Wisdom at Work

Welcome to Wisdom at Work!

These potent times in our lives and world stretch and inspire us to expand the scope of our capacity for learning, wisdom, mindfulness, compassion, and creative intelligence in order to skillfully respond to the enormous challenges and embrace the profoundly inspiring opportunities we are being offered.

As the circumstances of our lives, world, society, economy, and environment become ever more disrupted in these “VUCA” times of increasing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity, it is becoming increasingly clear that to thrive – in what is also being called the time of “Deep Adaptation”, “Great Unraveling” and “Great Turning” – and that “business as usual” will not be sufficient for any of us, our organizations, or communities.

Joel and Michelle Levey

Joel and Michelle Levey

“The most exquisite orchestration
of human technology
that we have ever seen.”

WEST POINT LOGISTICIANS

This is the time to pursue EXTRA-ordinary ways of living, learning, and working together. That’s exactly what we at Wisdom at Work are here to help you do!

As early pioneers in mindfulness, contemplative science, and the science of extra-ordinary human performance, our work has inspired tens of thousands of leaders in hundreds of organizations around the globe over the past four decades. Our clients include: NASA, NOAA, World Bank, Google, British Parliament, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and World Business Academy.

Our work is inspired by Einstein’s insight that the solutions to the complex challenges in our lives and world will not be found at the same levels of thinking or consciousness that created them! A substantially new level of consciousness is needed if humanity is to survive – and thrive.  The means to realizing these new, extra-ordinary levels of consciousness are certainly available for anyone sufficiently motivated to learn and practice them.  

We are here to help you, your organization, and community to join in this rEvolution in consciousness.

“The more we learn to listen, the more we will hear.
The more we hear, the more and more deeply we will understand,
and the greater the wisdom we bring to life and work will be.”

JOEL AND MICHELLE LEVEY

Pristine natural environments offer many inspirations for transformational experiences.  We’ve been fortunate to travel, live, and work in the Hawaiian Islands and have been blessed to host and guide a wide variety of profoundly inspiring gatherings at numerous sacred and natural settings throughout the islands – especially the Big Island and Maui.

We often partner with local wisdom keepers and these special gatherings in the Aloha Spirit have served both our local Island community as well as guests and groups from communities and organizations around the globe.  Each gathering offers a unique weaving of Island adventures, cultural experiences, teachings, and venues that will nourish, revitalize, and inspire our guests in the most life-affirming ways. Common themes for these gatherings include: immersion in the living wisdom of natural systems; living in balance, self-family-&-team renewal, meditation, integral medicine, change resilience, eco-tourism and lessons on sustainable living from Island cultures and the wonders of our natural world.

“The Leveys have been so inspirational in the field of mindfulness teaching over so many decades.”

Chris Ruane
MP, British Parliament

“The most intensive and far reaching leadership development program to be offered in modern times.”

Michael Murphy and George Leonard
founders of the “human potential movement”

“The world needed a definitive book on Living in Dynamic Balance and Joel and Michelle Levey were the ones we selected to write this book for us.”

Mary Jane (MJ) Ryan
Conari

“The work of Joel and Michelle Levey has long been a luminous thread in the fabric of the Great Turning.  They embody in many ways this epochal transition to a life-sustaining society.” 

Joanna Macy
deep ecologist, activist, and scholar

“Joel and Michelle Levey have skillfully woven together contemporary insights into the value and need for mind-fitness and meditation practices with a large number of evocative suggestions for practice.  Joel and Michelle clearly have a great deal of experience teaching a wide range of different settings and this is reflected in the precision and vividness of their instructions.  There is strength in the simplicity of their explanation of the value of these practices and their clear instructions for how to practice.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn

“When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.”

Margaret Wheatley

“The world we have made as a result of the level of the thinking we have done thus far creates problems that we cannot solve at the same level (of consciousness) at which we have created them. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humankind is to survive.”

Einstein

“The Leveys’ Wisdom at Work program was unique from the start, I’ve never seen a project seek to make such fundamental improvements in both people and the work environment….

“The post-test measurements we took as the Travelers Vision Project evolved are like nothing we’ve seen in looking at over 20,000 change program participants.”

Dr. Richard Wagner
Professor, School of Management, University of Wisconsin

“Joel and Michelle bring tremendous
and rare wisdom and experience
to the work of developing more mindful
and wisdom-informed workplaces.

“I recommend their trainings
whole-heartedly.”

Chris Cullen
Oxford Mindfulness Center (UK)

“The depth of this project has the earmarks of a pioneering effort… for American business.”

Dr. Richard Wagner
Professor, School of Management, University of Wisconsin

“All of the data would suggest that it was a very successful program , especially in the long-run. The number of significant changes in both the short-run and the long-run was approximately twice the number normally found in programs similar to this one.”

Dr. Richard Wagner
Professor, School of Management, University of Wisconsin

“The magnitude of the changes was generally greater than the changes we have found in similar programs.  We would suggest that programs similar to this be integrated into future training programs whenever possible.”

Dr. Richard Wagner
Professor, School of Management, University of Wisconsin

DEEP RESILIENCE “The New Sustainability” It is essential that we learning ways to grow stronger, more agile, and capable through our encounters with life’s challenges. As tsunamis of complex change flood through our lives, world, organizations and communities, this learning becomes ever more essential As the turbulence and complexity of our lives and world escalate, leading organizations around the globe are inviting us to partner with them to develop programs that increase their personal and organizational capacity for deep change resilience and sustainability. See a sampling of programs…

BREAKTHROUGHS IN CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION  Learning to understand, develop, and raise our creative intelligence wise levels and to realize our potential for extra-ordinary breakthroughs in creativity and innovation – are vital skills in these complex and uncertain times…

Have you ever witnessed the magnificence of an innovation team tapping the power of their collective wisdom and creative intelligence to bring their innovations on-line in ways that change our world – for the better?

MINDFUL LEADERSHIP  is the key to extraordinary personal and organizational success.  Inspired by our pioneering work in social neuroscience and work leaders at British Parliament’s All Parliamentary Roundtable on Mindfulness, Google, Intel, World Bank, Special Forces, to expand capacity for greater innovation, creativity, mastery of attention/focus, change resilience and personal sustainability, mindfulness, and wisdom at work.  To the best of our knowledge, we have more experience in providing Mindful Leadership programs than anyone else in the world – having begun these programs in the 70s!

Wisdom at Work’s transformational Mindful Leadership programs have inspired people of widely diverse backgrounds, educations, cultures, languages, and beliefs, and can be scaled to deliver value to individual leaders, dynamic working teams, and whole organizations who take mindfulness to heart as a core success factor in their work together. See a sampling of programs…

WISDOM AND WELLNESS  Developing our wellness is vital to our success as thriving individuals, organizations, and communities.  Moving toward wellness is largely a choice and is informed by the depth or our wisdom and caring, more than by mere knowledge.  Our unique approach to Wisdom and Wellness is based on the vital integration of three dimensions:  Coherence of Mind; Integration of Brain; and Attunement in the Field of Social Relationships.

Our programs offer a wealth of profoundly practical inspirations, skills, and strategies for creating ways of living and working that increase the capacity of individuals, organizations, and communities to flourish, find meaning, and realize great value through their lives and work.

COLLECTIVE WISDOM AND CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE  Realizing our capacity to reliably access, utilize, and express our collective wisdom and intelligence is the most important project for humanity at this time on earth.   Though this potential exists, few individuals, organizations, communities, or societies have fully realized this extraordinary potential – which is so vital to realizing our potentials to survive and thrive in years to come!

Having facilitated breakthrough programs for HP Labs, senior leaders at MIT, Stanford, NASA, JPL, Boeing, elite teams of Special Forces, and design teams from hundreds of organizations, we have witnessed the power of Einstien’s wisdom when he observed that, “The problems that we have created cannot be solved at the level of thinking that created them…. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humankind is to survive.”

CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENCE AND MINDBODY MEDICINE Our unique approach to Meditation and MindBody Medicine program distills essential insights from decades of research and experience developed in our teaching thousands of physicians, nurses, and other health-caring professionals around the globe.

Drawing inspiration from a wealth of evidence based research and diverse wisdom traditions and this Wisdom at Work inspires health caring professionals with a wealth of ways to improve their own self-care, well-being, resilience, clinical performance, and relationships, while actively engaged in helping others.

Latest blog posts

World Unity Week 2022

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Past programs

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Wisdom at Work’s 2022 Summer Learning Laboratory

EXPLORING THE SEAMLESS INTEGRATION OF OUR INNER AND OUTER WORK

with Joel and Michelle Levey
Dates TBD
Seattle, Washington

Our 2022 Learning Laboratory will give special attention to principles, practices, and teachings from our new books: Living in Balance: A Mindful Guide for Thriving in a Complex World and Mindfulness, Meditation, and Mind-Fitness. All participants are encouraged to explore these books in preparation for this immersive session.

Over the years we have received numerous requests from sincere friends, colleagues, and students to have an opportunity to study more closely with us in an in-depth way for both personal development and professional training. In response to these requests, we will offer the next level of our Summer Learning Laboratory at our home in Seattle this summer.

ee a description of previous versions of this program and along with some heartwarming photos here.