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!
Permission to slack
I have been on vacation for the past two weeks or so. This has meant that my email has piled up, and so has the reading that I’ve wanted to do. Normally I would sit down and plow through it all, but this time, I’m giving myself permission to slack off a bit.
Some might take exception with the phrase “slack off”. In fact, I do too. “Slacking off” has a very negative connotation to it. So let’s rephrase – it’s about savouring and enjoying. Instead of just plowing through my emails and newsletter updates, I’m going to read them slowly, thoughtfully and meaningfully. Joyfully. Intelligently. Savourishiously.
And possibly write about them. There is a theme of articles that I’ve been saving – about positive psychology in the workplace. Look for some blog posts coming soon!
In other news, I’ve been reading Switch by Chip and Dan Heath – really amazing book! A lot of great positive psychology principles embedded with change management and organizational culture. A great bringing-together of many different elements! Highly recommended.
Not just good work
In my continuing series of blogs and websites that I find interesting, inspiring and worth sharing:
Even the name of the blog is highly evocative: Box of Crayons. Doesn’t that just sound like fun? All those different colours, all those different ways of drawing the world, all those different paths to imagination and possibility? I have become a big fan of Michael Bungay Stanier and his quest for Great Work.
I first became aware of Michael (please, may I call you Michael?) when I reviewed his book Find Your Great Work. It is a quirky bit of genius, about the size of a cocktail napkin, filled with solutions to stop the busywork and get on with the “work that matters”. I was so taken with the book that, after I reviewed it, I asked if I could keep the copy and it’s been a staple on my bookshelf ever since (right alongside Daniel Pink and Peter Block, among others…). Michael’s accomplishments and contributions to the discovery and creation of “great work” are too numerous to list here, so I encourage you to head to his blog and see what’s on top. One day, it’s a Carlos Santana video, and another day, it’s an interview with academic and thought leader Roger Martin. His posts are always informative and entertaining, and although he doesn’t reference positive psychology research directly, I can sense it there, lurking in the background, substantiating his insights and connections.
Although I don’t always have the time to listen to Michael’s great interviews, I enjoy his postings enormously. They bring colour and light to each day. Great work abounds!
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!)
2010 starts – and it’s back to the blog
Well I ended up taking quite a bit of a pause from this blog. The last time I wrote was about three weeks ago, and in that time I finished the final assignments of the Fall term of my MAPP (Masters in Applied Positive Psychology) program – which is both good and bad. Good to have assignments done (and my final grades are looking quite good, thank you very much!) and good to have one term done, but bad because it means I only have four months of this amazing experience left!
However, these four months are going to be great and this first class weekend back was a great start with David Cooperrider’s course on Positive Organizations.
If you follow me on Twitter (@LVSConsulting) then today you would have read a series of tweets of David Cooperrider quotes. Here’s a selection of some of my favourites:
All change begins in the imagination.
Simple face to face conversations can change the world.
Changing the envisioned image of the future can change the future.
What a gift it is to be around someone who sees you with an appreciative eye.
The vision of the future of an organization resides in its inner dialogue.
Positive change is in the art of the question. Unconditional positive questions.
when you focus on the good, a new richness of vocabulary emerges.
through an assumption of deficit-based change, we have created the model of organizations as problems to be solved. // but deficit-based change is exhausting, results in more hierarchy, fewer images of possibility, breakdowns in relations.
Why not study what you really want to see created in the organization? // study moments of great engagement instead of moments of low morale.
Human systems move in the direction of their inquiry.
Ask positive questions that SOAR: strengths, opportunities, aspirations, results.
Overall, it was a fabulous day and a half with an amazing man. The way he talks is inspirational, and although he can run Appreciative Inquiry summit with hundreds or thousands of people, he has a dynamically personal touch as he lectured to our class of 45.
The recent holidays were relaxing, and I was happy not to set an alarm for two weeks, but now I’m all positively energized again about my consulting and coaching work – and the positive change that can be created in the organizations around us.
