and enjoy life more.
Mental well-being is critical for individuals, communities, and organizations, yet despite the lifting of taboos around mental health in society, employees are feeling less cared for than ever. So why are we still reluctant to talk openly about our mental well-being at work?
Leaders can play a critical role in facilitating these conversations by speaking up about their own experiences and encouraging others to do the same.
Speaking up — and being heard — in organizations is critical, but failed attempts to speak up happen often at work and can lead people to silence themselves and others in the long run. Instead, leaders and team members should frame such situations as opportunities to learn.
Generative AI has the fastest take-up of any technology to date. Now, as AI applications are becoming immersed in workplace culture and power, we’re beginning to see how GenAI tools will impact our conversational habits, which direct what we say and who we hear.
Staff at Boeing are still reluctant to speak up about safety problems, even after a door panel on one of its jets recently blew out mid-flight and hundreds of lives were lost in two earlier planes crashes, according to an experts’ report commissioned by the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Have you ever considered the conversations going on in your workplace? What is said but overlooked? Who gets to talk to whom? What counts as a valuable conversation?
Working at the intersection of leadership, change, dialogue and mindfulness, Reitz’s research focuses on how we meet, see, hear, speak, learn with and encounter one another in organisational systems and how we might encourage dialogue which is more humane and which enables us, our colleagues and our society to flourish. Current focus is on the rise of ‘employee activism’.
Reitz, M., Higgins, (2022). Leading in an Age of Employee Activism MIT Sloan
Reitz, M., Higgins, J. (2021). Don’t Ban Politics at Work Harvard Business Review
Reitz, M., Higgins, J. and Day-Duro, E. (2021). The Wrong Way to Respond to Employee Activism. Harvard Business Review.
Reitz, M. and Higgins, J. (2020). Speaking Truth to Power: Why Leaders Cannot Hear What They Need To Hear. British Medical Journal Leader.
Reitz, M., Waller, L., Chaskalson, M., Olivier, S. and Rupprecht, S. (2020). Developing Leaders Through Mindfulness Practice. Journal of Management Development.
Reitz, M. and Higgins, J. (2019). Do you realise how scary you are? The European Business Review
Reitz, M. and Chaskalson, M. (2020). Why Your Team Should Practice Collective Mindfulness. Harvard Business Review.
Higgins, J. and Reitz, M. (2019). If whistleblowing is the answer, find a better question. Journal of Royal Society Medicine.
Reitz, M. and Bolton, M. (2020). Is Menopause Taboo in your Organisation? Harvard Business Review.
Reitz, M., Higgins, J. (2018) Speaking Truth to Power. The European Business Review
Reitz, M. and Higgins, J. (2019). Managers you’re more intimidating than you think. Harvard Business Review.
Fuchs, B., Reitz, M. and Higgins, J. (2018). Do You Have Advantage Blindness? Harvard Business Review
Reitz, M., Higgins, J. (2017). 5 Questions to Ask before you call out someone powerful. Harvard Business Review.
Chaskalson, M., Reitz, M. (2017). The Mindful Leader: Staying Resilient, Collaborating and Thriving in Complexity. European Business Review.
Reitz, M., Higgins, J. (2017). The Problem with saying my door is always open. Harvard Business Review.
Leaders often have an inflated idea of how easy it is for others to speak honestly to them. A two-year research study, including interviews with over 60 senior executives, workshops, and case studies, illuminates a glaring blind spot.
Reitz, M., Chaskalson, M. (2016). Mindfulness Works but only if you Work at it. Harvard Business Review.
Reitz, M., Chaskalson, M. (2016). How to Bring Mindfulness to your Company's Leadership. Harvard Business Review.
Reitz, M. (2016). Analyzing and communicating action research data: Practical approaches to conveying the quality and texture of experience. Action Research Journal.