Positive Psychology — Third Thought

Love at the Office

15th of February ~

I hope my HR readers aren’t worried by today’s topic. I’m not exploring the opportunities for office romance (never a good idea yet still we falter). No, I’m talking about love for our fellow men and women in general. Let’s call it positive intention.

Many years ago as a young Catholic I used to go to early morning mass at a Carmelite Convent. The Carmelites are a cloistered order. They do not interact with the public. Their focus is contemplative prayer. That’s right–all they do is pray.

And I remember thinking, at age 16, “What a waste! Surely they could do more.”

Well, I am older and more widely-read now and I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that holding positive intention for someone helps them. And there is fascinating research that suggests this is so. Come with me now into the world of quantum physics.

You’ve probably heard, “What you focus on becomes your reality.” It is the genius behind Appreciative Inquiry. Thoughts matter. Furthermore, thoughts ARE matter. They are waves (or particles–I forget). They are energy. So, can we imagine that the energy is real and perceived in ways we don’t yet understand? Can we imagine that positive thoughts help and negative thoughts hurt? I can imagine that. It’s still in the realm of ‘New Science’ and the science is catching up to the work of the Carmelite nuns. For some fascinating research I recommend the Intention Experiment where you can become a part of the unusual research.

So what about that ‘love at the office’, Maggie? Here’s my advice:
1) Hold your colleagues in positive regard. It cannot hurt and I believe they will know it on an unrecognized level. As one of my professors once told me, “I always find something to like about each student.” Find the thing to appreciate, send them positive energy and you both benefit.
2) Hold your arch-enemies in positive regard. The more you focus on the negative relationship, the more you may tether yourself to that unhealthy dynamic. “Release them to their higher good“, forgive them, do whatever you need to do to free yourself from the struggle.

Call it whatever you like but strive to have love in every action. I guarantee you will work more smoothly with your colleagues and you will be happier for it.

Nuns photo credit

Happiness Feeds Innovation

31st of January ~

Can we say that The Myth of the Tortured Genius has outlived its day? Wikipedia has an article about Tortured Artists and their stories are well known. “It’s completely a myth,” says Tom Wilbeck, Associate Dean of Student Affairs at The Art Institute of Houston. “Clinically speaking, there’s really no evidence that most accomplished artists are mentally unstable or have come from an unstable background.”

I suppose the Myth of the Happy Genius just isn’t as fascinating.

                                  Photo by mrfitz

Teresa Amabile and her colleagues have good news for all you reasonably content, untortured creative people. Happiness does more for innovation than does melancholy and ennui.

In a 2005 Administrative Quarterly article they describe research performed by tracking electronic diary entries of employees for 5 months. Here’s how they defined Creativity: the production of novel, useful ideas or problem solutions. Amabile describes that “positive feelings–joy, love-are positively related to creativity, and negative emotions-anger, fear, sadness–are negatively related to day-to-day creativity”. Even better, good moods can increase the flow of creativity for up to three days.

Is anyone surprised?

These and more findings are in Amabile’s latest book The Progress Principle which I’ve admired earlier.

You Own Your Own Engagement

12th of May ~

Tomorrow I will give a keynote on “Why We Work”. The heart of the matter is how do we engage ourselves and others?

We know it’s important. The research has repeatedly established the bottom line value of an engaged workforce. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself:

BlessingWhite Employee Engagement Report 2011

Gallup Report

Once you believe that employee engagement is important, the next question is “How do I achieve it?”

The Blessing White research found that higher levels of employee engagement correlated with the following seven behaviors:

And if you’re working with upcoming talent, this newsletter about Working with Millenials might be useful.

Still at the end of the day, we each own our own engagement. Others can help create the context for our success but it is up to each of us to recharge when we feel disengaged. Not easy to do….but a good thing to learn.

What's Your Gratitude Score?

24th of November ~

Certainly, we know that the habitually grateful among us are happier than those who are not. ~Christopher Peterson

Thanksgiving is our annual celebration of gratitude.

To commemorate the day I offer this Gratitude Survey developed by McCullough & Emmons, leading researchers in gratitude and forgiveness.

The Gratitude Survey

Using the scale below as a guide, write a number beside each statement indicating how much you agree with it. Here’s the scale:

1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree

I have so much in life to be grateful for. ____
If I had to list everything I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list. ____
When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for. ____
I am grateful to a wide variety of people. ____
As I get older, I find myself more able to appreciate the people, events, and situations that have been a part of my life history. ____
Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to something or someone. ____

Scoring instructions are in the small print below. Whatever your score, here are two exercises for practicing gratitude from A Primer in Positive Psychology, by Dr. Chris Peterson.

The Gratitude Letter

Think of all the people who have been especially kind or helpful to you. Write a letter to one of them. Describe in specific ways why you are grateful. If possible deliver it personally. If not, send it and follow up with a phone call. Dr. Peterson notes that “these letters work 100% of the time in the sense that the recipient is moved, often to tears, and the sender is gratified as well”.

Three Good Things

At the end of the day write down three good things that went well. The things can be major or small. This habit can increase your happiness and decrease symptoms of depression.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. May you be surrounded with many things for which you are grateful. May you be grateful for the many things that surround you.

Scoring Instructions

Add up scores for items 1, 2, 4, and 5
Reverse your scores for items 3 and 6. That is, if you scored a “7″, give yourself a “1″, if you scored “6″, give yourself a “2″.
Add the reversed scores to the total from Step 1. This is your total GQ-6 score, which should be in the range of 6 – 42.

Interpreting Your Score.

These are categories based on a sample of 1224 adults. Women tend to score slightly higher than men. Older people tend to score higher than younger people.

35 or less, lowest 25%
36-38, bottom half
39-41, you are in the top 25%
42, top one-eighth

Why I Have Confidence in the Future

28th of September ~

Two years we bought an historic Victorian house. Crazy? Absolutely. The love we have poured into this place (we’re talking lots of time and money) has been much more than we anticipated would be needed. Why do it? Because we have a vision for doing good things with this beautiful place.

Last week we hosted a fundraiser for a foundation that funds scholarships for young adults. When we said “yes” to the group I had no idea how inspiring it would be for me.

The marvelous Board at Carpe Diem suggested a work party to help get the yard ready for the event. I identified two big jobs: spray painting the lawn furniture and planting more flowers. The day of the work party almost 20 young people came to work. And did they work!

Half the group began painting all the old lawn furniture with black spray paint. At one point I was concerned that the EPA might visit us…we had a bit of a noxious cloud floating over the yard. Sorry everyone!

The other half of the group got busy planting.

As it happened, one young woman had a degree in Horticulture and another young man had worked at a native plants nursery.

Within 5 minutes the plants were placed and each member of the crew was working in the dirt.

Each was positive, confident, generous, collaborative and effective. There was nothing left for me to do except admire and get the champagne iced.

After spending the afternoon with these beautiful young people I have more confidence than ever for the future. The work crew was comprised of the co-leaders of groups of 18-year-old students that are traveling the globe. Each of them is somewhere far away now. I can easily imagine them as goodwill ambassadors, influencing the young people under their guidance and charming the people they meet in their host countries.

Godspeed to all of you! It was a genuine pleasure.

(Oh–and the actual fundraiser was held last week and was an excellent success!)

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