MAPP term 2
Celebrating having a few minutes to get back to this blog! Rather than lamenting the time that has passed and the busy-ness that has taken me away from it… I’m going for the positive approach! I find that I spend more time on Twitter (@LVSConsulting) and I enjoy posting snippits of articles that I’m reading, along with the bit.ly link. I’m able to get quite a few click-throughs that way, and I enjoy spreading the work that’s being done in Positive Psychology.
However, my mind right now is on two things: 1. an assignment I will be writing about character strengths in The Wizard of Oz (1939, starring Judy Garland) and 2. all the new books I have for this term on my new bookshelf.
Let me start with #2.
For the Spring MAPP term (for some reason, the University of Pennsylvania optimistically calls the Jan-April term “spring” term, even though it’s predominantly in winter, but perhaps that’s why I’m studying positive psychology there, and not at a “winter term” university?), I had to order quite a few new books – I have probably spent around $300, and that figure is lower than expected because I already owned some of the books. I’m also probably forgetting an online order or two…
Some of the books that I’m looking forward to:
Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2008). Strengths-based leadership. Gallup Press: New York. (ISBN: 978-1595620255) – This aligns very nicely with a course that I’m now teaching to third year college / university students on Organizational Leadership. The course is Wednesday nights for 3 hours at a stretch, and it turns out that while almost all of my students know their weaknesses, almost none of them know their strengths. This week, they are taking the StrengthsFinder assessment and this week’s course will make use of what they’ve discovered. Stay tuned….
Prilleltensky, I. & Prilleltensky, O. (2006). Promoting Well-Being: Linking Personal, Organizational and Community Change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (ISBN: 978-0471719267) – I haven’t had the time to really get into this tome yet, but the title is inspirational. Especially when one considered the newly-emerging theories of social contagion. Well, there’s a lot of potential here!
Reivich, K. & Shatte, A. (2002). The Resilience Factor: 7 Essential Skills for Overcoming Life’s Inevitable Obstacles. New York: Broadway Books (ISBN: 978-0767911900) – Dr. Karen Reivich is one of our professors this term, and she’s also leading the US Army resilience training program. A highly impressive individual, as well as a ground-breaking movement into resilience research and application. I do hope to become certified in the Penn Resiliency Program after my MAPP work is done. Great implications for children, families, parents, and, of course, in organizational life with leaders and employees.
Cooperrider, D. & Whitney, D. (2007). Appreciative Inquiry Handbook, 2nd Edition. Crown Custom Publishing. (ISBN: 978-1933403199) – As I’ve already mentioned, David Cooperrider came to lecture in our first MAPP class and it was amazing. I have some familiarity with Appreciative Inquiry, and I’m looking forward to deepening my understanding. This topic is of special interest because my service learning project involved helping to create (and possibly run) an AI Summit for organizational and community change. Completely thrilling and meaningful.
There are also several books that I bought “just because” – usually because a professor or classmate highly recommended it. I figure this puts my entire book-buying total for the MAPP program well over $1000, but it’s been well-spent! Although it might be 2011 before I get to read all of them…
As to #1 above, I’m writing a paper about character strengths as demonstrated in the movie The Wizard of Oz.
We know, for example, that the cowardly lion isn’t really cowardly, and that the TinMan really has a heart, and the Scarecrow is really quite intelligent – but what does this indicate for positive psychology? I’ll leave you to reflect on that yourself, or else here’s a list of PPND articles that might get your grey stuff going. PPND is the Positive Psychology News Daily, and if you’re at all interested in what’s on the cutting edge of Positive Psychology, I highly recommend an email subscription! I read every single one each day.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to ease on down the road (remember The Wiz? with Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow?) and put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and ponder character strengths and the Yellow Brick Road… Hope I don’t fall into the poppies!
quick applications of the 3:1 positivity ratio
One of the things that I do is interpret 360 feedback reports for managers and executives. Frequently, these leaders ask me, “What can I improve on?” There is almost always something, of course, but there is also great use in looking at the positive – what is working that you could do more of?
Barbara Fredrickson, in her book Positivity, talks about the 3:1 positive:negative ratio that is needed for positive growth – and that is a minimum ratio. The science works something like this: since negative emotions and experiences seem to have greater durability and impact than positive emotions and experiences, which are, by nature, fleeting, you should have three positive experiences to counteract every one negative experience.
So let’s bring this into the world of 360 feedback, where you, as the leader, get feedback from your peers, your direct reports and your supervisor.
For every one weakness that you want to work on, what are three strengths that you bring to light?
For every one complaint that you bring to your supervisor, what are three positives that you can share?
For every one thing that you criticize in an employee, what are three things you can praise?
Think about your interpersonal work interactions in terms of the 3:1 positivity ratio, and see how things can change around you. You don’t need to “give up” the negatives – if venting to your boss is a safe and healthy thing to do, keep doing it! But for every 15 minutes that you vent, find another 45 minutes to share the good things with your boss as well.
Simply being aware of this ratio, and how you are creating it in your workplace, may be your best strategy. I would be willing to bet that it makes for better work relationships, and the “scores” on your developmental 360s will reflect this shift too.
Joar Vittersø – Positive Psychology is about flourishing, but what is flourishing about?
Joar Vittersø, from the University of Tromsø in Norway, presented on “flourishing” and deconstructing the notion of flourishing with some serious data and research. Personally, I am finding it intriguing to be part of a profession that takes no word for granted! I will have to bear this in mind through my own research and writing – carefully define each term! But I digress…
JV talked about how not everyone who ranks life satisfaction as, say, a 7/10 is equal – there are discrete components that, overall, may happen to make a person feel that his or her life satisfaction is at 7/10 at that time – so what is that about? He posits that “flourishing” is both about feeling well AND functioning well – and that most of us never function at our true potential (and that we don’t really know what the human potential can be anyhow…)
Overall, JV suggested that there needs to be separate scales to measure satisfaction (aka accomplishment) and personal growth (aka striving).
As I read through my notes about this talk, some three or so weeks later, I remember that this was a difficult talk for me to follow, and I wrote down a lot of information without really taking it in. It was easily the most academic talk that I attended in the entire conference, and I am not (yet) a positive psychologist academic. So there were terms, such as “second order conformity analysis” and “the affect circumplex”, that really meant nothing to me. Sorry.
However, what I really did take away from this talk is that “liking” is different from “wanting” – there appear to be two different, yet geographically close, “pleasure” centres in the brain. Yet they serve different functions that, up until recently, have been confounded. They may run on different neurotransmitters as well. One area is more concerned with pleasure – aka satisfaction (when you have FINISHED the activity) - and the other is more concerned with interest – aka striving or engagement (when you are IN the activity).
What this means is that some level of difficulty is actually required for life satisfaction / engagement / happiness to be high. If life is “too easy”, then we are missing out on the striving – the sense of being fully engaged in a challenging activity, that is neither too easy nor too frustratingly difficult. This has huge implications for my coaching work, and my leadership development work. How do organizational leaders, for example, set appropriately-challenging tasks and activities for their employees such as to heighten engagement? How does an individual strive to accomplish a certain task, and take pleasure out of the striving as much as the accomplishment?
So I don’t really know about the data or the biology, but the real-life potential here is truly incredible. I will continue my striving in the understanding, but already feel somewhat accomplished in what I have learned.
