Collective mindfulness, resilience and team performance

Collective mindfulness is a central feature of organizations that are able to operate reliably and effectively in the face of difficult conditions (Weick et al. 1999). Perhaps due to perceptions of an increasing volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, scholars are now considering the benefits that high-reliability principles offer other organizations, particularly in terms of increased resilience. This idea is appealing in principle, but empirical evidence of such benefits is limited.
This study uses a simulation of a manufacturing operation to investigate the relationship between a key attribute of HROs, namely mindfulness, and performance. Over a period of five weeks, 43 teams comprising 345 participants prepared for a short trading period during which they had to physically produce simple products under demanding, competitive conditions. The exercise required teams to absorb, interpret and act upon large amounts of information and demands considerable ability in communication, coordination and adaptability. The exercise produces objective, directly comparable team performance data.
The results show strong, significant relationships between collective mindfulness, measured by the ‘Mindful Organizing Scale’ (Weick and Sutcliffe 2007) and objective measures of performance. Preliminary analysis indicates that mindfulness is particularly significant to the performance of teams pursuing ambitious, high risk strategies.