Intel IT employees are incorporating mindfulness practices into their daily work styles. Benefits include greater focus and reduced stress.

1. Nurturing Innovation at Intel
through Mindfulness
Qua Veda, Intel IT
February 2013

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What do Business Leaders and Employees Want?
Leaders want to realize business goals
• Bold new ideas
• Fully engaged employees
Employees want trust, and a balanced life.
Intel is discovering that mindfulness practices
address all of these aspirations.
Mindfulness is one of the best kept secrets in business today
According to recent
research, 71% of American
workers are not fully
engaged in their work.
Businesses are operating at
one third of their capacity.

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What is Mindfulness?
Simple practices that integrate mind and body
• Full awareness of the present moment
• Cultivation of healthy heart/mind habits
• Can be experienced anywhere, in a few moments
• Promotes holistic wellness
• Improves executive functions of the brain
Science shows that mindfulness improves brain functioning

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Business is Learning What Science Knows
• A healthy mind emerges from a process
called “integration”
• Essential activities are necessary for
optimum mental health
• Practice enables your brain to
coordinate and balance its activities
• These essential mental activities
strengthen your brain's internal
connections and your connections with
other people and the world around you
Billions of brain cells
Trillions of connections
Neuroimaging shows
mindfulness-related
techniques promote
significant changes in
critical cognitive areas.

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Intel Employees Embrace Mindfulness
Grass-roots sharing/learning about mindfulness
• Began with a few employee experienced in mindfulness practice
• Shared weekly with other employees during the noon hour
• Connected with like-minded employees, word of mouth, blogging
Employees co-created an 8-week mindfulness pilot program
• Intel’s mindfulness program gained management support
• Benefits noticed immediately by attendees
• Helped participants focus, reduce stress, innovate
Soon, business groups across Intel requested pilot programs.

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Intel’s Mindfulness Program - Course Arc
The course begins with a focus on self-awareness and moves to
interpersonal relationships & collective intelligence and innovation.
Stilling
the Mind
Cultivating
Presence
Relational
Intelligence
Setting
Intentions
Emotional
Intelligence
Risk Taking &
Vulnerability
Theory of
Emergence
The Ripple
Effect

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Mindfulness Gets Results
Participants in 8-week mindful engineering pilot reported
Higher levels of:
• Clarity and focused attention
• Improved work effectiveness and creativity
• Improved relationships with co-workers
Reduced levels of:
• Mental and emotional stress
• Sense of overwhelm
“Without mindful engineering … the same breakthroughs would have taken
much, much longer.” - pilot participant
.

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Participants Sum It Up
I am very excited about this work (mindfulness).
In my 12 years at Intel I've never seen anything like this. Small steps like this
that change our culture are vital to our business success and our personal
success. This is significant! - 8-week pilot participant
“A program such as this should be considered a foundational building block
program for all employees”- 8-week participant.
I was a bit uncomfortable jumping into this space, but some on my
team had tried it and the results were too incredible to ignore.
- 8-week pilot participant

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Business is taking notice
We are demonstrating the power of
employees to lead from inside.
We are gaining engagement,
empowerment, focus, and new ways of
solving problems.
More business groups at Intel are
requesting and funding mindfulness
programs.
Recent articles from the press are reporting successful
application of mindfulness in corporations,
in the military, and in education.

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Learn more about Intel IT’s initiatives at www.intel.com/IT
Sharing Intel IT Best
Practices with the World