Freddie Mac has been implementing numerous projects in the area of positive psychology, from lectures by Shawn Achor that are available for internal viewing on their website, to more intimate workshops in resilience and strengths.

I asked Michele Lockwood who is the Director of Talent Development what Freddie Mac interested in applying a specific approach to well-being that comes from research out the social sciences.  “We went to one company for change training and it wasn’t moving the needle.  To act as though change is a one-time thing is inaccurate.  Change training wasn’t as impactful in giving people the skills, the mindset to ride this train.”

Michele Lockwood

Freddie Mac has seen the effectiveness of the positive psychology programs they have implemented through their follow up surveys.  The DRH Group founded by Doug Hensch (formerly of happier.com and founder of www.drh-group.com) has been facilitating a very successful course called Five Secrets of Resilience.  The data on effectiveness is very strong.  92% of attendees agreed or strongly agree that they could use the knowledge and skills presented in the course in their job.  84% agreed or strongly agreed that they would be more effective in their role as a result of what they learned.  And 93% of participants said they would recommend the course to others.

Doug Hensch, M.Ed.

Michele commented on what Freddie Mac thought of the different modalities of training:  “Shawn Achor is not as personal as a resiliency class. Training in person gets deeper and gets to more self-reflection but doesn’t get to as many people.”

They are also working with my organization, Plus Side Strategies (www.plussidestrategies.com), to implement a strengths workshop with their Women’s Cohort.  And what made Freddie Mac attracted to a focus on strengths? Lockwood replied:  “There is so much emphasis on what we do wrong, from media or audits or congress hearings, there is so much emphasis around what’s broken, we felt like people were losing sight of the positive and how much value they are bringing to their job and to the organization.  With the women’s cohort the object is not to fix them because they are broken, but to enable already high performing women. We need to keep looking forward and a focus on strengths helps you do that.”

The most notable comment came with a discussion of the expectations of the training.

“We were surprised with the reception.  When we first had Doug (Hensch) come in, we were not sure how people would respond.  After a pilot, we decided to offer the course on a larger scale with almost no advertising and it filled right up and continued to fill with wait lists mostly based on word of mouth.  We underestimated the appetite.”

There seems to be a burgeoning amount of support for positive psychology in business, especially now that the science is catching up with the practice.  Do you think it would be a good fit with your organization?  Do you know of businesses in the DC area who are already implementing positive practices?  Please share with us.

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

When we launched Positive Business DC, Donna, Shannon and I wanted to create a resource to help people raise their level of well-being by providing evidence-based research in positive psychology and neuroleadership. And so, we launched the Well-being in The Workplace speaker series. Last week, I featured Natural Artistry in my weekly column for Modern DC Business magazine. As Meetup members Andrew Murdock, Kimba Green, and Cindy Alderton shared their story, I realized that our Meetups are having a much more profound impact than perhaps we realized.

Andrew is the owner of Natural Artistry Photography in Frederick, MD. His style strays from the conventional by focusing in on moments when people connect on a fundamentally human level. The vulnerability he’s able to capture and the stories his photos tell reach out and grab your attention. He took photos of the October event and generously let us post them. (Personally, I think the camera is super-glued to his hand and he’d have withdrawal symptoms if removed.)

Scratching The Creative Itch for A Purpose

Doug Hensch, our guest speaker at the October Meetup, shared the 5-1/2 Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs. One of Andrew’s takeaways: The desire to find deeper fulfillment in work. After thinking about what that meant to him personally, he decided to give back to the community. Not being handy with a hammer or power tools, Andrew picked up the camera and offered professional quality images of local events. The idea was to provide an alternative to the photos people took with their Smartphones.

This one, seemingly small thing embedded the people from Natural Artistry into the community in a deeper, more meaningful level and business started to skyrocket. 

Big, Hairy, and Audacious

No, not Andrew… but the goals for Natural Artistry. At our second Meetup in January, Caroline Adams Miller shared insights about how setting unrealistic goal relates to happiness and the über success that comes from setting one’s sights really, really high. Andrew brought their marketing guru, Kimba that night. Now, barely more than two months later, the big hairy goal for 2014—becoming a photo agency—is already happening. Cindy Alderton, an exceptional photographer in her own right, has recently joined the team. Natural Artistry plans to continue bringing photographers that share their zest for “anti-business business photography” and quirky sense of humor into the agency. They’re also about to move into a studio with equipment that will enable Natural Artistry to take any shot one can dream up.

Research shows that people who seek fulfillment at work or set unrealistic goals vastly improve their levels of professional success.

So, what about this year’s goal? It’s still in the works. Andrew wants his photos to be published in a national magazine. He’s turned the studio’s business model upside down. Rather than waiting for orders to come in or offering the same services similar to other photographers or studios, Natural Artistry likes to propose ideas that will help clients grow their businesses. In their words, “It becomes a symbiotic relationship, really a partnership of sorts. We share the same business goals, personal beliefs, and values and build upon them by discovering common goals.”

Fulfillment + Goals = Growing, Vibrant Business

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

Offering a service to the community proved to also be a good business practice because it provided unexpected exposure for Natural Artistry’s work. Andrew found the fulfillment he sought by providing community service. While community service may seem like a counterintuitive way to grow a business, positive returns are not an uncommon phenomenon when you do something constructive—and without strings—for others.

To begin, the studios’s goal was simple: Ensure that everyone in Frederick, MD see the Natural Artistry logo at least once a week, whether the shot was of a friend or familiar place. Shooting photos without charging for them gave the photographers full artistic license.

“Other photographers (and businesses) box themselves in. They look at what other people are doing and think that they need to do the same thing. They might be making money at it, but do they really get fulfillment from doing the same thing others are doing? Copying the work of someone else is not rewarding,” notes Andrew. “The people at Natural Artistry have a restless desire to grow. What we’re doing today is not what we’re going to be doing tomorrow. We’re a moving target, so any other photographer who tries to emulate and copy us is in for a shock.” Their attitude, combined with all of the local exposure, had captured the attention of ad agencies and local publications, positioning a small town photo studio into an agency that has the potential to work with national magazines.

If attending the Positive Business DC Meetup has helped you improve your level of well-being, we’d love to hear your story! Please seek Donna, Shannon, or me out at during the networking session at Canvas on April 24. Registration open soon.

Doug Hensch

Doug Hensh, founder of myHappier, revealed the 5½ Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs last Thursday when he kicked off Positive Business DC’s Well-being in The Workplace speaker series. Doug teaches people how to become more resilient and helps businesses develop more engaged, creative, and productive workforces through his expertise in positive psychology.

While Doug made a number of provocative statements that night, none resonated with me more than the following:

“In my experience a person’s greatest weakness is when they overuse their strengths. . . . It feels good to use your strengths. But by focusing too narrowly on your strengths you become less aware of the consequences [of your behavior] and the impact you have on others.”
—Doug Hensch, myHappier.com

As a fan of the Gallup Organization (and Marcus Buckingham‘s work in particular) I can tell you a strengths-based approach to building strong, successful businesses works. In fact, I have repeatedly used their techniques as a basis for transforming organizations with poor morale into companies that excel.

Doug’s observation that an individual’s misapplication of strengths leads to weakness captured my attention because the phenomenon has an organizational corollary. When a strengths-based approach is applied without a structure that enables a company to effectively harness what employees have to offer in a balanced way, performance suffers.

Blinded by Personal Bias

People tend to hire others like themselves. As a result, the recruitment process leads to organizational imbalance unless the hiring manager recognizes and purposely curbs this natural, human bias. Unchecked, the bias spawns an obvious organizational weakness. A company that has too many people with the same strengths unintentionally creates a blind side (or two) and lacks the strength needed to run the distance. Competitors will quickly outdistance this company even though employees may “click” and enjoy working together.

Dilution by Shared Strengths

Doug Hensch presenting the secrets to resilience.

Perhaps a forward-thinking executive has established a safe environment and invites disagreement during discussions because this leader knows that airing differences improves the team’s problem-solving capabilities. If the hiring manager has repeatedly cloned him- or herself, the deck is stacked against the company and the conversation will probably be a short one. This group of people simply will not see a wide enough array of options to enable the company to compete effectively.

Much more subtly, a team comprised of people with too many overlapping strengths dilute those strengths. Even if this group has members with opposing viewpoints and can argue through the issues to develop a sound strategy, I have consistently observed that this team as a whole is less than the sum of its parts. Every time. And that’s just a waste of talent.

Deliberately Blend Corporate DNA

Strong corporate DNA requires a strengths-based focus layered over an existing sense of organizational self-awareness. By using this framework, newly hired employees will share the company’s core values and fit within the corporate culture while being diverse in heritage, gender, age, experience, talent, and strengths. The mix forms a well-balanced team that has the stamina and resilience to keep the company in peak performance during good times and bad.

So, when thinking about developing resilience in your own organization and honing strengths, don’t forget to put systems into place that will ensure that you not only install a well-balanced team, also ensure they have the systems and tools to maximize their efforts.

Join The Well-being Movement

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

Please join Positive Business DC if you’re interested in how science-based disciplines like positive psychology and neuroleadership can improve organizational behaviors, job satisfaction, and overall performance. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

And, if you live in the Metro DC area, please check out our local events. According to research by Delivering Happiness, Washington DC exhibits the lowest level of happiness (and thus job satisfaction and productivity) in the U.S. With your help we can make working and living and working in the capitol region a more rewarding experience.

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Doug, for a compelling presentation. I have purposely avoided writing about the secrets. If you’re curious to learn what we discovered the other night, please download: 5-1/2 Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs.

Thank you also to Andrew Murdock, professional photographer and founder of Natural Artistry Photography, for taking official shots during our first event.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to Teqcorner for hosting Positive Business DC’s first event. As a tenant, I can tell you Teqcorner works hard to develop and nurture an enabling ecosystem that takes an entrepreneur “from concept to company.”

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on October 27, 2012. All rights reserved.

Doug Hensch, M.Ed

Thursday, Doug Hensch will kick off Positive Business DC’s “Well-being in The Workplace” speaker series when he reveals The 5-1/2 Secrets of Entrepreneurs. As noted in Monday’s post, Low Startup Ratio Causes Economic Stall and Job Deficit, entrepreneurship drives our economic engine—and we are unfortunately in a slump.

According to research by the Gallup Organization, the U.S. needs 2 million new businesses launched each year to create enough jobs to keep the economy healthy. We’re currently running at 20% of the required figure. Gallup proposes we offset the deficit by ensuring that the next generation has the tools and training needed to be successful entrepreneurs. While mentoring the Internet generation may be an effective long-term strategy, we also need to focus on what we can do now to improve the domestic business climate.

DC Places Last on Happiness Scale

Living and working in the Metro DC area insulates us from the effects of a poor national economy. Or does it? The folks at Delivering Happiness (@DHMovement) have determined that Washington, DC exhibits the lowest level of happiness in the country. More than a decade of rigorous scientific research proves that happy employees are more engaged, productive, and creative in the workplace and thus produce better returns for their companies. We need to take action and inject energy into our local communities.

That’s where Positive Business DC comes in. Shannon Polly, MAPP, President of Accentuate Consulting, Donna Hemmert, an Internet executive and serial entrepreneur with whom I’ve had the privilege of working with since the ’90s, and I co-founded the organization to give local business leaders a resource for learning how the science of happiness can help companies improve the bottom line. Each of us approaches the subject from a different angle.

Shannon (@ShannonPolly) is one of only approximately 300 people in world who has received a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Martin Seligman. She is also the co-author of Does Happiness Really Drive Results? Shannon is passionate about the science that underlies positive psychology as a discipline and how to apply the science in a way that enhances well-being in the workplace.

Donna (@dhemmert) has been fascinated by positivity and its effect on teams, leadership, and companies since she began her career. A natural leader, Donna has honed her abilities and repeatedly created enabling cultures that encourage her teams to consistently produce ‘star quality’ results. Having been on a number of Donna’s teams, I can tell you from personal experience that she’s one of the best in the industry.

And anyone who reads Modern DC Business on a regular basis knows that I (@mmoran76) have a burning interest in the intersection of leadership, culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, and neuroscience. I’ve blended research by the Gallup Organization, Marcus Buckingham, Daniel Golemen, Jim Collins, Steve Blank (to name a few) to transform underperforming teams and companies—some with very toxic cultures—into positive, strengths-based organizations.

Doug Hensch And The ‘Strengths Zone’

We are excited to have Doug Hensch (@DougHensch) lead off the “Well-being in The Workplace” speaker series. Doug brings a wealth of experience and passion to help his clients lead extraordinary businesses and lives. He uses a pragmatic, three-pronged approach: Set meaningful goals; identify strengths; and work regularly in the ‘strengths zone.’

Doug co-founded an investor-backed happiness website that had over 100,000 registered users and was featured on CNN, in the Boston Globe and the L.A. Times. His new website, myhappier.com, helps people increase their well-being and resilience.

The Positive Business DC Charter

People spend more time at work than any other aspect of their lives. We believe it’s time to take a page from science and history to increase well-being in the workforce. Workplace well-being leads to more than just a happy team. Other benefits include increased productivity, lowered attrition, and even increased profitability. Our charter to is inform and inspire DC to take a page from Positive Psychology and lessons learned in business to increase well-being in the workplace.

Positive Business DC plans to conduct its speaker series across the Metro DC area. If you are interested in hosting a future event, please DM @PositiveBizDC. The October 25th Meetup will be held at Teqcorner (1616 Anderson Road, McLean, VA) and includes refreshments.

Join The Well-being Movement

Please follow us on Twitter: @PositiveBizDC and Facebook. And please don’t forget to register to see what the excitement is all about! Space is limited.