International Positive Education Network (IPEN)

PBDC is thrilled to announce a new global organization, the International  Positive Education Network (IPEN). IPEN has launched to campaign for a shift in how young people are educated. The aim of IPEN is ” to bring together teachers, parents, academics, students, schools, colleges, universities, charities, companies and governments to promote positive education.”  Click here to learn more about the International Positive Education Network. IPEN is calling on like-minded individuals and organizations to sign their Manifesto for Positive Education. Click here to join the movement.

Call For Proposals – IPPA World Congress 2015

The International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) is seeking proposals for presentations at the Fourth World Congress on Positive Psychology, which will be held June 25 – 28, 2015 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Historically, the World Congress has been the largest gathering of positive psychology researchers, practitioners and students, offering an unparalleled opportunity to share your work with colleagues from around the globe! IPPA is seeking proposals for presentations and posters that will introduce research, ideas, applications, and insights to our field. The submission deadline is January 15, 2015. For submission guidelines and other details visit: http://www.ippanetwork.org/wcpp2015/cfp

The Power of Positive Feedback

In a fascinating research study, Dr Daniel Kirschenbaum from the University of Wisconsin took a group of bowlers and asked them to review their performance after each bowling session.  He divided the group into two groups.     Group 1 reviewed only what they did well and were asked to remind themselves to engage more of the proper behavior.     Group 2 was asked to review their performance and indicate what they had done poorly and remind themselves to avoid making the same mistakes in the following rounds.       Which group of bowlers do you think improved their bowling performance? It probably won’t surprise you that the people shown the “positive” video feedback performed better. But you might be surprised by how much better they did! Amazingly, the bowlers who focused on what they did well showed…

Increase Your Leadership Skills by Becoming More Emotionally and Socially Literate

GUEST BLOG: By Drs. Todd B. Kashdan and Robert Biswas-Diener In January 2010, we phoned each other after watching a PBS documentary called This Emotional Life. There was one scene where a middle-aged husband was recently fired from his job and on top of this, could barely sleep and rarely connected with his wife because of their difficulties parenting a newborn child. What does psychology have to offer to help a person dealing with so many stressors at one time? In this PBS special, a positive psychology coach taught him to keep a journal so that he could record three bits of daily appreciation. Telling someone who is experiencing hardship to be grateful may or may not be the wisest approach. There is certainly research evidence suggesting that daily gratitude can boost happiness but reframing misfortune as opportunity can also come across as invalidating and Pollyanna-ish. Isn’t there more research that could potentially have informed this particular case? We…

The Paradox of Choice

Rational-choice theory attempts to explain human choice by assuming we are rational choosers, have well ordered preferences, and have information on costs and benefits. It also assumes we compare options on the basis of preference, value or utility. Additionally, the theory says that rational choosers should always be able to express their preferences. A rational decision maker, therefore, will look at all the options, choose the one that brings the most utility, and understand why the choice was made. But in economic theory, there hasn’t been enough study understanding from where our preferences come. Preferences are complicated because it includes human biases as well as culture. Barry Schwarz explores this shortcoming as well as gives us evidence-based advice on how we can make wiser decisions in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. He lays out a compelling case for becoming a Satisfier (one who makes a decision when their criteria is met) over a…

Setting Boundaries Webinar by Mark Sachs

Did you miss Successfully Setting Boundaries by Mark Sachs? No worries!  We have you covered.  Check out our recording below. Mark give some very specific and usable advice including – Why it might be difficult for you to set a boundary – What you need to tell yourself that can help you set a boundary – The essential steps to being successful in setting them Mark Sachs, an executive coach for over 15 years, works with many leaders in the DC area. Past clients include NASA, National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and dozens of others. He has presented similar boundaries workshops in many organizations, where he gives real-life examples of boundary setting.

Book: The Power of Being Unreasonable, Pt. 1

George Bernard Shaw once said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man”.  With this quote the authors of The Power of Being Unreasonable bring us into the world of social entrepreneurship and the men and women who state that this profession chooses them.  It is their calling.  In reading their stories, it becomes clear that in order to be great leaders these entrepreneurs must develop or express almost all of the strengths and virtues listed in Peterson and Seligman’s seminal work in order to be successful in a very risky field.  Some researchers define virtue as “any psychological process that enables a person to think and act so as to benefit both him – or herself and society” and…

Workplace Positivity? What’s the Right Amount? And Why?

Did you know the right amount of positive emotion can lead to more innovation, less absenteeism and better problem solving? Early research regarding negative emotion has been generally agreed upon – negative emotion alerts us to danger, problems and focuses attention on self-preservation and problem solving. However, understanding the reasoning for positive emotion has been less clear, even dismissed, until recently. Martin E.P. Seligman, Barbara Fredrickson, and Christopher Peterson, for example, have shown biological reasons for positive emotions and how they relate to human survival and well-being. In my experience as a leader, I have witnessed the results of positive emotion and its effect on wellbeing in the workplace. Positive emotion affects our workforce is the most basic way – our health.  Research studies conducted by Ellen Langer and Alia Crum showed that simple changes in mindset can have dynamic and self-fulfilling effects on health. And this can be seen even at the cellular level. Steven Cole and Barbara Fredrickson’s joint…

Hacking Creativity by Jessica Amortegui

 Join our Hacking Creativity Webinar on September 24 at noon EST.  Register here. I believe everyone has the potential to be creative when given the time, freedom, and autonomy. And, combined witha subtle dose of inspiration,  that creativity may turn into full-blown innovation. In business, creativity used to be reserved for the designers, marketers, and artistic talent that represented the antidote to buttoned-up organizational cultures. In today’s  increasingly ubiquitous “VUCA” environments, where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity have seeped across industry verticals, creativity is no longer reserved solely for the hip folk clad in skinny jeans.  The ability to innovate across the corporate value chain – from strategy formulation to go-to-market execution – is a pre-requisite for market competitiveness. Those who do it best relish an ascent up the corporate ladder with increased reputational capital: they are the leadership game-changers. Armed with this insight, a group of six students from…

The Benefit of a Really Big Rock

Have you ever been asked to do something at work that was so far beyond your abilities that you felt like Sisyphus pushing that rock up a mountain?  But you think that this time it’s different?  If I just analyze how the rock goes up the mountain, if I lift weights, if I push REALLY hard – I’ll be the one to make it up there? Well, a few years ago I was asked to facilitate a full day session on Negotiation Skills.  So I said yes.  And then I panicked.  I know nothing about negotiation skills.  I have never really negotiated for anything.  I lived in New York City so I didn’t own a car.  My broker took care of our apartment.  And in discussions with my husband, I usually win! I was terrified of facilitating something I really…

Just Say Yes: Happiness in individuals, dyads, and groups

            Where does happiness reside?  Happiness resides in groups, dyads and individuals.  In fact, I believe that we cannot be completely happy if we are unhappy in any one of these relationships.  Someone who has many friends and is the ‘life of the party’ but drinks themselves into a stupor when they go home cannot be truly happy.  Likewise, an introvert who is content to sit alone and read for hours but despises being with other human beings cannot be truly happy.  Why?  We all spend a part of our lives alone and with others.  We must find balance.  Happiness can be found everywhere, if you cultivate it. Get Happy in Groups As Csikszentmihalyi points out, the phrase “being alive” in Latin literally means “to be among men” (1990, p. 165).  Human beings are happier…

Nonverbal communication – Fact or fiction?

93%.  Any corporate communications trainer worth their salt knows (and tells their clients at the beginning of a session) that 93% of what people convey to others are non-verbal.  Participants usually audibly gasp when they learn that only 7% of what they convey is through content, 38% tone of voice, and 55% gestures and body language.  This statistic even appears in a recent article on About.com.  After returning to the original study, Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal Communication in Two Channels (Mehrabian and Ferris, 1967), I found that the reporting of these statistics is inaccurate and broadly over generalized. In the article, the author, Susan Heathfield, wrote:  “One study at UCLA indicated that up to 93 percent of communication effectiveness is determined by nonverbal cues. Another study indicated that the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the…

Does Corporate Training Have a Lasting Impact?

A Look at Well-Being Measures to Evaluate As a corporate communications trainer I work with many people on a short term basis.  Over a two day session I can see an enormous impact on their personal and professional growth.  Invariably I am always asked, “Does this training really work?”  Aside from the pile of positive evaluations I have received I do not have a scientific answer for them.  Implementing well-being measures can bring scientific rigor to my field and can fine tune the work we do to serve the client in the most effective way possible. I. Corporate Training The company we work with has a policy requiring their high performing women, after a selection process, to take part in our training.  It is this training program that I will be evaluating.  We work with high performing women in cohorts…

Cognitive Bias: Mere-Exposure Effect

Part 7 of our “Cognitive Bias and Leadership” Series – See more here. On our January 16, 2013 blog, I gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to judgments that are faulty.  So much of positive leadership is about good decision making so we really wanted to expand on different biases. In the 7th of our series, I am going to talk about the Mere-Exposure Effect – the tendency to prefer things because we are familiar with them.  What this means is that if you have been exposed to something prior, you will tend to favor it over something to which you have never been exposed…this could be a person, a product, a place, an event – you name it.  In fact, if you have ever been to a concert, I am sure you saw this phenomenon in action.…

Leaders who Thrive by Martin Best

by Martin Best, The Corporate Theatre See Webinar Recording from Martin Best’ recent PBDC presentation Technology has transformed old structures into a lattice of interactions that is as vibrant as a Kandinsky painting. The industrial and service ages have passed, and we’re now in a creative age where more and more of us are accountable for leading. Three essentials will help leaders thrive in this ‘new now.’ First, Authenticity: we must know our real selves. We are authentic when we are true to our purposes, beliefs and values. When we demonstrate them in actions and words, great changes can happen. In 1608 Galileo told the truth about the universe. Authority punished him for it, but he made it possible for Newton to shift our understanding from myth to mechanics. A new economics, and enlightenment, followed. We are their heirs. In 1794, Immanuel Kant wrote that Authenticity is maturity: leaders drive change when they have courage to use…

WinCo Challenges Walmart with Profits and Employee Programs

Positive Business DC loves to hear about great companies treating their employees well and increasing engagement.  Recently, Just Thought You Should Know recently wrote about WinCo. The flier is below, but you can check it out here. In Time’s recent article, they called WinCo ‘Walmart’s Worst Nightmare’ – their prices are lower than Walmart’s, yet they have better pay, and benefits.  Way to #workwell, WinCo!

entheos Interview: What Appreciative Inquiry Has Taught Me

An Interview with Shannon Polly, MAPP and Kathryn Britton, editor of Positive Psychology News Daily en*theos International Day of Happiness Virtual Conference Kathryn: Getting back to the personal of this, what’s the most interesting thing that you learned about yourself in the course of doing AI summits? Shannon: Oh that’s a great question. A number of things, I think one of the things I learned is that even though I’ve had all of this training in positive psychology I still too have a negativity bias and I have not been cured of that. I was doing an AI summit leading into strategic plan for an organization recently and the AI summit was great because the positivity principle is built in and really started to design the strategic plan and I started to slip into “well the lease is up in 2017 and what if we lose it” and then I had to jolt myself out of it and…

Positive Presenting: How to Command a Room

Do you know how to manage your energy in order to command a room?  Does the idea of doing a presentation make you want to run and hide?  What does research say about the ability to increase our presence?  I’ve spent almost 20 years of my life thinking about this very topic.  First, I worked as a Yale trained actor and producer in New York City and then as a leadership development consultant and coach.  What I have noticed is that there are a number of myths associated with presence. The first myth is that you either have it or you don’t.  If this were true there wouldn’t be any drama schools, no need for weeks of rehearsals before opening night and nor cottage industry for selling classes to actors.  There are tangible techniques that you can use to control…

entheos Interview: The “Four D” Process of Appreciative Inquiry

An Interview with Shannon Polly, MAPP and Kathryn Britton, editor of Positive Psychology News Daily. en*theos International Day of Happiness Virtual Conference Kathryn: Tell us a little bit more about the process; you said the process is very organized so that makes it kind of keep things on track. So maybe you could lead us through what happened with the Cincinnati Summit. Shannon: Sure. So first you know there is a maybe 25 minutes of what is this principle, what’s the process of Appreciate Inquiry, what are we taking people through just to orient them, you don’t want to have more than about 30 minutes of it because then peoples energy tends to wane. What you want to do is immediately get them into one-on-one interviews. So you have people in tables of eight usually and you have them find a partner and you asked them they have a program guide in front of them and generally they are asking…