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.

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.

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

1. I have so much in life to be grateful for.  ____
2. If I had to list everything I felt grateful for, it would be a very long list.  ____
3. When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be grateful for.  ____
4. I am grateful to a wide variety of people.  ____
5. 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.  ____
6. 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.

1. Add up scores for items 1, 2, 4, and 5
2. 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″.
3. 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.

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

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!)

By that I mean, do you spend enough time savoring the goodness in your life?  Are you aware as you experience the pleasures of your life?

I know I don’t spend enough time savoring.  And therefore I am embarking on a small challenge:  I am taking a Daily Savoring Vacation.

The authors of Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience suggest an exercise of taking a Daily Vacation Exercise.

Once a day for a week treat yourself to something pleasurable.  Pay attention to the experience.  Notice.

Here are the guidelines for the Daily Vacation Exercise.  Download it and join me!

And, because I am writing this for creative professionals, I am also thinking about the many blessings I have received as I pursue my work.

If I have see a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. -Sir Isaac Newton

Mentors.  I am so very grateful to the Giants who supported me as a baby consultant and earlier in my entrepreneurial dancing days.  I have been overwhelmed by their generosity and encouragement.  Most of all by their provocative questions that help me sort out my own mind.

I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice.  That’s what I call a liberal education. -Tallulah Bankhead

Education.  Schooling is still a rare privilege in much of the world.  Here we have access to so many avenues for learning.  I have earned two degrees and both opened doors that I could not have anticipated.  Informal learning is also at my fingertips.  For an Extraverted Perceiver (Myers-Briggs personality) it’s deliciously distracting (“Wow!  Look at all these internet resources!”).  More than ever, lifelong learning is attainable.  I hope to learn how to shoot dice this decade.

Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners. -James Stewart

Clients.   I am so grateful for the wonderful clients I have now and the ones I’ve had in the past.   Hiring an organizational development consultant takes a leap of faith (“What is it you do for a living, exactly?”) and I appreciate the risk-taking.  The partnership in design is a delight.  The euphoria when the goals are met sustain me for weeks at a time.  I LOVE working with my clients.

So now I am in my prime.  I am a seasoned consultant and STILL really love my work.   I am grateful to my mentors, for my education and my clients.

At this point in my life, I also get to BE a mentor.

I am in the business of lifelong learning.

And I can benefit from the wisdom and services of other professionals.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Yes, there is science behind the pursuit of happiness.

The 30 Days of Gratitude Project