Being mindful

"The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice that how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds."

 I came across this great quote recently (although I can't remember where, so apologies for not crediting the author).  Mindfulness is a term that keeps popping up in discussions lately.  We're busy with a research project on mine safety in collaboration with Deloitte, and it seems that being mindful or situationally aware is key when it comes to safety.

We've probably all experienced driving along a familiar route, say from your workplace to your home, and upon arrival not remembering the trip.  A feeling of "how'd I get here?".  In mine safety similar "un-mindfull" events often cause accidents.  A worker's mind is not on his work, he is worried about rumors about retrenchments, or thinking about his family miles away at home, and in a moment of not "being there" an accident occurs. 

In a discussion with Elmi yesterday, we also discussed the interesting notion that Knowledge Management is more about being mindful of knowledge as an integral part of business processes and, not necessarily an elaborate separate process. 

So, now the question becomes: how do we become more mindful?   As the quote above states, if we fail to notice that we fail to notice, we can't do anything about it.  This is a question we'll be thinking about in the weeks to come as we continue with our research into safety mindsets.  Any comments insights from our readers are welcome.