Workplace Mindfulness Training (WorkplaceMT) is an evidence informed approach to teaching mindfulness in the workplace.

In response to the needs of clients and emerging workplace research, the 8 week programme is adapted to be delivered in 6 x 60 minute one hour weekly sessions, and home practice requirements are revisited.
The WorkplaceMT 60 programme is TME's most popular programme.

A slightly longer option: WorkplaceMT 90 (6 weeks x 90 minutes a week) is also available. The weekly sessions are designed to cater for a range of learning styles and to engage as many senses as possible.

To achieve this WorkplaceMT trainers use highly visual PowerPoints, games, activity cards, and small group discussion. Daily mindfulness practice (a core requirement for the duration of the programme) is a combination of everyday mindfulness (very short mindfulness activities that can easily be applied in the workplace) and formal mindfulness (short formal sitting practices of 8-15 minutes duration) which combined normally takes no more than 20 minutes a day.

The Workplace Mindfulness Training (WorkplaceMT) approach has been researched and refined over a four year period by The Mindfulness Exchange (TME), and is based on mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT).

TME was set up as a spin off from Oxford University’s, Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC) to provide mindfulness training for the workplace based on scientific understanding and best practice developed in clinical research and mindfulness teaching. TME are leaders in the field of adapting scientifically validated mindfulness teaching, into training formats designed for the workplace.

Best­selling self-help book;TME uses the best­selling self­help book, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World by Professor Mark Williams, Founder Director of the OMC, and Dr Danny Penman as the basis to develop WorkplaceMT. This readable book is based on up-to-date scientific understanding of mindfulness and includes a programme of short but powerful mindfulness exercises that anyone can fit into a busy day. This book is often provided to course participants as a course handbook.In 2016 Juliet Adams and Marina Grazier's book Mindful Leadership for Dummies was published. It includes 6 Chapters on WorkplaceMT - one per week, and full guidance on all the formal and informal mindfulness practice activities. This book may suppliment your learning during the course and inform your teaching approach thereafter.

Evidence suggests: TME Shorter courses are effective * In the Randomised Control Trial (RCT), 44 randomly selected Dow Chemicals employees took part in a 7 week mindfulness course especially adapted for the workplace, with short practices.Stress decreased, Mindfulness, resilience, work engagement and vigour and employee well-being increased. Key improvements included • 30 percent reduction in perceived stress • 50 percent decrease in number of high stress episodes • 13 percent increase in resiliency • 15 percent increase in work engagement and vigour • 50 percent decrease in employee burnout (Aikens KA1, Astin J, Pelletier KR, Levanovich K, Baase CM, Park YY, Bodnar CM. (2014) Mindfulness goes to work: impact of an online workplace intervention.) * 152 middle managers completed an 8 week mindfulness course with 20 minutes a day practice. Managers demonstrated statistically significant improvements in levels of: (i) work-related stress, (ii) job satisfaction, (iii) psychological distress, and (iv) employer-rated job performance. “It is concluded that Mindfulness At Work Training appears to be an effective intervention for improving both work-related wellbeing and job performance in middle-hierarchy office-based managers.” (Shonin, E.S., Van Gordon, W., Dunn, T., Singh, N. & Griffiths, M.D. (2014). Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) for work-related wellbeing and job performance: A randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 12, 806–823) * 93 Local government and private sector employees took part in 4 or 6 week mindfulness programmes with short daily practice requirements. ey findings included Increased knowledge of behavioural insights, and increases in specific mindfulness traits. "When combined with learning about behaviour change, mindfulness training can enable people to take greater control of their own behavioural systems and lead more empowered lives." "Participants reported being able to better avoid the escalation of negative spirals of thoughts, and more able to be non-judgmental and non-reactive to inner experience¸ which also seemed to enable them to pause and think before reacting to external events. For some they were expressly applying this to their decision making". "Since the programme, there was a greater willingness within working teams to acknowledge and address different manifestations of emotional response to particular situations and projects and see them as relevant." (Jessica Pykett, Rachel Lilley, Mark Whitehead, Rachel Howell, Rhys Jones (January 2016) Mindfulness, Behaviour Change and Decision Making An Experimental Trial) * 11 Healthcare managers attended a short work focussed mindfulness training programme. The researchers found that significant positive changes in leadership were reported by participants and that this was confirmed by their colleagues. The aspects of leadership which showed statistically significant improvements were ‘leadership effectiveness’ and ‘balanced processing.’ Follow-up interviews were carried out post-intervention which showed significant increases in mindfulness and corresponding decreases in stress that were sustained post training (Wasylkiw, L. (2015) The impact of mindfulness on leadership effectiveness in a health care setting: a pilot study” Journal of health organization and management Vol 29 (7) pp893 – 911.) * 17 physicians took part in a brief Mindfulness programme They reported significant improvements in stress, mindfulness, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. The findings suggest that brief mindfulness interventions “can have a positive impact on physician well-being and potentially enhance patient care.” (David A. Schroeder, Elizabeth Stephens, Dharmakaya Colgan, Matthew Hunsinger, Dan Rubin, Michael S. Christopher (2016) A Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Primary Care Physicians A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial)