Scott Shute may be VP of Customer Operations at LinkedIn, managing the customer experience for the nearly 500 million people, but his second title at the company might be even more impressive: Chief Mindfulness Officer. He’s spent the last few years on a passion project, building momentum and creating space for LinkedIn’s mindfulness program, while brainstorming best practices with like-minded mindfulness leaders at places like Google, eBay, and Intel. His goal is a simple one: to get everybody practicing mindfulness. We sat down with him to find out what drives this passion:
Mindful: It’s amazing that LinkedIn’s mindfulness program has touched thousands of employees so far. Can you tell us a bit about how the mindfulness program started and how it grew?
Scott: A couple years ago I was meeting with the guy who leads our global health and wellness program, and towards the end of the meeting, when we were done our regular agenda, I said, “Do do we do anything with meditation here?” He mentioned that they had in the past and then, almost intuitively, asked, “Wait, can you do something?” I said yes, a bit hesitantly—and then went back to my desk and…
