Yoga as a Learning Development tool

Written by Lisa Paredes, Global Ambassador and MBA student, San Francisco Campus Class of 2017. â€Å"Since the focus of LD is to facilitate change, it’s your role to make sure employees understand how to embrace it. You’re not just implementing a new learning tool or delivering a course. You also need to be able to help employees manage the mental process of understanding change.† – Todd Dewett [Tweet Learning Development is  one of the many areas where HR is innovating.] The business world is changing. Millennials in the workplace are looking for something more than just making money. They are looking for a purpose and employers must find a way to keep this talent motivated and develop them to their full potential. Learning Development is  one of the many areas where HR is innovating this year. Sending employees to training and coaching workshops occasionally is no longer enough, and is not creating an impact on the young employees. Employers are looking for new ways to approach this in the workplace. To be able to achieve an effective result, businessmen and businesswomen will have to think outside the box. Satisfying the need of self-development and developing talent will be hard but, in my opinion, there are innovative ways to accomplish it. The philosophy behind yoga is based on self-development and can serve as a guideline for people development in the workplace. Yoga may not seem the obvious choice, but the philosophy behind yoga is based on self-development and can serve as a guideline for people development in the workplace. There are multiple ways to see a yoga practice. Some people see it as a physical exercise, others see it as a spiritual practice and some others, like me, came across yoga in a moment of  needing clarity. Since I began my yoga practice, I’ve been looking for a way to mix the business world with the yoga world. It hasn’t been easy since most people when thinking about business in the yoga world automatically think about teaching or opening studios. However, I have experienced yoga as a self-discovery path and an empowering practice that in my opinion could be used as a Learning Development tool to keep employees engaged. Yoga as a self-awareness practice The style of yoga that I practice is called Rocket Yoga. On the outside people may think it looks like just fun, all fancy poses and circus-like people, but what you find in this yoga style is a search for your inner teacher. Rocket yoga may challenge you physically but in every practice the sequence lets you go inwards. In each pose, the teacher doesn’t tell you what you should do but instead guides you to get to know your body and listen to what it needs and can do in each moment of the practice. This style encourages you to have a voice, to know what you as an individual want to do. The Rocket taught me how to find the limit of my comfort zone and encourages me to challenge myself to always go even further, not only in my yoga practice but in my daily life. Having a constant practice of self-reflection helps us be aware of patterns and to create new ones. Yoga as a self-reflection practice Since I started practicing Rocket yoga my teacher always encouraged me to practice self-reflection. During our teacher training, we started a habit of journaling after each practice to reflect on the experience we had and what we observe about ourselves. This can also be applied to your professional and personal life. I think doing this after a day of work is a great practice to create mindfulness and self-reflection. Having a constant practice of self-reflection helps us be aware of patterns and to create new ones. One of my favorite examples of this is an aspect of Lululemon’s culture, the habit of goal setting. Every employee from top to bottom in the company must define a list of goals and steps to achieve them. The difference from other existing programs I’ve seen is that employees come back frequently to these goals and are encouraged and coached by peers to achieve them. Yoga as a tool for work/life balance It’s not a secret anymore that stress in the workplace doesn’t do any good to employees, but how do we manage that stress? Having yoga classes within companies is now a trend but most of the time it’s just something that looks good in a company description but doesn’t really create value. Bringing yoga to the companies is a good first step, but for it to become an important asset it must be more than a simple benefit. As any LD program, for a yoga program to have the results mentioned above it must consist also of constant check-ins and follow-ups. The Yoga Club in action at the Hut San Francisco campus. [Tweet Yoga Club at Hult provides support to the student community] These are some of the reasons why I decided to open the Yoga Club at Hult. Our club members are people that had never or barely practiced yoga before but were interested in the benefits they’d heard yoga could give them. The club is not made for six times a week yogis but instead provides a safe space and support for people interested in the benefits of yoga to explore them. [Tweet Yoga as a LD tool empowers you to keep changing and growing.] My teacher always encouraged me to think about three questions: What do you want? Where do you want to live? Who do you want to be when you grow up? These questions may not seem yoga-related but they are. Yoga can be whatever you want it to be, but if you choose it to be a learning and development tool it will give you insights about your mind and life that you had never noticed, and it will empower you to always keep changing and growing. Lisa Paredes is a Hult MBA student from Guatemala. She was the CEO of a wine distribution company before she left to pursue her post-graduate degree in San Francisco. Her experience as a business woman and yoga teacher led her to her biggest passion—working with people. Hult offers a range of highly skills-focused and employability-driven business school programs including a range of MBA options and a comprehensive one year Masters in International Business. To find out more, take a look at our blog Clubs societies: A different way to grow. Download a brochure or get in touch today to find out how Hult can help you to learn about the business world, the future, and yourself. 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We look for diverse students with a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and interests—students who will thrive in our unique educational atmosphere. Are you ready for a truly global experience? 📠¸: @iambrunadiniz . Each year, Hult seeks to enroll a talented and ambitious incoming class from all over the world. We look for diverse students with a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and interests—students who will thrive in our unique educational atmosphere. Are you ready for a truly global experience? 📠¸: @iambrunadiniz . We’re excited to start 2020 on a ranking high! Hult is proud to have been placed #28 in Poets Quants 2020 rankings for Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the US. Taking a huge leap of 32 places from our 2019 position, we’re also very happy to have secured top positions in key categories like: life-changing experience, practicality of the degree, and global immersion. . With five global campuses, a student body of over 130 nationalities, and a learn-by-doing approach—Hult offers a student experience like no other. . We’re excited to start 2020 on a ranking high! Hult is proud to have been placed #28 in Poets Quants 2020 rankings for Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the US. Taking a huge leap of 32 places from our 2019 position, we’re also very happy to have secured top positions in key categories like: life-changing experience, practicality of the degree, and global immersion. . With five global campuses, a student body of over 130 nationalities, and a learn-by-doing approach—Hult offers a student experience like no other. . â€Å"I’m from an engineering background and needed a whole new skill set for the industry I wanted to switch to. I learned a lot about myself and how I deal with being out of my comfort zone. I learned both soft and hard skills, from how to work in very diverse teams to key accounting metrics and strategy. I was surprised by how weak I was at certain tasks in English or how strong I actually was in other areas. Hult gave me opportunities to try new things and meet people from places I never thought I would have friends. . My internship experiences gave me the chance to broaden my view of different cultures and different companies. I had the opportunity to work and live with people whose values differed from people in my home country. I thought that this would be difficult, but it gave me the chance to reflect on my own values and assess if they were a result of my home country environment or if they were intrinsically mine. . Diederick ter Kulve (@diederick.terkulve) Netherlands Masters in International Business . â€Å"I’m from an engineering background and needed a whole new skill set for the industry I wanted to switch to. I learned a lot about myself and how I deal with being out of my comfort zone. I learned both soft and hard skills, from how to work in very diverse teams to key accounting metrics and strategy. I was surprised by how weak I was at certain tasks in English or how strong I actually was in other areas. Hult gave me opportunities to try new things and meet people from places I never thought I would have friends. . My internship experiences gave me the chance to broaden my view of different cultures and different companies. I had the opportunity to work and live with people whose values differed from people in my home country. I thought that this would be difficult, but it gave me the chance to reflect on my own values and assess if they were a result of my home country environment or if they were intrinsically mine. . Diederick ter Kulve (@diederick.terkulve) Netherlands Masters in International Business . Say a big hello to our Bachelor of Business Administration program cover star, Elisa Orus Plana âÅ" ¨ . â€Å"I’m excited for the future—especially that I cant predict whats going to happen. Maybe Ill end up in Mexico working for a trading company or maybe in Africa, developing my own business. Everything is possible, and the options are constantly changing. I love the idea that Im never going to be stuck doing the same job until the end of my life if I dont want it to be like this. . Hult really supports me and my ambitions and truly believes that we deserve to be considered as professionals as well as students. Here, I get to express not just my opinions but all elements of myself. From my creative side with the Fashion Society to my finance and business sides in Trading Club and the Management Consulting Club. We get a different type of learning here. Not just essential knowledge and theory, but practical skills and mindset. The school is always evolving. We’re encouraged to innovate and to always look for new ways of doing traditional things. We learn how to be more confident and become aware of how we can impact our environment. The school aims to help you become a better version of yourself and to stand out from the crowd.â€Å" . Elisa Orus Plana French Bachelor of Business Administration Class of 2021 Say a big hello to our Bachelor of Business Administration program cover star, Elisa Orus Plana âÅ" ¨ . â€Å"I’m excited for the future—especially that I cant predict whats going to happen. Maybe Ill end up in Mexico working for a trading company or maybe in Africa, developing my own business. Everything is possible, and the options are constantly changing. I love the idea that Im never going to be stuck doing the same job until the end of my life if I dont want it to be like this. . Hult really supports me and my ambitions and truly believes that we deserve to be considered as professionals as well as students. Here, I get to express not just my opinions but all elements of myself. From my creative side with the Fashion Society to my finance and business sides in Trading Club and the Management Consulting Club. We get a different type of learning here. Not just essential knowledge and theory, but practical skills and mindset. The school is always evolving. We’re encouraged to innovate and to always look for new ways of doing traditional things. We learn how to be more confident and become aware of how we can impact our environment. The school aims to help you become a better version of yourself and to stand out from the crowd.â€Å" . Elisa Orus Plana French Bachelor of Business Administration Class of 2021"> During the final days of 2019, you probably reflected on what you’ve accomplished this year—and even this decade—and what you’d like to achieve in 2020. Let us know in the comments below. During the final days of 2019, you probably reflected on what you’ve accomplished this year—and even this decade—and what you’d like to achieve in 2020. Let us know in the comments below. â€Å"The first time we did group work on the program, I went head-to-head with a colleague. It taught me a lot about how I see people, how people see me, and how conflict can be resolved in a kind and productive way. The best feedback you get, when delivered constructively, is the most critical because it really feeds into how you lead. I’ve completely reversed my leadership style—the result is so much richer and more powerful when you lead from behind and lead with strength. . Studying in tandem with working, whilst challenging, gave me the perfect platform to directly apply learning concepts into my business environment, the competitive landscape, and the real-estate industry as a whole. When I started the program, I was very happy in my corporate role. But my courage and aspirations grew to the point that I took on a whole new direction. Having my career coach, Joanna, as a sounding board allowed me to really be strategic and get to know myself. She coached me thro ugh all the interviews, the research, and the questions. It went in parallel with what I was doing academically and after six months everything just clicked. . I went into the EMBA knowing I had nothing to lose and I’ve come out with everything. Great strength, global friends, amazing learning, mentors from professors, a job I love, and the knowledge that I can set my mind to achieve anything and with the right support and resources I’ll get there.† . Kashani Wijetunga British, New Zealand Sri Lankan Associate Director Senior Strategy Consultant CBRE EMBA Class of 2019 . â€Å"The first time we did group work on the program, I went head-to-head with a colleague. It taught me a lot about how I see people, how people see me, and how conflict can be resolved in a kind and productive way. The best feedback you get, when delivered constructively, is the most critical because it really feeds into how you lead. I’ve completely reversed my leadership style—the result is so much richer and more powerful when you lead from behind and lead with strength. . Studying in tandem with working, whilst challenging, gave me the perfect platform to directly apply learning concepts into my business environment, the competitive landscape, and the real-estate industry as a whole. When I started the program, I was very happy in my corporate role. But my courage and aspirations grew to the point that I took on a whole new direction. Having my career coach, Joanna, as a sounding board allowed me to really be strategic and get to know myself. She coached me thro ugh all the interviews, the research, and the questions. It went in parallel with what I was doing academically and after six months everything just clicked. . I went into the EMBA knowing I had nothing to lose and I’ve come out with everything. Great strength, global friends, amazing learning, mentors from professors, a job I love, and the knowledge that I can set my mind to achieve anything and with the right support and resources I’ll get there.† . Kashani Wijetunga British, New Zealand Sri Lankan Associate Director Senior Strategy Consultant CBRE EMBA Class of 2019 . â€Å"It was now or never. I knew that I’d have likely stayed in my neighborhood for years to come if I didn’t take this opportunity. I’d not lived or studied outside of the U.S. before. So I left my job as a global strategist at an advertising agency and moved halfway around the world. I’ve come back a more culturally aware, well-versed person. I’ve realized that everything is a learning experience and an opportunity for growth. Ill definitely carry this mindset with me into the future. Technology and social media allow us to be different people in several places at once. Im excited to see how I can establish myself in whatever city Ill be lucky enough to call home and still maintain deep connections with people all over the world. I’m inspired by my classmates every day. Hearing some of their life stories and how getting this degree fits into their greater mission has been very humbling. My biggest challenge has been finding the ‘right’ path for me. There have been rooms Ive felt like I shouldnt be in, but now Im proud to feel as though I truly belong, wherever I am.† . Dwayne Logan, Jnr. American MBA Class of 2019 . â€Å"It was now or never. I knew that I’d have likely stayed in my neighborhood for years to come if I didn’t take this opportunity. I’d not lived or studied outside of the U.S. before. So I left my job as a global strategist at an advertising agency and moved halfway around the world. I’ve come back a more culturally aware, well-versed person. I’ve realized that everything is a learning experience and an opportunity for growth. Ill definitely carry this mindset with me into the future. Technology and social media allow us to be different people in several places at once. Im excited to see how I can establish myself in whatever city Ill be lucky enough to call home and still maintain deep connections with people all over the world. I’m inspired by my classmates every day. Hearing some of their life stories and how getting this degree fits into their greater mission has been very humbling. My biggest challenge has been finding the ‘right’ path for me. There have been rooms Ive felt like I shouldnt be in, but now Im proud to feel as though I truly belong, wherever I am.† . Dwayne Logan, Jnr. American MBA Class of 2019 . Happy New Year, Hultians! . Happy New Year, Hultians! .