FREE ARTICLES FROM SARAH LEWIS
A treasure trove of practical advice either written by Sarah herself, based on her experience garnered from over 20 years of helping organisations to change themselves, or by a carefully selected guest author.
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Can we take positivity too far?
Many years ago, there was a period of dislocation in my work life and I was suddenly scrabbling to relaunch my independent career with no work on the horizon. At the time we had very little savings and I was the main earner for our household of four. I was feeling worried and anxious.
A friend, who lived abroad, was briefly in the country and we had a chance to catch up. She asked how I was, and I started to explain my financial worries and work concerns. Abruptly she cut across me to say, ‘But when you’re working you earn good money, right?’
Many years ago, there was a period of dislocation in my work life and I was suddenly scrabbling to relaunch my independent career with no work on the horizon. At the time we had very little savings and I was the main earner for our household of four. I was feeling worried and anxious.
A friend, who lived abroad, was briefly in the country and we had a chance to catch up. She asked how I was, and I started to explain my financial worries and work concerns. Abruptly she cut across me to say, ‘But when you’re working you earn good money, right?’
I can only assume this was meant make me feel better, but it had the opposite effect. I felt like I’d been slapped across the face and got the clear message that she wasn’t interested in hearing about my feelings and problems. It being clear that I wasn’t going to get the sympathetic hearing I was seeking, I moved the conversation on. But I never forgot the experience, it hurt.
When this happened, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what had gone wrong, given that her comment was, relatively speaking, correct. I didn’t know how to name what had happened, but I can now identify it as an experience of ‘toxic positivity.’
Toxic Positivity
Toxic positivity insists on ‘looking on the bright side’ but in a way that is disconnected from the current context, that dismisses the validity of someone’s current feelings in favour of a demand that they have ‘happy emotions.’
As well as doing it to others we can do it to ourselves, feeling we have to be positive about everything all the time. This can spill into a belief that we have to deny feelings that are difficult to deal with such as anger and hurt, that we should be happy all the time and at if we aren’t, something is wrong.
In his recent book Sukhvinder Pabial examines how our awareness of the many benefits of positivity, and desire to help people experience positivity, can, through a misinterpretation of the idea of positivity and abuse of the idea, spill over into toxic positivity and more.
The Positive Continuum model
This model (reprinted with the author, Sukhvinder Pabial’s permission) starts by identifying how when we are working effectively with positivity, events can be helpfully reframed in a more positive way, creating motivation and inspiration and enabling people to move on.
A lot of coaching works to reframe like this. The hurt or difficult situation is acknowledged, and empathy demonstrated, before a sensitive attempt is made to help the person start to look at the situation differently. Importantly, this helping isn’t based on ‘telling’ people there is a silver lining, but by helping them to find, see or create such for themselves. Appreciative Inquiry works at a similar way for coaching and larger systems.
Toxic positivity by contrast is defined as ‘uncalled for solutions and lack of empathy,’ which characterises the response of my friend to my situation. While it might arise because someone is short on empathy, I wonder whether this behaviour is sometimes exhibited by people, perhaps aspiring practitioners, who have grasped a general message about how ‘feeling good is good for you’, but lack the skills to apply it in a given situation.
Relentless Positivity
Sukhvinder extends the model to identify yet another positivity position, that of ‘relentless positivity’ which is ‘persistent and unregulated positivity’.
There was a fad a while back for organizations to issue statements such as ‘there is no such word as “can’t” in this organization!’ This would be an example of a culture of relentless positivity. Bad news is just unacceptable and not heard. As Sukhvinder explains, it is pushed back against with ‘we have to make this happen’, and ‘we must find solutions’ type statements.
There is a fantastic example of this: the film documentary of the fiasco of a the Fyre festival: FYRE: the greatest party that never happened. For those who haven’t yet seen it, the organiser resists all the attempts of experienced festival organisers to highlight various problems and issues that need to be addressed, insisting everything will work. He resists all attempts to call off the festival in good time to limit the PR damage and in the event nothing works and it’s a disaster, so he ends up cancelling it so late some guests have already arrived. That is relentless positivity in action.
I have occasionally come across an organisational culture that demonstrates relentless positivity in another way where its just not permissible to have, or to acknowledge in others, difficult feelings. You could call it happy, clappy. This type of culture makes it very hard to have reconciling and healing conversations as the feelings that need to be named and addressed to affect restoration of a relationship can’t be acknowledged in the first place!
The time continuum
These positions are represented across a timeframe. So ‘reframing’ is a specific activity in a specific context. Toxic positivity can be a repeated, habitual way of responding when others experience problems and difficulties, while relentless positivity is a sustained culture or way of behaving that denies the possibility of the non-positive outcome.
As our awareness of the benefits of positivity grows, along with our eagerness to help everyone benefit from experiencing positivity, I find this model very useful in alerting us to the dangers of unthinking and unregulated attempts to ‘be positive’ or to inject positivity into a situation.
My thanks to Sukhvinder for his insights into this interesting area. The model and diagram come from his excellent and highly recommended book The Resilience Handbook, available from our online store.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Thought Provoking’
Small Changes that make a Difference
On the first day of the new year, the Guardian ran an article, ‘100 small changes that really work’. The 100 entries that make up the article were sent in by experts and readers. See what caught my fancy and might work for you!
I noticed a different flavour to the usual January blitz of ‘New Year, New You’ filler in the papers this year. Calls to action were hedged with novel warnings about not being over ambitious, about starting small, suggesting only working on a few goals at a time not a complete list of life transformation. Hurrah, I thought! At last, some psychology about change and habit formation is getting through.
On the first day of the new year, the Guardian ran an article, ‘100 small changes that really work’. The 100 entries that make up the article were sent in by experts and readers. Tried and tested then. I found it interesting reading and was delighted to find that some of them I had discovered myself.
Here are my top ten.
1. Not setting a morning alarm. This is a bit of a cheat as it’s something I have done myself since I have regarded myself as ‘semi-retired’ and let myself off my weekday 7.00 a.m. alarm. At first, I found the extent of the resultant sleeping-in so alarming that I did set a ‘that’s enough’ 8.00 a.m. alarm, but I did treat myself to a new alarm clock with a SAD light that gradually lights up for the half-hour before the gently increasing sound of an Amazonian dawn chorus kicks in at the allotted time. Now I seem to have exhausted my sleep deficit and regularly wake before the alarm. I absolutely agree with the quoted Guardian reader who said that it means ‘I don’t start the day with the hideous stress of the alarm going off’. Highly recommended if your lifestyle allows.
2. Leaving the phone downstairs at night. Already do it.
3. Making homemade soup. Another one great winter idea I discovered myself. I use a soup maker and make two batches at the weekends but only when it feels doable, so it doesn’t become a chore. I bag it up in Lakeland soup ‘n’ sauce bags (perfect two portion size) and freeze. I can have a hot, quick, nutritious and tasty lunch any day of the week as long I remember to take out it the night before. You can reheat from frozen but it’s a faff.
4. Walking outdoors every day. I try! I try! It very cold right now though! And the daylight is so short. I know it’s good for me, but it is a habit that lapses. Also, it’s not a small change in my book because it takes time.
5. Buying a rowing machine. This isn’t on the list but is one of mine. A fold away one cost about £200. Use it once or twice a week. 4 kms. Headphones on to loud rock music. Walk to it from the bedroom. Takes 25ish minutes. Terrific. Works up a good sweat. Gets blood flowing, heart beating. Can breathlessly sing along. Can think about day ahead. Much nicer than standing bike for some reason. Shower. Then coffee. Ready start working day. And no going out in the cold. Love it! Easy cardio-vascular activity!
6. The squeezy app. If you are a woman of a certain age with a dodgy pelvic floor this app is great. It reminds you to do your squeezes, and it counts and times them for you. With practice, you can do them while reading the paper, eating or probably answering emails. Have been using for months. It really has become a habit. Highly recommended.
7. Lighting candles. I have a horde of candles. Never seemed to find the occasion to light them. Now, when doing my ‘creative writing’, I light a candle. I love the scent and the flicker of the flame. I think it acts both as a signal that I am now entering a different mental space, and is calming in some way – maybe the scent?
8. Getting hearing aids. Been there, done that. They are better than the alternative. And if you pay the money, you can get much more attractive ones. My current dinky red and white ones bring me joy when I see them in the morning. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the depressing grey NHS ones I am currently temporarily having to wear!
9. Exercise snacks. Great idea – doing squats while you wait for the kettle to boil type thing. Super idea. If only the dishwasher didn’t offer itself for stacking, unstacking, or refilling with rinse aid, or salt during this snatch of time. Might work up to this one.
10. Focussing on joy rather than willpower. I realise I have been moving this way for years. And I used to be someone very good on willpower. Like the reader quoted in the article says, I do exercise I enjoy. I eat food I enjoy. I do work I enjoy.
And a few that I don’t see working for me
Following the one-minute rule. This is the idea that if something will take less than a minute, answering an email, hanging up the laundry, then you should do it straight-away. It is supposed to improve productivity. Hmm... I could see a whole morning disappearing in one-minute tasks. And some of these things take brain power. I prefer to relegate them to ‘low quality’ time, and cluster them together.
Two-minute cold shower every morning. I’m definitely not hardcore enough for this.
Committing to intermittent fasting. I’ve read the research. I believe it’s good for you. And I’m not willing to put myself into deprivation mode. Too many diets over the years. Never again.
There are plenty more to inspire you in the original article, The Guardian, Monday 1st January 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/jan/01/100-tiny-changes-to-transform-your-life-from-the-one-minute-rule-to-pyjama-yoga
Why not let us know if you find something that speaks to you?
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Thought Provoking’
Absentee leaders and Zombie Managers: Hidden, Harmful and in need of Help
Absentee Leadership is where individuals occupy leadership positions (and enjoy their attending privileges) but neglect to fulfil many of leadership’s core responsibilities. They occupy leadership roles but fail to be present in them, are psychologically absentee (if not also physically absent!). Such leaders and managers, despite being prevalent and toxic to group and individual functioning, are often invisible to those in power. Why does it happen, why is it not addressed, and how can it be reversed?
Flicking through The Psychologist Magazine the other day, I unexpectedly came across the phrase ‘absentee leader.’ [i] Although it was new to me, it immediately resonated, and I was intrigued to find out more. As I did, I realised the phenomena could just as well apply to some managers.
What is the absentee leader?
A 2015[ii] survey of 1,000 working adults that showed that eight of the top nine complaints about leaders concerned behaviours that were absent; that is, employees were most concerned about what their bosses weren’t doing. The complaints weren’t about actively bad leadership behaviour, rather they were about unmet expectations of what leaders should be doing.
Absentee Leadership[iii] has been defined as leadership that fails to lift off; where individuals occupy leadership positions (and enjoy their attending privileges) but neglect to fulfil many of leadership’s core responsibilities. It’s when people occupy leadership roles but fail to be present in them, are psychologically absent (if not also physically absent!). In this way they avoid meaningful engagement with their team.
What are the effects of absentee leaders?
Working for an absentee leader is associated with role ambiguity, health complaints, intra-team bullying and has negative effects on job satisfaction. Unsurprisingly it saps motivation and team and organisational loyalty. It creates employee stress and a talent drain that, in time, affects the organization’s bottom line. That’s to say, zombie management and absentee leadership is bad for people in their orbit and for the whole organization.
Why isn’t it dealt with by the organization?
The research answer to this question this speaks volumes. It appears that organisational capacity is so taken up dealing with other manifestations of leadership malfeasance such as sexual harassment and abuse, bullying, theft, excessive drinking, illicit drugtaking and other maladaptive coping behaviours, that a passive issue like absentee leadership doesn’t even register as a problem.
Absentee leaders and zombie managers despite being much more common and more toxic to both group and individual functioning than the misbehaving leaders described above, are often invisible to those in power. Unlike the highly visible, attention-grabbing stress responses exhibited by some leaders, coping by psychologically disappearing is sustainable over a long period before coming to light. And indeed, such leaders and managers have been described as ‘silent organisation killers.’ [iv]
Why does it happen?
Research suggests some possible reasons[v].
People promoted from ‘being a good worker’ to management or leadership struggle with the different nature of leadership challenges
Excessive work stress
Too many responsibilities
Role overload
Too many direct reports
No support in their role
In other words, being psychologically absent can be viewed as a highly adaptive way of escaping or avoiding a difficult environment which someone has neither the skill nor the resources to cope with.
What can be done?
Bring the issue into the light
The issue has to be brought into the light. The clues should be there: churn, sickness, performance, team difficulties and other data. Alternatively, a staff survey might indicate any problem areas. It’s important to note that such operators might be very good at appearing ‘on it’ in the presence of those senior to them, this is partly how they remain undisturbed. It’s the staff who will be able to identify the zombies at large in the organisation.
Consider the context
There is the big picture to consider. How well does the organization prepare and look after its leaders? Is improvement needed in systems and processes that support leadership? If the organization has produced a toxic working culture, everyone will be trying to cope in their own particular way. Sometimes what is needed is a change in organisational culture.
Team Dynamics
Leadership is a relational activity. Creating psychological safety, building connectivity and encouraging honest contracting around staff expectations of their leader might act to reconnect, energise and motivate a disaffected leader, and team. It helps to bear in mind that most people want to do a good job and that, with skilled help, relationships can be repaired and reset. However, there will be those wholly unsuited for the role, promoted beyond their comfort or competency, or just in the wrong situation. They need help to return to a place they can once again be productive.
Help the individual
Sometimes, its just that someone hasn’t made the transition to being a leader or manager. They don’t understand the expectations of them. They don’t know how to lead a team, manage conflict, delegate or how to develop staff. In this case leadership development or personal coaching can help.
For a great toolkit to support leadership development see our Leadership Development Essentials Bundle
[i] In this article by Dr Laura McHale (2023). McHale, L., 2023, Corporate gaslighting, absentee leaders and the emotions of work. The Psychologist. December. pp 34-37
[ii] This is in Gregory, S., 2018, The most common type of incompetent leader. Harvard Business Review
[iii] This definition comes from this article Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard business press.
[iv] (Gregory, 2018) again
[v] McHale, L ,2022 Where’s the boss? Korn Ferry. Thought Leadership Paper.
See also
Hogan, R., Kaiser, R.B., Sherman, R.A. & Harms, P.D. (2021). Twenty years on the dark side: six lessons about bad leadership. Consulting Psychology Journal, 73, 199-213.
A very good short article by C. Brad entitled: The Phantom Menace: Absentee leadership and its silent destruction on Linkedin. 21.11.2023
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Leadership’
The Challenge of Getting People back to the Office: Creating Attractive Workplaces
It’s all over the news: organizations want people back in their expensive office spaces. There are good reasons for this: research suggests that prolonged remote working can weakened organisational identification and culture. It can have a negative effect on creativity and innovation. But many people are resisting the call and one can see a mix of carrot and stick approaches responses, cajoling and seducing or insisting and threatening.
It’s all over the news: organizations want people back in their expensive office spaces. There are good reasons for this: research suggests that prolonged remote working can weakened organisational identification and culture. It can have a negative effect on creativity and innovation. But many people are resisting the call and one can see a mix of carrot and stick approaches responses, cajoling and seducing or insisting and threatening.
Why is it proving so hard and is there any way to make the workplace more attractive to those now wedded to the benefits of remote working?
There is a great quote in Cunha and colleagues’ book (see below) from a journalist, Skidelsky who writes, ‘Offices are often spirit-sapping places, incompatible, for many, with a sense of agency and self-respect. People also dislike having bosses...’
He goes on to note the attractions of freelance work as including, ‘having the freedom to work where you want, in your own time’ and that these are, ‘things that people increasingly value, and not only those at the top of the pay-scale.’
For people who like the security of a pay packet, remote working can be the nearest thing to going freelance. They’ve had a taste; they’ve made the adjustment. The commute, disruption and forced interactions of the office hold little attraction.
Can the office fight back?
Research suggests three key areas to focus on.
1. How good are your managers?
Managers account for a significant variation in worker engagement, up to 70%. So, are your managers great? Do their staff relish the opportunity to spend time with them?
Gallup research suggests five key features of great managers
· They motivate employees and engage them with a valuable organisational mission
· They express the level of assertive and grit necessary to get things done and to overcome adversity
· They create cultures of accountability
· They build positive relationships
· They make decisions oriented to productivity not politics
I want to look particularly at the last two of these
They build positive relationships
When staff are in, managers need to be focused on their needs – not on the paperwork they could as well do at home. On office days they need to find ways to work with the team, not on the team.
They make decisions oriented to productivity not politics
Being asked to come into the office because, ‘this valuable real estate is going to waste’ is politics, not productivity. It is not likely to be a pull motivation for anyone. Neither is ‘Come into work so I can keep an eye on you and see you working.’ Nor, ‘Come into work so I can stroll by and interrupt you and grab your attention without have to make a phone-call’ (pace Rees-Mogg).
We have to do better: coming into the office needs to help people be productive, do better, feel good, keep up good friendships, have informal time with people. And ideally, laugh and have fun together. Then people might be interested to sacrifice their immediate productivity, to put the energy into getting somewhere, and, to risk having to engage with their least favourite person!
2. How well is time in the office used?
People have discovered how productive they can be beavering away at home. If they come into the office to do the same work they do from home, they will be very frustrated at the drop off in productivity.
This means people need to do different things when they come into the office. These different things need to be focused on relationship building or maintenance or restoring. On working collaboratively on collective ambitions, endeavour or projects. On stimulating co-creativity and innovation. They should be days of excitement about ideas and possibilities. They should be motivating.
3 How positive is your organisational culture?
‘A positive organization,’ say Cunha and colleagues, ‘is one that sustainably obtains superior performance in a virtuous way via an emphasis on strengths.’
By definition, people enjoy exercising their strengths. For most people that enjoyment is heightened when they can use them to help other people, people who are important to them, people they like. So, when people come into the office, call on their strengths to further the common ambition, to help colleagues, to build a better future.
Previous blogs about positive emotions and relationships and hybrid working
Build in wellbeing from the beginning
How a dose of humility helps leaders succeed
Some Challenges posed by Hybrid Working and How we can meet them
For those interested in creating attractive workplaces, you might find the Positive Organisational Development Cards of interest
With thanks to
e Cunha, M. P., Rego, A., Simpson, A., & Clegg, S., 2020 Positive organizational behaviour: A reflective approach. Routledge.
Why Sexual Harassment is a Business Issue
First some facts and figures. 60% of women report workplace sexual harassment. But an estimated 90% of incidents go unreported. Meanwhile approximately 94% of organizations have a policy about this in place. Hmm the maths is beyond me but, put these figures together, and I would say the policies just aren’t working.
Why Sexual Harassment is a Business Issue
Well, you have to ask - what is it with these men? Russell Brand publicly assaulting women on recorded TV. Bigwig Spanish Football Man grasping footballer firmly round the head to prevent avoidance of his unwanted smackeroo. Surgeons being touched up while scrubbed up. Kevin Spacey, the thinking women’s actor, revealed as a predator of young men? And on and on. Maybe rather than thinking this is aberrant behaviour we should just accept that...
Men + Power + Opportunity = Possibility of Sexual Abuse (That is, abuse, of power, of women, of men, of children, of position, underlings and on and on)
Are women exempt? Of course not, power is power. As Naomi Alderman’s fantastic book The Power makes clear. But, unlike in that science fiction, here on earth, in the main, men still hold the power.
So, very unpleasant for the abused, assaulted, shamed, harassed etc. person. But does it do any further damage?
The research answer is clear. Yes, it does.
What does it mean for business?
First some facts and figures. 60% of women report workplace sexual harassment. But an estimated 90% of incidents go unreported. Meanwhile approximately 94% of organizations have a policy about this in place. Hmm the maths is beyond me but, put these figures together, and I would say the policies just aren’t working.
There are psychological explanations for this, but common sense reveals them just as well. Speak up and you open yourself to other dangers. Danger of victim-shaming. Danger of job loss. Danger of escalation of the problem. Equally unhappy witnesses can find it too risky, too hard to find their voice for similar reasons. This isn’t individual aberrant men, or individual cowardly women, this is a workplace culture matter.
As for all change, first the business case needs to be made.
Business case for tackling workplace sexual harassment
Here are the costs of creating, allowing, facilitating or ignoring an environment where targeted and opportunistic sexual harassment is the norm.
Effects on the individual
While recognising that these vary person to person, these are common consequences...
· Decreased psychological wellbeing.
· Increase in depression and anxiety.
· Social identity threat, the devaluation of a person’s social identity in a specific context (let’s call this not being taken seriously at work or being treated like a child).
· Feeling silenced, unable to speak up about the abuse. This is associated with higher depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion. Burnout in other words.
For the business this means health costs, possibly employment costs if people quit, and decreases in performance. And I’d hazard that all those other things that help organizations excel, commitment, citizenship behaviour, being unpaid ambassadors of the brand, suffer.
Effect on the team
· Decreased workgroup productivity and performance
· Increased task conflict
· Increased interpersonal conflict
· Decreased team cohesion
For the business this all adds up to a loss of team functioning, productivity and performance
Effect on the organization can be Increased workplace withdrawal
· Absenteeism
· Failure to complete work
· Avoiding other people at work
· Not attending meetings
· Not meeting deadlines that others rely on
· Skipping work altogether
· Failing work relationships
· Avoiding certain areas at work
· Avoiding certain people
· Not joining certain project teams
· Quitting
The business costs are clear to see
All of these survival-in-a-hostile environment behaviours have an effect on organisational social capital, goodwill reserves, productivity, profitability and general effective functioning.
In this way, sexual harassment at work effects everyone at work. Your bonus is at risk because of your colleague’s harassing behaviour. Your ability to shine at work is adversely affected if you can’t get stuff done, or you can’t attract a star to your special project. Your future reputation may be at risk when your association with an abuser later comes to light.
Protect your assets, learn how to intervene effectively. This is known as bystander intervention.
Effective Bystander Behaviour
I called out some unwanted touching when I was running a three-day workshop one time. The guy in question was ‘handsy’ with the young women on the course. Arms round shoulders, many hugs etc. It didn’t look right. I asked the young women about it. No, they didn’t like it, but he was a manager, and they weren’t, what could they do but grin and bear it? My male co-facilitator backed me, as did our employer, to do something.
We spoke to the man, just asking him to cease and desist. He vehemently denied there was a problem, he was just a touchy-feely friendly guy, everyone knew that! He chose to leave the training rather than change his behaviour. We spoke to the women in Human Resources at the company. Yes, they said, he’s well-known for this. They were glad we had called it.
What happened to the man after that I don’t know.
For myself, I do know it wasn’t a comfortable thing to do. I do know I couldn’t have not noticed it, felt uncomfortable about, felt compelled to try to stop it, because of my strong sense of right and wrong in this area. And I also know it went a whole lot better, and I felt a whole lot safer taking him on (he was a big chap) with another big man sitting beside me. And I was lucky to be working for a company that backed me.
A supportive culture
We could call this a supportive culture I was working in. One that was willing to take the risk of upsetting a client, a colleague who was willing to take the risk of disrupting the workshop, evoking emotional discomfort. The workshop went fine after that, by the way, and we didn’t lose the client. And I felt good about what I’d done.
This is known as bystander behaviour. With all those conditions in place I felt able, as a bystander (from memory he didn’t try it with me, but then, I was in a relative position of power), to call him out.
Eli Kolokowsky and Sharon Hong, from whose article the factual information in this one is gleaned, recommend training in effective bystander intervention as the way forward in this area. But along with the training in ‘how’ to intervene, people need everything in place that I had
· A set of values that doesn’t see causal harassment as acceptable behaviour
· Supportive colleagues
· Supportive employer
To give them the courage to intervene.
Causal sexism, sexual harassment and abuse is everywhere. On the streets, on the buses, and for many in their homes. All we want is for women to be able to feel safe and to be able to give their best to work, and to themselves.
Maybe the workplace could become a safe space for women?
With many thanks to
Kolokowsky, Eli, and Sharon Hong. "Bystander Intervention: A Positive Approach to Sexual Harassment Prevention." Positive Organizational Psychology Interventions: Design and Evaluation (2021): 141-157.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Diversity/Equality’
Could it be the active recruitment of incompetent men that stops women getting to the top?
The central cause, argues Tomas Chasmorro-Premuzic, of the low numbers of women recruited into leadership, ranging from 36% in bottom tier management to only 6% at CEO level, isn’t that they aren’t competitive, assertive, bold, talented or in some other ill-defined way, enough like men; but rather that a persistent systematic mistake is made during the recruitment process. A mistake that leads to many of the opportunities, up to 74% according to one survey quoted, being filled with incompetent men.
Hence the question isn’t: how can we get more women into management, but rather, how do we stop so many incompetent men filling the available positions?
The central cause, argues Tomas Chasmorro-Premuzic, of the low numbers of women recruited into leadership, ranging from 36% in bottom tier management to only 6% at CEO level, isn’t that they aren’t competitive, assertive, bold, talented or in some other ill-defined way, enough like men; but rather that a persistent systematic mistake is made during the recruitment process. A mistake that leads to many of the opportunities, up to 74% according to one survey quoted, being filled with incompetent men.
Hence the question isn’t: how can we get more women into management, but rather, how do we stop so many incompetent men filling the available positions?
No one sets out to hire incompetent leaders, so how can this happen? The answer lies in the difference between what is attractive at the selection process and what is effective in a leader.
Why do men get selected more often?
When looking for leadership potential, many instinctively look for behaviour that suggests a forceful and dominant character. This attentional focus on forcefulness and dominance reinforces the preferential selection of men for leadership in two ways. Firstly, this behaviour, along with the traits that support it, are found more often in men than in women. And secondly, when they are displayed by women they can be frowned upon. Such women can be dismissed as being too forceful or domineering to be considered as good leadership material. Yet, in a classic Catch-22 situation, if they don’t display this type of behaviour they are also not perceived as being suitably leader-like. Hence it is frequently forceful and dominant presenting men who get selected into leadership positions.
Research shows, however, that those who are most likely to appear forceful and dominant, are also those who are more likely to self-centred, entitled and narcissistic. All of which are related to the personality traits of narcissism and psychopathy, and none of which are good predictors of effective leadership behaviour.
In this way, it becomes apparent that there is a fundamental, and negatively impactful, difference between the personality traits and behaviours it takes to be chosen as a leader, and those it takes to be effective as a leader. The essential problem is that the traits that are taken as signs of leadership talent in men, are the very same that will eventually predict their downfall as leaders. In other words when considering male candidates, clear character flaws are mistaken for attractive leadership qualities. How does this happen?
The mistaken appointment of narcissists and psychopaths
Chamorro-Premuzic explains how this mistake is made. One important aspect is that confidence is taken as a proxy for competence. However, there is no relationship between confidence and competence. Most of us skew a little to over-confidence, it’s normal and healthy. But excessive overconfidence becomes dangerous and, statistically speaking, men are significantly more likely than women to display excessive overconfidence in their abilities. And while confidence is commonly regarded as the most important quality for a leader, research suggests that in fact it is less important than expertise, intelligence, hard-work, connections and even luck!
This over-confidence that we can find so attractive has its roots in two particular personality traits, narcissism and psychopathology. Narcissism and psychopathology are both more common in leaders than in the general population. For example, psychopathy is present in 4-20% of people in senior management roles, compared to 1% in the general population. Narcissism also runs at about 1% in the general population yet is estimated to be 5% amongst CEOs. By accident, this is what we end up recruiting for. Why, how does it happen?
Narcissists are master are masters of impression management, great at conveying confidence (and remember we use confidence as a proxy for competence). At the same time the advertised rewards of leadership, lucrative compensation, fancy titles and the other signs of success, could have been purpose designed to attract them in their droves. Meanwhile courage and risk-taking often coexist with psychopathology, enabling psychopaths to demonstrate striking audacity and resilience under stress, for example. They also often display a high verbal ability, meaning they can be eloquent and persuasive and tend to come across as charming and charismatic. What’s not to like, then, at the interview stage?
What happens when they become leaders
However, both narcissists and psychopaths, while brilliant at getting the role, often perform poorly thereafter. For examples psychopaths, once in the role, tend to operate passively, failing to fulfil basic management tasks such as evaluating performance, giving accurate feedback or rewarding employees. They don’t hold teams accountable for their performance and are likely to prove unable to motivate others. They are loathe to accept blame and responsibility for the consequences of their actions. As overconfident leaders they can be immune to negative feedback.
Narcissists, meanwhile, are significantly prone to counterproductive behaviour such as bullying, fraud, white-collar crime and harassment, including sexual harassment. And while they are good at dreaming big, they are less good at delivering on that dream. What to do instead then?
Going forward
Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that, given this picture, the last thing we should be doing, if we want to improve the quality of our leaders, is to help women contenders become ‘more like the men’!
Secondly, Emotional Quotient (EQ), or emotional intelligence is acknowledged as the best single measure of people skills, which are key to getting the best out of other people, the distilled task of leadership. And people with a higher EQ are generally more effective in leadership roles. This is the proxy we should be using to predict leadership success, not levels of confidence.
Thirdly, the three important leadership competencies that are enabled by higher EQ are found at higher rates in women. These are transformational leadership, personal effectiveness and self-awareness.
So, in essence, we need to
Stop using confidence as a proxy for competence
Stop being dazzled by attractive qualities at the point of selection, and select instead for the personality traits and other factors that predict success once in the role
Avoid prompting narcissists and psychopaths to positions of leadership
Stop looking at leadership potential through a gendered lens
Start to appreciate some of the qualities that are more typically, but obviously not exclusively, found in woman that correlate with successful leadership, and look for them in our selection processes.
Those interested to explore this topic further are referred to Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2019) Harvard Review Business Press. All statistics quoted and other assertions made are referenced in this text.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Thought Provoking’
THREE CHANGE STRATEGIES IN ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT: DATA-BASED, HIGH ENGAGEMENT, AND GENERATIVE BY GERVASE R. BUSHE & SARAH LEWIS
This article categorizes organization development approaches to change management into three strategies, explains their differences, and when each might be most appropriate. It focuses on the differences between two change strategies that utilize the same methods and are associated with a Dialogic OD mindset: high engagement and generative. Brief case examples follow descriptions of the high engagement and generative change strategies. The differences in roles and activities of leaders (sponsors), change agents, and those affected by the change are identified. Propositions about when each strategy is appropriate are offered. The generative change strategy is the newest and least discussed in the change literature, and we describe essential differences that make it the most rapid and transformational catalyst for change. However, generative approaches are of limited value when high levels of interdependence or significant capital outlays require central coordination of change. In such cases, one of the other strategies is a better choice.
Please find below an article co-authored by Gervase Bushe and myself recently accepted for publication in the Leadership and Organization Development Journal, Jan 2023 - Sarah Lewis
Bushe, G.R. and Lewis, S. (2023), "Three change strategies in organization development: data-based, high engagement and generative", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-05-2022-0229
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited. This AAM is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publisher.
How Appreciative Inquiry Supports Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
The words are easy: we want to create a diverse and inclusive culture, that promotes equality of access and opportunity. The business case for creating a work environment that is inclusive of difference, that honours and makes good use of diversity, and that manages itself in such a way that all employees feel they are fairly treated, has long been made. The challenge is how to achieve such an environment. I want to briefly consider how using Appreciative Inquiry can support the development of such a culture.
The words are easy: we want to create a diverse and inclusive culture, that promotes equality of access and opportunity. The business case for creating a work environment that is inclusive of difference, that honours and makes good use of diversity, and that manages itself in such a way that all employees feel they are fairly treated, has long been made. The challenge is how to achieve such an environment. I want to briefly consider how using Appreciative Inquiry can support the development of such a culture.
Appreciative Inquiry can be seen to support the development of inclusive, diverse and equitable cultures in two ways. Firstly, there is the method itself.
The Whole System in the Room
The core appreciative inquiry summit process is predicated on inclusion, on getting the whole system in the room. This means that lots of people who might not usually get invited to ‘change planning’ events are included, right from the beginning. From very early in the process they have the opportunity to contribute ideas, participate in discussions and to influence outcomes; in effect, to have a voice.
Conscious Make Up of Groups
This propensity towards inclusion can be further activated by conscious actions and decisions. For example, care can be taken when assembling the event planning group to bring together a group that reflects the diversity of the organization. Similarly, when selecting individuals for preliminary interviews can be taken to ensure the views of a wide range of people are heard.
Including Those On The Periphery
In addition, inclusion is enhanced by drawing the organization’s attention to groups that are on the periphery of the organization, and who might normally be discounted as part of the organization. This can include groups like teachers’ assistants, temporary, contract or agency workers, part-time staff or those who work offsite or remotely. Making efforts to expand the manager’s sense of the boundaries of the organization to include such groups helps with inclusion, diversity and equality. These actions often positively diversify the race and gender mix in the room. However, while presence is a predeterminant of the possibility of inclusion, it is another thing to ensure that all those involved have a voice at the event or during the process.
Creating Psychological Safety With A Positive Atmosphere Of Engagement
From research in this area, we know good quality conversation is more likely to happen in a positive atmosphere. A positive atmosphere is one where people are focussing on finding commonality, where they appreciate each other’s strengths and are focused on learning together and sharing successes. This can be seen as creating a sense of psychological safety which is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and that there is a shared belief held by members of a group working together that it is safe for individuals take interpersonal risks.
By contrast, people are less likely to feel safe to speak out in an atmosphere focused on competitive idea pitching, destruction of the ideas of others, and the establishment of the superiority of the intellectual apparatus of one person over another. This latter atmosphere tends to create a high degree of compliance to the dominant idea expressed by the most powerful person in the room. In such an atmosphere dissent is dangerous and can unleash a highly critical dismantling of opposing positions, a huge disincentive to further engagement for many. Those of equal power to the speaker may relish this, but others are likely to be silenced, even just by witnessing another being attacked in this manner. In this way difference and variety in the group is diminished.
The Appreciative Inquiry process, however, is interested in difference, which is seen as bringing value and resource to the group. Within appreciative inquiry processes there is no pressure to all ‘sing from the same hymn sheet,’ indeed, exploration of difference is seen as key to the process of discovering attractive ways forward. This means that the tacit knowledge of the world brought by people with different backgrounds, experiences and cultural understanding from the dominant group can be brought to bear on the challenge. Rather, than is so often the case, being a level of difference that needs to be minimised to enable ‘fitting in’ at work, an experience dramatically brought to life in the recent novel ‘Assembly’ by Natasha Brown.
Culture Change Rather Than Individual Change
Saiyyidah Zaid, a consultant in the area of diversity, inclusion and equality points out that a purely person-centred approach to improving diversity, equality and inclusion practice and culture has been tried and tested in academia, organizations and community arenas and has had limited effectiveness. In other words, trying to change the behaviour of particular individual’s rarely works to promote a fully inclusive environment. Appreciative inquiry works to create change at a group or cultural level.
The second way we can use Appreciative Inquiry to enhance diversity, inclusion and equality is through a project focused on enhancing this culture. In other words, the affirmative topic might be something like: A Voice for All; Respect in Action; I, We, Us. Or some other phrase that resonates with the diverse, equal and inclusive culture the organization wants to create. The discovery phase would focus on the best experiences people have had of feeling seen, valued and heard. The dream would imagine a future where the desired culture already exists and explore how it operates, how it feels, what it creates, releases, allows and so on. The design phase would consider what the organization needs to change about its current way of being or operating to make those futures more likely. And the destiny phase would incorporate a new orientation towards a more inclusive, diverse and equitable future, and actions to move towards it.
In this way, I believe Appreciative Inquiry has a lot to offer those wishing to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, published by BMI Publishing, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’, published by Pavillion, ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management', published by Kogan Page.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Positive Organisational Culture’
Working with the Organisation’s Shadowside: Helping organisations discuss the undiscussable?
At the recent EU AI network meeting some colleagues and I fell into a conversation about working with the organisational shadowside. I thought it was interesting enough to share.
What is the organisational shadowside?
While discussion our work, we identified a common experience, when working with faith organisations, of encountering such a strong surface ‘story’ about what it meant to be a good person of this faith that it was impossible for the organisation to talk about actions and feelings in the organisation that didn’t fit that story. In one example it was the hurt, anger, betrayal, resentment and other difficult feelings following a round of redundancies that had taken place the previous year that was unmentionable. In another it was the difficulty of working and living within the constraints of monastic vows that was pushed under the carpet. The challenge we encountered wasn’t the stories themselves, it was the sense that we were being drawn into a secret or ‘shadow’ conversation that couldn’t be fitted into the accepted organisational story.
At the recent EU AI network meeting some colleagues and I fell into a conversation about working with the organisational shadowside. I thought it was interesting enough to share.
What is the organisational shadowside?
While discussion our work, we identified a common experience, when working with faith organisations, of encountering such a strong surface ‘story’ about what it meant to be a good person of this faith that it was impossible for the organisation to talk about actions and feelings in the organisation that didn’t fit that story. In one example it was the hurt, anger, betrayal, resentment and other difficult feelings following a round of redundancies that had taken place the previous year that was unmentionable. In another it was the difficulty of working and living within the constraints of monastic vows that was pushed under the carpet. The challenge we encountered wasn’t the stories themselves, it was the sense that we were being drawn into a secret or ‘shadow’ conversation that couldn’t be fitted into the accepted organisational story.
Another colleague expanded the conversation by added her experience working with ‘vocational’ organisations like charities, noting how she had found that an excess of ‘passion’ about the work or the clients was used to excuse bullying behaviour. Of course, we noted, all organisations have topics and parts of their history that are difficult to address, but these types of organisations seemed to have an extra factor of difficulty in acknowledging and owning organisational imperfections.
What is particular about these organizations?
Reflecting on this led us to the observation that these organisations could all be described as striving towards a greater good. In a way the organizations didn’t just want to do good, they needed to be good. This purity of spirit allowed little room for imperfections of spirit. But the organizations were full of people, and people have plenty of imperfections. It was this, we postulated, that made it hard for the organisation and the people in it to bring their stories together. The lived experience of troubling feelings and actions was pushed into the shadow.
So as Appreciative Practitioners, our challenge was, how to bring these two conversations into the same space in a fruitful and appreciative way? We needed to be able to have a conversation that acknowledged and owned people’s experience of the difficulties that come with being human that also honoured the organisation’s story of itself as essentially ‘good’. Somehow, within the container of a specific safe space, we needed it become permissible to name and share the challenging parts of life in this group while upholding the values and beliefs of the organisation about its purpose and its ‘spirit’ of being. The organisation, and the people, needed to be able to own the whole.
We felt that this idea of permission, permission to tell the untellable stories and of being heard, was key to joining the two conversations together. We discussed and shared different approaches and techniques we had used, recognising that what worked in one context wouldn’t necessarily have the same impact in another; that we needed, in all situations, to enact situational sensitivity.
Some of the approaches we identified that we had found helpful in the past were
Validating but not amplifying. One of us had found that creating an opportunity for people to share difficult stories in individual interviews meant that they could tell their story of the ‘bad things’ going on before the group event. This meant that the story/ experience could be heard and acknowledged, without being amplified within a group setting. It was also noted that the sense of having ‘deposited ‘the story with the facilitator beforehand seemed to act to reduce the anxiety and so likelihood of someone being driven to just blurt something out. Instead, the facilitator could create opportunities for people to choose to share difficult material within a generally appreciative and positive oriented event, at an appropriate time.
Problem and Solution Tree. One of us had also worked with a ‘problem tree’ and ‘solution tree’ process, drawing on the work of David Shaked, which worked to bring both problem and aspiration visibly into the same space in relation to each other.
Working with hopes and fears. The allowed the fears (of getting together to have a tricky conversation for example) to be named. It was found that allowing them to be named worked, in the specific context described, to lessen their strength and their impact. Naming and recording these hopes and fears also allowed for regularly monitoring of changes in group concerns and helped appreciation that hopes were being realised and fears ameliorated.
In addition,
We noted in these situations it can be helpful to work in small groups a lot, and of course, to always be focused on creating questions that move the discussion and conversation towards connection, creation and compassion.
We also reminded ourselves of the value, frequently, in checking assumptions underlying conversational contributions and people’s mental maps
And we noted the importance of exercising contextual intelligence. That is, recognising that the story is bigger than the people in the room and systems, for example, often mirror the tensions in the bigger system.
Since our conversation I have been reminded of how story is the key resource with which we are so often working. The question often is how we can help the group move from its current story or stories towards something that is inclusive of a wider experience. One that recognises forces at play beyond those in front of us, or that recognises good intentions can be behind bad actions.
I find this an interesting topic, and I hope this has been interesting for you too.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Positive Organisational Culture’
Highlights from ABP conference
At the ABP conference on the 10th and 11th of November, I was struck by the professionalism of the presenters and the high standard of their content. I wanted to share a few of the ‘nuggets’ I picked up with you.
The ‘know it all’ and ‘learn it all’ culture difference
Matthew Syed introduced these two terms, the first reflecting a fixed mindset. The ‘know it all’ mindset can have some adverse effects:
At the ABP conference on the 10th and 11th of November, I was struck by the professionalism of the presenters and the high standard of their content. I wanted to share a few of the ‘nuggets’ I picked up with you.
The ‘know it all’ and ‘learn it all’ culture difference
Matthew Syed introduced these two terms, the first reflecting a fixed mindset. The ‘know it all’ mindset can have some adverse effects:
Everyone wants to look like the smartest person in the room, it’s all about showing off what you know, not being interested in what others might know.
The competitive attitude undermines psychological safety.
The need to be right can lead to ‘blame the customers’ mindset.
And, as very often ‘people like us’ sound more intelligent, this attitude can lead to a monoculture in the organization.
Not great then!
The ‘learn it all ‘culture, more like a growth mindset, is much more interested in a diversity of knowledge and resources in the room, including the tactic knowledge that is part and parcel of different life experiences. It is this that enhances the ‘granular capacity’ of a group or organization to understand the diverse world of their customers and other stakeholders. In essence, we need a growth mindset and diversity to solve complex interdisciplinary problems. I thought these two terms very useful to summarise the difference.
Some fascinating takeaways
The 2-for-the-price-of-1 employee
Andrew Whyatt- Sames, introduced this concept of an employee which I hadn’t come across before. With a 2-4-1 employee, the employer gets the unpaid services of the partner at home doing all the domestic work enabling the employee to work ‘as if’ he or she had no other responsibilities. An arrangement which, not only takes us back to the 1950s, but, of course, also disadvantages all those employees who have to carry their own load at home.
‘Be nice to them or they’ll leave’
Summed up the message to bosses trying to revert to the good old pre-covid days of 7/5 office attendance. That ship has sailed.
Poor mental health on average costs employers £1652 per employee per annum
So asserted Maria Gardener while also sharing that Deloittes found a 5:1 return on investment in well being in their 2020 research. However, it depends how you spend the money. One size does not fit all, and an over reliance on sticky plasters and panic stations has little long-term benefit. Wellbeing needs to extend to financial wellbeing. You can offer your employees resilience workshops and mindfulness apps until they are coming out of their ears, but if you don’t pay them enough to make ends meet, then all a bit beside the point.
Ghost Meetings
These are non-existent meetings that desperate people book just for just to give themselves space to recharge in overpacked office days.
How to hack happiness
Amanda Potter from Betalent’s took us on a deep dive into the neurophysiology of both happiness and stress, with great suggestions for how to ‘hack’ happiness. I was delighted to see I was already using so many
Snacking on nuts and seeds supports acetylcholine production, a rebalancing chemical
Celebrating little wins produces dopamine. Yeah, I did it, I changed the filters on the hoover!
Chocolate. Okay, so my go to is a Lint Easter Bunny rather than worthy dark chocolate but I’m sure its just as good for the serotonin
And I’ve recently discovered Epsom salts in a hot bath – it was on the list, honest!
The decisive amongst us are 12 times more likely to be high performing than those plagued by procastrination.
Psychological safety
Amanda and her team undertook some research identifying the characteristics of psychologically safe teams or spaces, which include such things such as
Feeling personally connected,
Feeling included,
Appreciating and being appreciated.
While in psychologically unsafe teams or spaces people want to please, feel they have to be nice all the time, defer to leadership, are consensus driven, and seek consistency. All of which leads us back round to our opening idea of the ‘know it all culture’ with its premium on people who think like us and a lack of dissent.
My thanks to everyone. It was a great event, really one of the better conferences out there.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Thought Provoking’
How can we bring the benefits of Appreciative Inquiry to stuck change projects?
There are various signs that a change project has got stuck. One is that the senior managers are working all hours while everyone else is sort of waiting, not knowing what to do. Another is frustrated change agents pointing to the plans and diagrams all over their office walls while talking about their problems of ‘resistance to change’ and ‘lack of buy-in’. Yet another is a workforce that is demoralised, demotivated and rapidly losing hope of any improvement any time soon.
There are various signs that a change project has got stuck. One is that the senior managers are working all hours while everyone else is sort of waiting, not knowing what to do. Another is frustrated change agents pointing to the plans and diagrams all over their office walls while talking about their problems of ‘resistance to change’ and ‘lack of buy-in’. Yet another is a workforce that is demoralised, demotivated and rapidly losing hope of any improvement any time soon.
It’s not resistance to change, it’s resistance to imposed change
The fundamental issue behind stuck change is often that the wrong approach has been applied to the change challenge, typically that the organization has applied logical rational problem-solving to a challenge of a different nature. In brief, if the change challenge is a logical, rational problem then taking a logical, rational ‘planned’ or ‘diagnostic’ approach might work.
However, often the challenge is of a different order, for example, how to change ways of working, how to create a different culture, how to get people to be more adaptable, flexible, creative in their work. These can be seen as being ‘wicked’ or ‘adaptive’ problems, and they are generally not amenable to logical resolution. Instead, they need a different approach, something more emergent, more dialogic, more like Appreciative Inquiry.
ideally we wouldn’t start from here, but since we’re here…
With the planned change already underway, the challenge becomes how to introduce different ways of approaching change, like Appreciative Inquiry. The answer lies in Appreciative Inquiry processes rather than the well-known 5D Appreciative Inquiry summit. We are coming aboard a ship already underway and we have to negotiate such areas of influence as we can.
For example, I was once asked to help a company that was implementing a new IT system and hadn’t fully appreciated the culture change nature of their plans: the whole work process was being redesigned, some people’s department were closing and other people were having to re-apply for what they thought of as ‘their’ jobs. I was asked in once it became apparent that the project was getting very stuck.
I was able to negotiate a three-hour session with a voluntary group of front-line staff entitled ‘Making sense of the changes’. In which I hoped to address three questions: What will be different? How will it impact my work? How can I positively affect my experience and that of my colleagues around me?
The first question released an avalanche of stories of bad management: they don’t tell us what is going on, they are all too busy to talk to us, they aren’t doing this change very well. The Appreciative Inquiry approach is here to acknowledge this, but not amplify it, not inquire into it. Instead I asked, has this always been the case or is the experience you are describing more recent?
It took a few more minutes but then someone said, ‘It wasn’t like this when it started’ ‘How was it, I asked?’ ‘It was very consultative,’ came the reply, along with a recognition that their managers, the same people, used to be fine. ’So, what’s changed recently?’
This was a pivot point in the conversation which then moved to a focus on the change in circumstances rather than a managerial personality transplant. This important change in the story allowed for different ways forward, started to create hope and opened the way, later, to more fruitful questions such as ‘What fires can I light, what seeds can I plant to help this organization continue to be a great place to work`’ and ‘How can I contribute to help make the experience of change as good as possible for me and others? In this way the group become more appreciative of the fact that they had choices about how they behaved. In response to a final ‘what’s changed in the last three hours?’ question, people reported feeling more positive, more accepting and, paradoxically, also more assertive, more pro-active, more choiceful and braver. They had clear ideas about what they would do, in their own spheres of interest, to start moving the change process in a better direction.
Top tips
Here are my top tips for bringing Appreciative Inquiry to get stuck situations moving again
• Focus on what you can influence and help others do the same
• Attend to the stories being created about change and people
• Create and recreate states of positive affect
• Create, amplify and enlarge a state of hope and choice
• Co-create ideas for the future and ways forward with others
• Start where people are at and move to more productive place
• Use your attention as a resource, re-direct the attention of others
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Appreciative Inquiry’
How Positive Psychology Can Promote Children’s Wellbeing and other Benefits
Young children need to learn the skills necessary for managing their emotions. Adults who can model this are essential in helping to shape children’s emotional development. There is a strong link between mental health concerns in children and their ability to regulate their emotions. Assisting children to cultivate positive emotions helps to mitigate mental health issues not just for them but for future generations also.
By Ella Jackson-Jones
Marketing Assistant for Appreciating Change and part-time Nanny, writing from her perspective as a Nanny
As a childcare provider I see the benefits of incorporating positive psychology techniques and practices in all aspects of children’s lives from a young age. It helps support their emotional development, promote wellbeing, and build resilience that they can carry with them into adulthood. Generation Alpha children will have to navigate an ever more competitive, demanding and increasingly complex education system and job market, as well as cope with being embedded in social media with access to 24/7 news. They are growing up in a world of globally connected new technologies which will become part of their everyday lives, and that will ultimately shape their attitudes and expectations of the world.
Young children need to learn the skills necessary for managing their emotions. Adults who can model this are essential in helping to shape children’s emotional development. There is a strong link between mental health concerns in children and their ability to regulate their emotions. Assisting children to cultivate positive emotions helps to mitigate mental health issues not just for them but for future generations also.
Poor emotional regulation can manifest as behavioural or mental health issues in children such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, mood disorders, sleep disorders and neurotic disorders. Children are affected by life’s adversities, in particular those from lower socio-economic backgrounds or those who have experienced high levels of trauma, are more at risk of developing a mental health condition, with 1 in 6 children aged between 5 and 16 currently likely to do so. In addition, 39.2% of 6- to 16-year-olds have experienced a deterioration in mental health since 2017. Educators and parents are seeing the consequences of both an education system, and traditional parenting styles, that ignore the importance of the mental health needs of children.
An answer to some of the issues faced by children may lie within the teachings of Positive Psychology. It is already known that wellbeing is a clear indicator of academic achievement, success, and satisfaction in later life (Wise up: prioritizing wellbeing in schools) and it is possible to support the wellbeing of children through our interactions with them both in and out of school. Research into the effects of positive psychology interventions in young people is still in its infancy, however there are systematic reviews that suggest these interventions benefit the wellbeing of children now and the children of future generations.
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is a method that aids both children and adults to recognise, understand, and manage their emotions. SEL targets 5 areas; self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. In time, working with SEL, children learn to establish and achieve goals, express empathy for others, engage in healthy relationships and make responsible decisions. . The benefits of this kind of intervention include better academic performance, improved attitudes and behaviours, greater motivation to learn, deeper commitment to school, increased time devoted to schoolwork, fewer negative behaviours, decreased disruptive class behaviours, reduced emotional distress, fewer reports of student depression, anxiety, stress, and social withdrawal. Organisations such as the Education Policy Institute are fighting to have SEL integrated into the national curriculum in the UK.
Another way we can attend to the social and emotional needs of children is by supporting them in the fostering of good and healthy relationships with others since the quality of our relationships affects our ability to have a happy and fulfilling life.
There are always ways you can practice positive psychology techniques with your children at home. I have listed some ideas below.
The Good Things List – Each day you can work together to write a list of 3 good things that happened that day which children can refer back to as they grow up.
Relationships – Make sure children spend quality time with parents, special relatives, and friends.
Random acts of kindness – Encourage your children to do one act of kindness each day and talk about how doing nice things for other people make you feel.
The Gratitude Jar – Assist your child to write down 5 things each day that they are grateful for and pop them in a jar, each week you can reflect on all the wonderful things they appreciate.
Goal chart – Create some short- and long-term achievable goals. Keep reviewing them and reflect on how you feel as your achievement list grows.
The strengths list – Discuss and write down your children’s strengths. Focus on some each day to help them improve their day or to help someone else.
Savouring the moment – Take a part of your child’s routine that you both enjoy and slow it down so you can really enjoy the moment.
It is possible and important for you to provide the tools and scaffolding children need to look after their mental health and wellbeing throughout their lives. By teaching them to focus on the positives and create happiness from the little things will help children be more resilient in times of adversity and mitigate against mental health conditions in the future.
The following sources helped inform this paper
Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, NHS Digital, 2020, accessed, https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2020-wave-1-follow-up
Mental Health of Children and Young People in England, NHS Digital, 2021, accessed, https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2021-follow-up-to-the-2017-survey
Young Minds ‘Wise Up’ prioritizing wellbeing in schools. www.youngminds.org.uk
Social and emotional learning: An evidence review and synthesis of key issues – Education Policy Institute, 4th November 2021, accessed, https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/social-and-emotional-learning
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Thought Provoking’
Optimism
At some point or another in life, we all face hardships, encounter adversity, and have to deal with difficult situations. However, it’s how we view and talk about these adversities that influences our wellbeing and outlook on life - a bad experience for one person may be a learning experience for another. Positive psychologist Martin Seligman explains how it is possible to cultivate positive perspectives in his book Learned Optimism (1990).
At some point or another in life, we all face hardships, encounter adversity, and have to deal with difficult situations. However, it’s how we view and talk about these adversities that influences our wellbeing and outlook on life - a bad experience for one person may be a learning experience for another. Positive psychologist Martin Seligman explains how it is possible to cultivate positive perspectives in his book Learned Optimism (1990).
Whether we are optimists or pessimists can be determined by the way that we talk about our experiences and the events that happen in our life, particularly adversities. Seligman describes this as our explanatory style, of which there are 3 aspects, permanence, pervasiveness and personalization. These are known as the 3 Ps.
The three P’s
Permanence relates to how long you believe any given situation will last. Those with a more pessimistic view in life will tend to describe bad situations as permanent and believe they will last forever. They will also typically describe good fortune as a fluke that won’t hang around. However, optimists will view setbacks as temporary, which enables the ability to accept situations for what they are and to adapt for the future instead of dwelling upon the past.
Pervasiveness is all about how widespread you perceive a situation to be. Pessimists will believe that bad experiences will affect all aspects of their life but that good things only happen in isolation. On the other hand, optimists will look at negative experiences as just one minor inconvenience instead of projecting it to all aspects of their life.
The personalization aspect of explanatory styles refers to the degree in which an individual attributes the cause of an event to internal or external factors. Optimists will consider external factors outside of their control when things go wrong and take credit for their personal achievements. Whereas a pessimist will look internally when things go wrong and believe the good times must be down to luck.
The benefits of being optimistic
There are many known benefits for looking on the bright side of life and being optimistic. Optimists are known to have higher levels of motivation and attainment, have better health and live longer than those who tend to see life through a more pessimistic lens. Studies into optimism and the perceived health benefits show that higher levels of optimism can be related to higher levels of engagement, less avoidance, better coping skills, and taking proactive steps to maintain a healthy lifestyle. On the other hand, pessimism has been related to health-damaging behaviours such as trying to avoid the reality of the situation (Segerstrom et al., 2010). In times of ill health, those of us who are optimistic may therefore take a more practical approach to recovery, rather than trying to avoid the situation or withdraw from those around them who may want to support us or be able to help. Optimists are also better able to put a positive spin on negative situations and experiences.
In the workplace optimism has been linked to higher levels of intrinsic motivation, goal focused behaviours, and a better ability to endure stressful situations. Optimistic persistence in pursuing goals may have beneficial consequences such as protection against negative effects and a greater likelihood of goal attainment (Solberg & Segerstrom, 2006).
So, the benefits of being optimistic seem clear, but what can we do ourselves to try and view things in a more positive light?
Can we learn to be more optimistic?
Being optimistic is not a fixed trait, individuals may have different levels of optimism at different points in their lives. It is also something that anyone can cultivate and change when they start to notice their automatic negative thoughts and begin to challenge them. People can work on changing their explanatory style once they teach themselves to become aware of the relationship between how they explain situations in their lives and how this affects the outcome of those situations.
Seligman’s adaptation of the ABC technique is a method which can be used to help cultivate optimism. The ABC technique stands for Adversity, Belief, and Consequence, and it is a way of breaking down our experiences in order to focus on how you get from adversity to belief. This stage of how you get from A to B is known as your explanatory style, and it is this that directly impacts how we react to situations. When we become aware of our pessimistic explanatory style, we can confront it and replace it with more optimistic thoughts.
For example, say you are struggling to complete a task at work because you believe it’s too complicated, this is the adversity. This adversity may lead you to the belief that you must be stupid because you can’t do it. Therefore, the consequence is that you stop trying to complete the task and your self-confidence may have taken a bit of a hit.
Sometimes it can be hard to break out of these negative thought cycles because they seem to happen without much conscious thought. However, there are some tips and tricks you can use to try and reframe how you think about those setbacks in life to work towards a more optimistic explanatory style.
1. See setbacks as temporary
2. Don’t over-generalize
3. Shift your focus from things you can’t change to things you can.
4. Take a balanced approach – there are always things you do well and always things you can change.
5. Acknowledge your own contribution
It is possible for everyone to reap the benefits of thinking more optimistically by acknowledging pessimistic thought patterns and adjusting their mindset. Once we are able to reflect on how our negative thoughts influence the consequences we experience, we can teach ourselves to think more positively about ourselves, our abilities and the situation when we encounter adversity. It is these positive beliefs that will lead to positive consequences, making way for a more positive outlook on life.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Positive Psychology’
How our pets have been helping us through difficult times, and what this means for the workplace
As humans we have been domesticating animals for tens of thousands of years, taming wolves for protection, horses for transportation and livestock for food. Our relationship with domesticated animals began for these kinds of practical reasons, however when we consider the definition and purpose of the pets we know and love today, it is drastically different.
As humans we have been domesticating animals for tens of thousands of years, taming wolves for protection, horses for transportation and livestock for food. Our relationship with domesticated animals began for these kinds of practical reasons, however when we consider the definition and purpose of the pets we know and love today, it is drastically different.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines a pet as “any animal that is kept in the home as a companion and treated kindly”. These days you’re likely to find people talking very affectionately about their pets, describing strong feelings and bonds and even considering them part of the family. In 2018 it was estimated that 44% of UK households owned at least one pet and the total number of pets owned was roughly 51 million (PFMA). Dogs and cats continue to be the most common pet in UK households.
However, the variety of animals people keep are pets has expanded considerably to include more exotic and unexpected species such as reptiles, rodents, fish, and birds. While not as obviously affectionate as dogs, some of these, such as bearded dragons and budgies, can, with enough time, be trained to bond with humans, reflecting one of the key features of pet ownership that we value: they cuddle us back.
During the recent pandemic with all but essential workers forced to stay at home, whether working or on furlough, many people found themselves with a lot more time on their hands, at the same time a lot of us felt more isolated, cut off from family, friends and missing the social interaction we typically experienced by going in to work. Pets seemed like an obvious choice to fill the hole of missing social interaction and indeed animal charities saw the volume of enquiries for rescue animals increasing by 253% across the lockdown period. By 2021 the number of UK households that owned a pet had risen by over 10% to 59%, with 3.2 million households acquiring a pet since the start of the pandemic.
This increase reflects the benefits animal contact or pet ownership holds against many of the challenges posed by lockdown, such as increased isolation, poorer mental health. Animals can help:
· Reduce our stress levels, non-human touch can reduce cortisol levels and lower blood pressure. This in turn increases our resilience.
· Encourage organisation and routine, pets require feeding and cleaning and dogs require daily walks. This can give pet owners a sense of purpose and keep them motivated, which can help alleviate some symptoms of depression and anxiety which can help boost self-esteem and wellbeing.
· Provide companionship, pets provide company, which reduces feelings of loneliness and isolation.
· Increase social interaction, having a pet can increase the amount of social interaction owners have through attending clubs and pet shows and making conversations on walks.
· Increase exercise, daily walks can have physical health benefits as well as helping with stress and depression and dog owners typically live longer and are less likely to suffer from heart disease.
Implications for the workplace
There has always been a small presence of animals in the workplace, assistance dogs for people with disabilities for instance, or companion cats in care homes. More recently though, a trend has emerged for more general pet-friendly attitudes or policies as organisations recognise the possible benefits of animal company to people and work. For example, a survey study conducted revealed pet-friendly organisations benefit from lower stress levels in the workplace (Naumann, 2016). The pressure to accommodate pets at work may increase as ‘pandemic pet owners’ push to be able to bring their animals back to work with them. Already we are seeing what might happen if workplaces can’t accommodate this, with The Dogs Trust reporting a 39% increase in calls from people wanting to hand in their pets and the RSPCA reporting that abandonment figures are up 20% in 2021 from 2020.
However, we need to bear in mind that the workplace needs to work for everyone. While some people love dogs and cats, and maybe even bearded dragons, and will gain great satisfaction and peace of mind from having their pets close at hand or from being able to interact with others’ pets about the workplace, there are many people who have animal phobias, or have experienced animal trauma, resulting in a dislike or fear of animals. While in others they may set off annoying or even life threatening allergy or asthma attacks. All of which means that pets at work might work for some but not others. Much as we would all prefer pets not to have to be given up as the world moves into yet another work phase, we also need, as ever, to balance the needs of different working groups and devise cultures, policies and ways of behaving that work for everyone to reap the benefits of pets at work.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Emergent Change’
Are we having fun yet? Why having fun is no frivolous matter
When I began this article, I was pondering why had I put myself through the mildly stressful (dynamic pricing of the chalet booking, the race to book limited places on fun activities), definitely expensive and logistically challenging experience of organising an over-in-the-blink-of-an-eye holiday for the group of adults ranging in age from 26 to 75 who currently constitute my family? The answer, of course, is that I keenly anticipated having some fun. Why though? What does having fun do for us? And what, exactly, is it?
When I began this article, I was pondering why had I put myself through the mildly stressful (dynamic pricing of the chalet booking, the race to book limited places on fun activities), definitely expensive and logistically challenging experience of organising an over-in-the-blink-of-an-eye holiday for the group of adults ranging in age from 26 to 75 who currently constitute my family? The answer, of course, is that I keenly anticipated having some fun. Why though? What does having fun do for us? And what, exactly, is it?
According to Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun, the feeling of fun is one of exhilaration or light-heartedness, of being energised and alive. She interviewed 1500 adults about their experiences of fun, and identified three factors common to real, restorative fun: playfulness, connection and flow. In other words, it is within our power to create fun in many different situations, rather than only when we are engaged in specified ‘fun’ activities.
True fun, she enlarges, is about feeling a lightness of spirit, feeling engaged with another person or people, and being absorbed in the activity. Price suggests we don’t necessarily need all three components to be having fun, but certainly one or two. This explains why it is quite possible to be rowing an open boat in a light drizzle towards a wet campsite with two small damp children, and still be having fun!
Why might fun be important to us even as adults? One answer comes from Barbara Fredrickson and her broaden and build theory. She asked, scientifically, what positive emotions were good for, and came up with some answers. When we are ‘feeling good’, for instance when we are having fun, we are boosting our resourcefulness and resilience for other, more difficult, occasions. A sense of achievement can boost self-confidence, new skills learnt might come in handy some other time - one of our party on this holiday took his first steps to playing bowls and pool, good for social skills and a confidence boost. Two others took up tennis racquets for the first time in yonks and rediscovered the delight of that skill as well as experiencing the pleasure of beating me hollow!). Fun also fosters relationships, allowing us to feel close to others as we laugh together, or share moments of achievement.
Price also exposes a widespread myth: that ‘fun’ is the shadow side of ‘work’ and so having fun is effortless, suggesting that your leisure time will just fill itself with fun activities of its own accord. Price notes instead, that unless you figure out how you want to fill that leisure time, you risk experiencing existential despair when the void within yourself becomes manifest. I know this feeling very well, as I suspect do many others. And I think she is right, fun isn’t just an absence of non-fun activity, it is a positive thing in its own right. It has to be sought and earnt.
Understanding fun in this distinct, positive way means you can work out when you have had fun in the past, and then proactively make more space for it in the future. With this orientation we discover, as with most things, that the more we look for opportunities to experience fun, the more we find. These can be both small moments of fun that we might have missed, and bigger opportunities to make things more fun, or more things fun.
My own observation is that some people have a real knack of making things fun. My own partner, the 75-year-old, has a strong competitive streak, but is also great at teasing and joshing which takes the intensity of the competitiveness down a few notches, making activities much more fun for everyone else. One of my sons, who could beat the two of us armed only with a table tennis bat, plays badminton with his ‘parental units’ once a week. I marvel at his willingness to do this, wondering what’s in it for him. Applying Price’s thinking I realise it’s the sense of connection and engagement we all create by not taking ourselves too seriously that makes it enjoyable for all of us, skill levels be damned. And he does consistently experience the pleasure of beating his dad!
It’s interesting to note is that all of these things: playfulness, connection and flow are active states. Passive activities, watching a good film for example, might be relaxing and enjoyable but are unlikely to transport you like good fun can.
How to use this knowledge?
· Think about your ‘micro-doses’ of fun. Five minutes playing with pets works for some people. Making someone laugh. Making funny faces to amuse a stranger’s baby (exercise with caution, but usually appreciated by harassed parents). Brief conversations with strangers in shops, at bus stops.
· Notice when your battery is running down and you need a ‘fun’ recharge
· Identify which of your friends are ‘fun magnets’, plan to hitch a ride on their fun train.
· Make sure you are rested enough to be able to have fun. Being distracted, over-tired, over-stressed, or highly self-critical, are not good places from which to start to try to have fun, even though having fun will probably help with them! And resentment, says Price, is a sure-fire fun killer!
· Avoid the trap of turning fun into work, and, most importantly
· Don’t allow fun to leach imperceptibly out of your life just because life got busy.
The launch pad for this article was an excellent article by Elle Hunt published in the G2 section of The Guardian on Wednesday 26th Jan 2022. She in turn called on the book by Catherine Price, The Power of Fun
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Thought Provoking’
How to do Management while killing Leadership
When people first enter management rarely are they offered effective management development, instead they are left to get on with it as best they can. Many of the behaviours they call upon have the unintended side effect of stifling creativity and of killing off nascent leadership qualities in their staff. This creates staff retention, talent development and succession problems for the organization as well as causing problems for the individuals.
How to do management while killing leadership
How managers squash leadership and creativity in organisations
When people first enter management rarely are they offered effective management development, instead they are left to get on with it as best they can. Many of the behaviours they call upon have the unintended side effect of stifling creativity and of killing off nascent leadership qualities in their staff. This creates staff retention, talent development and succession problems for the organization as well as causing problems for the individuals.
Some of the things they do are:
· Kill enthusiasm through micromanagement, coercion and disrespect.
· Kill excellence by focusing on weaknesses
· Kill initiative by having all the answers
· Kill good cheer through aggressiveness, lack of emotional intelligence, lack of empathy
· Kill understanding by using partial, inconsistent communication
· Kill commitment by setting individuals’ goals for them
· Kill creativity by punishing all and any mistakes
· Kill hope by offering no vision of a better future
· Kill optimism by problem focused appraisals
· Kill engagement by setting individual objectives that don’t align with group goals
· Kill performance by rewarding the wrong things and offering the wrong rewards
· Kill trust through unfair recruitment or reward decisions
· Kill growth in capacity and capability by working with the role definitions not the people here present
· Kill generative communication by using only the written word
· Kill working relationships by addressing relationship issues with only one individual
· Kill willingness by blaming their staff for difficulties and problems
· Kill leadership by desiring and rewarding only unquestioning compliance
Managers unintentionally cause problems amongst their staff because they don’t understand how their behaviour contributes to their staff’s poor performance. This supported by Steven Sonsino’s research into the failings of leadership.
Many managers believe that always knowing the answer is the expected justification for their salary. They don’t understand the many unhelpful consequences that follow from this:
· stress for themselves;
· a fear of being found out as a fraud;
· staff who stop thinking (why should I try to solve the problem if you are going to do it your way anyway);
· ineffective problem solving (the person who does the job is likely to have a very good idea about the answer);
· a loss of creativity, and the replacement of commitment from staff to actively engage with making things better with a passive compliance of ‘doing what the boss says (even though I know it won’t work).’
Similarly managers often believe that the way to improve the performance of themselves and others is to concentrate on their ‘weak areas’. Inadvertently all feedback becomes about people’s ‘weak areas’. The unintentional effects of this are many.
· Firstly we need to recognize that there is a limited amount we can do about weaknesses by the time we are 25+.
· The investment of a lot of effort and energy can result in remarkable little visible effect.
· It is demoralizing, confidence sapping and unpleasant to be constantly focusing on what you can’t do.
· People come to feel that they are under constant criticism, unappreciated, unvalued and unsure of themselves,
and all because their manager is trying hard to help them. In this situation people shrink into themselves and try not to get noticed, they stop volunteering to try new things. Sometimes they leave, and it is too late at that point to try to convince them that they are a valued member of the team.
References
Stephen Sonsino and Jacqueline Moore ‘The Seven Failings of Really Useless leaders. February 2007 MSL publishing
Feeling Tired? You need more than just a good’s night sleep.
Did you know that there is more to being rested than just getting a good night’s sleep? Dr Dalton-Smith has identified seven different forms of fatigue. Each one offers a different path to feeling restored, rested and rebooted!
Did you know that there is more to being rested than just getting a good night’s sleep? Dr Dalton-Smith has identified seven different forms of fatigue. Each one offers a different path to feeling restored, rested and rebooted!
Mental Fatigue
Mental fatigue is characterized by a sense of working through a mental fog, of making mistakes because you can’t concentrate properly, of feeling befuddled. This one I definitely recognize! A simple way to address this is to intersperse periods of intense concentration, each forty-five minutes or so, with short time blocks of ‘low level’ activities, like email and social media of ten minutes duration. This way you stop the attention destroying activities getting in the way of work that needs intense concentration, and, you give yourself little ‘a change is as good as a rest’ breaks from the more demanding work. Taking regular breaks to attend to the ‘low level’ work also gives you a fighting chance of staying on top of it and reduces the worry that something is lurking in your email that really does need attention now.
Emotional Drain
This is characterized by feeling you have nothing left to give to others. To help reduce emotional tiredness, you can reduce contact with people who you find draining, open up to more re-energising people a bit more and to try not to compare yourself badly with other people ( a particular danger of mindless social media scrolling). Personally, I often find ‘transit time’, either spent actively in a restorative action like reading or spent passively gazing at the adverts on the Tube while my mind wanders, helps regather energy for the next interaction.
Social Tiredness
Social tiredness comes from effortful socialising, being with people with whom we feel we can’t be ourselves. This is a subtle but distinct difference from emotional tiredness. Many of us find ‘small talk’ exhausting: I used to refer to social tiredness, after a busy day or week working with strangers, as being ‘all peopled out’. However, the way to recuperate isn’t just to avoid people, but rather to spend time with people, usually friends and family, with whom we can be our unvarnished self.
Sensory Overload
While you might think that sensory overload is only something neuro-diverse people suffer from, the fact is we are all susceptible to being overloaded with sensory input. For example, as we get older we may find that spending time in the noise and bustle of a busy market or bar, that we once failed to notice or even relished, no longer appeals or indeed leaves us in need of a lie-down in a darkened room! It also helps to positively notice and appreciate moments of quiet, or soothing images like a sunset.
Creative Exhaustion
In order to be creative we need space to think: minds all abuzz with to-do lists and deadlines can crowd out creative thinking. The way to get the creative juices flowing again is to build breaks into your days. Even a twenty-minute walk can help the crammed mind to find space. In general, focussing on something entirely different can give your brain enough of a holiday that it organises itself behind the scenes and creates ‘brain space’. I have been amazed how when I make myself set off on a walk along the river, convinced I don’t really have time for it, it changes things. I set off a cracking pace, only to find that as my mind starts freewheeling and ways forward on challenges present themselves, my pace slows. On my return to my desk I often feel as if I have more time, not less. It can be hard though when ‘in the grip’ of busyness, to make yourself take that break.
Spiritual Fatigue
We know we are in need of spiritual rest when life in general feels meaningless and pointless. We are restored spiritually when we feel really ‘seen’ by others, when we feel once again that we belong, that we are accepted, and most importantly, that life has meaning. For different people this will be provided by different activities: yoga or mindfulness, religion, or voluntary activities.
Physical Tiredness
This of course is the most familiar definition of tiredness. Physical tiredness doesn’t necessarily mean muscle fatigue from hard physical labour; long hours cramped over the computer can have adverse effects, causing tension and strain. What we need is incorporate small, but frequent, movement into our days. Little and often is the key here. This can be getting up and moving around, or just standing up and stretching, or even doing small movements sitting down. Working from home, I find it helpful to fit small household chores like emptying the dishwasher or hanging out the laundry into these mini-breaks: they give my brain a break as well as getting me to move about a bit.
Indebted to Emma Beddington’s article in the Guardian, who in turn interviewed Dr Saundra Dalton-Smith. A link to Dr Dalton-Smith’s free rest quiz is attached here. https://www.restquiz.com/quiz/rest-quiz-test
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Positive Psychology’
How a dose of humility helps leaders succeed
In our narcissistic world the idea that being humble can help us succeed sounds counter-intuitive. Isn’t being successful based on making sure our achievements get noticed?
In our narcissistic world the idea that being humble can help us succeed sounds counter-intuitive. Isn’t being successful based on making sure our achievements get noticed?
Well yes, but humility, it turns out, brings some useful things to the party. Let’s start with a definition. A humble leader neither over-estimates nor under-estimates his or her ability to relate to other team members, holding instead a ‘just right’ view of themselves. This fits with lots of research supporting the importance of self-knowledge to successful leadership: we need to know, acknowledge and take responsibility for our towering strengths and our yawing weaknesses.
Creates space for others to develop
Humility shows itself in a focus on others rather than self, through interpersonal modesty, through teachability, and through a willingness to express appreciation of others. This relates humility to other research showing the power of appreciation to help others grow. And supports the idea that a good leader knows how and when to get themselves (or their ego!) ‘out of the way’ to allow others to thrive and grow.
Increases team resources
We assess someone’s degree of humility when we see how they handle conflict, negotiate ideas, deal with power differentials, use wealth, receive honour and engage with cultural differences. I think we can all imagine the kind of person we would rather be around when these situations arise. Demonstrating a degree of humility in these situations makes it easier for the other person, helping them to be at their best in a challenging situation. In this way a leader who is able to show humility increases the resources in their system by allowing others to find their voice and develop confidence, indeed to shine.
Supports good team relationships
Humility, it has been established, is an important relational nutrient that helps people work better together by helping to repair bonds when relationships have become strained. Eating humble pie is an important part of maintaining good relationships with other people and is strongly related with eliciting forgiveness and building trust and commitment.
Enhances team performance
When a leader leads through example, but exhibiting appropriate humility, it encourages the whole team to relate to each other in a different, more humble way. They become more willing to evaluate themselves accurately, appreciate the strengths of other team members, and to learn from each other. All this in turn encourages enhanced team performance.
Complements leadership drive
Now here is the really interesting bit, research found that exceptional leaders who guide their companies into periods of productive growth and also successfully set them up to continue thriving after their departure, exhibit both drive and humility. What does humility add to drive to produce these exceptional results?
Enhances resilience
One theory is that humility helps to buffer some of the effects of competitiveness and drive, an excess of which is thought to contribute to the high rates of divorce, depression and burnout amongst successful leaders. Bringing humility into the mix allows for a balance of both competition and cooperation which enhances resilience. The humbleness acts to soften interpersonal relationships in such a way that the leader can engage in a highly competitive way without incurring the usual wear and tear on relationships. They are more supported and less isolated.
So, what does this mean for you?
As a leader
· If you already have the strengths of humility recognize it as an asset, not an obstacle, to successful, resilience leadership
· If you don’t yet have this as a strength, it may well be one to nurture
· Learn to use it in appropriate situations
o To strength the team
o To repair any damage to relationships
o To improve team performance
o To help others be their best
o To create virtuous circles of cooperation, ‘we’ not ‘I’ thinking that boosts team cohesiveness
As a consultant or coach
· Recognize this as a potential leadership strength
· Help your client become skilled in identifying situations that call for humility
· Assist them in learning how to exercise humility skilfully
Our strengths packs the Langley Group VIA Cards and Positran Strengths cards both include further information on this strength, how to work with it and how to develop it further, as does Ryan Niemiec’s book Character Strength Interventions.
Much of the material in this article was drawn from Davis, Hook DeBlaere and Placeres (2017) in Oades, Steger, Delle Fave and Passmore: The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of The Psychology of Positivity and Strengths-Based Aproaches to Work.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Leadership’
What Is The Most Effective Way To Achieve Organisational Change? New Research Results
Ever felt that the traditional approach to change doesn’t deliver the results you hoped? Wondered if there is a better way? Well interestingly Bradley Hasting and Gavin Schwarz[i] recently published a lengthy paper comparing the effectiveness of two different approaches to organisational development. One is the traditional mode, known as diagnostic, and the other a more recently developed approach, championed particularly by Bushe and Marshak[ii], known as dialogic….
Ever felt that the traditional approach to change doesn’t deliver the results you hoped? Wondered if there is a better way? Well interestingly Bradley Hasting and Gavin Schwarz[i] recently published a lengthy paper comparing the effectiveness of two different approaches to organisational development. One is the traditional mode, known as diagnostic, and the other a more recently developed approach, championed particularly by Bushe and Marshak[ii], known as dialogic.
Diagnostic vs Dialogic
The diagnostic mode is the traditional approach to change: gathering information, making a diagnosis, then planning and implementing an intervention. Diagnostic approaches are typically prescriptive and linear, recommending a sequential sets of activity. They are essentially a variant of Lewin’s orginal freeze, unfreeze, refreeze model of organisational development.
The dialogic mode refers to the large group, social constructionist approach to change like Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space and World Café. Dialogic processes follow newer theories of complexity science, suggesting that organizations are permanently in flux and change, and that the art of change is to help bottom level changes amplify and accumulate to become substantial changes over time.
The table below highlights the findings of the research. As you can see traditional, diagnostic methods alone didn’t do terribly well, reflecting in fact the commonly quoted figure that ‘70% of change efforts fail.’ Interestingly not only are dialogic approaches much more effective, but the most effective approach of all was to start with a diagnostic approach (that is to identify the topic and gather information) and then to oscillate with the dialogic approach. This approach delivered a 93% success rate – phenomenal!
How can we help organizations to reap the benefits of this joint approach?
Help is at hand: The Bushe Marshak Institute has published a unique series of dialogic OD guidance books. Each book is written by an expert in the field. I am very pleased to have been asked to contribute one on working with dialogic teams, as below
This book, distilled from my many years of helping organizations embrace dialogic approaches to change, such as appreciative inquiry, gives guidance from the point of entry through to setting up the first dialogic event. To take the planning group from their habitual diagnostic approach to something more dialogic, a lot needs to happen: this book explains what. The guidance is enlivened with a warts and all account of a less-than-prefect-but-we-got-there-in-the-end case-study.
My experience of working in this blended way fully supports Hastings and Schwarz’s findings. Many of my assignments have come off the back of diagnostic activity such as staff surveys or customer feedback or performance assessments. While these create the awareness of a need for change, they don’t always create excitement, energy and motivation for the possibilities of the future; rather the emphasis can be on fixing the problem. Instead, taking the diagnostic as a springboard, I work dialogically using Appreciative inquiry and other approaches to creating better futures in an empowered and participative way.
This book shares all the lessons I have learnt on how to help planning teams see the opportunity offered by more a dialogic approach, and grasp it, so opening up possibilities and exciting futures for their organizations.
Where can I learn more?
The Organizational Development Network is hosting a session on ‘Getting Ready for a Dialogic Intervention’ on Thursday October 7th at 1700 UK time. See details here
[i] Hastings and Schwarz (2021) Leading Change Processes for Success: A dynamic Application of Diagnostic and Dialogic Organisational Development. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Studies 1-29.
[ii] Bushe and Marshak (2015) Dialogic Organizational Development.Berrett-Koehler
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Emergent Change’
Ten Top Tips For Online Training
Like many others, over the past months I have delivered a lot of training online that I would normally have delivered in person. Here are some of the things I learnt.
1. Breaks
Resolve to take a break of 10 minutes every hour. It is constraining and exhausting being stuck in one position with a fixed gaze. The last course I ran, one of the spontaneous comments made was, ‘what I love about this course is the breaks.’ Well, good to know I’d got something right!
Like many others, over the past months I have delivered a lot of training online that I would normally have delivered in person. Here are some of the things I learnt.
1. Breaks
Resolve to take a break of 10 minutes every hour. It is constraining and exhausting being stuck in one position with a fixed gaze. The last course I ran, one of the spontaneous comments made was, ‘what I love about this course is the breaks.’ Well, good to know I’d got something right!
2. Break it up
The same principles apply as in regular training, break it up. Break out rooms at a minimum, but I also incorporate video input, brainstorming and whiteboard work. I know everyone has their favourite extra tool, but mine is Deckhive with its terrific array of card decks. Powerpoint is no more engaging online than in the classroom, keep it to the necessary minimum
Hot News: 3rd Nov 13.00. Webinar on the Positive Organisational Development Cards.
3. Sidebar conversations
In live training sessions delegates appear before and after the workshop, or during breaks to pick your brains about their own dilemma or to clarify a point they haven’t understood, or to tell you how the theory or research just presented is wrong, in their experience. These are valuable conversations that, if not accommodated, can easily bore the pants off the rest of the group. Offer to arrive early and leave late, as you would in a classroom, and be prepared to have one-to-one conversations as necessary outside the workshop sessions
4. Insist on presence
Some workplaces clearly allow people to ‘attend’ meetings or training with their camera off. Hopeless! I know people occasionally need to go dark, if they are eating or if their Wi-Fi is sulking, but as a general rule it is vital that all present can see and be seen. I recently attended an online conference where the ‘attendance’ of fifteen people was revealed, when they were all asked to self-select into zoom rooms, to actually be six. You don’t want to be wasting your breath and you don’t want people missing great chunks of your wisdom!
5. Make it interactive
I know it can be clumsy when two people speak at once, but I much prefer that risk to the destruction of spontaneity and connection when everyone sits with their mics off, and then fumbles to switch them on as we all bellow ‘You’re on mute!’ at them. Obvious it wouldn’t work for very large groups, but in general I prefer to deal with the chaos than to have to monitor raised hands (another button people can’t always find in a hurry). Keep the large group discussions short, but lively.
6. Networking is still important
Incorporate networking type questions into your training as morning fire-lighters. Mix the groups up for each breakout session, allowing a few minutes for introductions each time. Do introductions.
7. Keep it short
It has pretty much been established that zoom interaction is exhausting. Transferring the two day programme to online delivery needs to be rethought. I have tried two methods. One is to break the material up into maximum four hour chunks, delivered over a period of days, often not sequential, and with plenty of breaks. I won’t do a session longer than four hours. I have also taken material out of the presentation and made it available offline, to be accessed between sessions. I have found LOOM invaluable here as I can record presentations for participants to watch as and when, which we can then discuss in class. I also sometimes provide written material. Keep the workshop time for the interactive, experiential, learning.
8. Use your positive psychology
Your psychological knowledge is as relevant here as in the classroom. Attend to creating positive mood, to developing relationships, to creating points of connection and high-quality interactions. Think how you can maximise the use of your strengths in this different environment.
9. Manage their expectations of you
I don’t know about you but when I’m thinking and talking and engaging with the participants, I find it hard to also monitor the chat bar, or questions feed or be scanning for the raised hand. I make it clear that they are welcome to use the chat bar, but I will only be looking at it in the breaks, if then. I find I still have to talk aloud to organise or sequence my actions sometimes ‘So I’m going to put the link to the app in the chat, then I’m going to share the instructions on screen, then I’ll put you into zoom groups.’ I find it very helpful if a group member feels emboldened enough to ask ‘How long have we got’ before they all disappear into their groups!
10. Be human
The more comfortable you are dealing with the glitches, mistakes and challenges of working online, the more comfortable your participants with be their own technical adventures, and the less distracted they’ll be by them. You are a training professional or subject matter expert, not an IT wiz. On the rare occasion someone can’t access an app I’m using, I’ve found groups are quick to find a work around, such as screen-sharing, so we can all get on with the task in hand.
Other Resources
Sarah Lewis is the owner and principal psychologist of Appreciating Change. She is author of ‘Co-Creating Planning Teams For Dialogic OD’, ‘Positive Psychology in Business’ ‘Positive Psychology at Work’ and ‘Positive Psychology and Change’ both published by Wiley. She is also the lead author of 'Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management'.
APPRECIATING CHANGE CAN HELP
Appreciating Change is skilled and experienced at supporting leaders in working in this challenging, exciting and productive way with their organisations. Find out more by looking at how we help with Leadership, Culture change and with employee Engagement.
For further information on these alternative approaches to change, please contact us or phone 07973 782 715. A selection of strength card packs are available from our online store.
If you want to know more about implementing approaches and processes that positively affect people’s happiness, engagement, motivation, morale, productivity and work relationships, see Sarah’s positive psychology books.
More blog posts categorised as ‘Training’ or ‘How To’
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Many years ago, there was a period of dislocation in my work life and I was suddenly scrabbling to relaunch my independent career with no work on the horizon. At the time we had very little savings and I was the main earner for our household of four. I was feeling worried and anxious.
A friend, who lived abroad, was briefly in the country and we had a chance to catch up. She asked how I was, and I started to explain my financial worries and work concerns. Abruptly she cut across me to say, ‘But when you’re working you earn good money, right?’