Mindfulness-Based Organisational Development

Do you want to find out how to introduce mindfulness into organisations? Compelling research findings, practical guidance and inspiring encounters show you the way.

In this specialist course, you will learn how to make mindfulness practices a day-to-day part of your organisation. You must have a good prior knowledge of both mindfulness and management or HR and organisational development.

  • You are looking to help teams and organisations boost mindfulness in their day-to-day operations.
  • You are aware of typical difficulties and know how to avoid them or deal with them in a professional manner.
  • You will discover numerous ways to integrate mindfulness into your day-to-day professional practice.
  • As a result, you will grow as a person and represent mindfulness, particularly in challenging situations, inspiring others as a result.
  • You see digital transformation and other operational challenges as opportunities to deploy mindfulness effectively.

You can acquire the prior knowledge you need by e.g. taking our specialist course in Mindful Leadership.

Factsheet

  • Degree/Certificate Specialist course
  • Duration 9 course days
  • Schedule Please visit the German website for more information
  • Application deadline 6 weeks before start
  • ECTS credits None / 6 ECTS-credits
  • Costs CHF 4,200
  • Teaching language German
  • Location Bern, Schwarztorstrasse 48
  • School Business School
  • Next session Please visit the German website for more information

To register, please visit the German website. 

Content + structure

Portrait

Mindful success. Lead your organisation on the path to more personal presence, benevolence, engagement and agility. Build on your professional experience and meditation practice. Apply scientific foundations and the principle of benevolent presence alongside pragmatic cost/benefit considerations.

Learning outcomes

  • You will be able to embed mindfulness and related approaches in your organisation.
  • You will be familiar with numerous ways to integrate mindfulness into your own day-to-day professional practice and engage others in the process.
  • You will become a voice for mindfulness across all levels of the hierarchy and all professional disciplines.
  • You will be familiar with methodologies and tools for embedding mindfulness in organisations and will know how to deal with different reactions.
  • You will gradually develop a specific, customised approach for your organisation.
  • You will grow as a person and represent mindfulness, particularly in challenging situations, inspiring others as a result.
  • We begin with a Development Centre. Over the course of this intensive day, you will get to know yourself and the other participants in challenging business role-play situations and we will practise an open culture of learning and feedback. In the following teaching sessions, we will examine one themed focal point per day. We will carry out different exercises and invite external individuals (online) to take part and will reflect on their input.
  • Between the teaching days, there will be mindfulness exercises, but also assignments where you will experiment with and apply what you have learned. You will complete most of these assignments independently, but will occasionally work in tandem.
  • Team development and culture change: small and larger steps you can take to promote organisational success. Creating trust through mindfulness – with or without meditation exercises.
  • Projects and meetings: making meetings more effective by slowing them down.
  • Communication and ‘business case’: planning and measuring mindfulness and selling it internally.
  • Appreciative Inquiry: developing organisations by finding the positive and by applying presencing (Theory U).
  • Agility and digitalisation: seeing mindfulness as part of a greater transformation and drawing energy from that.
  • Advanced mindfulness training: advance your own mindfulness skills with a series of micro exercises.

Adults learn differently. That is why the continuing education at the BFH Business school is committed to modern adult education. Our mission with «brain, heart and hand» is an important principle in the design of our offers. Questions in the lessons are based on the participants' professional and practical life experiences. Contact study and self-study phases are combined in a meaningful way, analogue learning environments are combined with digital tools. Microsoft Teams is available as a supplementary tool: you have access to documents, messages and information as well as a chat function within the class.

Looking to make a difference? Apply the methods outlined in this continuing education course to boost team spirit, work satisfaction and performance in your organisation.

  • Development Centre
  • Specialist input, case studies, group exercises, discussions
  • One-to-one mindfulness coaching
  • Assignments, tandem learning, reflection report
  • Reflection report on experience with the set exercises
  • Practice report on actual measures carried out and further planning

Lecturers

Our lecturers are proven experts with extensive practical and theoretical knowledge in their subject areas. They have at least a university degree plus many years of experience in higher education. 

Jeanine Born
Psychotherapist and MBSR teacher, business coach, board member of mindfulness.swiss

Jenny Ebermann
Director of Wikimedia Switzerland, MBSR teacher

Thomas Frauenknecht
Organisational developer/coach, MBSR teacher

Professor Alexander W. Hunziker
Head of Degree Programme and lecturer in Mindfulness and Positive Psychology, Bern University of Applied Sciences, management trainer, author, MBSR teacher.

«Mindfulness is a digital skill. The more stress and emotional impoverishment we experience in the digitalised workplace, the more important it is to be able to be present as a person – particularly when we feel that we don’t have the time.»

Various guest speakers will outline their practical experience. Provisional speakers:

  • Chris Tamjidi, CEO Awaris, mindful organisation consultancy, Cologne
  • Kai Romhardt, economist and founder of the «Achtsame Wirtschaft» (Mindful Business) network, author (Berlin)
  • Kilian Ambord, managing director, Hôpital du Valais
  • Lutz Hempel, mindfulness-based organisation consultant, Basel
  • Mirjam Rolfe, author and mindfulness-based organisation consultant, Zurich/Hamburg
  • Paul Jokiel, HR Hilti, Schaan, FL
  • Peter Creutzfeldt, author and trainer in mindful management, Frankfurt
  • Petra Keel, BGM Forum Zurich
  • Petra Maria Heeb, SAP (Switzerland), Biel/Bienne
  • Remo Bühlmann, Radiology, Inselspital, Bern
  • Tim Vogus, renowned researcher in organisational mindfulness, Nashville, USA

Admission + further study

Do you work in HR or organisational development or are you hoping to work in those fields? Do you already have management experience and in-depth knowledge of meditation? Then the specialist course Mindfulness-Based Organisational Development is the perfect choice for you. Take the next step with this new, forward-looking continuing education course.

Typical participants:

  • Managers who practise meditation themselves and who would like to extend mindfulness within their team and the wider professional environment.
  • Professionals working in organisational development, occupational health management or change management who would like to use mindfulness as a basis for their work.

You do not need to meet any specific admission requirements to participate in this specialist course. If you wish to obtain ECTS credits, the general conditions for continuing education will apply: you will require a university degree or equivalent qualification and at least two years' professional experience. If you have any questions, please contact the study administration or the course coordinator. 

You must have at least two years of professional experience, either in a management role (line manager or project manager) or in HR and organisational development.

You must have completed the specialist course ‘Mindful Leadership’ at BFH. If you have attended an ‘MBSR’ course and the follow-up ‘specialisation course Mindful Leadership’, this is regarded as equivalent. Other equivalent qualifications will also be considered.

If you are uncertain whether you meet the admission requirements, please contact the course leaders as soon as possible.

Specialist course in «Mindfulness-Based Organisational Development»

You will receive a certificate of participation. If you meet the general admission requirements for studies and successfully pass the competency assessment, you will earn 6 ECTS credits. These will appear on your certificate.

This specialist course can be counted towards:

Organisation + Registration

The course comprises nine study days, each from 8.30am–4.30pm.

To register, please visit the German website. 

Documents required for registration

You can register online via registration form. For registration we require following documents (in PDF format, max. 1 MB per document): 

  • Diplomas 

  • Curriculum Vitae 

  • Passport-sized photo (in JPG format) 

Please upload these documents even if you have already submitted them for another application. 

Information on the specialist course

Registration closes six weeks before the course begins. If places are available, later registration will be permitted. 

CHF 4,200

All course materials and assessments are included in this tuition fee.

Information events + advice

Study Counselling

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Location + facilities

Lessons take place at Schwarztorstrasse 48 in Bern.