Maybe I’ll move to Costa Rica!
Though I have to admit that the move to Boston, MA, area was unsettling enough! I really thought I had given myself enough time to unpack and get back into working mode, but clearly I needed more time. I have, however, been accumulating a wealth of webpages, blogposts and videos that I want to review, digest and write about. Some of these, as I process them, will be a couple of months old but hey, better late than never!
One of the funnest websites I know (and remember, I’m a life-long learner) is TED.com. If you don’t already know TED, it’s a non-profit organization that is dedicated to sharing ideas in many different domains. It has spread from a small exclusive conference to a global phenomenon, with smaller TEDx conferences held in many different cities around the world. The videos are all worth watching – I haven’t seen a bad one yet. Be careful - you could lose hours, maybe days, of your online life browsing their website. One video takes you to another – not to mention the speaker bios and discussions.
I am a “fan” of the TED page on Facebook which sends a new video to my NewsFeed daily. I don’t get the time to watch all of the talks, but when this one came through from Nic Marks, talking about a “Happy Planet Index“, I couldn’t resist.
This TED talk makes me want to move to Costa Rica – the world’s happiest country, as well as one that’s doing it sustainably. Truly impressive.
Nic Marks starts out his discourse by talking about what we measure – what’s really in the GDP / GNP. And how fear is used to try to motivate change. The problem, he notes, is that fear is biologically linked to the flight instinct – so by promoting fear (if we don’t change our habits, the world will be destroyed), we are actually inadvertently encouraging people to run away from the problem. He cites Robert Kennedy’s observation that “The Gross National Product measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile.”
For some odd reason, this reminds me of “movies with Marty” during my MAPP (Master of Applied Positive Psychology) courses last year. On some class weekends, Dr. Martin Seligman would bring in one of his favourite positive psychology movies. One weekend, it was Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Marty explained to us that there are two philosophies in alien movies: hostile aliens (e.g. Alien) and friendly aliens (e.g. ET). Close Encounters was one of the first movies in the friendly alien theme. The environmental movement, to this point, seems to have been based on the hostile alien theory – that fear is a motivator. In this TED talk, Nic Marks ponders – what if we went to a carrot / happiness / friendly alien philosophy instead?
Everyone wants happiness as an ultimate life goal: parents want it for their children, individuals want it for themselves, politicians want it for their constituents, and so on. Yet, we don’t measure it effectively. And where it is measured (several countries are experimenting with similar happiness or well-being indices), it isn’t broadcast – there is no collective goal that is sent out over the media waves for everyone to work towards. Marks points out that on any given day, we know what the stock indexes and money markets are doing, yet we have no idea how national happiness is faring.
In my work, helping to creating and sustain positive organizations, I was especially taken by the fact that Marks points out that employee well-being is linked to employee creativity and innovation (and in future blogs, I will be sharing more data and research into the benefits of “happy” employees). Plus Marks also shares 5 positive actions to increase happiness in your life. I won’t say here what they are – this is my teaser to encourage you to watch the video - but I will say that they have all been substantiated by positive psychology research.
Happiness does not cost the Earth. I’m definitely inspired by this talk. And very interested to hear what you have to say about it. Please comment below on the LVS Consulting website!
Canadian Index of Well-Being
Ironically, time has been crunched for me in the past few weeks with the completion of my MAPP (Master of Applied Positive Psychology) Capstone project. This is the final deliverable for my coursework, and has been the focus of my attention for much of the past three months. This attention shift will likely continue through the rest of the summer, for various reasons, and so I will return in the Fall with regular updates and thinking.
In the meantime, I’d like to highlight some of the great newsletters and blogs that others are creating. There are many great writers, researchers and practitioners out there, working to help create positive organizations, positive individuals and a more positive world. As an interesting or inspirational newsletter crosses my inbox, I’ll share it. If you have a submission that you’d like me to read, please send it along. I’m happy to review!
(As I write this, I’m aware that many of my positive psychology colleagues have amazing websites and blogs – I hope to get to all of them! Please let me know if I don’t – it’s not through deliberate oversight that I might miss you…)
Today, I want to share a great newsletter from Dr. Val Kinjerski. I’ve been holding onto this in my inbox for a while. Val discusses the Canadian Index of Well-Being. Did you even know that there was one? CIW measures things that make life worth living – very much along the lines of positive psychology. As explained by Roy Romanow, the Chair of the CIW Advisory Board:
The CIW Network is at the forefront of a global movement. Around the world, a consensus is growing about the need for a more holistic and transparent way to measure societal progress – one that accounts for more than just economic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product and takes into account the full range of social, health, environmental and economic concerns of citizens.
I find it very interesting that the CIW is forming a partnership with the University of Waterloo, where our new Governor General, David Johnston, was President and Vice-Chancellor. Does this mean that an index of well-being could be more prominent in Canada’s future?
But back to Val’s post. She has highlighted some of the interesting findings from the CIW’s report (released June 15, 2010) and posed some relevant questions for her readers. I highly encourage you to consider her inquiries.
Positive annual performance reviews
In my MAPP (Master of Applied Positive Psychology) program at the University of Pennsylvania, we took a course on Positive Psychology and Organizations. The course was largely focused around Appreciative Inquiry, which I use in my consulting practice, but there is so much more to a positive organization.
In my mind, a positive organization should encompass some, if not all, of the following characteristics: positive strategic vision, positive corporate mandate, positive work processes, positive leadership / management, positive teams, positive physical work environment (also sometimes referred to as physical health and safety, but I suggest that a “positive physical work environment” goes much, much further), and positive performance reviews.
Tara Parker-Pope, in a recent New York Times blog, cited authors and researchers who are petitioning to trash the annual performance review.
Thanks to Readers' Digest for this Banana Performance Review comic!
This argument has some merit to it: performance reviews are stressful for both parties (the manager and the employee), and may be completely meaningless with little or no impact on actual job performance.
I’m not entirely sure if we should completely abandon the annual performance review. Perhaps we should look at what works, and enhance it. Here are my two ideas on it:
1. Enhance the current system. Performance reviews, just like any summative evaluation, should not be a surprise. By the time the final test comes in a course, you should know what you are going to be tested on. Similarly, by the time the annual performance review comes about, you should know what is going to be discussed. So instead of abandoning the annual cycle, how about supplementing it with regular, on-going feedback between the manager and the employee, where both parties get to discuss what’s working, what isn’t working, and how both can work together to increase performance according to agreed-upon metrics? The summative performance review may influence bonus payments, promotional opportunities and so on, but the final outcome should not be a surprise.
In order for #1 to work, all employees and managers would need training on giving AND receiving feedback (because there are learnable skills on both sides of that equation). Training on coaching skills would also be helpful, and managers may benefit from on-going coaching circles, for example, to share best feedback practices amongst themselves.
2. Create a deliberate positive component to the performance review. At my son’s school when he was learning to print, he would print an entire page of capital letter As (for example). He could then circle his best A, and submit that for the teacher to review. This allowed him to do several things: he got to practice without penalty, he could critically appraise his own work, and he would then be assessed on his best performance. What would the work world be like if we all got to do that? Can you imagine a performance review where you get to choose your best projects, and discuss those with your supervisor? We know that we get better when we focus on success, and sports psychology and educational psychology researchers have borne this out with many audiences ranging from basketball players to elementary school children. Is it such a stretch to imagine that employees might also do better by focusing on their successes?
In order for #2 to work, we need to abandon, or at least modify, our current deficit-based thinking. We tend to believe that we can correct errors by analyzing them and fixing the problem. What if we could correct errors by focusing on the successes and creating more enabling environments and opportunities for more success?
What is your experience like with performance reviews? Are you aware of any companies using any positive performance review techniques or processes? And if not, would you like to learn more about the possibilities? Please comment and share your ideas. Thank you.
(And a very big THANK YOU to my MAPP classmate Paula Davis-Laack who posted the link to the NYT blog in a LinkedIn group that we both belong to. I’m truly fortunate to have such a great positive community that is always sharing ideas and support!)
Graduation as a positive intervention
This past weekend was my graduation ceremony from the MAPP (Masters of Applied Positive Psychology) program at the University of Pennsylvania, and marked the first time that my family was able to come to Philadelphia with me and participate in my MAPP journey, meeting MAPP classmates and seeing the university for the first time.
While my class of MAPP grads is “only” 45 people, we were definitely the loudest and most cheerful of all the graduating programs at the ceremony. Even as we prepared to graduate, our class was working together to ensure that we wouldn’t block the view for cameras and each person was applauded enthusiastically as he/she received that paper and handshake.
There is still much work to be done, of course. Each MAPP participant must complete a summer Capstone project, due by the end of July. Only upon successful completion will we finally receive our Masters accreditation. And then there is the work to be done in the rest of our lives, whatever that might look like for each person. Some are working individually towards projects that will be applied in their workplaces, others are preparing the groundwork for future studies and research. Some are already working together in groups to create schools, courses, and other positive interventions.
Personally, though, I am uncharacteristically savouring this past weekend. I am typically an “onto the next thing” person, especially in my work. But this graduation ceremony – being together so positively with my MAPP classmates, faculty, staff and other supporters – was a definite highlight and I’m so glad my family could be part of it. Not to mention that I got to keep my mortarboard hat and tassel! A concrete reminder of a positive intervention and a fond memory.
Happiness in the post-crash era
Enjoying a day full of giving and getting! This morning, I volunteered for the ICF-GTA (International Coaches Federation – Greater Toronto Area) chapter who are staffing a booth at the Partners in Prevention conference. It’s extremely well-attended and the ICF-GTA is raising awareness about coaching with information and free sample coaching sessions. In 90 short minutes, I met with two brand new “clients” – a woman who is bringing coaching into her job and into her organization, and a man who works in industry and owns rental properties and knew nothing about coaching but was up for a new experience! Such great people to meet!
And then in the evening, I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, where I got my MBA. Richard Florida was interviewed about his new book The Great Reset. (Atlantic interview here.) I haven’t read the book, but I got a free copy at the launch and I think the concepts are intriguing – even the more so as it applies to my Masters in Applied Positive Psychology program. Florida and Seligman have, of course, met and talked at length, and I was able to share some further research and online information with Florida and some of his colleagues. I love it when great ideas come together.
