Rich Fernandez: Transforming Cultures Through Mindfulness
Rich Fernandez is one of the pioneers bringing mindfulness into some of the world’s biggest companies such as Facebook, SalesForce, LinkedIn, Ford and Starbucks. In this conversation, Rich shares his very personal journey as a young boy, through to scaling mindfulness at Google, hanging out with Eckhart Tolle and the moment he took a leap from his dream job to move from a “career to a calling”.
The clarity of his communication and integrity will help you see the huge potential work cultures have by embracing the power of mindfulness for wellbeing, innovation and engagement.
Rich Fernandez is the co-founder of Wisdom Labs. He was the head of executive education at Google and combines nearly two decades working at organizations such as Google, eBay, and J.P. Morgan Chase with his deep expertise in cognitive psychology, human performance science and organizational systems to deliver transformational people development solutions in business settings. Rich now focuses on the science of mindful wellbeing, resilience and purpose driven performance within companies such as Facebook, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Deloitte and Starbucks.
About the Guest
Listen to Other Episodes
Many of us have been raised to think that men have to act in a certain way. You know the story — be tough, invulnerable, in control, unemotional etc.
He believes a great team is made up of different types of characters — lovers, fighters, jokers, hard men, quiet types and bookworms.
A ‘good life’ as being determined by generosity, caring for one another and acknowledging our shared frailty as humans.
We hear about his experience doing rites of passages with his sons, taking family sabbaticals and how he naturally gravitates to people who are open, emotionally available and vulnerable.
The nature of masculinity is in great transition — and many men aren’t coping well. Men are scoring higher on the markers of ‘emotional distress’ including suicide, substance abuse, online addiction, violence — and even eating disorders.
Graham Long wears two watches. The second belonged to his son, James. It stopped at one minute to midnight during the first year of James’ death — a reminder to live in the present moment.
Believes being born in Australia is like winning the “embryo lottery” — and how important it is to use our time, talents and money to give back to society.
At some point in your life, you have to decide whether you're going to live according to what others expect, or what you feel is right.
He has a passion for removing stigmas and reminds us that by coming back to stillness we can calm our minds and reconnect us to our basic human goodness.
He makes a very clear distinction difference between being “successful” and being “admirable”.
He values people beyond their job titles and always sought to create work environments where people felt cared for, respected and treated with dignity.