EXERCISE 16.1
Happiness/Well-Being
Beyond Personal Silos
Purpose
To understand happiness and well-being as a multi-dimensional part of life that benefits from integration.
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45 minutes
Participants discuss the concept of well-being and how happiness is deeply affected by the application of other skills, such as self-regard. Participants explore how they live their lives in silos (such as work, family and community) and discuss the value of an integrated approach.
Outcomes
- Expand awareness of personal happiness and well-being
- Explore the ways that silo, or compartmentalized, thinking about one’s life leads to frustration and develop an integrated approach
Audience
- Intact teams
- Unaffiliated group
- Individual working with a coach
Facilitator Competencies 
Easy
Materials
- Beyond Personal Silos Handout
- Flip chart paper, easel, and markers
Time Matrix
| Activity | Estimated Time |
| Discuss well-being | 10 minutes |
| Explore the consequences of silo thinking | 5 minutes |
| Write individually; in pairs discuss integrating their lives | 20 minutes |
| Discuss as a whole | 10 minutes |
| Total Time | 45 minutes |
Instructions
1. Discuss the concept of well-being. Note that this is highlighted in the EQ-i2.0 with the well-being indicator, which gives a score for happiness and then highlights the relationship of happiness with four other key skills: self-regard, optimism, interpersonal relationships, and self-actualization. Team well-being is also one of the target goals of working with the TESI. Ask some or all of the following questions and write key points on the flip chart.
- What do you gauge your current level of happiness to be?
- What is well-being? How are the two related?
- How important is it to you to be happy?
- Do you think that every decision you make is in some way designed to help you be happy? If so why do you feel dissatisfied some of the time?
2. Explore the role that conflicting goals has in contributing to personal happiness as well as to frustration. Ask participants to take a look at their lives and explore how much they think of their lives in silos, such as one part is work, one part is family, one part is community involvement, and so on. Write key points on the flip chart.
3. Tell them the concept of silos is looking at one’s life in fragments and is usually divided functionally so they might think of their silos as being work, family, community, and fun. Ask what other silos they think of for their lives and ask them to make a list of the silos of their lives.
4. Distribute the Beyond Personal Silos Handout and ask participants to write about their lives first from a silo perspective and second from an integrated perspective, which could be defined as one life with overlapping needs, skills, interactions that co-influence to one integrated life. After fifteen minutes, ask them to form small groups of three or four and discuss what they wrote and their preferences and strategies for how to integrate their lives.
5. Bring the group back together and discuss strategies for viewing and living an integrated life.
My Life from a Silo Perspective
List the ways you think of your life: the work part, the family part, the community part, and so on. How does this view of your life serve you?
How does it interrupt the natural flow of your life and lead to frustration?
My Life from an Integrated Perspective
List the ways you think of your life as a whole with flow from one part to another and considerable overlap. How does this view of your life serve you?
How does it interrupt the organization of your life and lead to frustration?