This morning a stumbled across statistics that show the challenges with engagement, creativity, and well-being begin in the classroom rather than the boardroom. So, while Positive Business DC’s mission is to research to use science-backed research to improve your company, your culture, and your bottom line, let’s take a moment to see how we can improve the level of well-being with our kids. According to The Future Project,
I failed miserably last week. I attended MAVA’s Capital Connection (CapCon) seeking to assess how successful I thought presenting founders and their companies would be long-term based on a single factor: Empathy displayed when they interacted with the event’s attendees. Imagine my surprise when only one CEO manned his company’s booth throughout the two-days presenting founders had to show off to venture capitalists, service providers, journalists (aka me), and others who may be interested in their companies. Kudos go to Gary Tyermann, CEO of Univa Corporation. You stood out. Your counterparts blended in with the crowd. Talk about missed opportunity. You know want I found, Gary? I think you actually fit the bill regarding empathy. I’m going to say you also exhibited stick-to-itiveness and a sense for what’s really important… connecting with others when you get the chance. We’ll call… …
Kat Koppett Thank you to everyone who attended Improv for Business, our very first Positive Business DC Webinar! We had a great turnout so be sure to join our Meetup so you don’t miss any announcements. If you missed it, our guest speaker was Kat Koppett, founder of Koppett & Company and author. Kat and Shannon Polly had a riveting discussion about the principals of Improv and how applying to business can be transformative. If you missed it, you can check out this Modern DC Business article and also the recording of the webinar itself. If you did not get enough, and I know we didn’t, Kat has graciously offered to do an online “on-the-fly” sample instruction. So, if you want to participate, just post a message here on our Facebook page. Here is the question to answer: ”What’s a part of your business you want to improv? Finally, we… …
While environment can assist in creating a positive intervention, it must begin on the level of self with belief, attention, (volition) and effort. In our first reading, Baumeister, Gailliot, DeWall and Oaten (2006) discuss two major points about self-regulation. First, that self-regulation is a limited resource and like a muscle it can be depleted and it can be strengthened as well. And second, while everyone has a capacity for self-regulation and an ability to increase that capacity, there are individual differences. In regards to the first point, ego depletion was not caused by fatigue in their studies and, surprisingly, it wans’t caused by diminished self-efficacy. Positive feedback did not reduce the effect of ego depletion. Self-regulation can be improved by habit formation, increasing knowledge and understanding, increasing liking from familiarity and automatization. The ‘bulking up’ of the muscle did not… …
What Do Strengths Have To Do With It? After thirty years of research the Gallup organization has discovered that “individuals gain more when they build on their talents, than when they make comparable efforts to improve their areas of weakness” (Clifton and Harter, p. 112, 2003). Building on that statement, Clifton and Harter define a strength as refining a talent with skill and knowledge (p. 111, 2003). In recent years, there has been a groundswell of support in the business community for a strengths-based approach. But now the question is how to measure and capitalize on those strengths? If given with certain caveats, assessments like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the StrengthsFinder 2.0 and the Value in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) provide pertinent information for assessing aspects of character depending on the desired outcomes. Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers… …
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. (Niebuhr, 1987, p. 251) The Serenity Prayer is the common name for an originally untitled prayer, most commonly attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. This prayer has been adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs. There are three strengths mentioned in this prayer, two of which qualify as virtues as well. The VIA-IS Classification of Strengths acknowledges courage as a virtue with its subsequent strengths of bravery, persistence, honesty and zest. It also delineates wisdom and knowledge as a virtue with the subset of strengths that include: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning and wisdom or perspective. It would follow, then, that serenity (or tranquility/peacefulness) would qualify as the twenty-fifth strength.… …
Kindness is a top strength of mine and I enjoy doing things for others. In fact I would say I need to do kind things for others to keep from being unhappy. Because I frequently adapt to doing things for others, I have a tendency to do more things and give more frequent gifts in order to keep my ‘kindness’ identity consistent. This makes me wonder: can you bolster a strength that is already ranked 2nd of 24? Is it easier to increase a strength that you already have rather than a lesser strength or weakness? Will it make you appreciably happier to work on something that is already a strength? I was sure before beginning this experiment that I knew the answers to these questions. I found my answers changing and becoming more nuanced as the exercise drew to… …
How do we live a life of well-being? Through pleasure seeking? According to Aristotle, we live a life of well-being through eudaimonic life. Indeed, putting more focus on the process of living well (eudaimonic approach) over the outcomes of happiness (hedonic approach) is associated with increased well-being. An eudaimonic lifestyle is marked by investment of energy on values and goals that are intrinsic to the individual (done for the interest and enjoyment that the activity provides) to that individual (Ryan, Huta, & Deci, 2008). Furthermore, individuals who have intrinsic goals are more likely to persevere in accomplishing them, thus enjoying greater well-being. Intrinsic activities are autonomous by, 2008). Furthermore, extrinsic motivation can actually weaken intrinsic motivation because it fosters the perception that the cause of the behavior is external to that individual (Brown & Ryan, 2004). The relative autonomy of goals is not only predictive of performance but well-being in general (Ryan etal, 2008). Those with intrinsic goals, 2008). Perseverance and passion for long-term goals, coined grit by Angela Duckworth, is predictive of… …
In articles containing psychological research, one frequently comes across the notion of efficacy. Researchers conduct laboratory studies in order to demonstrate how much a certain treatment (i.e. a drug or psychotherapy) works. While testing for efficacy in this way can be beneficial, Martin Seligman (1995), in The effectiveness of psychotherapy, illustrates how absolute dependence on this kind of research can be flawed. While it is essential to gather research for various kinds of therapeutic treatment, there are drawbacks to ‘efficacy studies’. As defined by Martin Seligman (1995), an efficacy study “contrasts some kind of therapy to a comparison group under well-controlled conditions” (p. 965). The rigorous nature of the efficacy study might make it appear to demonstrate that a specific therapy is effective, but one must be careful about equating laboratory results with what can… …
A successful positive intervention requires a merging of the essential principles of goal theory and hope theory. A positive intervention is an intervention intended to increase well-being in either or both of the following ways: increasing well-being away from zero and/or increasing well-being by cultivating pleasant affect, strengths, and/or meaning (Pawelski, personal communication, September 7, 2008). A positive intervention is, inherently, a goal. Goal theory states that action is caused by an intention (Locke, 1996). Similarly, a positive intervention is action caused by an intention. Essential elements of hope theory are also present in a positive intervention. According to hope theory, hope reflects people’s perceptions of their abilities to conceptualize goals, develop strategies (pathways thinking) and initiate and sustain motivation (agency thinking). (Lopez, S. J., Snyder, C. R., Magyar-Moe, J. L., Edwards, L., Pedrotti, J. T. Janowski, et al., 2004,… …
“I must admit that when I began my investigation, I, in common with most people, conceived of ‘body’ and ‘mind’ as separate parts of the same organism, and consequently believed that human ills, difficulties and shortcomings could be classified as either ‘mental’ or ‘physical’ and dealt with on specifically ‘mental’ or specifically ‘physical’ lines. My practical experiences, however, led me to abandon this point of view and readers of my books will be aware the technique described in them is based on the opposite conception, namely, that it is impossible to separate ‘mental’ and ‘physical’ processes in any form of human activity.” F.M. Alexander For F.M. Alexander there was no separating the body from the mind, just as there is no separating the body from the mind in positive interventions. Our readings support this view. Shusterman (2006) argues… …
Don’t listen to the critics. Sheryl Sandberg’s book is well-researched and very compelling. I won’t go into debateing the details of the book because I’ve discovered that most people have already formed their own opinions – whether or not they have read the book. And, as one blog has argued, that this proves Sheryl Sandberg’s point assertion that we hold women up to a higher standard than men and we tear them down when instead we should be celebrateing their accomplishments. (Not sure why opening graph is underlined.) Her Sandberg’s goal, as I read it, was to raise awareness. And Considering the number of talk shows she landed on, she Sandberg has definitely restarted reignited the conversation. But now we need to shift the discussion the to ‘how,’ a topic of the book that she doesn’t get to. She Sandberg… …