The 10 Blog

This Blog Has Moved

2009-01-30T11:34:00.005Z

Hi all

This blog continues at Workmad.

Please join me there for the latest news and views about positive psychology and organisations.

Bridget

Wealth, Happiness and Life Satisfaction

2008-08-31T16:37:00.005Z

Here's my latest article on Positive Psychology News Daily on that age-old subject of wealth and happiness. It seems to have caused a bit of a stir with some readers, judging from the number of comments (32 as of today), although maybe not for the right reasons!

Never mind, I'm sure you'll find the recent research interesting. Feel free to write your comments on the Positive Psychology News Daily site itself.

Image: thisduck

Perkfests and the Happiness Police

2008-08-22T21:44:00.008Z

A couple of years ago I met someone at a networking event whose business card described him as a 'Chief Happiness Officer'. And no he wasn't wearing a red nose, curly wig and big shoes...As a corporate role I couldn't see it catching on (not in the UK anyway) but perhaps I was wrong...

This is an interesting article, especially bearing in mind the economic woes we're experiencing. Personally I doubt whether any of the gestures made by these large organisations will be sufficient to enhance the psychological health of the target group for any longer than the time it takes to guzzle six pints of Ben 'n' Jerry's...but then again, maybe I'm wrong about this too.

If any readers have experience of corporate "Happiness Police", please do get in touch.

Image: TeeJe</span>

Positive Thinking Exercises

2008-08-21T07:52:00.010Z

Many thanks to Kelly Sonora for sending me this link - 100 positive thinking exercises. My advice would be not to wait until you're having a bad day to put these into action - once you're in a negative frame of mind it will require more effort and self-control to get yourself out of it. Trying practising some of them everyday starting from today - create some new 'positive rituals'. This will make it all the more easier to continue once the going does get tough.

Image: wadem

Full of Life?

2008-08-19T07:45:00.013Z

This BBC news article reports on a government survey which shows that the vast majority of British people are friends with, or have things in common with, people of different age groups. I wonder what the specific questions were. And do they include family in that? 'Having things in common with' is a very broad concept really. And what do they mean by 'generation'?

Say you're 35 and socialise with people who are 25 or 45 - if asked 'Do you socialise with people of different age groups?', you could say yes, but that doesn't mean you also socialise with people who are 15, 55 or 65+. Likewise if you're 65 - you might have friends who are 55 or 75, but none who are younger than 40...

That's the problem with soundbites. When it comes to statistics you need to see the full detail to be able to make a proper judgement.

Anyway, the article mentions another government website, 'Full of Life' which claims to be "a celebration of the opportunities, achievements, and aspirations of older people and their contribution to our society and economy". Usually I'd say great, this looks like a really positive move. Apart from a couple of 'case studies', however, the website is really only a portal to various other old age-related sites. I agree totally that we should celebrate the contribution that older people make, but first I'd like to see the government do something constructive about the state of old people's homes, and fund treatments for mental illness for people over 65 which, I was shocked to find out, the NHS doesn't have to cover.

Image: maiqui maiqui

Positive Psychology for Working and Living

2008-07-27T15:07:00.005Z

I just love this idea!

This post, for Positive Psychology News Daily, looks at two favourite subjects of mine - firstly how people find satisfaction in the jobs they do and secondly, how Positive Psychology can be applied in non-psychology related fields - in this case, Design.

It also links to two other articles I wrote last year, here and here.

The image above is a reproduction of True’s original design, by Chris Glass.

The Dark Side of Positive Psychology

2008-07-17T22:12:00.004Z

I never thought I'd be posting a link like this about Positive Psychology, but I think you should read this blogpost, which was sent to me on Monday. It refers to a new book, "The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals", in which it is alleged that Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology, was involved in CIA torture. If true, this would of course be completely unethical behaviour, and completely against the principles of Positive Psychology.

After that you should read this blogpost, from one of Seligman's colleagues, Ben Dean, which includes Seligman's response to the allegations (he denies this involvement).

Let's hope the truth will out sooner rather than later.

Happiness and the Hedonic Treadmill

2008-07-05T07:26:00.001Z

At the 4th European Conference on Positive Psychology in Croatia, Randy Larsen, Psychology Professor at Washington University in St Louis, presented on ‘Overcoming the ‘Hedonic Treadmill’. In fact, the session focussed more on explaining what the Hedonic Treadmill is and how it operates rather than on presenting loads of new ideas on how to beat it…Maybe he ran out of time, a common occurrence during the conference.

So what is the Hedonic Treadmill exactly? In short, it’s the idea that we humans adapt to pleasurable circumstances, events and experiences – which explains why the joy you feel from getting that sought-after pay rise, new contract, dress or car lasts only for a few hours, days or weeks. We simply get used to the positive emotion. The novelty wears off.

What makes the Hedonic Treadmill so interesting is that we adapt to negative circumstances, events and experiences differently; here, there is something called a negativity bias at work, which means that bad events carry more weight than good events; so for example, losing £50 is a more negative experience that finding £50 is a positive one.

Larsen’s research comparing good and bad events shows that bad ones decay more slowly, i.e. negative emotions take longer to wear off. Said another way, we adapt to positive events more quickly than we do to negative ones. No wonder so many people get addicted to shopping – they’re forever trying to increase the duration of positive emotion, without realising that it will just keep wearing off.

One explanation for this may be that negative emotions last longer for evolutionary reasons. Thousands of years ago we couldn’t have afforded to spend too much of our time caught up in the positive emotions associated with having fun and enjoying ourselves when there might be a sabre-toothed tiger coming round the corner – we needed to be ready to deal with it (‘fight or flight’). For our own survival, it was necessary that negative emotions lasted longer than positive ones.

So, where does this leave us, bearing in mind that millions of Westerners seems to be running round the Hedonic (Shopping) Treadmill every day? Unfortunately Larsen didn’t suggest any concrete answers, other than perhaps Positive Psychologists need to be investigating ways to accelerate the adaptation to negative events and experiences, rather than looking for new interventions to increase positive emotion. I think he has a good point, don’t you?

Happiness and Policy

2008-07-02T20:31:00.004Z

On Monday evening I heard Ed Diener (aka Smiley Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois) present at the 4th European Conference on Positive Psychology in Croatia on the subject of Well-being on Planet Earth. Leaving aside the fact that Diener works for the Gallup Organisation, he presented some curious findings about the predictors of life satisfaction and positive and negative emotion, and the relevance for policy use.

Life Satisfaction vs Emotion

Diener’s ‘happiness formula’ is one of the most well-known in Positive Psychology:

Subjective Well-being (i.e. happiness) = Satisfaction with life + Positive Emotion – Negative Emotion.

This means that happiness is not a simple measure of how good you feel (emotion) but also includes a cognitive element of what you think about your life (satisfaction with life). Still with me? Great!

This explains why countries like Denmark can feature at the top of some happiness scales, but not others.

For example, when asked “on a scale of 0-10 how satisfied are you with your life?” Denmark comes top of the league table. But when you look at which countries are high in positive emotion, New Zealand, Honduras and Panama come at the top.

But happiness is even more complex than that – the presence of positive emotion is not the same thing as the absence of negative emotion (in the same way that health is not the mere absence of illness).

So countries which are high in positive emotion are not the same as those which are low in negative emotion (e.g. Denmark, Sweden and Australia).

Diener’s research with Gallup has also found that the top two predictors of satisfaction with life and positive emotion are not the same:

Predictors of satisfaction with life:
1. Money (as measured by GDP per capita)
2. Optimism
3. Whether I can count on other people

Predictors of positive emotion:
1. Whether I learned something yesterday
2. Freedom to choose
3. Whether I can count on other people

Relevance for Policy Use

According to the Gallup data, 94% of Danes score more then 8/10 for happiness, whereas 97% of Togolese score less than 3/10. Not surprisingly (because this is where Gallup’s interests lie), Diener used these extraordinary findings to argue that we should pay more attention to country-level well-being, since the way in which individual countries are run must be what makes the difference to these overall happiness scores. His suggestion is that societies would do well to use well-being measures in their creation of country-wide policies, as well as the more traditional economic and social measures.

It’s difficult not to disagree with him when you look at the data*; however, the question then arises as to whether it’s the government’s role to make people happy. My own perspective is the government does have a role to play in creating the right environment, although I think we could do a great deal more to improve people’s lives by spending the resources on treating mental illness effectively.

* Sadly the data Diener presented isn't in the public arena since it belongs to the Gallup Organisation.

Positive Psychology and Politics

2008-06-25T21:19:00.006Z

A great article from The Guardian yesterday about the plans of Lord Layard, the so-called 'Happiness Tsar', to bring happiness to the UK masses. As an economist, his epiphany was the realisation that above a certain point, money and happiness aren't correlated.

Putting aside the argument about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and depression (which is one definitely worth having), I'm not yet convinced that government intervention to make us all happier is either necessary or effective. I'm all for educating people to make their own decisions but perhaps the government should concentrate its efforts on creating better schools and hospitals first...

But no doubt it would become bogged down in happiness measurements, targets and standards anyway before any real difference was made!

Positive Psychology, Money and Friendship

2008-06-22T20:36:00.004Z

My June article on Positive Psychology News Daily reviews the recent research into money, happiness and friendship.

In short, North et al's (2008) research (274 married adults across a ten-year period) shows that family social support (as measured by cohesion, expressiveness and absence of conflict) is substantially associated with happiness even after controlling for income, and that change in family social support is positively related to change in happiness, whereas change in family income is not.

For the full article,including references, click here

Image: Shelly S

Positive Psychology - Strengths

2008-06-19T22:49:00.013Z

At college today our MAPP class completed a SWOT Analysis for Positive Psychology. Here's a summary of what we thought are its greatest Strengths (not necessarily in priority order) :

Evidence-based
Universal - applies to all cultures and all life-stages
Captures the public imagination
Provides a common language
Deals with real-life issues
Brings together diverse fields, such as economics, politics, design and philosophy
Goes beyond the "medical model" of traditional psychology
Underpins sustainable development
Bridges academia and real world
Acknowledges the negative in human experience
Gives us resources

I'll post some further info on the SWOT over the next few days.

Thanks to:

Lucy, Francesca, Claire, Paul, Emily, Charlotte, Elena, Melody, Sam, Valerie, Eleni, Cassie & Ilona for their input, and to Dr Carol Craig & Nic Marks for suggesting the exercise.

Image: Editor B

Unhappy workers take more sick leave

2008-06-18T21:17:00.007Z

Gallup-Healthways has recently issued details of their Well-being Index - a survey of over 100,000 Americans which shows that employees who are unhappy at work take, on average, an extra 15 days sick leave a year. Yes, that's right, an extra 15 days a year.

The survey assesses well-being at work by asking employees about

i) job satisfaction,
ii) whether their boss is authoritative or collaborative,
iii) whether there is openness and trust in the workplace and
iv) whether their individual strengths are recognised.

Just over a fifth of full-time employees apparently reported working in a negative environment. Even if only a half of those surveyed are full-time, this still equates to an enormous amount of lost productivity.

Clearly this has significant cost implications for business and for the economy in general; so any organisation, profit-making or otherwise, which doesn't take employee well-being seriously should probably think again.

Iceland - the Happiest Country?

2008-05-28T11:30:00.014Z

As with any happiness or life satisfaction league table, who comes top depends on exactly what's being measured and how. In this article by The Observer journalist John Carlin, Iceland is referred to as the happiest country in the world. How can this be? We all know that it's Denmark!

Carlin's conclusion is based on Iceland's ranking in the Human Development Index (HDI), one of the four United Nations assessments of human potential - it measures three basic dimensions - a long and healthy life, education and a decent standard of living.

1. Health is measured by life expectancy at birth,
2. Education is measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrolment ratio in primary, secondary, and tertiary education,
3. Standard of living is measured by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP US$).

So the HDI isn't actually quantifying either happiness or life satisfaction, and it's questionable (in Positive Psychology terms) whether health, wealth and education significantly contribute to happiness anyway.

In fact there are some elements of Icelandic society which would contradict the conclusion that it's one of the best countries in the world to live in, for example, the highest divorce rate in Europe. However, this doesn't mean they have unhappy families - in fact writes Carlin', "The kids will be just fine, because the family will rally round them, and likely as not, the parents will continue to have a civilised relationship, based on the usually automatic understanding that custody of the children will be shared".

The article provides further insights into those character traits which might explain why Icelanders are generally happy people (if not the happiest), for example, optimism, resilience, self-confidence and a can-do attitude. That said, if we follow Lyubomirsky's "Happiness Pie" model, after genes (50%), what we chose to do with our time is the largest contributor (40%) to our happiness - do we have any readers who could comment on how the average happy Icelander spends his/her time?

Whether or not it's the happiest country, Iceland takes first place in the 2007/08 HDI, followed by Norway, Australia, Canada and Ireland. The USA is in 12th position, Denmark 14th and the UK 16th. At the bottom , not surprisingly are the West African countries of Guinea (175th), Burkina Faso (176th) and Sierra Leone (177th). For the full list, see here.

Image: Gúnna

Positive Psychology, Music and Song

2008-05-26T14:17:00.011Z

In this month's Positive Psychology News Daily article we explore the links between Positive Psychology, making music and singing in unison.

Not only are they both good for your physical health, scientists like Professor Stephen Clift of the Sidney de Haan Centre for Arts and Health are now investigating the benefits for psychological well-being, including increased happiness,self-esteem and self-efficacy, and reduced depression.

Read the rest of the article here.

Image: Tallalex85

Positive Psychology down on the farm

2008-05-11T00:26:00.012Z

This is the most off the wall application of positive psychology in business I've come across yet - who would have thought that performing Tai Chi in front of cows would improve the quality and quantity of their milk?

Devon farmer, Robert Taverner, says that not only does performing Tai Chi together bond his workforce, the fact that it makes them more relaxed and happy has a positive knock-one effect on his 250 dairy cows, which results in them producing higher quality milk. You can watch a video of various members of the farm's team performing a different Tai Chi ritual for every day of the week on Robert's website.

For a quick (3 minute) insight into Tai Chi for cows, listen to Robert on BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live programme yesterday morning (10 May 2008)- it starts at about 6 mins 45 seconds into the programme.

Image: WukieGrl

Are You Friendly and Sociable?

2008-05-07T22:59:00.005Z

'Why, of course!', you reply, slightly indignant that we've even asked the question. And no doubt at work or down the pub or gym, you are. But what about with your neighbours? Do you know the other people who live in your street? And would you leave them a set of keys to your house?

These were questions asked by recent BBC research into neighbourliness. In response:

36% of us wouldn't trust anyone on our street with a set of keys.
surprisingly, in the younger age group (25-34 year olds), this is a whopping 48%!
22% of us believe our neighbourhoods have become less friendly in the last five years.

A lot of this has been attributed to the loss of local institutions (like schools, small shops, and Post Office closures), and the fact that people work further and further away from home. There are fewer and fewer reasons for people who live near each other to get together.

It's interesting (and concerning) that British people are far less trusting than other Europeans - when measured by the World Values Survey, which asked 'Generally speaking, would you say that most people can be trusted or that you need to be very careful in dealing with people?'. Britain is one of the few countries (along with the US) in which the levels of trust have been falling.

In 1981, 42.5% of British people said "yes most people can be trusted". By 1998 this had fallen to 30.4% The levels of trust in other European countries has actually been rising over this same period of time - take Denmark for example, where the number who said "yes" rose from 45.9% to 64.1% between 1981 and 1999. Apparently Britain is the only European country in which levels of trust have been falling. Hmmmmm, makes you think doesn't it?

But back to the more immediate question of you and your neighbours...if you think your neighbourhood is unfriendly, you can bet that they feel the same way. So, be bold! Invite a few round for a cup of coffee, or a drink one evening. And now that summer is on its way, you could even bring out the BBQ. Go on, take the first step - you'll be pleasantly surprised how human your neighbours turn out to be.

Monitoring Well-being in Schools

2008-04-30T18:08:00.010Z

According to the BBC News today, there are plans afoot to make UK schools monitor children's well-being, as well as their exam results.

On closer inspection of the source report in the Guardian, 18 new social targets are being proposed, among them:

* bullying
* teenage pregnancy rates
* pupil's drug problems
* criminal records
* obesity levels.

Apparently the move is part of a government attempt to reduce drug use, and the teenage pregnancy rate (ours is the highest in Europe). How setting new targets for schools is going to achieve this I'm not entirely sure. 'What gets measured gets managed' say some business people. OK, but that's a long way away from 'what gets measured gets managed well'.

Incidentally, the above 5 measures are not well-being measures, strictly speaking. The assumption being made by the government (wrongly) is that if you reduce what is negative (ill-being) you automatically increase what is positive (well-being). Personally, I think we'd have far more of a positive effect if we actually focussed on what makes children flourish in the first place.

If you have any views on this, I'd love to hear them.

The Happy List

2008-04-27T22:05:00.007Z

Did you see the Independent on Sunday's 'Happy List' today? It's a good antidote to the Sunday Times' Rich List, a refreshing change from focussing on how many billions Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is worth this year*.

The criteria for appearing in the IOS Happy List are:

1) you have to make the lives of strangers happier,

2) making strangers happier is the prime motive in doing what you do (as opposed to a side-effect of it), and

3) the example you set deserves celebrating.

I think the results are a bit of a mixed bag to be honest; I'm not sure all of those on the list actually match these criteria....

One person who should be at the top of the list in my opinion is Camila Batmanghelidjh, the founder and director of Kids Company, a London charity which looks after vulnerable inner city kids and young people. The aim of Kids Company is to return children to their childhood. Now that really is worth celebrating.

If the IOS repeats the Happy List in 2009, I wonder if any Positive Psychologists will be making an appearance...!

I'd be interested in hearing whether you can think of other people who should be on the list - if so why not let the IOS know? Perhaps they can be included next year.

* [It's £27.7 billion - he's the world's fourth richest man. To put his fortune in perspective, he's richer than the Sultan of Brunei and only ~£1bn behind Bill Gates].

Image: Joe Schlabotnik

Positive Psychology in Business

2008-04-26T07:03:00.006Z

This month my Positive Psychology News Daily article focuses on the problem of applying Positive Psychology in business.

At the moment there are only about a dozen or so validated interventions (i.e. exercises which are scientifically 'proven' to increase your well-being); all of them are common sense/what your grandmother knew; none of them are rocket-science. They're all suitable for use in 1:1 therapy and coaching situations, but are they suitable in business? There are very few interventions being tested in businesses, and anyway, application is more of an art than a science.

I think we need to build up a knowledge base of case studies of how PP is being applied in organisational contexts, and what the effects are, in order for businesses to be persuaded that Positive Psychology has many tangible benefits worth considering.

Money, Happiness, Time

2008-04-13T21:41:00.011Z

I really liked this article from Australia's Herald Sun yesterday, about the relationship between money and happiness. As you'd expect from that part of the world, it gets straight to the point; over a certain amount, money doesn't make you happier.

The article suggests that what people who work hard really want is more time, and advises that the way to create more time is to 'outsource' all the jobs that someone else can do for you more cheaply than you can do them yourself. OK, that's logical to me so far. But then it goes on to say that you should use the extra time you've created through outsourcing to "focus all your energy on bringing home the bacon.....After you've hit the economics of enough, money has little use, other than as a tool to allow you the economic advantage of creating the life you want with the limited time you have left".

Hmmm? Run that one by me again?

Surely if time is so precious the last thing you want to be spending it doing is more work? Unless, of course, you're absolutely passionate about your work, and have the kind of job that you'd do even if you weren't paid at all. Which is really my point - wouldn't it be better to find a job that you enjoy doing, where you can use your strengths every day, and which brings out the best in you? It might sound a bit pie-in-the-sky, but it's perfectly possible for the vast majority of people to achieve this with a little coaching support. You just need to know what your strengths are.

Thanks to Viv T for the article

Image source: bogenfreund

The Politics of Happiness

2008-03-23T20:13:00.013Z

In this article last year I mentioned that the tiny Himalayan country of Bhutan pioneered the measurement of well-being with its Gross National Happiness index.

Now Bhutan is in the news again because tomorrow it will hold its first-ever democratic elections. This could be seen as a test of how serious the two main political parties and their supporters are about happiness, or whether, when they have the opportunity, they put economic growth first.

The head of Bhutan's planning commission suggests that happiness and economic growth are not incompatible, but nevertheless, observers are right to acknowledge that economic growth will have consequences, not all of them positive. But perhaps the Bhutanese know enough about well-being to be wise to the negative effects of materialism.

Whatever the result of the elections, it will be interesting to watch how democracy unfolds in Bhutan in the next few weeks and months.

Image: Babasteve

More on Money and Happiness

2008-03-20T22:58:00.007Z

No wonder Jo(e) Public is confused about money and happiness. Here's an article from the UK broadsheet, the Telegraph, also published today with the headline 'Money does not buy happiness'. This seems to conflict with what I wrote in this post....

So can money buy you happiness or not?

Well, even with a scientific subject like Positive Psychology, the answer is never as clear-cut as you might expect!

We're told that income has increased dramatically over the past 40 to 50 years, and that the increase in well-being hasn't kept pace, therefore we must be doing something wrong.

But they haven't mentioned the fact that it's normal for humans to adapt to most positive experiences, such that after a while they lose their edge. It's what we mean when we say the novelty has worn off. If you don't believe me, think back to the last time you got a pay rise and work out exactly how long it took you to get used to the extra cash.

Secondly, it's also the case that as our quality of life increases, so do our expectations. Fifty years ago not every household would have had a phone, a TV and a car. Today these items are considered basic items; one family might expect to own one if not several of them. So what we think we need to live a happy life increases too.

Thirdly, it has been suggested that the rise in income over the past fifty years (in the UK at least) hasn't been distributed equally, i.e. a very small proportion of people have become incredibly wealthy, whilst the vast majority of us have enjoyed far smaller increases or none at all.

The Telegraph article concludes by saying that the reason we're not as happy as we might expect is because we spend more time at work and less time doing the things we enjoy. Even that's contentious. Some studies suggest that in general in developed countries we actually have more leisure time than ever before. Therefore it's what we choose to do with our time that affects our happiness. Watching more and more TV, which seems to be a common leisure time trend in the West, is a sure-fire way to waste the time we could be using to do things which will make a difference to our well-being.

If you have any concrete examples of money buying happiness (as opposed to security or health for example) we'd like to hear about them.

Image: QuietLucid

Money can buy you happiness...

2008-03-20T22:25:00.003Z

...but not in the way you might think.

Positive Psychologists are often quoted as saying that after a certain point, more money can't make you significantly happier, implying that there's no point in busting a gut to get that next bonus or promotion.

This article however reports the findings of a recent study by the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School, which shows that spending your money on other people makes you happier than spending it on yourself.

Not convinced? Well, I'm happy to be the recipient of your largesse if you want to try it out!

Image: Material Boy

The Cost of Ill-health and Happiness

2008-03-19T22:44:00.015Z

The cost of ill-health to the British economy is a staggering £103 billion a year according to a recent report from Professor Dame Carol Black, National Director for Health and Work. This article from today's spiked suggests that the government's attempts to get the unemployed back to work by e.g. re-branding "Incapacity Benefit" as "Employment and Support Allowance", is merely tinkering at the edges. I'm inclined to agree. Other carrot-and-stick measures such as tougher health tests for those claiming IB and requiring doctors to intervene sooner are unlikely to be successful and will instead just create more expensive targets and measures to be monitored and circumvented, in the same way that hospital waiting lists have been.

The article quotes one professor of psychiatry, Simon Wessely, as saying that many normal human experiences are being medicalised; for example feeling sadness after a bereavement is now seen as a health "problem" for which there should be a medical cure. People are encouraged to think of negative emotions as something can and should be avoided - take the frequency with which counselling is offered after traumatic events for example, even though there is growing scientific evidence that most people heal better and more quickly without it.

Off hand I don't know how the UK compares to other European countries regarding the true cost of ill-health (if anyone reading this does, let me know!). I agree with Mick Hume that the answer lies not in treating the entire problem as one of ill-health (and certainly not in the ways the government proposes), rather we need to be looking more seriously at the underlying causes. If it is the case that many of those people on IB should really be at work, the question is why they prefer to claim state benefits rather than make a meaningful contribution to society. That is a much deeper issue.

Once again I'm left thinking that those of us with an interest in Positive Psychology and the science behind happiness need to ensure we talk about the benefits of PP in business without it sounding like we inhabit cloud-cuckoo land.

Image: Lindseyy

Happiness Lessons in Schools

2008-03-13T21:23:00.005Z

Here's an interesting article from the Guardian about the argument for and against teaching happiness lessons in schools.

You can see why Anthony Seldon, head of Wellington College (one of the most elite schools in the UK) is so keen that kids get something more than the National Curriculum, since it will hardly prepare them for the adult world in the 21st Century after all. But teaching them Positive Psychology doesn't fill Richard Schoch with confidence, largely because he says you can't measure meaning and engagement, which are the holy grail of happiness. He thinks there is a place for well-being in the classroom, but doesn't really have any suggestions about how to teach it, other than getting kids to read ancient texts.

Hmmmmm.

I'm not sure that's the answer either!

The really interesting question is why we feel that children need to be taught about happiness in the first place. Some people (including Seldon) have argued that kids are more prone to depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses than in the past. So teaching them various life skills will help them survive these issues. If that's the case, shouldn't we be asking ourselves what is causing them to be more prone to depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses in the first place, and try to do something to fix that?

According to Schoch, Positive Psychology is a bit like Marmite, i.e. you either love it or you hate it. The challenge for Positive Psychologists is how to persuade its critics that it's a useful subject which can make a positive difference to how people choose to live their lives. I'm not sure it's succeeding in that aim at the moment. What do you think?

You can read the original debate between Seldon and sociologist Frank Furedi here.

Have you got the Happiness Habit?

2008-02-29T22:24:00.006Z

In my recent posting on Positive Psychology and Coaching I referred to Sonja Lyubomirsky's new book, "The How of Happiness".

The video clip from 20/20 is a great intro to the science behind the book. The case of the identical twins is fascinating isn't it?

On Tuesday I was fortunate enough to take part in a telephone seminar with Professor Lyubomirsky, in which she outlined the key messages from the book. The things which I found most interesting were:

1) that happiness takes effort - i.e. you need to be prepared to work at it; it may not come naturally

2) according to Lyubomirsky, you need to ensure that you choose the strategies which you're comfortable with. Some may not be your cup of tea. She readily admits to finding the Gratitude exercise difficult. If that's the case try something else.

3) whatever strategies you find work for you need to become habits - things that you do on a regular basis without thinking about it, like cleaning your teeth twice a day. How will you get the happiness habit?

4) some of the strategies which have been empirically validated, like gratitude, savouring and acts of kindness, may sound corny and trivial, but they do work. Plus, you have nothing to lose by trying them for a few weeks.

Let us know how you get on with her 'Person/Activity Fit' diagnostic tool (p73) and the various strategies you choose as a result.

Thanks to Christine Duvivier for the links.

Positive Psychology News Daily - Space and Well-being

2008-02-26T20:13:00.003Z

This month's posting for Positive Psychology News Daily focuses the importance of space in the development of well-being in children, and what this means for the rest of us.

Positive Psychology and Coaching

2008-02-14T00:22:00.008Z

My MAPP colleagues and I were discussing the number of books on happiness being published at the moment: Lyubomirsky's "The How of Happiness" is the latest. Great book, shame about the sunny yellow cover...

Is it possible, we wondered, to broadcast the important positive psychology research findings, i.e. the ones that might make a difference to the way people live their lives, without it being accused of being merely happiology, or moralistic? For example, research tells us (if our grandmothers haven't already) that earning large amounts of money doesn't make a significant difference to our happiness levels. It also shows that building strong relationships (with friends and family, between generations, in the community and at work) is one of the most important things we can do to improve our well-being. Yet the vast majority of us still act like money is the be all and end all.

It's a difficult call, we concluded, especially when the media the world over insists on calling it happiology, as this recent article from PressTV in Tehran illustrates.

Choosing the right Positive Psychology interventions

We also discussed whether Lyubomirsky's emphasis (Chapter 3) on the importance of choosing activities to fit your lifestyle was useful or not. If, as a coach, you leave it up to the client to choose their own interventions, the chances are they won't go for the ones which look too simple, such as keeping a gratitude diary, yet activities like this can have a profound effect.

Opting for more difficult ones (such as meditation) straight off might need a great deal more perseverance. It's worth discussing these potential difficulties with your client before deciding what approach to take. Experienced coach and trainer, Lucy Ryan, suggests advising clients to try the simple interventions first - they have nothing to lose, and a great deal to gain, after all.

Which careers provide the least job satisfaction?

2008-02-13T23:05:00.015Z

In response to Yang-May's question about which jobs were at the bottom of the happiness and satisfaction league tables, here's the information according to the American General Social Surveys* (GSS) carried out between 1998 and 2006:

The question asked was 'On the whole, how satisfied are you with the work you do - would you say you are very satisfied, moderately satisfied, a little dissatisfied, or very satisfied?'

The mean score ranges from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 4 (very satisfied).

The same survey also asked about general happiness:

The question asked was 'Taken all together, how would you say things are these days -would you say you are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?'

The mean score ranges from 1 (not too happy) to 3 (very happy).

The survey results reveal that the least happy and least satisfied are those people doing unskilled manual or service jobs, including customer service assistants and people who handle complaints.

Research suggests that job satisfaction and well-being are less to do with salary or status of a job, and more to do with how much control you have over the job you do. Even though the amount of stress you experience tends to increase as you rise through the ranks, so too does your autonomy, and is it this, or the lack of it, which affects your sense of well-being and satisfaction.

What's interesting is that even the lowest scores aren't really that bad....

If you have any further thoughts or comments on these survey results, we'd love to hear them.

Positive Psychology News Daily

2008-01-27T16:47:00.001Z

This month's posting for Positive Psychology News Daily focuses on the recent research behind insomnia and well-being.

Which careers provide the most job satisfaction?

2008-01-24T20:51:00.000Z

According to the American General Social Surveys* (GSS) carried out between 1998 and 2006, the top 10 careers which provide the most job satisfaction are as follows:

The question asked was 'On the whole, how satisfied are you with the work you do - would you say you are very satisfied, moderately satisfied, a little dissatisfied, or very satisfied?'

The mean score ranges from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 4 (very satisfied).

The same surveys also asked about general happiness:

The question asked was 'Taken all together, how would you say things are these days -would you say you are very happy, pretty happy or not too happy?'

The mean score ranges from 1 (not too happy) to 3 (very happy).

This reveals that the most satisfying jobs are mostly professions, especially those involving caring for, teaching, and protecting others as well as the creative pursuits. Since people's feelings about their work usually have a significant impact on their general happiness, it's not surprising that some of the same professions appear in the Top 10 for general happiness too.

It's interesting that the clergy appear top of both tables, suggesting that finding meaning in your work is a crucial part of both job satisfaction and happiness. Psychologists Judge, Thoresen, Bono and Patton (2001) have shown that job satisfaction and performance are correlated. According to Wrzesniewski (2003), if jobs which give people meaning (for example because they make a contribution to the wider world) are linked to high job satisfaction, and job satisfaction is linked to work performance, people who find meaning in their work are more likely to perform better than those who don't. So it's in the interests of all organisations to help employees create meaning in their work.

Incidentally, the bottom occupation for job satisfaction in this survey was roofing, which unfortunately was 2nd bottom for general happiness too- only 25% of roofers said they were very satisfied with their jobs and only 14% were very happy...

*The General Social Survey which has been conducted since 1972, collects basic information from across the United States in order to monitor social trends. The GSS is based on interviews of randomly selected people who represent a scientifically accurate cross section of Americans. A total of 27,587 people were interviewed for the job satisfaction and happiness section of the survey.

My thanks to Rochelle Melander for this information.

Choice and Well-being

2008-01-09T23:50:00.001Z

Doing some research today I stumbled upon this lecture 'The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less' by a leading expert on choice and its relationship to well-being, Barry Schwartz.

According to Schwartz, Professor of Social Theory and Social Action at Swarthmore College, a little choice is good for you, it can increase your sense of control, but contrary to what we might logically think, having more choice is not better. In fact having too many options to choose from causes a number of problems such as:

* the inability to make a decision at all,
* making a bad decision,
* opportunity cost - worrying about 'the one that got away',
* expecting perfection - and getting disappointed instead.

All of these decrease your sense of satisfaction and well-being.

I'm sure you can relate this to your personal lives, but what about the world of work? Schwartz quotes six companies which are already applying the 'paradox of choice' principles in their businesses:

* Procter & Gamble (who also featured in this posting)
* CostCo
* Trader Joe's
* Tesco
* Aldi
* Greek Diners in NYC

According to Schwartz, these companies are already wise to the risk that the customer may choose nothing if faced with too many options, therefore they deliberately offer a more limited selection than they could otherwise do.

It's an interesting dilemma to be facing, whatever industry you're in, and it's one that's going to get increasingly relevant as consumers become more affluent.

The Benefit of Saying "Thank You"

2008-01-05T00:07:00.000Z

Have you written your thank-you letters for all the gifts you received this Christmas?

You might be interested to know that there's been a great deal of research into the benefits of gratitude; grateful people, for example, report higher levels of life satisfaction, vitality, optimism and positive emotions, as well as lower levels of depression and stress*. I've talked about gratitude in several postings before, covered new ways of expressing gratitude, and looked specifically at Peterson's 10 minute exercise to increase your well-being by identifying the things you're thankful for.

This 30 minute BBC Radio 4 programme today explores the subject both for those people expressing their thanks, and for the people being thanked. It's well worth listening to for some real-life insight into the research.

* McCullough, Emmons & Tsang (2002)

Poetry in the Boardroom

2008-01-01T19:29:00.001Z

A few weeks ago I wrote about the role of Leadership, Positive Psychology and Creativity. Here's some more "Boardroom Poetry", this time from Ralph Windle, a.k.a. Bertie Ramsbottom. I particularly liked the boardroom ballad called 'The Business Consultant' and his profile of Sir John Harvey-Jones**, 'Born Again'. Plus it was a joy to re-read Betjeman's ' A Subaltern's Love Song* which it parodies.

* Incidentally, while I was googling Betjeman, I came across many other spoofs, this one celebrating York University's 40th Anniversary in 2003.

** 11/01/08 Sadly now the late Sir John Harvey-Jones. It'd be interesting to revisit his Troubleshooter TV series from the 90s, to see what became of the companies who were brave enough to call him in.....

Changing the World through Giving

2007-12-31T19:25:00.001Z

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give". Winston Churchill.

In December 26th's article on Positive Psychology News Daily, it was appropriate to take a look at the positive psychology research behind giving, and the related subjects of altruism, kindness and empathy.

If you're in Secondary/High School teaching, please do take a look at G-Nation, which works with young people aged 11-16 in the UK to show them how they can change the world by giving. And there's research which shows that acts of kindness can boost your well-being too. A no-brainer, as my old boss would say!

Image credit: Special/Krystle Fleming

Successful New Year's Resolutions

2007-12-28T16:58:00.000Z

Will you be one of the 12% of people who stick to their New Year's Resolutions in 2008?

It won't surprise many of you who work in business that if you use the same approach to setting personal goals that you use at work for annual objectives, you're far more likely to succeed.

This BBC article covers many of the key elements, which are often referred to in business by the SMART acronym: i.e. your goals should be:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Realistic
T - Time-based

So for personal goals:

i) make sure they're well-defined rather than vague,
ii) make sure you can measure your progress towards the goal and tell when you've achieved it
iii) minimise the conflict between achieving this goal and other areas in your life. Take small steps.
iv) are you willing and able? Make sure you have enough resources (e.g. time, money etc) to achieve the goal
v) set a time for starting and finishing, and give yourself enough but not too much..

It's interesting to see that, according to research by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, men are 22% more likely to succeed when they set well-defined goals, such as losing a pound a week rather than just saying they wanted to lose weight.

Women, on the other hand, can increase their chances of success if they tell other people what their goals are. Sharing your goals publicly has really taken off in the US, with websites such as Caroline Miller's your100things.com.

And if you want to take part in Professor Wiseman's New Year's Resolution Experiment for 2008, sign up here.

Good luck!

Positive Psychology - science or psychobabble?

2007-12-21T23:00:00.001Z

In Wednesday's HARDTalk programme, BBC journalist, Stephen Sackur, interviewed Professor Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, about such questions as whether positive psychology is truly scientific or mere psychobabble, whether or not well-being should be a political issue, and whether it would be better to put our efforts into alleviating mental illness instead.

If you have 30 minutes to spare this is an excellent introduction to the background and current issues in positive psychology. Sackur's argument that helping mentally ill people is a more worthwhile pursuit for psychologists than increasing others' happiness is one which many in the first MAPP cohort have wrestled with. Seligman's response is interesting - getting rid of depression and anxiety does not in itself lead to well-being because the skills you need to fight these conditions are not the same as the skills you need to experience positive emotion and find engagement and meaning in life.

Asked whether his ideas can live comfortably with 'ruthless capitalism', Seligman says no; his point is that there is bad consumerism (material goods to which we habituate) and good consumerism which creates engagement and meaning.

I'm wondering whether Seligman would have come out of the argument quite so well had Jeremy Paxman been interviewing him. Sackur doesn't ask, for example, why the schools Resilience project that Seligman is spearheading in South Tyneside (and Hertfordshire and Manchester) is aimed at helping kids combat depression; surely what the project should be focussed on, if you buy the whole happiness argument, is increasing kids' well-being?

For me, there are two important points. Firstly, no-one in positive psychology is asking why depression levels amongst school-kids (and adults for that matter) in the UK are increasing in the first place*, and what we are doing to address the causes. I'm sure Seligman would have had an answer for that.

The other point is that 'people muddle through' is not a very sound argument with which to criticise positive psychology! Not only does depression impact life-chances negatively e.g. it affects ability at school, attendance at work and your immune system (all of which are huge costs to society), research shows that happiness brings benefits such as increasing health, longevity and productivity. I think these seem like very good reasons for taking positive psychology seriously, don't you?

* But see child psychologist Oliver James' work "Affluenza".

Thanks to Thanos Karanatsios for the link

Leadership: The Role of Positive Psychology and Creativity

2007-12-15T22:23:00.000Z

In our MAPP class today we were fortunate enough to have Mark Templeton, O2s Director of Organisation Development, present to us on the positive psychology approach to leadership development that he has implemented with great success over the past year.

One thing that really intrigued me was the mention of David Whyte, a.k.a the "Corporate Poet". I'm a huge fan of using creative approaches in the workplace, ever since I took the fantastic Open University Business School B822 course in Creative Management (now called Creativity, Innovation and Change).

So I followed this up, to see what David Whyte had to say about using poetry in a corporate setting:

"Every worthwhile organization is asking for qualities of adaptability, vitality and creativity. And none of these qualities can be legislated, none of them can be coerced out of people. You cannot invite anyone into your office and say I want a 9 percent increase in your creativity quotient this week. The request is absurd because there is no lever inside that person that they can pull to turn on their creativity. If there was one, they surely would have pulled it years ago.

The only thing you can do is to create a conversation in the workplace that will be invitational to those great qualities of creativity that have long been associated with the soul, with a person’s sense of belonging. The main task of leadership is no longer strategic management, though this will always have importance, but of creating imaginative and participative conversations that bring out the best in themselves and others".

I couldn't agree more - what Whyte says here fits exactly with positive psychology approaches to developing leadership and positive organisations.

Photo Credit: Cygnoir, San Francisco

Positive Thinking about Positive Psychology

2007-12-04T22:55:00.001Z

Here's an interesting article in Personnel Today magazine; just don't be fooled by the title into thinking it's about Positive Mental Attitude stuff and boosting your self-confidence by repeating 'I'm great' twenty times a day....

It quotes Dr Tim Anstiss as saying "Wellbeing is not just about long walks, jogging and improving your diet, but about flourishing, discovering and using your strengths, and reaching your potential as a human being." Here, here. As a medical doctor with a masters degree in sports medicine and a post-graduate diploma in occupational medicine, Anstiss knows all about the benefits of exercise and nutrition. And we've been saying for some time now that companies which think they're got their well-being strategy sorted just because they provide salads in the canteen and issue free pedometers are missing the most important point; positive psychology is about way more than how much exercise you take and what you eat.

Anstiss presented to our UEL MAPP class a month or so ago on one of the projects he's working on, which is using a positive psychology approach to get the long-term unemployed back into work. I think that shows it's got credibility, don't you?

What's important to make clear from the start though is that in order to be of benefit to business, just like change management positive psychology has to be taken up and championed by leaders and managers outside of the HR department.

Empirical research shows that positive psychology really does present the opportunity of creating more resilient, engaged and productive employees. In a world where change is the only constant, which company could afford to turn their nose up at that?

Photo Credit: bibliogrrl

Thanks to Viv Thackray for the link

Positive Organisations

2007-11-29T16:00:00.001Z

Are Positive Organisations some kind of Utopian drivel?

I can understand why many business leaders dismiss the goal of building a positive organisation as a bit pie in the sky. After all, the success of a commercial organisation is measured by a) how much money it makes and b) how much market share it has. Enterprise is all about competition; organisations which focus on being mutually supportive have no place in this environment...

Not-for-profits and public sector organisations, on the other hand, have different goals and operate in different arenas, ones where the concept of positive organisations can be more easily accommodated.

No wonder building a positive organisation is often considered inconsistent with the goals of commercial enterprises.

Well I think business leaders might be waking up to the fact that it's not so pink and fluffy after all.

Tom Peters, one of the world's foremost leadership gurus, and co-author of In Search of Excellence (which Bloomsbury called the greatest business book of all time), has written his thoughts on the idea in this short paper "Why Else Get Out of Bed in the Morning?" My suggestion is that you bear with the form (especially P1) and focus on the content. In typical Peters style, it probably raises more questions than it answers, but hey, we're big enough and ugly enough to work those out for ourselves aren't we?

The Politics of Happiness

2007-11-28T15:57:00.000Z

Can Gross National Happiness ever be an accepted substitute for GDP?

The Kingdom of Bhutan, a predominantly Buddhist country of approximately 750,000 inhabitants in the Eastern Himalayas, has been measuring Gross National Happiness since the late '80s. The King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, was concerned about the sorts of issues affecting countries which focussed only on increasing economic prosperity, and as a result, he declared that GNH (Gross National Happiness) not GDP, was the priority for his people. "The ultimate purpose of government", he said, "is to promote the happiness of its people". This, of course, was more than a decade before Martin Seligman launched the Positive Psychology movement.

Now, says writer, analyst and UN Editor Rasna Warah, GNH vs GDP has become an issue in the upcoming Kenyan elections (December 27th). In this article on the All Africa Global Media website, Warah explores the background to GNH, and why it matters. It's the case that back in 2006 presidential candidate Dr Raila Odinga, cast doubt on the accuracy of Kenyan economic growth figures being quoted by other candidates, and proposed that a GNH survey be carried out instead. In an interview with Nation Magazine, Odinga is quoted as saying: “People are happy when they put food on the table, feed and educate their children.” However I haven't been able to find any mention of Gross National Happiness on Odinga's election website. Could it be the case that when the chips are down (and when votes are needed) what people really want to see is good old-fashioned economic growth?

Image: New Scientist

Thanksgiving in 21st Century

2007-11-27T23:23:00.000Z

Most people know that Thanksgiving is celebrated in North America on the 4th Thursday in November (i.e. last Thursday 22nd), and also in Canada in early October. Like our own Harvest Festival in September, this traditional holiday is an opportunity to give thanks for all the things that you have at the conclusion of the harvest season, both tangible and intangible.

In this New York Times article last week, journalist Henry Fountain considers Thanksgiving 21st Century style - via the practice of keeping a Gratitude Diary. We've talked about gratitude several times before; there's increasing empirical evidence to show that being grateful in a mindful way, for example through a diary or a letter, increases your well-being.

What I like about Fountain's article is the acknowledgement that giving thanks is simple but not easy, it requires some effort and self-discipline.

I think this is a very important message to get across to the Victor Meldrew's of this world*; happiness isn't something that just happens, despite what you often see in films and magazines, you actively need to do something. That something varies from person to person, although Positive Psychology is giving us a lot to go on.
So if you haven't tried it, I challenge you to keep a gratitude diary for three weeks, and see what a difference it makes.

PS You might like to know that there is a Victor Meldrew Appreciation Club on the business networking site Ecademy...and yes, it is British....

Thanks to Viv Thackray for the link

Regret, Well-being and Maturity

2007-11-27T22:49:00.000Z

Regrets, I've had a few: How finding the silver lining contributes to happiness and maturity

This article on yesterday's Positive Psychology News Daily looks at research into regret which suggests that it's about more than learning from experience, it's beneficial for the process of psychological maturity itself, and that the accommodation of regret has profound implications for human development, and ultimate happiness.

Image: Orbitcast

Life Lists: Goal Achievement and Happiness

2007-11-21T11:06:00.000Z

As we mentioned in this post, it seems that Seligman's 3 pillars of happiness and well-being (positive emotion, engagement and meaning) may soon be joined by two more, namely positive relationships and positive achievement.

I doubt many would argue about positive relationships being a corner-stone of happiness and well-being, although you might be interested to know that there is remarkably little published scientific research into this field. But the importance of positive achievements seems to have people divided.

In the business world, goal-setting has been the back-bone (along with a smidgen of good luck) of company and personal prosperity since the dawn of time. Call it strategy, business planning or personal development planning, it's all about creating a new, more successful future. To some, particularly coaches, goal-setting and accomplishment is vital, it's what successful coaching is all about. When we were training as coaches, one of the first things we learnt was how to help clients (or coachees) define where they want to be by setting their goals clearly and then to help them achieve these goals. After all, how can you get where you want to go unless you know where you're going in the first place?

Goal-setting is also making its way into normal life; you will no doubt have noticed yourself the proliferation of books and articles about so-called Life Lists, those 101-things-you-must-do/see/experience- before-you-die type lists. Earlier in the year for example, the New York Times published an article called 10 Things To Do Before I Finish This Article. If you google 'Life Lists', you'll retrieve millions of entries, such as the original 43things.com, which invites you to publish your own Life List and which contains everything from the quirky ("build a trebuchet") to the frankly quite dull ("organise my filing cabinet"). You can get Life List websites which list the things you need to consider when making your list. Curiously, in my google search for UK Life Lists, three of the top ten were by bird-watchers; it left me wondering whether twitchers are happier than your average UK resident. Perhaps that could be the subject of my MAPP dissertation.....

There are even people who make their living out of their Life List, such as John Goddard, aka 'The World's Greatest Goal Achiever'. This is a man who has achieved 109 of his 127 life goals (you should look at them, this is not a man who needs to organise his filing cabinet...). Interestingly, his 126th goal was to marry and have children - he now has five. My question is, how on earth does he get time for them, in between scaling Mount Kilimanjaro, retracing the steps of Marco Polo and Alexander the Great, and exploring the Amazon river?

And going back to coaching for a moment, Caroline Adams-Miller, the well-known US life coach, author and Pennsylvania MAPP graduate, specialises in goal-setting theory and happiness in her coaching practice, based on the research evidence that identifying and achieving ones goals can increase your well-being (e.g. Locke 2005). Miller has also set up a very successful website where people can make a public statement about their goals, called Your100things.com.

But Life Lists don't attract support from every quarter; there are some who think that making a list of what you want to achieve in life actually detracts from what life is all about, i.e. living. I don't often listen to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day on the Today programme, but this one by Rhidian Brook about Life Lists caught my attention, particularly Brook's claim that "They provide us with a kind of short cut to meaningful achievement and self-fulfilment". I'm not sure that's the case at all. Surely it depends to a large extent what your goals are (materialistic? altruistic?), whether they are realistic goals or just wild dreams, and how relentlessly you pursue them. Many Life Lists I've looked at contain a mix of goals which cover all Seligman's pillars of well-being (creating pleasure, engagement, meaning and good relationships).

And anyway, who is it who said that 'Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans'?

Using a Strengths Approach at BAE Systems

2007-11-16T19:24:00.000Z

If you're sceptical about the value of using Positive Psychology at work, and don't think it can add much by way of improved business performance, think again.

In this article in 1st November's edition of the CIPD Magazine "People Management", Tim Smedley explains how global defence and aerospace company, BAE Systems, is adopting a common sense approach to using strengths at work, supported by Alex Linley, director of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology.

According to Linley, it's not about concentrating only on ones strengths and ignoring ones weaknesses altogether, it's more about striking the right balance, and that will depend very much on your role and where you sit within the organisation. "Get your strengths up to an A grade - absolutely make the most of them. But if there's a discipline that you're not so good at, but that you need, then get that up to a pass, a C grade", he says.

Of course, many business people do think Positive Psychology is for tree-huggers. As Linley points out, one of the results of using a strengths approach is increased employee engagement and well-being, however that wasn't the main objective for BAE Systems. They had their sights firmly set on improving their business performance, and that's exactly what a strengths approach has enabled them to achieve.

Economics of Happiness - More or Less

2007-11-12T23:33:00.001Z

This Radio 4 programme today is a great introduction to the pros and cons of measuring happiness, and whether it's possible, desirable or indeed useful to do so, with Professor of Economics, Paul Omerod, one of the principals of Volterra Consulting, Lord Richard Layard, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, and Professor Paul Dolan, Chair in Economics at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London.

I think this is a great starting point if you're unfamiliar with the finer points of happiness research and measurement.

Whose perspective do you agree with?

Source: D.G. Myers, Happiness, 2004

Positive Psychology Conference - UEL

2007-11-09T16:05:00.000Z

The times they are a-changin'

Yesterday many of my co-students and I attended the first "Positive Psychology: Well-Being and Business" Conference hosted by the University of East London - where we are almost half-way through our Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (the first programme of its kind outside of the US). The lecture theatre was full, mostly HR managers and leaders from public, private and NFP sectors, as well as a large sprinkling of independent coaches, psychologists and consultants, all keen to hear what Positive Psychology has to offer organisations.

The father of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman, gave the keynote address; here was the opportunity we had all been waiting for. No Positive Psychologist worth their salt would willingly pass up the chance to hear the man in person. He referred to the three pillars of positive emotion, engagement and meaning which you will be familiar with from his Authentic Happiness book, then oh so casually mentioned the possibility of "a 4th or even a 5th pillar" although he presented no new research in support of this theory. Turns out many prominent Positive Psychologists, among them Caroline Adams Miller and UEL's own Dr Ilona Boniwell, have long been in favour of including positive relations and positive achievement in the definition of happiness, but are too polite to say 'I told you so'.

You'll remember from this posting a few days ago that I hoped Seligman would clarify his revelation at the Washington Global Well-Being Conference that Positive Psychology should henceforth be known as "Positive Social Science". Well, unfortunately he didn't elaborate. In our MAPP-only seminar, however, he said 'everything I told you this morning is wrong'.

Hmmmmmm.

These might just be word games, of course, but I suspect there is more to it than that. I got the sense that there is a lot of discussion and thinking going on about the possible emergence of a new field of science, which of course would have serious implications for the future of Positive Psychology.

It has been suggested that Positive Psychology is the new paradigm. With the emergence of Positive Social Science, however, I think we're already moving on.

A Less Positive Perspective?

2007-11-05T18:19:00.000Z

You don't often find Positive Psychology being overtly criticised (I suppose this would be very un-American) so when I came across this article on Richard Dawkins' website, I thought you might be interested; it gives a very different perspective.

It would appear that the Templeton Foundation does fund a huge amount of academic research into many Positive Psychology subjects such as gratitude, strengths and wisdom, and that Seligman's Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania was established on the back of a multi-million dollar Templeton grant. Templeton also funds other research unconnected with Positive Psychology, such as the natural sciences, world religions, freedom and free enterprise.

As far as I'm aware though, the Positive Psychology Summit (or the Global Wellbeing Forum as it's now called) referred to in Ehrenreich's article is actually funded by the mighty Gallup Organisation, which since the 1930s has provided consulting services and market research on public opinion to Fortune 500 clients.

According to one of my fellow MAPP students who attended the Washington conference, it was unexpectedly badly organised, so I think there are some sympathies with Ehrenreich's opinion on that score. As for her criticisms of the content of the conference, there is increasing evidence ((see Lyubomirsky, King and Diener (2005) for example)) that positive and/or strengths-based approaches in organisations ultimately provide a boost to the bottom-line. Even without the supporting research, common sense tells you that business benefits if its employees have more job satisfaction and are more engaged. It makes good business sense; we have previously featured organisations like Norwich Union and Standard Chartered who have benefitted from taking a strengths-based approach.

Incidentally, it turns out that The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business is also partly funded by the Templeton Foundation and by the Gallup Organisation. The Centre, whose purpose is to energise and transform organisations through academic research into the theory and practice of positive organising and leadership, is the number one source of information on this subject, so if you want leading edge ideas about business transformation and positive leadership, this is the place to start.

Thanks to UEL MAPP student Viv Thackray for this link

The Happiness Workout

2007-10-31T23:37:00.000Z

Here's an interesting article from the Guardian which includes 5 simple steps to improve your happiness. These are all supported by empirical research, so you can have confidence that they'll actually have an effect, unlike some of the techniques you find in many self-help manuals.

What is particularly important about this article is Stanford University Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky's comment that in order to be happy you have to work at it. Although some people do seem to be born with a smile on their faces, others really do have to work harder at being happy.

We often assume that happiness can be ours simply for the price of a bigger house, larger car or another promotion but there is evidence to the contrary. And the more I study Positive Psychology the more I believe that happiness is something you do, not something you have. The American Declaration of Independence talks about 'the pursuit of Happiness' after all, not the acquisition of it. So why not try out some (or all) of the five steps in the article everyday for a week and let us know how you get on?

Thanks to MAPP colleague Viv Thackray for the link

Positive Psychology or Positive Social Science?

2007-10-30T11:01:00.001Z

I hear it on good authority that at the recent Gallup Positive Psychology Summit* in Washington DC, Martin Seligman announced that Positive Psychology should now be known as 'Positive Social Science'.

Unfortunately I wasn't at the conference to hear the initial reaction, but I understand that the majority of delegates were somewhat shocked. As a science Positive Psychology is still in its infancy (the phrase having been coined around about the year 2000). People working in the field, whether psychologists, therapists, coaches or educationalists, are still getting used to the terminology. Others, it has to be said, are probably hoping that if they ignore it long enough, it will go away.

Well it seems that Seligman now wants this field of research to be known as "Positive Social Science". Those who support this idea believe it makes sense to take the study outside of the domain of just psychology, into health, neuroscience, economics and politics. The more I study the subject, the more complex it appears to become, and it does indeed touch our lives in many more ways than I originally thought. When you look at the make-up of the first UEL MAPP cohorts, you'll see that we're a very varied bunch, including GPs, therapists, coaches, trainers, business people, HR experts, journalists, teachers, social workers, economists and government policy makers. Yet all of us are taking something relevant from the course and applying it at work and individually. Positive Social Science seems a broad term to cover what is a very broad subject.

On the other hand, Positive Psychology is a young subject, and its students are relatively inexperienced when compared to those of traditional psychology. In the US, of course, it's much more firmly embedded (and accepted) in the world of work; here in the UK, it's only just taking off. Might changing its name at this early stage risk losing some of the enthusiasm and energy currently being poured into it?

We may get to hear all about Seligman's reasons at the forthcoming conference in a week's time. If so, I'll let you know what he says!

* Co-incidentally, the Gallup PP Summit has been renamed the Global Well-Being Forum, reflecting the their name change to the Gallup Institute for Global Well-Being.

Why you should be bad at something

2007-10-29T20:17:00.000Z

Over the past couple of months I've written many times about the benefits of focussing on your strengths (e.g. here and here); most Positive Psychology literature (unsurprisingly) concentrates on what's good about using a strengths-based approach and mentions very little in the way of the downsides. I've come across the phrase "overusing strengths", but that's about it. You need to look quite hard at the VIA-IS, StrengthsFinder and Strengthscope websites to find anything suggesting there might also be disadvantages.

Carol Dweck's* research on fixed and growth mindsets made me wonder whether developing an inflexible view even of one's good points (e.g. strengths) might actually be a bad thing, and that's how I came to write my recent posting on Positive Psychology News Daily.

Anyhow, today I was sent a link to a post on the Berkun Blog, called "Why you should be bad at something". It's not just that being bad at something is OK, according to Scott Berkun it's an absolute necessity if you're going to learn something. How right he is. In order to learn you need to have a growth mindset, to try, and to keep trying over again when you fail. As a child you had a growth mindset - you'd never have learnt to speak, walk, read and write if you'd waited until you were good at it first.

What I like about Berkun's post is it links the themes of comfort zones (which we have also discussed before here), learning, ageing, mindsets and happiness.

Berkun says "This sounds idiotic but I think being good, as in proficient, isn’t good all the time... as I get older I realize how important it is for my soul to be bad or awful in at least one thing I do, and to take pleasure in it anyway. There is a way to take pleasure in things independent of my ability at them and I’m convinced that cultivating it will make me a happier person".

I dare you to be really bad at something!

* Carol Dweck (2006) Mindset: The new psychology of success

Thanks to Neil for the link to Scott Berkun's blog.

When Is a Strength Not a Strength?

2007-10-26T20:00:00.000Z

This article on today's Positive Psychology News Daily considers whether there is a potential risk in applying a strengths-based approach to people development in organisations.

If your organisation is using a strengths model (whether StrengthsFinder, VIA-IS, Strengths Deployment Inventory, Strengthscope or any other) at work, we'd love to hear about your experience.

The image is courtesy of June.C.Oka, Japan

Standard Chartered's business case for focusing on employee strengths

2007-10-20T21:24:00.000Z

According to Debbie Whitaker, Standard Chartered's Head of Sustainability, 'everyone has talents that we wish to leverage'.

This is a bold statement, considering Standard Chartered is a bank with over 60,000 employees in 56 countries. Their reasons for focusing on talent are fourfold:

i) greater growth potential
ii) better people performance
iii) increased employee engagement and
iv) attracting and retaining talent.

Many big organisations are sceptical of applying Strengths at work, yet Standard Chartered's experience shows that it can make sound business sense.

A strengths-based approach to management has been operating in the organisation for the past 7 years, using Gallup's StrengthsFinder tool. Whitaker describes a strength as the combination of talent, skill and knowledge, which motivation can transform into world-class performance. In her words, given equal skills and knowledge, talent is what differentiates superior performance from the rest.

So what does Standard Chartered actually do differently to other organisations? Well StrengthsFinder wasn't designed for recruitment purposes, but it can be used to ensure good role fit and that's exactly what has contributed to Standard Chartered's success.The essentials for a salesperson, for example, are good product knowledge and to be able to negotiate and close a deal. But if the salesperson has the additional talents of competitiveness and building rapport with customers, they can become a world-class performer. Not only does Standard Chartered look for specific skills and knowledge, they take innate talents into account too.

It has to be said that there are several definitions of a strength, and the one used here is based on Gallup's research. The VIA-IS or CAPP definitions are different; as always you need to be clear what you are trying to measure.

Standard Chartered also focuses on building employee engagement, and like Royal & SunAlliance which we featured here, they take volunteering seriously, offering two days paid leave for staff to contribute to voluntary organisations.

What the Standard Chartered story shows is that focusing on strengths can make a big difference to the business and to the people who work there. And applying Positive Psychology at work shouldn't be something you do in addition to everything else. Look at your existing people-related processes (e.g. recruitment, development, coaching, mentoring and so on) and see how a strengths-approach would make a positive contribution.

The Paradox of Choice

2007-10-17T22:14:00.000Z

In the developed world, choice is taken for granted, it's generally considered to be A Good Thing. Naturally you might therefore assume that having more choice was A Better Thing, but would you be right?

Next time you go supermarket shopping, take a few minutes to have a long hard look at the shelves in each food aisle - how many types of coffee, breakfast cereal and butter are there? Research by psychologist Barry Schwartz suggests that more choice isn't necessarily beneficial, especially if you're a maximiser.

Basically a maximiser is someone who, having decided to buy e.g. a digital camera researches all the models extensively on the internet to compare features and prices, talks to the assistants at the local camera shop, reads Which?, asks friends for their recommendations and buys copies of every photography magazine that they can find, before creating a spreadsheet listing their Top 10 favourite models and weighting all the required functions, the price and guarantee terms before they decide which to buy.

I kid you not, I have known someone do this.

The problem is that this person wasn't actually happy with the camera they ended up buying; they worried that it wasn't as good as the alternatives that they didn't choose. They wondered whether they should have waited before buying anything when a newer, more up-to-date model came on the market a month later... This is what Schwartz refers to as "maximising", i.e. trying to make the best choice out of the tens or hundreds of available options, when in reality not only is this extremely difficult to achieve, but one is left feeling regretful about 'the one(s) that got away'.

Satisficers, on the other hand, are those people who accept a 'good enough' choice. If they were buying a digital camera, they might decide on the price range and the must-have features, then buy the first camera that fitted this bill. So maybe they might not get the very best model, but their decision is made more quickly and relatively painlessly.

Is the research on how people react to choice relevant to business? Over 10 years ago when Procter & Gamble reduced the number of varieties of Head and Shoulders shampoo it offered, its sales increased. It has been suggested that this sales growth reflected consumers' positive reaction to optimised choice. Similarly, in the discussion on the pros and cons of choice on this BBC Radio 4 programme today* it was mentioned that Asda threatened to delist some well-known brands, because consumers don't want duplication. Tyranny of choice was mentioned by one of Asda's executive directors. So it would seem that the theory of choice and over-choice is being taken seriously by businesses.

You may not be surprised to hear that whilst maximising behaviour carries some benefits, it is also associated with regret, perfectionism, depression and lower well-being. We'll be discussing the pros and cons of maximising and satisficing, as well as some techniques for overcoming the 'tyranny of choice' in later posts.

* If you're interested in listening to the section on the paradox of choice in this R4 programme, it's almost 26 minutes in.

Positive Psychology in Schools

2007-10-16T18:34:00.000Z

There's increasing coverage in the UK media of the so-called "Happiness Lessons" which are finding their way into the school curriculum, not all of it helpful in explaining how the application of Positive Psychology can be beneficial in schools.

This article from the Scunthorpe Telegraph describes a Centre for Applied Positive Psychology project called Celebrating Strengths which is taking the latest research on how people flourish and applying it to learning. What is particularly interesting about this project is that teachers are being trained first, so that they can use the new 'positive teaching' techniques with their pupils year after year.

This is also a crucial change management principle, i.e. ensuring that those people who are responsible for making the new approach work on the coal-face are involved and engaged in the project right from the start. Just think about the problems Jamie Oliver had introducing healthy food into UK schools, because he didn't get the school dinner ladies on board first.

Contrary to what it says in this article, however, there is plenty of other work going on in the UK in positive psychology (and using strengths in particular) in education, the private sector and not-for-profit, and this will increase as people see the tangible benefits it can bring to their organisations.

Thanks to my UEL MAPP colleague Viv Thackray for this article

Positive Psychology at Work

2007-10-07T21:39:00.000Z

How many of your employees do you think are going to get out of bed tomorrow morning, looking forward to coming to work for you?

If you read the Sunday Times last week you'd be forgiven for thinking that you probably need to offer a few more employee benefits. According to this article, positive psychology at work is all about whether you provide foot massages during office hours or organise awards ceremonies so you can pat your staff on the back once a year. It's an easy mistake to make, especially when referred to as 'employee well-being'. Organisations want tangible measures and quantifying how many employee benefits they offer, as well as how much they're worth, is a relatively straightforward exercise.

Using positive psychology in the workplace is very little to do with the value of employee benefits though, which means that charities and not-for-profit organisations can apply the principles, in many cases doing a better job than cash-rich companies. And it's not about providing 24/7 counselling to those who might need it either. So what is positive psychology at work, you might be wondering?

In short it's about enabling all employees to flourish, play to their strengths and reach their full potential. Sounds great but why would you want to do this? Well, there is growing research* which shows that it's good news for the bottom line, as well as an increasing number of forward-thinking companies (e.g. Ikea, Norwich Union, Royal & SunAlliance, Microsoft) who are using strengths-based approaches. It's not about being problem-focused, but neither is it about being solution-focused. It's about trust, respect and honesty, and developing an organisational culture where

i) the espoused values are the same as the values in use,
ii) leaders are role-models of confidence, optimism and resilience
iii) leaders inspire their teams to action
iv) leaders are transparent about their weaknesses, and open to being questioned and challenged about the direction in which they're heading
v) leaders see the task being accomplished and developing their people to lead as equally important.

So you can see that having a positive psychology approach at work is a million miles away from whether you have a company gym or not. And as with most organisation change, there are no short-cuts. You need vision, commitment and courage to create a positive organisation. So, as a business leader, are you up for the challenge?

Thanks to Hilary Jeanes for the ST article

* e.g. Lyobomirsky, King & Diener (2005)

Does Success Breed Success? The Ups and Downs of Capitalising

2007-09-26T14:40:00.000Z

This article on today's Positive Psychology News Daily looks at the subject of capitalising. This is often referred to as 'making the most of a bad job', however increasingly it is being used in the context of exploiting opportunities and things that go well for us.

Seligman at Positive Psychology Conference 8th Nov

2007-09-20T22:23:00.000Z

You'll be delighted to know that Martin Seligman is the keynote speaker at UEL's one day Positive Psychology Conference on Thursday 8th November. Also speaking are Dr Susan David, an Emotional Intelligence expert, Dr Alex Linley, founder and Director of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology, Dr Gurnek Bains, CEO of corporate psychology consultancy YSC (Young Samuel Chambers), as well as our very own Dr Ilona Boniwell who established and leads the UK's first MAPP programme at UEL. Details below.

Positive psychology, well-being and business: Cutting-edge science for organisational success
Thursday 8 November at the University of East London, Docklands, with Professor Martin Seligman

UEL would like to invite you to a special one-day conference, Positive Psychology, Well-being and Business, featuring a keynote speech from world-renowned psychologist Professor Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology.

Positive Psychology - the scientific study of well-being - is increasingly recognised as having major, lasting benefits for business. Evidence shows that employees with higher levels of well-being are more focused and engaged with their work; are better team-players; have higher levels of motivation; have less illness and absenteeism; and perform better overall.

This new thinking explicitly challenges the conventional wisdom that fixing a weakness is essential to improving performance. Rather, positive psychology concentrates on what drives and motivates success. Globally, many major organisations are implementing the findings of positive psychology and strengths-based performance management in the workplace, helping them to grow and succeed. This conference will enable you to learn how to put these findings into practice in your own business or organisation.

Whether you are involved in business, human resources, social and corporate responsibility, communication, organisational development, marketing, executive coaching, training or business consultancy, this conference could make a valuable contribution to your operational and staff development.

For more details and to register, visit www.uel.ac.uk/positiveconference or contact Sue Meade on 020 8223 4428.

Do let me know if you plan to go, I'd be delighted to meet up with you there.

Positive Interventions - Gratitude

2007-09-16T21:14:00.001Z

A new slant on the Gratitude Diary.

There is empirical research to suggest that writing a Gratitude Diary is an effective positive intervention; most studies to date have concentrated on writing a Gratitude Diary on a daily or weekly basis; we have blogged about this before, in March, June and August. Today a friend and fellow UEL MAPP student, Paul Marshall, sent me this five minute gratitude video, with the suggestion that you download it onto your ipod and play it every morning in order to enhance well-being.

I'm not sure if it will be as effective as writing down what you're grateful for, because the act of writing in itself is known to be extremely important in processing information, however, why not give it a try for a week and let us know whether you notice any difference in your level of well-being?

P.S. Sometimes the Gratitude Diary intervention is referred to as 'Counting Your Blessings'. If you're considering using it with a coaching client, you might want to think about what to call it beforehand as there are religious/spiritual connotations to the latter which may not be suitable in your particular situation.

Green and Happy?

2007-09-14T21:31:00.001Z

You'll be interested to know that in July, the independent think-tank the New Economics Foundation (NEF) published the European Happy Planet Index of carbon efficiency and well-being in the EU.

It reveals that Europe is less carbon-efficient at delivering well-being (measured in terms of the happy, long lives of its citizens) than it was over 40 years ago. This might come as a surprise to some people - after all, as a whole we are wealthier than ever.

The good news is that some European countries are doing pretty well in terms of high levels of well-being (a combination of how satisfied people feel with their lives overall, and their life expectancy at birth). Those in the North such as Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Finland, as well as Switzerland, report the highest levels of subjective life satisfaction. Interestingly, Iceland and Sweden also have some of the lowest per capita carbon footprints, despite being amongst the richest nations. As a result, Iceland tops the European Happy Planet Index, followed by Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.

And the bad news? Some economically-advanced countries feature pretty poorly in the Index. Take the UK for example - it comes 15th out of 30 in rank order for both life satisfaction and life expectancy. It also has the 4th largest per capita carbon footprint in Europe, behind Luxembourg, Estonia and Finland. As a result the UK ranks 21st out of 30 overall in the European HPI, only slightly ahead of 'transition' countries such as Bulgaria and Lithuania.

Countries like Germany, Finland and France don't fare much better either, coming 15th, 16th and 18th in the Index respectively.

So what can we conclude from this? Quite simply, as I'm sure you already know deep-down, consumption is not the main route to well-being. If this were true, the poorer countries would always feature at the bottom of NEF's league tables, but they don't.

What the report also shows us, however, is that it is not impossible to be prosperous, happy and green. Perhaps we should be looking towards countries like Iceland and Sweden for some answers?

The Hamburger of Happiness

2007-09-12T20:27:00.000Z

A simple 2x2 model for understanding Happiness

In his recent book 'Happier', Harvard University lecturer Tal Ben-Shahar presents a wonderful model of happiness which he has christened The Hamburger Model. What I really like (apart from the 2x2 format which all MBAs love...) is the simplicity of it. It goes something like this:

Junk Food Burger: tasty but unhealthy. When people are asked to describe what a happy life means to them they quite often think of a life filled only with pleasure and devoid of any pain. This is the life of the hedonist, someone who lives only for the moment, giving little thought to future consequences. Young children are like this, until they learn to forego immediate gratification for some longer-term reward. But what would happen if your life were only ever about indulgence? In a continuous succession of pleasurable experiences, how would you distinguish one from another? Put simply, if you ate your favourite food every day, how long would it take before you got thoroughly sick of it?

Vegetarian Burger: healthy but not tasty - the kind you eat because you know it's good for you, not because you really want to. In this quadrant of the Hamburger Model, you forgo current pleasure entirely in order to derive some future benefit, living your life according to the 'No Pain, No Gain' principle. The problem with this is that you can start to believe that happiness is something you can only achieve in the future. And when you reach that future, what then? Often, you're still searching...Life has become a rat race.

Worst Burger: both tasteless and unhealthy. Before you ask, "well why would you eat it then?", some people become resigned to the belief that their life is pretty pointless - they give up on the present and the future and spend their time ruminating on what went wrong or what could have been. Seligman's research on a phenomenon called 'Learned Helplessness' shows how easy it is for us to learn that we have no control over our own lives and that whatever we do is futile. Ben-Shahar describes this desperate place as 'Nihilism'. Fortunately what has been learned can be unlearned.

Ideal Burger: both tasty and healthy. The Happiness quadrant is where you enjoy a good balance of pleasure, fulfillment and purpose in your life. Sounds simple doesn't it? There are two crucial points here. Firstly - take a moment to consider your own personal definition of happiness. If you're thinking you'd like to experience pure unremitting bliss for the rest of your days, beware. Leading psychiatrist Dr Raj Persaud has suggested that we really should be aiming for no more than "mild contentment". Anything more and you're likely to set yourself up to fail. So you might have to revisit your expectations. Secondly, does your definition of happiness incorporate activity as well as feeling? If not, think about it again - only you can make you happy, so in order to be happy, to create meaning and purpose in your life, you have to do something.

So what are you going to do differently?

Well-being at Work: CIPD Perspective

2007-09-11T14:52:00.000Z

At the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's seminar on Well-being at Work back in July this year, stress and trauma expert Dr Noreen Tehrani presented the CIPD's employee well-being model which incorporates five domains - Physical, Emotional, Personal Development, Organisation and Values.

Having spoken to many organisations about well-being, we know that many go little further than the physical domain, providing subsidised gym-membership, healthy options on the canteen menu, and perhaps support to give up smoking. The fact that the CIPD model goes well beyond the physical domain is therefore a great step forward we think.

Many organisations also believe that they tick the boxes when it comes to the other four domains (Emotional, Personal Development, Organisation and Values) - they are after all committed to open and honest communications (...we have yet to find one which isn't...), they have a statement of company values on their website, they provide staff training and coaching, and perhaps even flexible working.

But employee well-being is both more and less than this. When I've asked business leaders and HR managers about their policy on psychological well-being, there are usually two responses: they either look blank or they say brightly "we provide counselling through our Employee Assistance Programme". To us this completely misses the point.

Psychological well-being is not about solving people's problems, it's about creating an organisation culture where people thrive and flourish. Your company might provide an enormous amount of tangible benefits, yet it still might fall short on the psychological aspects of well-being.

The CIPD well-being model touches on this (p8) but we don't believe it's sufficiently bold enough to get business leaders really thinking differently about how their organisations are run in reality. For example, think about the organisation or department that you manage at the moment: hand on heart can you honestly say that your employees are thriving and flourishing at work?

It could be that the CIPD's approach to the employee/organisational well- being debate is deliberately softly softly. If so we look forward to further developments very soon.

Get in touch if you want to find out more about our approach to organisational well-being or our workshops for coaches or HR managers.

Emotional Intelligence - Myth or Reality?

2007-09-10T13:22:00.000Z

There is increasing media coverage of the government's plans to introduce lessons in emotional intelligence (EI) in schools in England, not all of it positive. Some argue that this initiative is needed to create a healthy balance after years of focusing on targets, league tables and standardised testing brought about by the introduction of the national curriculum. Others think it's a load of liberal mumbo-jumbo which has no place in a system which fails to ensure all school leavers have basic maths and literacy skills. According to the recent 2007 CBI / Pertemps Employment Trends Survey 52% of employers are dissatisfied with the basic literacy of school leavers, and 50% with their basic numeracy.

But does it have to be an either/or solution? It might be more effective if separate EI lessons aren't added into the curriculum (which would mean that some other lessons have to be squeezed out) but if existing subjects, like English, Drama and History are adapted to focus on the relevant EI topics (like self-awareness and motivation). In this way, an EI approach becomes incorporated into the fabric of the school, and ultimately becomes 'the way we do things round here'. It's a bit like trying to change the culture in an organisation - it doesn't work unless behaviours also change.

And there are a couple of interesting points which do need to be explored further in order to get parents and teachers on side with this. The first is whether or not EI can actually be measured - as with happiness and well-being assessments, much of it is subjective. Does that mean they are any less meaningful or useful? In a system so tied in to targets and league-tables, this may not be an easy one to resolve.

The second is whether EI can be increased through teaching or training. It is true that a greater number of EI assessments are being used in the business world today, to help enhance ones skill in recognising and understanding emotions, ultimately enabling them to be managed more effectively. What we don't know is whether ones EI can be increased - even the experts behind the original EI theory, Mayer, Salovey and Caruso are unsure about this.

Most people working in the positive psychology field appear to welcome the introduction of EI into British schools. If we want it to be successful, however, there is one big caveat....DON'T create an EI league table!

Emotional Intelligence in Schools

2007-09-04T22:09:00.000Z

How the next generation will be better prepared for the challenges of the workplace.

The Times today reported that "lessons in happiness, well-being and good manners are to be introduced in all state secondary schools".

It's unfortunate that the SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) programme is being labelled in this way by the media, because it instantly downgrades its importance, putting it firmly in the category of pink and fluffy fads which we'd be better off without.

What SEAL is actually for is to promote children's social and emotional skills which underpin effective learning, positive behaviour and emotional health and well-being in schools. "So what?", I hear you ask. Well, for many years now, various employment and business related organisations in the UK, such as the Confederation of British Industry, have been highly critical of employees' lack of (so-called) soft-skills. In 2004/5, Sir Digby Jones, then Director-General of the CBI said of new graduates:

“ A degree alone is not enough. Employers are looking for more than just technical skills and knowledge of a degree discipline. They particularly value skills such as communication, team working and problem solving. Job applicants who can demonstrate that they have developed these skills will have a real advantage.”

So you could say that the real point of the SEAL programme in schools is to start providing kids with the necessary tools to develop their self-awareness, empathy, motivation, social skills and ability to manage their emotions, so that ultimately they can become successful members of the community and successful in the workplace. Makes perfect sense now, doesn't it?

Thanks to Bruce Stanley for the Times article.

Does my butt look big in this? Applying strengths intelligently

2007-08-26T21:17:00.000Z

This article on yesterday's Positive Psychology News Daily looks at some of the issues in applying character strengths (specifically VIA-IS) in a practical way in everyday life.

Measuring Happiness

2007-08-26T21:01:00.000Z

You'll be interested to hear that the British government is now tracking the well-being of its citizens annually along with other social, economic and environmental indices. For further information see this DEFRA press release, and for a concise summary, see this excellent post on Positive Psychology News Daily by my MAPP colleague, Rosie Milner.

The Benefit of Positive Emotions at Work

2007-08-21T08:17:00.000Z

Have you ever thought that emotion has no place in the world of business? Well here's some research that might cause you to stop and think. Do you want to see quickly and easily how positive or negative emotion impacts your current thinking style?

Take a look at these four groups of shapes - for each one do you think pattern A is more like B or C?

According to Barbara Fredrickson's "broaden and build" theory, in this visual processing task people in positive moods are more likely to choose B (global) every time. Fredrickson and Branigan's research* shows that positive moods facilitate more creative, flexible, big-picture thinking, in which positive people remain open to new information. As a result, the number of behavioural options open to them increases.

People in negative moods, on the other hand, are more focused on the detail of a situation, have a more rigid thinking style in which their thought-action repertoire is narrowed. These people are more likely to say pattern A is like C (local).

The good news is that while a positive emotional state is only momentary, there is evidence to suggest that the effect is cumulative, thus you can increase your flexibility and resourcefulness over time.

It's crucial for workplace success to remain as flexible and open to new ideas as possible, so the broaden and build theory has serious implications for business. Specifically you may want to consider how you can foster positive emotions before and during brainstorming sessions, when you want to create as many innovative ideas as possible. In problem-solving situations too, consider what action you can take to sustain a positive frame of mind while you're generating new solutions.

Next time you're in one of these business situations, notice the impact your mood has on your thinking style. In coaching we've noticed that clients who maintain a positive outlook are far more likely to generate ideas than those who allow a negative mood to dominate. Try it for yourself, and let us know how you get on.

* Fredrickson, B.L., & Branigan, C. (2005) "Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires"

Using Your Strengths in New Ways - 5

2007-08-14T15:44:00.000Z

This is our final post looking at new ways of applying VIA-IS character strengths; today we're covering Prudence, Self-Regulation, Humility/Modesty and Spirituality.

The reason for applying your signature strengths in new ways every day is because research shows it is an effective way to improve your well-being longer-term (See Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005).

PRUDENCE:
i) When driving stay 5 miles per hour under the speed limit
ii) Think twice before saying anything other than "please" or "thank you"
iii) Before you decide to do something, reflect on its likely consequences 1 hour, 1 day or 1 year later

SELF-REGULATION:
i) Start an exercise programme and stick to it every day
ii) Tidy your desk or office every night before you go home
iii) When tempted to lose your cool, count to 10 (or until the emotion subsides)
iv) Resolve not to gossip. Stop yourself before you talk about someone behind their back.

HUMILITY / MODESTY
i) Don't talk about yourself for a full day
ii) Dress in a way that does not to draw attention to yourself
iii) Find a way in which a colleague is better than you. Compliment them for it

SPIRITUALITY:
i) Every day think about the purpose of your life
ii) Meditate or pray at the start of every day
iii) Attend a religious service of a faith unfamiliar to you
iv) For 5 minutes every day think about what you can do to improve the world or your community.

It's recommended that you try the same activity every day for a couple of weeks, although bear in mind that if it really isn't working for you after a few days, pick another one.

For more activities related to Integrity, Love, Humour, Appreciation of Beauty or Social Intelligence, click here.

For activities related to using Fairness, Kindness, Open-Mindedness, Curiosity, Love of Learning or Creativity, click here.

For activities related to Leadership, Gratitude, Perspective, Forgiveness, Teamwork (Citizenship) and Bravery, click here.

For activities related to Perseverance, Vitality and Hope, click here.

We'd also love to hear your own examples of activities that worked for you.

In future posts we'll be exploring the CIPD's model of well-being at work, as well as the benefits and downsides of other Strengths models, such as the Clifton StrengthsFinder.

Using Your Strengths in New Ways - 4

2007-08-13T20:05:00.001Z

In this post we look at new ways of applying 3 more of the VIA character strengths, Perseverance, Vitality and Hope.

If you haven't already done the VIA-IS online strengths test, why not take some time out now to complete it, and when you've got your list of top 5 (or signature) strengths, come back to find out how you might use them differently.

Just to remind you, the purpose of using your strengths in a new way every day is because research (Seligman, Steen, Park & Peterson, 2005) shows that this has a long-term positive effect on your happiness.

PERSEVERANCE:
i) Finish an important task before the deadline
ii) Work for several hours straight without interruptions - divert your phone and don't check your email
iii) Make a list of things to do and do one thing on the list every day
iv) Notice your self-talk about stopping a task and ignore it. Focus on the task in hand.

VITALITY / ZEST:
i) Do something physically vigorous in the morning
ii) Volunteer for an activity at work
iii) Do something because you want to, not because you need to
iv) Get a good nights sleep, and eat a healthy breakfast to give yourself more energy during the day
v) Say 'why not?' three times more frequently than you say 'why?'

HOPE / OPTIMISM
i) Think of a past disappointment and the opportunities that it made possible
ii) Notice your negative thoughts. Counter them with positive thoughts.
iii) Write down your goals for the next week/month/year and make concrete plans for accomplishing them.
iv) Keep a journal and every night record a decision that you made that day which will impact your life in the long run

As mentioned before, if the activity doesn't work for you after a couple of days, try another one.

If you would like to find more activities related to using Fairness, Kindness, Open-Mindedness, Curiosity, Love of Learning or Creativity, click here.

For more activities related to the strengths of Integrity, Love, Humour, Appreciation of Beauty or Social Intelligence, click here.

For more activities related to the strengths of Leadership, Gratitude, Perspective, Forgiveness, Teamwork (Citizenship) and Bravery, click here.

In our next post we will be looking at the remaining 4 character strengths, Prudence Self-Regulation, Humility and Spirituality.

Please also remember to send us examples of activities that worked for you, we'd love to hear about them.

Thanks to Jonathan Haidt and Chris Peterson for many of the suggested activities.

Using Your Strengths in New Ways - 3

2007-08-12T21:35:00.001Z

How to Use Your Top 5 Character Strengths in New Ways - Part 3. If you've just completed the VIA-IS online survey and are wondering what to do with your Top 5 Strengths, read on...

There's increasing research to show that focusing on your strengths at work rather than on your weaknesses brings huge benefits, not just to yourself but also to your organisation. As mentioned in one of our previous posts, companies like Norwich Union are using strengths-based approaches successfully in the business, for example in recruitment. Other organisations are focusing on strengths for personal development, using them as the basis for the Annual Appraisal, for example. It gives employees a boost of confidence and really helps them feel good about themselves, in a way that leads to further performance improvements.

In the last couple of posts we've looked at new ways of applying strengths (from the VIA-IS online survey, not from the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which actually measures talents). Today we continue on this theme with six more strengths. Try picking one activity from one of your Top 5, and stick with it for a couple of weeks. If you find it isn't working after a day or so, try something else.

LEADERSHIP:
i) Organise a social get-together for your team or department
ii) Go out of your way to make a new colleague feel welcome
iii) Take responsibility for an unpleasant task at work and make sure it gets done

GRATITUDE:
i) At the end of the day write down three things that went well
ii) Write and send a gratitude letter
iii) Keep track of how many times you say thank you during the day and increase the number every day for a week.

PERSPECTIVE / WISDOM:
i) Think of the wisest person you know and try to live one day as if you were them
ii) Resolve a dispute between two work colleagues, or two family members
iii) Don't give advice unless asked, and then do so as thoughtfully as possible

FORGIVENESS:
i) Let a grudge go every day
ii) Write a forgiveness letter, do not send it, but read it every day for a week.
iii) When someone does something you don't understand, stand in their shoes and try to work out their positive intention

TEAMWORK / CITIZENSHIP:
i) Pick up litter that you see on the ground
ii) Volunteer your time to a charity, community group, Parent-Teacher Association, Parish Council etc
iii) Organize a team / department dinner
iv) Act as a facilitator

BRAVERY:
i) Speak up for an unpopular idea in a group
ii) Stand up for someone even if you disagree with them
iii) Protest to the appropriate authorities about an injustice that you observe

These are just some examples of activities, you can of course adapt them to suit your circumstances.

We'd be delighted to hear your experience of using some of these activities in practice, or if you have any ideas for new ones, so please send us your comments.

We'll cover the remaining 7 Character Strengths in future posts.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt , author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia and Chris Peterson for many of the suggested activities.

Using Your Strengths in New Ways - 2

2007-08-10T09:52:00.000Z

How to Use Your Character Strengths in New Ways - Part 2.

In your annual appraisal / personal development meeting, does your boss focus on how to use your strengths more effectively, or how to improve your weaknesses (or 'development areas' if you're being PC)?

According to Positive Psychologists Chris Peterson and Martin Seligman, using your strengths every day is one of the most effective ways to increase your level of satisfaction. And according to Marcus Buckingham and the late Donald Clifton , authors of 'Now Discover Your Strengths' it's a tried and tested way to increase staff engagement, moral and motivation, as well as improve productivity and profitability. Seems to good to be true doesn't it?

Well, hopefully you have found 30 minutes or so to fill in the VIA-IS online character strengths survey. This is a free strengths survey, from which you get immediate results in the form of a report listing the 24 character strengths in order. As we mentioned in previous posts, you can do the CliftonStrengthsFinder* survey online too, but it's not free. We'll discuss applications of the Clifton StrengthsFinder in other posts.

Having identified their strengths, many people think 'What do I do with them now?'. in Wednesday's post we looked at ways of applying Fairness, Kindness, Open-Mindedness, Curiosity, Love of Learning and Creativity day-to-day. In today's post we look 5 new strengths:

INTEGRITY:
i) Refrain from telling white lies to friends, including insincere compliments
ii) At the end of the day, identify something you did that was attempting to impress people, or put on a show. Resolve not to do it again
iii) Monitor yourself and make a list of every time you tell a lie. Try to make your list shorter everyday
iv) Think about your most important values and do something every day which is consistent with them
v) When explaining your motives to someone, do so in a genuine and honest way

LOVE:
i) Tell a boyfriend/girlfriend/sibling/parent that you love them
ii) Send a loved one a card/e-card to say you were thinking about them
iii) Give loved ones a big hug and a kiss
iv) Write a nice post-it to a colleague and leave it on their desk
v) Accept a compliment, just say "thank you"
vi) Do something with your kids that they really enjoy doing

HUMOUR:
i) Make someone laugh or smile every day
ii) Learn a joke and tell it to all your friends
iii) Watch a funny film
iv) Visit a Comedy Club
v) Learn a magic trick and perform it for all your friends
vi) Make fun of yourself, if only by saying, "there I go again"

APPRECIATION OF BEAUTY:
i) Keep a journal and record something you saw during the day that was beautiful
ii) Go outside and take time to notice something of beauty
iii) Go to a museum or art gallery and find something that inspires you or touches you because of its beauty
iv) Attend a concert and savour the sound

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE:
i) Meet one new person every day at work - chat to the person next to you in the restaurant queue or at the coffee machine for example
ii) Encounter someone by themselves and by being friendly, include them in your group
iii) When someone at work annoys you, try to understand their motives and concerns
iv) Go into a new social situation and try to fit in - if you're the boss, for example, join a group of your staff for lunch and focus on making them feel at ease.
v) Notice when a colleague does something that is difficult for them, and compliment them

These are just some examples of activities, you can of course adapt them to suit your circumstances. Try picking one and stick with it for a couple of weeks. If you find it isn't working after a day or so, just try something else.

We'd love to hear your experience of using some of these activities in practice, so please send us your comments. We'll cover the remaining Character Strengths in future posts.

NB Despite the name, the Clifton StrengthsFinder doesn't actually tell you your strengths. It tells you your Top 5 categories of talent, which you can then develop into strengths by applying skill and knowledge.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt , author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia for many of the suggested activities.

Now Discover Your Strengths...Then What?

2007-08-08T12:21:00.000Z

How to Use Your Character Strengths in New Ways - Part 1

Have you completed the VIA-IS online character strengths survey yet? We find it an excellent starting point for coaching conversations since many people are completely unaware of their strengths, so it can be an instant confidence boost, as well as providing insight into where to make changes to increase overall life/job satisfaction.

Having identified their strengths, many people think 'What now?' so in this post we look at new ways of applying strengths day-to-day. We start with the most common top strengths shown in the UK (Linley et al 2007):

Women: 1.Fairness 2.Kindness 3.Open-mindedness 4.Curiosity and 5. Love of Learning
Men: 1.Open-mindedness 2.Fairness 3.Curiosity & joint 4th Love of Learning and Creativity

FAIRNESS:
i) Act as a mediator - stay impartial in a disagreement between friends/colleagues despite your beliefs
ii) Allow someone to say their piece without interupting them
iii) Notice when you treat someone based on a stereotype or pre-conception: resolve not to do it again.
iv) At least once a day, admit a mistake and take responsibility for it
v) At least once a day, give due credit to a colleague you don't particularly like

OPEN-MINDEDNESS:
i) Every day, pick something you believe strongly, and think about how you might be wrong
ii) Play devil's advocate - discuss a work-related issue or business problem from the side opposite to your personal views
iii) Go to lunch with a colleague who is different to you in some way
iv) Go to a multi-cultural event or to a different church/religious event

KINDNESS / GENEROSITY:
i) Do a random act of kindness every day. Make it anonymous if possible.
ii) Send an e-card to a different friend each day
iii) Pick up the whole bill when you are out with friends
iv) Ring a friend/family member/colleague specifically to find out how they are. Ask them how their day was and actually listen to the answer before telling them about your own day.
v) When driving, give way to pedestrians; when walking, give way to cars

CURIOSITY / INTEREST IN THE WORLD:
i) At lunch, eat something new that you never otherwise would have tried
ii) Ask questions in a meeting (if you don't usually), or find a work-related online forum (such as the CIPDs) and ask questions there
iii) Travel to work by a different route
iv) Go to your local library and pick and interesting-looking book - spend 20 minutes skimming it
v) Read an interesting article in your professional/trade magazine
vi) Go to a meeting or lecture on a topic you know nothing about

LOVE OF LEARNING:
i) Read a different newspaper to the one you would usually read
ii) Find a mentor in a different department at work and set up a regular meeting
iii) Think of an area of the business where you know very little and find a colleague who is prepared to help you learn about it
iv) Take up a new hobby
v) Watch your children playing and reflect on how one learns through play
vi) Find a colleague at work who has a skill you want to learn and model them

CREATIVITY:
i) Keep a journal or work on a picture or a poem
ii) Find a new word everyday and use it creatively every day
iii) Pick one object in your office and think of new uses for it
iv) Wear a new combination of clothes/ shirt & tie to the ones you usually pick
v) Enrol in a pottery or painting class

These are just some examples of activities you can try, you don't have to do them all! In fact, it's recommended that you pick one activity and stick with it for a couple of weeks. And if you find after a couple of days that it's not working for you, switch to something else.

We'll cover the remaining 18 VIA strengths in subsequent posts. In the meantime, we're always looking for new ways to apply strengths in practice, so please send us your comments.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia for many of the suggested activities.

Positive Psychology News Daily

2007-07-28T19:30:00.000Z

If you're interested in Positive Psychology, you might like to check out Positive Psychology News Daily, a new online publication founded by Senia Maymin (MAPP graduate, MBA and Executive Coach) at the beginning of 2007. PPND aims to provide the latest news and research into the science of happiness and Positive Psychology, covering a whole range of subjects from Learning Optimism to Using your Strengths in a Job Search.

Most of its authors are graduates of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania. Some are written by UK MAPP guest authors, of which I am one. You can read my first article, For Better or For Worse? The Marriage of Technology and Positive Psychology here.

Making London Happy

2007-07-19T15:04:00.000Z

London wins almost £10m Lottery funding to improve its citizens' mental and physical well-being over 5 years.

I said I'd be looking at the CIPD's approach to well-being in this post, but this piece of news got there first. One of my colleagues, Sherry Clark, who co-ordinates the mental health promotion team for the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, emailed me earlier to tell me that Well London, a London Health Commission programme, has been successful in its bid for funding to improve the well-being of the citizens of London. This programme has the potential to transform the lives of 35,000 people in 20 of London's most deprived boroughs.

It's particularly satisfying that these will be community-led projects which involve local people, and which will leave them with the confidence and skills to continue even after the 5 year project has ended. I'm also delighted that the University of East London, where I'm currently working towards my MSc in Applied Positive Psychology, has designed the research and evaluation framework to demonstrate the programme's success.

I'm looking forward to hearing how the programme develops, and will keep you posted!

Employee Well-being: An integrated approach

2007-07-18T08:32:00.000Z

....Is there more to Employee Well-being than healthy eating and a pedometer?

Ask most HR practitioners what employee well-being means to their organisation and they'll probably talk about having healthy options available in the canteen, subsidised gym membership and on-site massage. Some employers provide access to physiotherapy, support to help you stop smoking or find childcare.

Whilst these are great benefits, when it comes to well-being I think they're missing the point. Yes you need to support employees to be as physically healthy as possible, and anything that helps create a sensible work-life balance is good thing, but ask yourself what your company is doing to invest in the mental and emotional health of your employees.

Before you say 'Ah yes, we've thought of that, we have an Employee Assistance Programme which provide a counselling service 24/7', I'd say you're still missing the point. Counselling is for people to use once they start having problems. Companies which really understand employee well-being have a culture which actively promotes mental, emotional and physical health day-to-day, as well as a system which deals with mental, emotional and physical ill-health when that occurs.

...Mental and emotional well-being? Hmmm, that sounds kind of tricky...Not sure if you should be straying into that territory? Fortunately there's increasing research (see Lyubomirsky, King and Diener (2005) for example) which shows that employees with higher subjective well-being are more productive, creative, optimistic, resilient, better at selling and persuading, and, of course, are more fun to be around. Tons of good reasons to start thinking about an integrated approach to employee well-being which promotes mental and emotional well-being alongside the physical.

In the next post I'll be looking at the Chartered Institute of Personnel amd Development's perspective on employee well-being, as outlined in their 8th Annual Absence Survey which was published earlier this month.

Well-Being: Aligning Values at Royal & SunAlliance

2007-07-16T21:23:00.001Z

It has been suggested that the absence of employee well-being and/or the presence of stress is often caused by the conflict between the individual's values and beliefs and those of the organisation or system that they work within - see Fr Dermot Tredget and Barbara Wren's comments here.

If this is the case, it must be in the employer's best interests to minimise the source of conflict by trying to align personal and organisational values.

Sometimes, this alignment can come from unexpected sources, and happen almost by chance. Take the Corporate Responsibility initiative launched by Paul Pritchard at Royal & SunAlliance last year.

You've probably come across many people who say that they are different people inside and outside the workplace - when they go to the office, they might put on a suit or a uniform (armour?), leave a large chunk of their personal life at the gate and behave in a way they think fits the corporate culture. An intriguing example appeared in a survey at R&SA, which revealed that employees' have greener behaviour at home than they do at work (e.g. 94% switch off lights at home, whereas only 66% do so at work). Feedback suggested that employees would be greener at work if R&SA led by example.

As a result Pritchard set up project which resulted in R&SA going carbon neutral in December 2006 - in fact, it was the first UK insurer to achieve carbon neutral status. Employees were so impressed by this commitment to the environment that in the follow-up survey 63% said it changed their behaviour in the office. That's a pretty substantial move towards aligning values I think.

The company then went one step further by reviewing its relationship with the charity sector and in particular, how it could get employees more involved. Rather than dictate which charity to support, the Senior Team decided to try a more novel approach, through a National Volunteering Week, where employees were encouraged to spend one day working for the charity or community organisation (e.g. school) of their choice.

Some 750 employees participated in the scheme, and as you'd probably expect, the vast majority (83%) said they volunteered because they wanted to benefit the charity or community organisation in some way; only 23% said it was because they themselves wanted to learn new skills.

What's fascinating about this initiative is that after the day spent volunteering, 67% of the volunteers said they learnt new skills, and 100% said they wanted to do it again and would recommend it to their colleagues.

I don't think that R&SA conducted any research into whether employees knowingly used their strengths on this day out, but the fact that they had a choice about what voluntary work to do suggests that they probably did. That looks like a win/win to me - not only do your employees do something aligned with their own values which is of benefit to others, they have the opportunity to use their strengths, they come back to work more enthusiastic and engaged, and with some new skills too. It's a no-brainer isn't it?

Congratulations to Paul Pritchard, his team and the volunteers at R&SA for such a positive contribution.

Positive Ageing - Growing Old Disgracefully

2007-07-15T12:03:00.000Z

The Zimmers, the UK rock band with an average age of 82, continue their bid for world domination... or at the very least some recognition that older folks can continue to play a part in society and deserve to be heard.

This is Positive Ageing at its best, and the second example I’ve come across in the past few weeks – the other is Dr Lilli Hvingtoft -Foster, the President of the Open University Psychological Society, which she was instrumental in establishing in 1974. The Grande Dame doesn’t reveal her age, but she must be 80 if she’s a day. She opened the recent OUPS Psychology of Well-Being Conference - her passion for her subject was immediately obvious, over the three days she attended all the lectures – a brilliant example of how life-long learning can help keep you young.

The Zimmers, who created a storm a month or so ago with their recording of The Who's My Generation, and whose next single, a cover of The Prodigy's 1996 song Firestarter, is due out in October, have taken a much more in your face approach to Positive Ageing. I loved the first documentary that the award-winning journalist Tim Samuels made about them; firstly it showed how mistaken we are to ignore older people, or to write them off as being somehow past their prime - and more importantly how we can continue to have fun and make a difference in the world whatever our age.

In a follow-up programme tonight on the UK’s BBC 2 at 10pm , we see The Zimmers conquering America, being interviewed by the world's media and making appearances in front of the camera as if they were all born to it. They have their own Myspace page now, as well as an entry in Wikipedia, and numerous videos on Youtube made by admiring fans, plus hundreds of mentions in blogs world-wide.

It goes without saying that in the UK's increasingly individualistic culture we need to treat older people with more respect. And what I really hope the Zimmers achieve through this new media spotlight is to make people realise that ageing positively is not a myth: retirement can be just as enjoyable, exciting and rewarding a time as your youth or middle age. The world is still your oyster whether you're 28 or 82.

Positive Interventions

2007-07-12T11:30:00.001Z

Public pillow fights, bubble battles, art installations and parties on the tube are just some of the group interventions that Newmindspace duo Lori Kufner and Kevin Bracken have devised to create a sense of community by connecting with people and having fun in the public spaces of Toronto and New York.

What we liked about this particular clip was the obvious anticipation before the whistle blows to start the pillow-fight, and the look on the faces of the spectators - they're having as much fun, if not more, than the pillow-fighters themselves.

21 year old Lori and Kevin, who are studying Urban Politics and Sociology at the University of Toronto, aim to create a sense that anyone can make a big difference, by challenging people's beliefs about what is possible.

For a longer documentary of the pair discussing their work (which includes footage of the fabulous Valentine's Day mural on Queen Street West, Toronto), have a look at the Newmindspace website.

And if you know of any similar inspirational activities or events near you, please let us know.

Strengths-Based Recruitment

2007-07-11T15:37:00.003Z

Norwich Union is a company at the cutting edge of leadership and management techniques in the UK, for the past 18 month piloting the use of a strengths-based approach in various areas of Organisation Development and Human Resource Management, such as recruitment.

For most candidates and companies, the interview process is something to be endured rather than enjoyed , but according to KarenStefanyszyn , Head of Organisation Development, focusing on what people are good at and what makes them tick has transformed the interview process at NU and had some remarkable knock-on effects in the business.

For example: over 91% of NU staff recruited using strengths-based interview techniques said that the interview prepared them for their new roles; over 72% agreed that it was easy to settle into their new role; and over 73% said that they now use their natural talents at work every day. I find these results astonishing when I consider a typical interview outcome - that the job is not what was expected, the honeymoon period lasts a matter of weeks before reality bites, and results in lower morale and motivation.

In addition, Stefanyszyn reports that 100% of recruits scored above 90% in quality audits, and staff turnover figures in the first 6 months were halved. As a result of such positive feedback, the company is piloting the use of strengths in other areas of OD andHRM such as talent management. We look forward to hearing how this progresses.

The use of strengths in business is not entirely problem-free however. As an organisation you need to be clear which strengths model is the best fit - there are many well-known and well-validated models to choose from (such as StrengthsFinder and VIA-IS), others are being developed (for example by Dr AlexLinley , Director of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology ), or you could always create your own.

As with any management tool, it can provide a useful common language with which to explore and resolve issues. You still need to be mindful, however, of the downside - that some people get quickly attached to labels, and forget that tools are only a means to an end.

That said, the use of strengths is gaining traction in UK businesses for one very good reason - for creating positive energy and excitement at work, nothing beats it. Imagine actually having fun during a job interview, and coming away from it feeling that you had learnt something new about yourself - now that really would be radical. I believe that using strengths in recruitment has the potential to transform the interview process in this way.

If you have had experience of using a strengths-based approach at work, we'd love to hear from you.

Visualisation and Creative Thinking in Business

2007-07-10T22:09:00.000Z

100 ways to use visualisation and creative thinking to identify, explore and resolve business issues, presented in a brilliant Periodic Table format. This is a must for anyone looking for new ways to communicate visually - whether its data, concepts, strategy or metaphors that you want to illustrate.

This is a fantastic tool - if you hover your mouse over the Table, examples of each type of illustration pop up to show you how to use it in context.

You can use and/or adapt a fair number of these in Coaching too e.g the Story Template. I loved the Iceberg (so many businesses attend only to the bits they can see and hear, and ignore the more important bits which they can't...), the Feedback Diagram (simple but effective) and Zwicky's Morphological Box (brownie points for the jargon). The Failure Tree is the only one I could see that focuses exclusively on the downsides - not something we advocate if you want to win people over, although it's a useful technique for analysing complex system problems.

And what about the Hype Cycle? I was considering its application to Coaching and Positive Psychology.WRT Coaching, I think we've survived the Trough of Disillusionment, and are travelling gently onwards and upwards through the Scope of Enlightenment to our destination which is the Plateau of
Productivity.

As for Positive Psychology, well in the UK at least, we're still programming the Tom-Tom to get us to the Start of Media Infatuation. Put your seat-belts on, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

With thanks to Sarah 'Intellagirl' Robbins, on whose blog I discovered the Periodic Table, and of course to the guys who invented it, Ralph Lengler and Dr. Martin J. Eppler from visual-literacy.org.

EI - Emotional Intelligence At Work

2007-07-07T21:07:00.000Z

Five key things to understand about workplace Emotional Intelligence (EI - defined by psychologist Dr Susan David of Yale and Melbourne universities as "the ability to solve problems with and about emotions effectively"):

1. Emotions are resources - so treat them as data; whether positive or negative the purpose of emotions is to tell you that action of some kind is required.

2. The 4 stage RUUM model (Recognise, Use, Understand, Manage) is an extremely useful model for applying EI at work. It is possible to have different EI scores for each stage of the model, so for example you can have a high score for recognising emotions and a low score for managing them. The model allows you to pinpoint which areas of your EI ability you can benefit from developing.

3. When it comes to managing emotions in the workplace, there are several short term and long term strategies you can use. Psychology research shows which are very effective strategies and which are not.

4. If you're considering implementing an EI measurement tool at work, choose carefully. David claims that some well-known EI measurement tools actually measure personality, not EI.

5. Emotions provide useful data for business decision-making, because they underpin cognitive processes. Therefore, accept that there will be an element of 'heart' in all business decisions. Improving your ability to interpret your and others' emotions at work can transform your decision-making ability.

I'll be returning to the subject of EI , measurement tools and strategies for improving your workplace EI in a later post. In the meantime, you can find lots of useful information here.

Well-Being at Work

2007-07-06T23:45:00.001Z

CIPD and Spirituality - not often you find those two terms in the same sentence!

At yesterday's Well-Being at Work seminar by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK's professional body for HR practitioners, we discussed the role of Spirituality in the workplace. Who would have thought that such a seriously business-minded association would even consider it? Thankfully the penny's dropping; connecting with your employees as whole human beings is good for them and it's good for your business. If you're not sure about this just look at Lyubomirsky et al's 2005 research.

Dr Noreen Tehrani, Occupational and Counselling Psychologist, skillfully presented an overview of the benefits of well-being to business performance. It's not a simple matter either; the CIPD's well-being model incorporates 5 of 12 possible domains - Physical, Emotional, Personal Development, Organisation and Values; all of these are interlinked. In order for the CIPD model to deliver, however, I think it has to actively develop psychological well-being by focusing on the positives, something which is only implicit in the model.

Peter Barnard, Registrar and Clerk to the Corporation for the Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education, described their journey towards a well-being culture over the last 5 or so years. They don't have a specific strengths-based approach as Positive Psychologists would recognise it, but they have put a huge amount of time and effort into creating physical well-being initiatives, culminating in them receiving two prestigious Employee Benefits Awards this year.

Dr Paul Pritchard, environmental risk specialist for Royal & SunAlliance presented a fascinating case study demonstrating how employee engagement throughout the organisation was transformed by the introduction of a National Volunteering Week. Pritchard was refreshingly honest about the fact that he didn't specifically set out to increase employee engagement, it was a happy by-product of a Corporate Responsibility initiative. I found this such an interesting story that I'll be featuring it in more detail in a later post.

According to the next speaker, Father Dermot Tredget OSB, a member of the Benedictine community at Douai Abbey, spiritual intelligence (SQ) is at the heart of being effective at work, simply because like EQ, PQ and IQ, SQ is a core part of what it is to be human. Asking someone to leave their spirituality at home means that you're not seeing the whole person at work. Before the non-believers amongst you stop reading, spirituality is starting to appear in many MBA and leadership programmes, e.g the Praxis Centre at the Cranfield School of Management. Fr Dermot also has many years business experience, an MBA from Bath University and regularly runs retreats for business leaders. I particularly liked this model of spirituality in the workplace for its emphasis on the importance of community-building, something which is often absent from organisations where people are too busy and too focused on business objectives to make meaningful contact with each other.

Finally Barbara Wren, Occupational Health Psychologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London, presented a simple systems view of well-being, which elegantly explained the conflict (and corresponding decrease in well-being) which arises when the employee, the role and the organisation are not aligned. Of course getting those three lined up is a lot more difficult in real life; it's a challenge that change managers have to contend with almost on a daily basis.

The seminar gave a valuable insight into how various organisations see the role of well-being at work, and the issues for anyone in the HR field trying to implement a balanced well-being policy. But stick with it; all the evidence shows that the benefits of getting it right, for both employees and the organisation, can be enormous.

If you have any comments on your own organisation's well-being policy, we'd love to hear from you.

Positive Interventions

2007-07-06T18:27:00.001Z

One of the ways Positive Intervention can be defined is an activity which is intended to create well-being "by cultivating pleasant emotions, strengths and/or meaning" (JPawelski 2006). Here's a short video of an inspirational positive intervention, devised by Juan Mann in Sydney, Australia.

I suspect that people watching it may think it's completely irrelevant to organisational well-being. The point, however, is not the intervention per se - I've used it as an illustration of the impact of reconnecting on a very basic level with other people. Watching the clip you get a sense of how, day-to-day, people often don't really connect with each other, and that when they make the effort to do so, they are completely transformed - they laugh, smile, dance and skip and are brimming over with energy.

You might be interested to know Mann's Free Hugs Campaign has since become a global phenomenon, with its own website.

I'll be looking at other examples of Positive Interventions in later posts.

My thanks to Marie-Josee Salvas, MAPP Pennsylvania student, for the link.

Employee Well-Being

2007-07-05T22:55:00.000Z

How does your business define employee well-being? Perhaps you think of it in terms of physical health, providing healthy menus in your staff restaurant, health screening or private health insurance. Or maybe you help employees manage stress or give up smoking? These types of support are common in many larger organisations, and for many HR and OD managers, this is what employee well-being is all about.

But what about the importance of psychological well-being or mental health in the work-place? In their recently published Change Agenda - What's happening with well-being at work?, the CIPD's examples of mental health at work are: work-life balance targets, conflict resolution training and relaxation techniques (p7). I think this is really missing the point.

The CIPD's definition of well-being is 'creating an environment to promote a state of contentment which allows an employee to flourish and achieve their full potential for the benefit of themselves and their organisation'. The question we need to answer is whether work-life balance targets, conflict resolution training or relaxation techniques really achieve this.

I would suggest that they are only half the story. Research shows that psychological well-being can be enabled through developing traits like resilience, optimism and self-awareness in employees, focussing on strengths and through fostering meaning at work, for example by building new organisational communities through volunteering programmes. What is essential for employees to flourish is an organisational culture which actively and positively promotes it.

I think it would be beneficial for organisations to view employee well-being in terms of an integrated model, which not only takes into account physical, psychological and spiritual well-being, but which places specific emphasis on developing the positives. I'll be returning to this integrated model and the importance of a positive focus in later posts.

Oliver James and the Affluenza Bug

2007-07-04T19:31:00.001Z

Earlier this year, clinical psychologist and well-known media figure, Dr Oliver James, published his new book 'Affluenza - How to be successful and stay sane'. The book caused a furore in some circles; James is no stranger to media controversy, however; it could be said that he actively courts it in order to focus attention on some very pressing social issues.

James presented at the recent the Open University Psychological Society's Psychology of Well-being Conference and despite (or because of?) getting the Saturday night slot,he didn't mince his words - his theory, stated simply, is that putting a high value on possessions, money, appearances (physical and social) and fame is at the heart of the rise in depression, anxiety and substance abuse in the English-speaking western countries. Not surprisingly, this seems to have upset quite a lot of people in the UK. We live in a democracy after all, and we're mature enough to make our own choices, aren't we? Who wants to be accused of "Selfish Capitalism"?

It's difficult to argue against the figures - World Health Organization studies of mental illness across both English speaking western countries and non-English speaking ones reveal a substantial and statistically significant rise in mental illness (as define above) in the former (average 23%) compared to the latter (11.5%). According toJames's theory, this rise is due to our increasing love of all things material.

Has materialism risen in English-speaking western countries - undoubtedly yes, just look around you. Does that prove, however, that materialism of the type James describes, even if it is rampant, causes mental illness?

Research (e.g. Tim Kasser ) suggests that there are 4 basic needs which must be met in order for psychological well-being to exist:

1) emotional security
2) feeling effective
3) community (friends, social groups etc)
4) autonomy

The question which needs to be answered is "does a focus on materialism prevent these needs being met, and if so how?". Common sense would say yes - a simple example is that materialists get their gratification externally - but is there scientific research that incontrovertibly shows this? James's money is obviously on the answer being affirmative; Affluenza was markedly short on academic references, so he's writing a new book which aims to lay out all the research evidence to support his Selfish Capitalism theory.

When I asked him after the lecture when this book would be published, however, he replied not as quickly as he'd hoped - so perhaps the research isn't as clear-cut as Positive Psychologists think.

If you want to see and hear James in action, register and watch this RSA lecture.

Stefan Sagmeister's Pearls of Wisdom

2007-06-30T10:53:00.000Z

In my post on Wednesday , I promised to summarise the gems from Stefan Sagmeister's diary: 'Things in my life I have learned so far', which he presented in his talk on Design and Happiness. Many of them are underpinned by Positive Psychology concepts and research, some of which I have shown in italics. Here are the ones I think are most relevant to a discussion on Positive Psychology and coaching, in no particular order:

*Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid - I have to live now (research on Time Perspectives by Zimbardo and Boniwell suggests that people who are very future-oriented miss out on enjoying the present. Also, research on flow suggests that people are happier when living in the
moment.)

* Money does not make me happy (research suggests that over a certain threshold (which is actually quite low), more money does not actually make you happier.)

* Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted (this is a process called 'adaptation' i.e. you adapt back to a mildly pleasant mood after both good and bad events. This has two important implications which are often overlooked: 1) that we should not expect full-on intense happiness all the time, and 2) that we should expect to recover from any hardship and difficulties in our lives.)

* Trying to look good limits my life (research suggests that concentrating on your physical appearance does not make you happy.)

* Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses (This is a way to overcome the adaptation process mentioned above i.e. you consciously don't allow yourself to get to a position where you do adapt to material luxuries, because eventually you would stop enjoying them and crave something
more.)

* Keeping a diary supports my personal development (this is a good coaching tip - by taking 5 or 10 minutes every day to reflect on what happens in your life, you often get insights which aid personal growth.)

There speaks a true Positive Psychologist! If you have any of your own tips for maintaining your well-being which others might benefit from, we'd love to hear about them.

Positive Psychology Coaching and Flow

2007-06-28T20:46:00.000Z

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend a Performance Coaching Masterclass with Myles Downey, organised by the Academy of Executive Coaching in London. Downey founded the School of Coaching in 1997 and has recently acquired 100% ownership. His book, Effective Coaching: Lessons from the Coach's Coach, has been in my Top 3 since I started coaching and has been a crucial influence on my own approach ; in it he presents a compelling argument for non-directive coaching, in which the key role of the coach is to facilitate the coachee's (or client's or player's)

1) awareness, through actively noticing, and
2) responsibility, by allowing them to actively follow their own interest, make their own choices and decisions.

Awareness and responsibility are essential components of engagement and developing intrinsic motivation, and are therefore crucial to coaching effectiveness and success. Anyone working in business change management and transformation knows that change cannot occur effectively without them.

At the Masterclass, Downey performed two demonstrations, one in which he coached someone to catch a tennis ball one-handed. 'What's that got to do with business coaching?' you might ask. Well, it was a visible and powerful demonstration of what sports psychologist and coach Tim Gallwey referred to as The Inner Game, which is simply

Potential - Interference = Performance.

By getting the coachee to notice and focus their attention on the ball and how it is in flight, interference (in the form of fear, doubt, lack of confidence about ability etc) is removed and the coachee enters a flow state, in which they are more creative, insightful, relaxed, intuitive and objective. Rather than worry about dropping the ball and trying too hard to catch it, the coachee's focus is temporarily placed outside themselves, resulting in visibly improved performance.

With his emphasis on strengths and developing potential I would describe Downey as a true Positive Psychology coach. If you want to understand more about the role of Positive Psychology in coaching read Effective Coaching ; just be aware that the book was first published in 1999, before the term 'Positive Psychology' really came into regular use. Your coaching practice will be re-energised as a result.

How to pronounce Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

2007-06-26T14:04:00.000Z

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi , founder of the flow concept, is the Positive Psychologist with the most unpronounceable name. Take a look at this... shows we're not the only ones struggling with it.

BTW I'm reliably informed you say 'cheek-sent-me-high'. Our PP class, however, prefers to call him "Mike"...

Designing Your Happiness At Work

2007-06-26T12:58:00.000Z

Stefan Sagmeister, Austrian-born graphic designer, shares his thoughts on the subjects of design and happiness . His insights are very personal (such as his list of breathtaking moments), however, there are many themes here which everyone can relate to - such as doing work which really matters to you, being able to immerse yourself in work without being interrupted and enjoying the end results of a completed project.

Please do watch this clip, it's only 15 minutes long, and contains some fascinating insight into the theory and practice of happiness. Plus it's always inspiring to hear someone talk with passion and humour about their work.

Any well-being practitioners or academics reading will instantly spot that what Sagmeister talks about supports theories like self-determination , intrinsic motivation , flow ,competence, autonomy, relatedness and so on.

I liked his lists too, there were some real snippets of wisdom in 'Things I have learned in my life so far'. In fact he has used some of them in his designs, for example, Being Not Truthful Works Against Me and Complaining is Silly: Either Act or Forget. I'll summarise them for you in a future post.

Thanks to Neil for sending this clip to me.

Happiness Tools

2007-06-25T09:36:00.000Z

Top 10 Happiness Tools

Following on from yesterday's post about the Open University Psychological Society's Psychology of Wellbeing Conference , I'd like to share with you the Top 10 Happiness Tools, devised by Dr Richard Stevens, Dr Jane Henry, Linda Corlett and Nevia Mullan , which were tried and tested during the BBC2 documentary ‘Making Slough Happy’.

1. Physical exercise - take half an hour of exercise three times a week.
2. Count your blessings - see our previous post for more information.
3. Set aside some time for talking to your partner or closest friend - an hour long, uninterrupted conversation.
4. Plant something (pot, container, window box) and tend it carefully.
5. Cut your TV viewing by half.
6. Smile at and/or say hello to a stranger at least once a day.
7. Phone a friend - make contact with someone you haven't seen for a while and arrange to meet up.
8. Have a good laugh at least once a day.
9. Give yourself a real treat every day and take the time to savour it.
10. Do a good turn for someone every day - see this post for further information, or look at Random Acts of Kindness for ideas.

To this list, and following Bernard Gesch's nutritional advice mentioned in yesterday's post, we would also add:
11. Ensure you're getting the recommended daily allowance of essential vitamins and minerals.

Over the next couple of weeks we'll be looking at some of the research which supports these Happiness Tools.

Stevens et al suggest you try using them for two months and see the difference they make to your happiness. On average they made the citizens of Slough 33% happier, so they can work for you too. Let us know how you get on.

You Are What You Eat – Nutrition and Well-being

2007-06-24T20:27:00.000Z

I’ve just returned from the Open University Psychological Society's three day Psychology of Wellbeing Conference at Nottingham University. Amongst others, the speakers included Dr Richard Stevens (of BBC2s ‘Making Slough Happy’ fame), Oliver James (a man who enjoys courting controversy in e.g. Britain on the Couch , They F*** You Up , Affluenza ), and Dr Alex Linley, Director of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology in Warwick and currently researching the application of psychological strengths.

This morning, Bernard Gesch, Senior Research Scientist at Oxford University and Director of the research charity Natural Justice , presented ‘Reuniting mind and body: Diet, health and behavioural wellbeing’. The argument is straightforward – what we eat has a scientifically proven impact on brain functioning and thus on behaviour. Clinical trials have been carried out in which the behaviour of UK maximum security prisoners has been shown to be vastly improved by remarkably simple changes in their nutrition .

Gesch is currently working on further prison studies, however, it is clear that the current government is slow to support this research, and unlike the Dutch government, hasn’t yet introduced changes to prison diets despite the compelling evidence that to do so reduces the amount of violence in prisons, as well as reducing re-offending rates if the nutritional changes are continued. As Gesch points out, dietary changes are a small price to pay for such a large benefit in society. Perhaps the diet at Whitehall needs to include more zinc, iron and Omega-3 in order for them to see sense….

In my next few posts I’ll be introducing highlights from some of the other conference presentations, including Oliver James’ argument that Positive Psychologists would be better off working out how to reduce the soaring depression rate in the UK and the USA, rather than waste time focusing on how to improve wellbeing. Perhaps he has a point.

And whether or not you were at the conference, do share your thoughts on these and other Positive Psychology topics with us.

Emotional Well Being

2007-06-20T15:35:00.000Z

A new campaign,Growing Strong, has been launched by the children's charity NCH to raise awareness of the importance of children and young people's emotional well-being to their ability to improve relative life chances and fulfill their potential.

In NCH's survey of over 2000 adults in the UK, 6 out of 10 said emotional well-being (having empathy, confidence, resilience,self-awareness, good social skills and being able to manage your feelings) was important or very important in deciding what they themselves had achieved in life. Other key factors were education and family stability. In fact, emotional well-being was more important that IQ, physical health, family income, where you live or social class.

These findings support the view that there is a growing need to ensure emotional well-being in order to maximise people's life chances. At 10 Consulting, we believe that this applies to adults as well as children: building emotional well-being is a key feature of our positive psychology coaching.

Cross-Cultural Happiness

2007-06-12T20:54:00.001Z

You can' get more scientific than Dutch sociologist Ruut Veenhoven's Database of World Happiness . Veenhoven has spent years researching happiness in many countries around the world and as a result has set up this comprehensive (and free) online resource. Whether or not you're interested in cross-cultural issues, this is a brilliant source of happiness information and statistics.

Goals, Happiness and the Peak of Achievement

2007-06-09T19:32:00.000Z

At the Lancaster University Alumni meeting on Thursday night I had the pleasure of hearing Sir Chris Bonington speak about one of his expeditions to the summit of Mount Everest in the mid 80’s, in a presentation called the Peak of Achievement.

What was fascinating (apart from the photos of the first Apple ‘laptop’) was his certainty that in any expedition the journey (and in this case, the teamwork) is just as important as the destination. Businesses would perform a whole lot better if they realised this, he said.

How right he is. Many people we coach start with the perspective that “I’ll be happy with my job/life/self when XYZ happens”. Happiness is therefore seen as something to be achieved in the future which is conditional on completing a specific goal. Happiness is something that you can achieve in the future, and having some goals in work and life is crucial to personal growth, however the mistake often made is to focus so much on the reaching the goal in the future that you forget about the present.

You can also be happy now, in the moment. So remember that it’s the process you are following now that is as important to your happiness and self-development as the achievement itself, be that getting a new job, being promoted, losing weight or climbing Mount Everest.

Acts of Kindness

2007-06-04T11:27:00.001Z

If you wants ideas and inspiration on this subject, the Random Acts of Kindness website is where to get them - it's a fantastic resource. Do take a look.

Positive Ageing

2007-05-27T08:07:00.001Z

...pure inspiration...

One of our March blogs looked at the subject of legacy and making a contribution ; we featured the fabulous Peter, aka Geriatric1927 , who posts his own unique videoblogs on Youtube. Well, he's popped up again, this time as part of the band, The Zimmers, who stormed into the UK Singles Charts at Number 26 this week with a brilliant version of The Who's "My Generation" . Believe it or not the lead singer, Alf, is 90.

You might have seen The Zimmers featured on Tim Samuels' BBC2 documentary last week, Power to the People: The Great Granny Chart Invasion. What an inspirational bunch of people. This is positive ageing in practice.

Authentic Networking

2007-05-25T10:31:00.001Z

Yesterday I went to a fascinating presentation by Microsoft
at a Womenintechnology event on Raising your Profile, at which the results of the recent Microsoft / Womenintechnology survey about women's careers in the technology industry were revealed.

Some women who completed the survey felt that a glass ceiling exists in their company; perhaps it's more common in some industries and cultures, however the message from the presenters was very clear - this is not a reason not to follow a career that you love and be very successful in it.

Eileen Brown, IT Pro Evangelist Team Manager,and fellow blogger (see here spent 10 years working as a navigating officer on Shell supertankers before joining Microsoft, so she clearly knows what it takes to succeed in a male environment. Both she, and Kate Isler,Chief of Staff for the Microsoft Online Services Group, emphasised the role of choice and responsibility in career decisions. It's easy to forget these when you're immersed in an organisation and especially if you seldom take the time to network externally.

I was also intrigued to hear limiting beliefs mentioned several times; many people allow themselves to be defined by their beliefs, even when they're unhelpful and can be changed. Uncovering what your beliefs are is a good first step to transforming them into something more useful.

At the panel debate and Q&A session afterwards, Salma Shah, Director of SN Training, talked about the importance of creating a consistent personal brand, not in the sense of something manufactured, but by building on your strengths and letting people know what you're about.

And Terry Thorpe, CTO of the Centre for Integral Transformation , and also a blogger (and whose blog looks spookily like ours... see here, mentioned the importance of networking as a way of doing the job you currently do, not as an add-on, or something that gets done after hours. I think this is a really critical part of business success - in the sense that it's the only way to let other people know who you are as a person, and what you stand for.

Finally, I liked what Paul Norris, Microsoft EMEA Director had to say about being yourself, being genuine and being human. Often in the cut and thrust of business we can forget that success is due to people. You can have a great product or service, but without great people you'll get nowhere. Getting the best out of your people, and allowing them to play to their strengths, is what will make your team and your business succeed.

Identify Your Strengths 2

2007-05-21T13:36:00.001Z

Our last post looked at how to identify your character strengths using the VIA-IS on-line tool.

There is another on-line inventory called the Gallup Strengths Finder tool.

In order to access it, you need to buy Tom Rath's book first; with the book you get a password which enables you to access the tool on-line. As with the VIA-IS questionnaire, you get a report of your Top 5 Strengths. There is guidance in the book as to how to interpret the results and apply them.

And as we mentioned before, please use the results as a starting point for a discussion about your signature strengths, and how you might apply them day-to-day. You can also use them as the basis for creating an alternative Personal Development Plan, one which builds on the aptitudes you already have and which you enjoy using.

As always, we'd love to hear how you get on.

Bristol Happiness Lecture

2007-05-21T10:15:00.000Z

Practical, research-based (and free) suggestions for improving your happiness and well-being.

On Saturday I went to the 2nd Bristol Happiness Lecture, presented by Dr Chris Johnstone and my UEL Positive Psychology course leader, Dr Ilona Boniwell .

Both presented lots of practical tips on how to apply Positive Psychology in the real world, supported by research on everything from Broaden and Build Theory of positive emotions to Self-Determination Theory.

Here's a small selection:

1) In any personal relationship the ratio of positives to negatives needs to be at least 5:1 (and not more than 11:1) for the relationship to really flourish. So, for example, make sure you say five positive things to your partner for every one criticism; if you do criticise, focus on the behaviour not the person.

2) A limited choice is better than no choice at all, or many choices. Choice enables autonomy, which is essential for motivation. This works very well in motivating small children to do things they don't otherwise want to do. So, for example, ask them if they want to do their maths homework first or their science homework - they'll be more motivated given a choice.

3) The things you focus on, good or bad, tend to increase in significance. Think of it in terms of rowing a boat across a lake; rather than focus on trying to avoid the rocks which get in the way, focus instead on what you can do to raise the water level.

4) Be aware of learned helplessness (Seligman); i.e. thinking 'Nothing I do matters' or 'I was helpless yesterday and regardless of new circumstances, I will be helpless again today'. This feeling can be very prevalent in organisations whose cultures do not allow staff to make a difference. It requires more management effort to re-engage people once you've lost them, than to manage them effectively from the start.

5) Negative feelings are not always bad, and not something to be avoided at all costs. They can enable you to respond to a situation in ways that lead to a turnaround. Boredom, for example, can prompt a child to seek out new and interesting experiences, and helps promote self-motivation. The key thing is to be aware of the negative emotion, and to ask yourself what it's there for.