At the Drucker School of Business  in Claremont, California, students working on their MBA are being taught to be in the moment.  That is to say, mindful and  aware of what is actually happening in the present.  Companies including Google Inc. and General Mills Inc. are embracing mindfulness training with the aim of making their workforces less reactive, more resilient — even more creative.

A brass bowl and a leather covered mallet. are the tools that are used in classes for this exercise.  Clearing the mind of all the chatter (monkey mind as some Buddhists call it), is the key element for mindfulness.  It’s about paying attention to what’s going around you.  Jeremy Hunter, a professor at the Drucker School of Business says it’s like upgrading human ability.

Meditation is no new fad.  It’s been happening for about 2500 years in Indian and Asian cultures.  American business are learning something about being less reactive in situations and  more about choosing to change behavior in stressful situations.  Steve Jobs credits Zen meditation as a way of being focused while he was running Apple.

Some businesses might consider this as airy-fairy, but if Steve Jobs and Google find it useful, it might be worth giving it a try.