Researched evidence
- Happiness – people are more likely to find work with more autonomy, meaning and variety (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener 2005).44
- Hope – found to support and sustain the capacity of workers to be more resilient and to bounce back in ways that strengthens their effectiveness (Youssef & Luthans, 2007).45
- Self-regulation – found to be associated with positive emotions of interest, excitement and confidence and are more likely to be associated with more productive work performance outcomes (Ryan & Deci, 2000)46
- Social-emotional skills – when people were presented with solutions they could actually implement themselves, problem-solving on subsequent unrelated tasks increased by 20%. Reminding the brain that there is a path forward allows you to import that empowered mindset to other challenges. Also reported in feeling better: 19% less agitated, 23% less uptight (Gielan, 2016).47
Positive psychology interventions
The workplace and teamwork should be exciting, motivating and energizing.
Appreciative Inquiry: Appreciate Inquiry (AI) provide leaders and change agents with a powerful new approach to achieving this kind of organizational excellence.
Developed by David Cooperrider in the 1980’s, AI is a collaborative search to identify and understand an organization’s strengths, its potentials, its greatest opportunities and people’s hopes for the future.
AI is different than problem solving. AI’s four steps include:
- Appreciate and value the best of what is
- Envision what might be
- Dialogue about what should be
- Innovate and create what will be
The language we use creates our reality (Hammond, 1998).48
Character strengths and virtues – the backbone of positive psychology
A growing body of evidence is finding that developing our strengths—doing what we do best each day—leaves us feeling up to six times more engaged in our work, helping to boost our confidence, lower stress and find more meaning and satisfaction (Linley, Willars & Biswas-Diener, 2010).49
Virtue is about what is good, responsible and uplifting. A sense of virtue informs and shapes our core values. In the workplace leaders make decisions in ways that take into account ethical and moral considerations (Cameron, 2003).50
