5
Using Positive Psychology to Achieve Change at the Team and Individual Level
Introduction
Much of this book is devoted to exploring large group transformational collaborative approaches. However, many of the principles can be applied to help achieve individual and team development. We will discuss applications at the organization or large group level in the next few chapters; here I want to give some guidance on how to apply this thinking at the individual, team, or small group level, and to introduce some of the many particular techniques that have been developed in this area. Unlike opportunities at the larger system or organizational level, which usually have to be negotiated, opportunities to create change at an individual or team level occur all the time. Understanding a few key principles will help you to make the most of opportunities as they occur. We will then go on to look at ways of putting these principles into action.
Principles
1. Use micro-moments well
Life is a series of micro-moments. At a recent conference, Rath quoted a figure of 19,200 moments in a day (2015), all of which have the potential to change what happens next. Change is so often thought of as a big bang event in organizations, yet it can equally well be seen as the culmination of lots of small shifts in behaviour, lots of micro-moments where something different happens. Recognizing micro-moments as opportunities either to reinforce the status quo or to create change by saying or doing something different increases the opportunities available for achieving change. Making use of these moments greatly magnifies the resources being utilized to create change. In other words, the interaction doesn’t have to be labelled “coaching” or “workshop” to have the potential to contribute to change. At a very basic level, deciding to ask a question rather than state an opinion at a contentious point in a meeting can transform the conversation.
A key micro-moment occurred during a recent piece of work. The group I was working with were facing an ethical dilemma. It was clear that the product was declining and it was likely that the unit would close. Redundancy loomed. Human Resources were encouraging everyone to apply for other jobs in the organization as they arose, including the management. As I walked into the room of managers I knew that one of them had already secured another job. This wasn’t yet common knowledge among the group. I knew he was feeling very conflicted about this because he had told me so in a pre-conversation. Not long after the meeting started, another manager stated how he couldn’t leave his unit until the bitter end, that he was obliged, he felt, to go down with the ship. As a leader he felt this to be the only honourable course of behaviour. As he was saying this he looked terrible, very stressed. It was clear there was the potential for a very hostile and accusing conversation in the room.
Later in the session we began to address this as I asked them all to answer the questions “How can I be a good person in this difficult situation?” and “How can we support each other?” People began to speak about the issue and how they felt about it. Unhelpful metaphors such as “rats deserting a sinking ship” were beginning to feature in the conversation. The conversation was intense and heartfelt. I was attempting to open up options, trying to create an understanding of honourable behaviour that had more than one interpretation. We created enough space that the manager who had another job was able to share that information, and also that he felt very bad about it but felt he had no option, given his family needs and so on. So it emerged we had a group where pretty much everyone was feeling bad about the decisions they were making, feeling trapped, and feeling a strong need to justify their decision as the “correct” way to behave. It was a very classic example of the downward spiral of negative emotions, dualistic thinking, and so irresolvable issues.
The leader had been listening and contributing to the discussion. He could have said that one or other course of action was the more honourable. He could have told them that as managers they shouldn’t think of themselves, only of others. He could have suggested that their concern should be to ensure that their staff didn’t find other jobs and leave the unit in the lurch. Instead he said, “Do I want to leave? No. If a suitable job was on offer would I apply? Probably.” There was an audible wobble in the room. With this comment everything changed. The unthinkable became thinkable. If the leader wasn’t going to sacrifice himself on the altar of doing “the right thing” why would anyone else? The discussion opened up and we created a much more flexible account of “right things” and “honourable behaviour,” recognizing different people’s needs and priorities. Once the group was able to accept that different people would make different choices and that those choices didn’t make them bad people, it also became possible to recognize that everyone still wanted the unit to do as well as possible and that everyone would do what they could to achieve that, whatever their decisions about moving on or staying until the bitter end. To plan to leave was not the same as to abandon. From here they were able to move to what they could do to support each other as a group through this very difficult time. That was a leader using a micro-moment to make a huge change.
2. Kick-start self-renewing virtuous circles
Positive images, actions, and emotions can form virtuous circles of connection that then become self-reinforcing. “Through their words, actions and relationships, appreciative leaders start waves of positive change rippling outwards” (Whitney et al., 2010). Positive ripples keep magnifying and multiplying through relationships. When we are done well by we are more likely to do well by. When we experience positive emotional states we are more likely to help create them in others (and vice versa, note!). When we see others doing or being good, we are inspired to emulate them (Fredrickson, 2003). As the leader you may need to regularly kick-start these virtuous circles, but once started they will continue to have effect for an unpredictable amount of time in unpredictable ways.
3. Constantly renew positive psychology processes
Robert Quinn says, “Organization is always breaking down” (2015). In other words, organization is as subject to the process of entropy as any other phenomenon. The point of leadership, he suggests, is to counteract this process; in other words, to coordinate, connect, and generally help create coherence in a system. Importantly, this isn’t achieved by “knowing and doing” so much as by the leader’s “state of being … [or] … moral condition” (2015). As we mentioned in Chapter 2, a leader has influence through words and deeds. The important organizational processes that promote flourishing at all organizational levels are affirmation, virtuous practices, and positive deviance (Cameron, 2008a). Leaders need to constantly renew these processes by: noticing and connoting the positive (encouraging individuals, teams, and organizations to move in the direction of the positive); creating positivity (in the many ways described in this book, for instance); modelling virtuous behaviour (essentially being their best self in their interactions with people); creating hope and optimism (which will build the organizational psychological capital and contribute to resilience); and, by supplying support, encouragement, and positive feedback. Ideally, these ways of behaving become the organizational culture and everyone is able to create these psychological states and features with everyone else. Even so, organization is subject to breakdown, so the job is never finished. As the leader you need to devote time and energy to supporting, creating, and introducing ways to create and renew these positive psychological processes. A client quote from Whitney and colleagues’ research echoes this, recognizing that it takes work to keep up the positive because of a societal bias towards negativity; the client says, “If you don’t pump positivity into the system, negativity will set in on its own” (2010, p. 21).
4. Be the centre of a positive energy network
People want to be around people who are positive, who have a positive energy. Whitney and colleagues’ research identified different ways this positive energy is expressed; for instance, positive people make the best of situations and draw on what is positive in any situation. They use positive reinforcement. They find the positive in others. They let people make their own decisions. They exert a magnetic pull that makes others want to be part of what they are doing (2010).
5. Be appreciative
Recognition lets people know they are on the right track. Appreciation communicates and reinforces your values. Compliments foster a positive work environment. Gratitude is a verbal immunity boost; it is good for your health. Praise is good for the health of those you honour. Acknowledgement creates a sense of safety. Gratitude encourages risk taking and experimentation (Whitney et al., 2010, p. 137). It’s possible to reap these benefits for yourself as well as bestowing them on others. “Going fishing” for appreciation is when you let others know that you need a positivity or appreciation boost and ask them if they have any positive feedback they can share with you, and is a recognized mood self-management process (Pryce-Jones, 2010, p. 54).
6. Use language with care
Words are important. “The habitual language of business renders the creative spirit invisible” (Whitney et al., 2010, p. 151). People are stimulated, inspired, and excited by elevated language that speaks to the whole person. Use language, words, and stories that resonate with the heart and open the mind. The careful use of words helps meaning-making, can stimulate the collective wisdom, and can raise the awareness of everyone about the aspirations and ambitions for the future. O’Hanlon and Beadle identify a use of language they name “escalator language” (1997, p. 18). It is a way of projecting the best of the present into the future, so moving people forward. It can help move people out of problem talk. It involves listening appreciatively for the positive (which may essentially be the reverse image of the problem being described) and amplifying it as a possibility. He gives an example.
Someone says: I feel hopeless and lost and I don’t know what to do.
To which one responds: So you’d really like to get a sense of hope back in your life.
There are three steps to using escalator language: reflect back their concerns as preferred goals rather than as problems to be got rid of; use words that convey an expectancy that the desired future will come about; and, use phrases like “yet” or “so far” to suggest that at some time in the future the problem will end or things will be better.
7. Stay optimistic
Moods and behaviours have ripple effects. Pryce-Jones quotes Barsade’s 2002 research on emotional contagion and asserts that negative behaviour has a ripple effect to two degrees, but that a positive ripple spreads even further up to three degrees (2010, p. 49). We also know that managers’ generalized optimism is related to positive organizational outcomes; for example, higher future success expectancy, better coping with stress, and enhanced job performance and job satisfaction during and after downsizing (Armstrong-Stassen & Schlosser, 2008, cited in Ko & Donaldson, 2011, p. 146). As mentioned elsewhere in this book, this advice comes with a health warning that unrealistic or obsessive optimism can be counter-productive if not downright dangerous, but as a general principle being optimistic is good place to start from when working with people or teams.
8. Seek out the positive in people and situations
Look at people with appreciative eyes. Be aware that all their potential may not be readily available to the naked eye; instead one needs to uncover or discover the hidden positive potential, that is, the strengths, resources, passions, and abilities not yet being fully accessed. There are many ways to learn about the positive potential in people; for example, looking out for their strengths and capabilities, revealing patterns of behaviour behind high performance by asking about past successes, or listening for or inquiring into the dream behind the cynicism. Receiving affirmation for the best of themselves encourages people to become more expansive in their thinking.
With groups, you are looking to stimulate new connections in relationship or ideas. New connections can be generative, and in turn generativity is a feature of high-quality relations. When working with groups, help people of different views reach for “both/and” ways forward that combine the best on offer. Try new ways of doing things, ways of asking the question, or even new venues to stimulate new thinking. The brain wakes up when faced with something new, while the familiar tends to encourage lazy “following the existing tramlines” thought.
9. Challenge the unspoken assumptions
When people are locked in present difficulties they tend to become very demoralized and stuck, unable to imagine better times or to be creative in the present. When people are at a low ebb they often see the world through the unspoken assumptions that this is how it is, how it has always been, and how it always will be. However, it is unlikely that the issue has always existed, or indeed that it is fully present all the time right now. By forming questions predicated on these two assumptions, that things have been different at other times, and that the intensity of the challenge varies even in the present, you are likely to be able to shift mood and increase the ability of the person to gain access to their own resources and creativity.
To do this you can ask directly, saying for instance, “Tell me about times when you aren’t dealing with this problem? What are you doing?” or “When was the last time you didn’t have this problem?” Or you can ask comparator questions such as, “When is it least worse?” Further, you can inquire into the exceptions; for example, “Can you tell me about the times you don’t argue, when you can see the good in her.” You can expand this with compare and contrast questions, comparing when the difficulty exists, “I don’t feel motivated at work,” to when it doesn’t, “Tell me about when, in your life, you do feel motivated? Let’s explore the differences.”
10. Resurrect old patterns
As Quinn says, organization atrophies (2015). It is not uncommon for good strategies to become overwhelmed by time pressure, a change in personnel, or procedure and to fall, accidentally, into disuse. Only yesterday I noticed myself that my “ideal day” pattern, which involves two short breaks for exercise, including a brisk afternoon walk, had fallen into disuse due to the disruptive effect of being away for the best part of three weeks and coming back to a pile of work. As I write I am suffering a flare-up of my repetitive strain injury, a sure sign for me of being over-stressed. Typically, my response to feeling I have too much to do is to want to “bang on through it” and “just get it done,” which I attempted to do late one Friday evening, and here I am a week later still suffering the after-effects. It took me until yesterday to recognize that I had allowed a very good pattern to fall into disuse even though I know that, perversely, it allows me to manage my workload better and to avoid stress symptoms. Today I shall be taking breaks! So, help people find helpful patterns of behaviour from the past that might be useful now.
Positive and Appreciative Practices
While it is great to have an idea of general principles, it is also useful to be aware of some of the specific positive psychology-based approaches that have been created to help those interested in redesigning their human resource or organizational development processes to create highly affirmative experiences for organizational members. I introduced some of these in my previous book (Lewis, 2011), such as best self-feedback as an alternative to 360-degree feedback and various strengths-based psychometrics. In the interim I pulled some of the strengths-identifying resources together into a short article (Lewis, 2012). Meanwhile, this is still an emerging area as practitioners and leaders work out how to put theory into practice in the work place. Some of those I am aware of are outlined below.
1. Appreciative Coaching
Appreciative Coaching is a specific coaching approach based on the 5D model of Appreciative Inquiry (Orem, Blinkert, & Clancy, 2007). Working to their model, the commissioning or define phase works to shape the coaching objective as an appreciative topic or aspiration. During this period some time is spent reviewing the highlights of the coachee’s life so far and identifying what these highlights reveal about the person’s values and aspirations, both for life and for the coaching experience. The discovery phase is focused on helping coachees develop an appreciative view of themselves and developing their understanding of what “gives life” to them. “Peak experience” questions help to reveal people’s strengths and values, while inquiring into flow experiences will further enhance their understanding of the skills and challenges that engage them. Essentially, this phase is focused on discovering when they flourish at work and what makes that possible. The dream phase focuses on exploring and creating motivating visions of possibility, which are then worked into more concrete desires for the future. The design phase focuses attention on how they are using their attention, energy, and activity in the present to increase the probability of the futures they desire coming to pass, while in the destiny phase people focus on incorporating their dreams and achievements into a coherent and appreciative sense of self.
2. Performance appraisals
Few organizations find the process of appraising individual performance easy, or indeed effective. It is supposed to be a motivating, energizing, supportive process yet all too frequently becomes a disliked bureaucratic process focused on face-saving at best and scapegoating at worst, frequently producing the exact opposite effect to that intended as people become disheartened, demoralized, and demotivated. One of the many reasons for the poor performance of many performance appraisal processes is that they don’t acknowledge or allow for the socially constructed nature of the engagement, by which I mean there is a fiction afoot that “appraising” someone’s performance is an objective process, based on facts alone. There is also the fiction that we are highly autonomous agents completely in charge of our own destiny, meaning therefore any failure in performance is entirely down to us alone. This roughly translates as “if things go wrong that I’m doing it’s because of those other idiots, if things go wrong that you’re doing it’s because you are an idiot.” Technically known as the attribution fallacy (Jones & Harris, 1967), it is something from which we all suffer.
If we can take it as read that appraisal processes can’t be “neutral, factual, and objective” then we can give up the hopeless quest to make them so (that usually results in ever more paper work), and can concentrate instead on enabling them to perform their original purpose of re-energizing and enthusing people and giving them the opportunity to dream and shape how to grow in their work role: to produce positive change, in other words. A couple of new practices have been developed that approach the appraisal process in this different way. I would like to share these with you.
a) The enthusiasm story
This simple process is directed at the appraiser before any formal appraisal meeting (Bouskila-Yam & Kluger, 2011, p. 141). It invites them to recall a specific event in which they were enthusiastic about the employee in question, and then to recall that incident in as much detail as possible, asking: What happened? What specifically were you impressed by?
This exercise in itself can be a revelation to the appraiser, who is often to be found focusing on what isn’t happening that they feel they will need to talk about, rather than what is. I had a highly illuminating experience of this recently. It was a one-off coaching session as part of a development event. The young man, fairly new to management, was very concerned about one of the staff members he had inherited who wasn’t doing something the way he thought it should be done, and who didn’t seem to be making changes, despite his considerable efforts to direct her. We went around in circles for a while until I asked something like, “When has she most impressed you?” The answer was very quick to his lips. Shortly after he’d taken over she had achieved a very impressive sale. So my next question was, “How did she do that?” With a look of stunned wonder on his face he said, “I don’t know.” Hanging in parenthesis was, “and I never thought to ask.” It was a pivotal moment. You could almost see the mental readjustment as his view of this woman expanded from “trouble, failure” to include “astonishing salesperson.” He had a slightly stunned look on his face for the rest of the session.
Having accessed the story, the appraiser then opens the appraisal process by telling the story, saying something like, “I am going to tell you about an event where I was especially enthusiastic about you/your work. I would like you to listen to the event and to allow yourself to enjoy it without playing down your contribution.” Having done this, the appraiser then goes on to ask, “What else can you tell me about what was going on at that event for you? How was it motivating or enthusing? What about it seemed to bring out the best in you?” The conversation then moves into a discovery about this person at their best and what needs to be in place to help that happen. In brief the question is, “What does this tell us about when you perform at your best?” (Bouskila-Yam & Kluger, 2011, p. 141).
b) Feed-forward interview
This preparation enthusiasm story can be linked to the feed-forward interview. This is an Appreciative Inquiry interview process that is shown to yield new insights for the appraising manager and to reduce resistance to performance appraisals. It increases positive mood and perception of learning (relative to a control group) and increases ideas regarding possible actions an interviewee can perform to achieve a personal goal. It increases self-efficacy. The interview is focused on planning for future performance and development and is concerned only with positive experiences. Negative experiences, or corrective feedback, are dealt with in a separate meeting (Kluger & Nir, 2010).
The meeting opens with the appraiser or manager saying something like,
“I am sure that during your work here you have had both negative experiences and positive experiences. Today, I would like to focus only on your positive experiences.
Could you please tell me a story that happened at your work, during which you felt full of life (happy, energized), even before the results of your actions became known?” (Kluger & Nir, 2010). This last condition may seem a little odd but it is important to separate the motivating effect of the nature of the work from the rewarding effect of success. The question is designed to illuminate what is innately motivating and rewarding to the person. This is likely, in itself, to be a reflection of his or her innate strengths and it means strengths exploration can be incorporated as part of this process.
Staying focused for the moment on the idea of the feed-forward interview, the next part of the process is designed to explore in more detail what is happening when the person is really at their best and feeling great, by asking, “What was the peak moment of this story? What did you think at the peak moment? How did you feel at that moment (including your physiological reactions)?” The conversation then goes on to explore what the conditions were that produced this exceptional experience: “What were the conditions, in you, others, and the organization (physical, temporal) that allowed this story to happen?” And finally, the interview arrives at the feed-forward questions: “Recall the conditions that allowed you to feel alive at work. Consider these conditions as road signs or a beacon that shows you how to flourish at work. To what extent are your current behaviours at work or your plans for the immediate future taking you closer to, or further away from, the conditions that allowed you to feel full of life at work?” (Kluger & Nir, 2010, p. 237).
c) Empowering principled performance
Whitney and colleagues introduce the idea of principled performance to describe what is necessary for people to be self-motivated to work to a high standard, consistently (2010). They suggest that knowing and being able to use your strengths, combined with an understanding of your own performance principles, will result in consistently great performance. When people are working with their strengths and allowed to do their best they are self-motivated to produce great performance, indeed it almost becomes impossible not to. By the same token, asking someone in this situation to do less than their best is a great way to introduce dissatisfaction. For instance, I eventually came to understand that I hated writing “development reports” because, although it was a writing task, which I usually love, the nature of the task (data reporting) and the strict time constraints for each report meant I couldn’t exercise my creativity: I couldn’t write while thinking deeply; instead I had to just get the data down in one sentence after another. In other words, I couldn’t express my values in this work. As a lecturer, the speed marking of assessed work produced a similar intense sense of dissatisfaction with the standard of the work I was doing. To understand your principles, think about such things as what you believe creates high performance and what your standards of excellence are. You can help others achieve principled performance by helping them understand the principles that underpin their best work. Being able to exercise our principles as well as our strengths is what helps us be able to take pride in our work.
For an organization or group, principles are the overt expression of the beliefs that underlie the high performance culture. These need to be developed from the people present, not imposed from on high. Appreciative Inquiry discovery questions can help people and groups to discover the principles that inform their understanding and execution of excellence. This is known as revealing the positive core, sometimes expressed as “what gives life” to the organization. These principles, once discovered, can be written up as an articulation of “the best of the present,” known as “provocative propositions.” “A provocative proposition is a statement that bridges ‘the best of what is’ with your own speculation or articulation of ‘what might be’. It stretches the status quo, challenges common assumptions or routines, and helps suggest real possibilities that represent a desired image for the organization and its people” (Watkins & Mohr, 2001, p. 141).
When people feel they can work to their own high standards they are more able to take a pride in their work. This idea relates to Seligman’s recognition of achievement as one of the factors that enables people to flourish (2011). Asking people to reflect on and articulate their own standards of excellence fosters self-respect and accountability for quality and success. Asking people to articulate and work to principles liberates energy, creates dedication for success, and fosters integrity at work. On the other hand, telling people what to do breeds fear of failure. You empower principled performance across whole organizations by facilitating the discovery and articulation of shared principles. Without shared principles people do not hold together or work collaboratively (Whitney et al., 2010).
3. Appreciative check-in
Kline suggests that people discuss difficult issues better if they are in a good state of mind before they start (1999). Given what we know about the effect of positive mood states on cognitive and social processes, this makes perfect sense. Kline calls on this with her “time to think” methodology where she recommends that proceedings start with a structured round of good news (1999). Whitney and colleagues also suggest starting meetings with what they call an “appreciative check-in” (2010, p. 63). Asking people cold, who have never been asked before, to think of some good news to share before tackling the “work” agenda can be a little challenging the first time. Counselling a friend of mine who wanted to introduce such a round with her team before a difficult meeting but was a bit at a loss as to how to do so, I suggested she frame the exercise as it was, that is, an experiment that she would really like them to all try out with her and then they could see what they thought afterwards. We considered that maybe she might “confess” that she had never tried anything quite like this before but thought it sounded interesting. She was effectively calling on “trust and participation” persuasion to get people to engage. She was also being brave enough to do something different and to exercise her leadership role in a slightly different way from normal. She reported back that it had gone very well. Given how she had introduced it, she felt free from responsibility to “do it well” or indeed to ensure that it “was successful.” In the event, people had responded very well, and she, and they, had learnt new and interesting things about each other and lifted the mood. It had become one of their best ever meetings. People who have been using this practice for longer note the need to keep it alive as a process, retaining a sense of interest and novelty, so it doesn’t just become another “mindless” routine.
This exercise may not sound like much but it can be very powerful in switching mood and behaviour. I had a very salutary reminder of this not so long ago when I turned up for a meeting, my attendance at which I hadn’t negotiated very well and, if truth be told, about which I was feeling a little resentful. Unusually for me these days, my general mood was low. Not a great way to turn up anywhere and definitely not recommended as good practice! However, we started the meeting using the three successes exercise, in which I participated. Within 15 minutes I found myself a woman transformed. I was also consumed by remorse for the less than charitable thoughts I had been harbouring as I had endured the pleasure of the London tube on the way there: it was a salutary lesson indeed. The point I want to emphasize is that even though I am highly familiar with, and frequently use, the exercise as a workshop leader, I am rarely just a “regular participant” like this, nor am I usually engaging from such a low point, and the experience was highly illuminating. It is a very powerful mood shifter, is all I can say!
4. The flip
There is an Appreciative Inquiry process known as “the flip” that works to shift a push motivation to a pull motivation. Essentially, once someone has outlined what is wrong, you then say something like, “Ok, I understand what you don’t want/what the problem is/what isn’t working/what is frustrating” (being sure to demonstrate that you truly do understand by reflecting your understanding back to them, i.e., ensuring that you have actually heard their pain, frustration, hopelessness, etc.), and then say something like, “So tell me something about what you do want?” or “Describe to me how things would be if this problem didn’t exist,” or “If you woke up tomorrow and by some miracle the problem/issue/frustration had disappeared, how would you know? What would be different?” All of these and many others are ways of encouraging the person to talk about the dream instead of the problem. And talking about the dream is motivating, energizing, and induces positive emotional states.
Of course, judgement has to be applied as to when it is appropriate to attempt to “flip” the conversation. At the 2015 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference there was some concern expressed that sometimes it seemed that people didn’t want to even hear about the problem before moving onto encouraging people to describe the dream. It was pointed out that the problem story has value and meaning and must be honoured. I thoroughly agree, and I explored this conundrum in my earlier book on Appreciative Inquiry (Lewis, Passmore, & Cantore, 2007). Barbara Fredrickson puts it very well and, I believe, successfully squared this circle when she emphasized that “Positive Emotions act as a reset button for negative emotions that have outgrown their usefulness” (2015). Deciding when to introduce a flip question is a situated, context-sensitive judgement.
5. Prosocial organizational practices
Organizational practices are the “distinctive set of recurrent, patterned activities that characterize an organization” (Orlikowski, 2002, cited in Dutton, Roberts, & Bednar, 2011, p. 158). They shape how the organization’s knowledge is organized, how resources are created, and how organizational learning and organizational change occur. Dutton and colleagues make the point that organizational practices are linked to employee doing which is linked to employee becoming. What we want is to be promoting organizational practices that are conducive to the development of positive organizational or work-related identities, that is, for people to feel identified and aligned with the organization rather than alienated and oppositional to the organization. Prosocial practices, those designed to protect or promote the welfare of other people, provide a conduit for employees to participate in routine helping and giving at work. Helping others and contributing to a cause bigger than ourselves promotes flourishing. They report that engaging in prosocial practices at work often increases psychological and social functioning as indicated by greater persistence, performance, and citizenship behaviour on the job.
These prosocial behaviours are integral to how work is performed and make a huge difference to, for example, the generosity or otherwise extended to new members needing help, or the willingness of colleagues to cover for each other to accommodate life crises and so on. Prosocial behaviour can also be more institutionalized through schemes that encourage members to donate time or money to help others in the organization and the community, such as insurance schemes or donating free leave days to volunteer work. Effectively, these schemes create opportunities for people to experience themselves as good people and to feel good about themselves, both of which bolster mental health and are a source of resilience.
It should be noted that a slight backlash is emerging against these practices on the basis that they are a hijacking of the wellbeing agenda by the capitalist profit agenda (Davies, 2015). The warning is well sounded and I am wary of the clarion call that what is good for the business is good for the people in it. So whether you regard the phenomenon of people devoting some of their leave to do “good work” in the community with the support of the organization as the spreading of general good where everyone wins, or as the exploitation of the willing for more nefarious ends, is a personal and ethical dilemma. However, the evidence that helping others creates a rich reward in wellbeing for most of us seems fairly clear.
6. Seeking out the root cause of success
There are many established processes to lead us to the root causes of failure; somewhat fewer to lead us to the root causes of success. Working to establish root causes of success is linked to the idea of positive deviance, that is, a deviation from the norm in a positive direction. Taking an interest in positive deviation is one of the defining characteristics of a flourishing organization (Cameron, 2008a). It encourages us to expand our organizational learning orientation from “Why did that go wrong?” to include “Why did that go right?” Positive deviance is seen as the growing tip of organizational behaviour. At the growing tip lies the greatest potential for future learning and growth (Ben-Shahar, 2015). The key point is that the causes of success are not only, or necessarily, the polar opposites of the root cause of failure (see Box 5.1).
One well-recorded root cause of success analysis is of the Hudson River forced landing of a passenger jet in 2009. The investigation of US Airways Flight 1549 included both why the aircraft ditched in the river and why all on board, passengers and crew, survived. In general terms, root cause analysis is an approach for identifying the underlying causes of why an incident occurred. Ordinarily, root cause analysis investigations of plane crashes only address the causes of what went wrong, such as the bird strikes, the loss of the engines, and ditching in the river. The root cause analysis below, for US Airways Flight 1549, also investigated what went well regarding the smooth ditching, and the successful evacuation and rescue of all on board.
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 “ditched” (landed in water) in the Hudson River without losing a single passenger. The most important, and frankly amazing, aspect of this incident is that nobody died. None of the 150 passengers, three flight attendants, and two pilots lost their life due to the crash. There were no fatalities from the crash itself, from hypothermia, or from drowning, which are all certainly possible outcomes for a water landing in New York City in January. So, although the plane did crash, due to the loss of altitude caused by the loss of both engines (likely due to being simultaneously struck by geese, though this has also not been confirmed), the Captain landed in the river, rather than a populated area. His co-pilot has said that another consideration in choosing the river was to ensure that passengers would be rescued quickly thanks to the proximity of many ferry boats. Passengers avoided hypothermia by being rescued quickly, thanks to the quick response of the ferry boats, whose captains are trained in water rescue. Passengers were also aided by other passengers, thanks to clear instructions from the crew. No passengers drowned. The plane was evacuated extremely quickly, thanks to passengers who used their last minutes of air time to review the safety card instructions, and to the performance of the flight attendants, who are trained to evacuate a plane in 90 seconds. That the evacuation was complete was ensured by the captain and police divers, who checked and double-checked that everyone had made it out safely. The article from which I have taken this account has a fully annotated Cause Map (Think Reliability, 2014).
The article pulls out the lessons learnt from what went right in this incident and suggests that the concepts are applicable within any organization interested in improving their reliability. I have chosen to quote the following section pretty much whole as I think it makes the points, draws the analogy, and asks the pertinent questions very well. The article highlights the particular behaviour of high-reliability organizations, and the actions that distinguish them from less safety conscious organizations. The emphasis is mine, showing the points relevant to any organization.
“Cross-check and verify”
This incident provides a valuable reminder that little tasks can have a big impact on reliability. When you hear flight attendants say “cross-check and verify,” they are double checking the exit doors and emergency slides. A girt bar, attached to the exit door, must be manually engaged before take-off and then disengaged after landing. This ensures the slide will deploy when the door is opened “in the event of an emergency.” Photos from Flight 1549 show passengers climbing onto the floating slides on either side of the forward exits to be picked up by boat. The forward slides on Flight 1549 had been armed and functioned properly when needed.
What are the girt bars in your organization?
Some tasks may seem insignificant, because “nothing ever happens,” but in certain situations those minor tasks can mean the difference between life and death. The girt bar is moved into and out of position on every single commercial flight. In some organizations, tasks that appear unnecessary may eventually be skipped. In high risk operations it’s important to maintain a disciplined approach. Within healthcare, checking the girt bar is analogous to verifying the medication that’s about to be administered to a patient. Within industrial companies, its verifying energy sources in a lock-out, tag-out procedure. When someone asks, “Do we really need to do this every time? Nothing has ever happened,” the response in high reliability organizations is “Yes … every time.” The proper position of the girt bar is a cause of zero passenger fatalities. (Think Reliability, 2014)
The lessons learnt from this particular success root cause analysis include: the benefit of over-training pilots (and cabin crew) so that they can continue to make good decisions under stressful conditions; give passengers a task that will both keep them occupied (helps with rising panic) and enable them to play their part in ensuring the safe evacuation; and make sure everyone understands that the routine, boring tasks may only pay off once in a blue moon, but when they do, the pay-off is huge. At least, that’s my reading of it. I think the question about what are the little things your organization does all the time that seem unimportant and have little consequence at the time of doing them but may have huge consequence at a later date, is very interesting and well worth pondering. Examples I can think of include getting contracts signed even when there is a hurry to get going, or following safety procedures in dangerous environments like building sites and manufacturing even when there is a rush on. Not so long ago I was in a hurry and so took a short cut across an industrial site, failing to stay “within the yellow lines” designated for pedestrians. My justification to myself was there was no traffic around. A worker, who was hanging around a hanger entrance in anticipation of a goods arrival, noticed this and was on to me like a shot, patiently explaining why this system existed and how important it was that everyone followed the rules at all times. He was absolutely right; I was suitably chastened. Now there is an organization with a strong safety culture.
7. Positive psychology tools
Various tools are available to support positive personal or organizational development. A number of organizations have produced sets of strengths cards and I have produced a set of positive organizational development cards (www.acukltd.com). These various tools and resources can be used by executive teams as part of their strategy development to identify current and future cultural patterns, for example. Team leaders and consultants can use them as a preparation aid, as a direct question crib, as a source of inspiration, and directly with groups. Coaches can use them with individuals, particularly the strengths cards, which really help people articulate their strengths and the strengths of others. I have little doubt that more resources like these will be available soon to help organizations bring positive psychology to life in organizations and to help people makes changes in organizations at all levels and in all domains.
8. Organizational memory, legacy, and elders
Whitney and colleagues have some very nice points to make about the importance of proactively engaging with, and making best use of, the accumulated wisdom and experience of the organization’s older members. With the general emphasis found in many organizations on youth it’s easy to overlook this organizational resource. I frequently use the length of service exercise at the beginning of a workshop. The benefits of this exercise can play out in many ways, not least that of making the history of the company become a living, breathing thing to those who have joined more recently. It often also offers them an insight into why things are the way they are and a different sense of the company they joined. The newer members also get to hear about some of the great things that happened in the past and start to see “the old guard” in a different light, especially if the earlier stories are of the pioneer days with tales of autonomy and audacious risk-taking and derring-do.
Another idea is to create an elder’s advisory council that can be called upon to bring their accumulated wisdom to bear on ideas or key issues. Alternatively, long-serving staff members can be invited onto strategy teams to the same end. A very nice idea is actively including them in the induction programme so that new employees can quickly come up to speed on the history and culture of the organization while also having an internal mentor. In a similar way, staff with long-term knowledge can be asked to act as teachers to the rest of the organization. All of these ideas will also help build intergenerational relationships. Of course, all of these suggestions are predicated on an atmosphere of trust and mutuality and a culture of collaboration. More can be found on these ideas in Whitney and colleagues (2010, p. 105–106).
Conclusion
There is an emerging expertise on how to apply positive psychology principles, theory, and research to everyday workplace activity and challenges such as performance development, team development, and strategy development. Specific tools such as card sets and games are also appearing to support these processes. In the next four chapters we shall be looking at specific co-creative, large group, or whole system transformational methodologies that can be seen as positive psychology in action.