On a more positive note ...?

I started my positive psychology course last week. Which basically seems to ask 'what makes people happy and how can people live more fulfilled lives?'  One of the key points coming out is that about 40% of how optimistic/pessimistic people are is entirely under their own control -i.e. it's not genetic or controlled by external events. So, of course, it looks at strategies to help people control how they can feel more positive.

Something that struck me particularly given the current business environment was the advice to avoid over-thinking - to stop going over problems over and over again, as it just puts people into a downward spiral.

I connected this thought to a PR Week column I read recently which questioned whether the mass media have been irresponsible in their coverage of what I like to call 'the current madness'. How much of a role have the media played, they asked, by telling us over and over again that things are getting bad, by using increasingly frightening language such as 'crisis' and hence destroying confidence, creating panic and helping us to talk ourselves into a downward spiral and bring down house prices, share prices and entire organisations?

I then connected that thought to something I remember years ago from my comms degree about the effects of news. Which was that watching and reading the news tends to make people more worried in life, because by its nature, news reports negative events.

I then connected THAT thought with comments I've heard employees make in focus groups - not just recently but consistently - that the main message they take away from their organisation is 'It's tough. We're having a challenging year. It's going to be hard work. And next year will be even harder'.  I remember one person asking me "They always talk about 'engagement ... but how can we be 'engaged' when all we ever hear is 'life is tough and it's going to get tougher'?  And we hear that message every single year." I also often here people say they feel they are told about things that are going wrong, but rarely recognised for the things that are going right. Organisations, they say, should make sure they celebrate the good, too.

One of Kotter's 8 steps to effective change  is to create short term wins. To give people goals, however small, that they can achieve, and celebrate when those things have been achieved. So they DON'T just feel as if life at work is 'one long, hard slog', and no matter how hard they work, they're not really moving forward anyway.

More on this in another post, as this one is probably getting too long, but I wonder what balance you think your organisation strikes between giving out the 'competition is tough, it's hard, we need to change, it's going to get even more difficult' over and over again ... and celebrating and recognising success, too?

Sue

 

Comments

[Sherri Garrity]

I think there are two levels - the mass communication to all employees, and what staff hear from their individual leaders. Sadly in my experience these are often not in sync. I advise my clients to focus more on supporting their frontline and middle leaders to make sure a consistent, truthful and balanced message is getting out - and that all important feedback is going up!