Links between happiness, workforce and business performance

As usual I am about two issues behind with Harvard Business Review. I have however been perusing the Jan/Feb 2012 issue recently which has a Happiness Focus. This consists of myriad articles looking at the links between happiness, workforce and business performance.

Various aspects of all of this amuse and / or interest me:-

The small things matter...

In The Science behind the smile Gilbert tells us that “people are not very good at predicting what will make them happy and how long that happiness will last.”

The big things don’t make as much impact on us, for good or bad, as we assume we will, but instead “the frequency of your positive experiences is a much better predictor of your happiness than is the intensity of the positive experience.”

What does happen however is that “people are happiest when they’re appropriately challenged”.

Success is a moving goal…

In Positive intelligence Achor tells us that we can build up habits which are positive and which rewire our brain in ways that improve happiness and chances of success.

It is noted that “most people believe that success precedes happiness…” but success is “a moving target”. Individuals will keep on re-defining it, moving the personal goalposts, thus they don’t just achieve it as such, there’s always something more ahead. So it should not be looked upon as a prerequisite.

On stress and feeling overwhelmed it is suggested that people make a list of stresses they are under split into those they can control and those they can’t. Then they do a small positive action on one they can control to reduce it. This helps in then thinking productively and positively about the rest.

Vitality and learning

In Creating sustainable performance Spreitzer and Porath discuss the business benefits of a thriving workforce and discuss the components that make that up.

Thriving is about vitality and learning acting in concert together. Employees being excited about what they’re doing and also applying new knowledge and skills so that they grow personally and deliver business results.

Regular habits, journey’s and rewards

What interests me in all of the above is that it is the small regular behaviours that set up the best conditions. I’m a kind of ‘all or nothing’ person so I tend to do zoom / collapse and have a very hard time trying to condition myself into anything else for all I try. I much prefer journeys to destinations too. The striving for something is more fun and engaging than having got there.



Bibi's Cake!



Trees / Sunshine / Trips



However on the theory of lots of small good things equate to happiness I shall end this post with a picture of a few things that always work for me as rest, enjoyment, incentive or reward! In the happiness stakes, each to one’s own definition mind…!



Ancient History Life / Exhibitions