Positive psychology - Webstock and Beyond

By Tristan - on Thu Mar 1 2012 - 1 comment - share this article facebooktwitteremail+1

Why am I writing about this topic you may ask?

Well, I want to share my journey on the topic of positive psychology.  It started after I watched an amazing TED talk by Shawn Achor on 'The happy secret to better work'.  Then over the past month, there have been a series of sychronous events that have occurred in my life, that all point towards the development of a positive and happy mind.

If you don't read the rest of my blog, do yourself a favour. Watch and listen to Shawn he is mind altering!

Why is this important to you the reader? As an employer it will offer insights on how you can raise productivity in your team significantly without the lash.  As a worker it will enable you to produce great results, feel satisfied and happy.  And as an individual it will give you a new sustained happiness and a different perspective on the world.

According to Shawn, 90% of your happiness is about how your brain processes the world.  However, the external world should be not predictive of your happiness. If we can change the formula in which we derive our happiness we can then affect our reality and experience of it.

Furthermore only 25% of job successes are determined by IQ. The remaining 75% are determined by your optimism levels, your social support, and your ability to see stress as a challenge.

The traditional formula for happiness has been:

Better Work = More Successful = Happiness

This ultimately leads to constantly shifting goal posts - we have momentary happy moments and then change our goals again. Happiness is then pushed over the cognitive horizon.

It has been proven that if you can reverse this and give the brain a positive advantage you will see increases in IQ / Creativity and Productivity (up to 37% increases measured).

Happiness = Better Work = Success

When you are positive your brain creates dopamine. Being positive and happy has a two-fold effect.  Not only does it make you happier, it activates all of the learning areas in the brain allowing you to adapt to the world in a different way.

Shawn also gives us five simple ways in order to rewire and train our brains into a more positive space. He said that results can be seen after 21 days:

1. 3 New Gratitudes: Find and write down three new things to be greatful for
2. Journaling : Write down one positive experience you had during your day.  This helps your brain relive the scenario
3. Exercise - Teaches your brain that behaviour matters
4. Meditation - Gives your focus and get over cultural ADHD
5. Random Acts of Kindness: Spread the circle of happiness in small and incremental ways

Related to this and were two speakers at the recent Webstock conference, Jenn Lim and Tony Hsieh.

Why should you sit up and take notice? From a business perspective. Tony is a true entrepreneur. He started selling Pizza at university. His next most notable achievement was the co-founder of the advertising network LinkExchange which sold to Microsoft in 1999 for $265 million.^[1] After that he co-founded  Venture Frogs with Albert Lim and invested in a variety of Tech Startups, one of which was  was Zappos.  Originally an online footwear store, Amazon bought Zappos for 1.2bn in 2009, with Tony only selling on the condition that he would remain and that the company culture would not be touched.

Zappos hires all of its employees not just based on their qualification, but on their cultural fit for the company. Tony believes that happy, culturally similar employees create a positive working environment, which has been passed onto its customers through positive experiences.

Tony also believes that companies need to be committed to their core values, not just put them up as a plaque on the wall. Zappos lives and breathes their core values and it shows. All of their customers have come through via word of mouth.

• deliver wow through service
• embrace and drive change
• create fun and a little weirdness
• be adventurous creative, and open minded
• pursue growth and learning
• build open and honest relationships with communication
• be humble
• be passionate and determined
• do more with less
• build a positive team and family spirit

Commit to transparency

• be real and you have nothing to fear
• your culture is your brand
• don't try to be someone you are not

Zappos success story has driven Tony and Jenn to create an initiative to teach other businesses the secret to improving their businesses through positive psychology. His website http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/ can give people the resources to get started.

Tony and Jenn also talked about the primary framework that people need in order to feel happy in their lives:

• perceived control: that you feel in control of your life
• perceived progress: that you are learning and growth
• connectedness: that you have supportive social networks, friends and family
• vision/meaning: that you are being part of something bigger than yourself

During the past month I have been running a little experiment and trying out some of Shawn Achors' techniques.  I believe that things are changing for the positive and I highly recommend giving them a try. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Some links especially for you.

Delivering Happiness

http://www.deliveringhappiness.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/DeliveringHappiness

Shawns TED talk (*must watch)

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

Another great TED talk by Dan Gilbert

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

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