Shawn Achor spent over a decade at Harvard University, first as a student from Waco, Texas, and then as proctor and instructor. Along the line, a question formed in his mind about why so many Harvard students had so much stress-related unhappiness, when they had so much going for them. His studies of the issue are nicely summarized in this Eric Barker posting, featuring Shawn's TED talk on the subject. The basic finding is that success is based on happiness, and not the other way around, and that happiness is very much a mindset, that can be learned.
For the convenience of the healthy business community, I will summarize the key messages from Achor's book, The happiness advantage: the seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. Perhaps the most important insight is that, over recent years, brain science has overturned the previous belief that human minds are formed early in life, and then are nearly impossible to change. Now the prevailing scientific notion is neuroplasticity, based on countless demonstrations of the flexibility, and teachability of the mental faculties throughout life.
Based on a mountain of scientific research, Achor gives us seven principles to bring happiness to the effort of creating and maintaining healthy businesses:
1. The happiness advantage - There are many definitions of the elusive concept of happiness, even though it is one of the foundational concepts in the US Constitution. Martin Seligman, a leader in the field positive psychology, has created a practical, useful definition: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. This is a good definition from the point of view of the workplace, where many studies have shown that happiness corresponds to measurable improvements in productivity and innovation. Achor provides suggestions for how to increase happiness, which include meditation, finding something to look forward to, consciously creating opportunities to perform acts of kindness, infusing positivity into your surroundings, exercise, spending money on others, and exercising one of your key strengths.
2. The fulcrum and the lever - "Our power to maximize our potential is based on two important things: (1) the length of our lever—how much potential power and possibility we believe we have, and (2) the position of our fulcrum— the mindset with which we generate the power to change."
3. The Tetris effect - This is named for the computer spatial game where players try to line up falling blocks before they hit the bottom of the screen. In this case, the point is that occasionally players get so addicted to this simple game that they start seeing situations like these falling blocks in all aspects of their lives. The well-known example is the video of the basketball players passing the ball back and forth, where people instructed to count the passes fail to see a person in a gorilla costume walking through the players. These are extremes, but the general fact is that people can become fixated in one way of seeing the world. If this happens to be a negative or critical stance (such as an IRS agent spending all working hours looking for tax errors and evasions) their mind will be so trained to look for errors, this carries over into other aspects of their lives. Again, the good news is that the brain can be retrained to become aware of positive opportunities, thereby creating health-provoking habits of happiness. Simple exercises like writing down three good happenings every day can create a positive habit.
4. Falling up - The principle of "falling up" is based on the idea that setbacks and disasters can elicit one of three general reactions. As Achor says, "On every mental map after crisis or adversity, there are three mental paths. One that keeps circling around where you currently are (i.e., the negative event creates no change; you end where you start). Another mental path leads you toward further negative consequences (i.e., you are far worse off after the negative event; this path is why we are afraid of conflict and challenge ). And one, which I call the Third Path, that leads us from failure or setback to a place where we are even stronger and more capable than before the fall." The third path exhibits the phenomenon of Post-Traumatic Growth, another aspect of positive psychology, as studied by Richard Tedeschi and his colleagues. This viewpoint and behavior comes more naturally to some than others, but fortunately, it too can be learned. Achor provides several techniques, including: changing your counterfact, and changing your explanatory style.
5. The Zorro circle - This principle of the story of Zorro, the greater swordsman and bon vivant, who worked with a coach who trained him to fight from a small circle before expanding the greater feats. The essence of this principle is to attain a sense of control and success, from which to build larger accomplishments. The self-control that is built up helps keep us from being mentally hi-jacked by the daily events and emotional stresses that can take over our reactions and responses to situations we encounter.
6. The 20-second rule - The 20-second rule is about eliminating barriers to change. This recognizes that common sense does not automatically lead to sensible action, but that acting on knowledge is the only way to achieve greater levels of success. However, as William James, the famous psychologist claimed, human beings are "mere bundles of habits". The problem with this insight is that creating good habits through sheer will power, are tapping into a limited energy source. Marketers use this aspect of psychology when they make "opt-out" offers that rely on the inertia induced by limited will-power to make passive ongoing sales. The "path of least resistance" is a powerful magnet, which can lead to endless procrastination. The 20-second rule can be effectively invoked by consciously putting "activation barriers" in place for time-wasting activities, and setting up situations so that desired activities require less resistance to activate (such as the advice "Sleep in your gym clothes" to remove a barrier to start exercise each morning).
7. Social investment - There is a tendency to fall back on personal resources in the middle of a crisis, which is the exactly wrong thing to do. In hard times, we need the support of our social networks most of all. Achor likens this network of those closest to us to the offensive line on an NFL team, without whom the flashy quarterbacks, runners, and receivers would not be able make the spectacular plays that win games and get all the attention. Achor provides a wide and deep variety of examples and techniques in the area of fostering social investment in the workplace, with the main point being that the worst thing to do when times get tough is to hunker down in the rugged individual mode.
These seven principles by no means operate in isolation from each other. For instance, "Social Investment can help us in our quest to master the 20-Second Rule, since strong social support holds us accountable to new habits." They can work together in a number mutually reenforcing ways. And, not only that, but the whole program of fostering the Happiness Advantage is very contagious. Those who we influence through positive attitudes and interactions, in turn influence others in a similar way. A big part of the mechanism for this stems from the important "mirror neurons" that light up in our brains as we observe the experience of others, just if we are experiencing the situation. This works in the negative direction as well, as Achor quotes Daniel Goleman, “Like secondhand smoke, the leakage of emotions can make a bystander an innocent casualty of someone else’s toxic state." The ripple effect can turn the Happiness Advantage into a significant business advantage. As Achor concludes, "By making changes within ourselves, we can actually bring the benefits of the Happiness Advantage to our teams, our organizations, and everyone around us."
For more on the subject of positive psychology, as developed by Martin Seligman and his colleagues, here is a good starting point.
Quotes taken from: Achor, Shawn (2010-09-14). The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work (pp. 64-65). Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
To get back to the discussion of forming habits, click here.
To get back to the hub list of healthy business factors, click here.
To get back to the discussion of businesses as living systems, click here.
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