TEDx speaker and CEO of Good Think Inc., Shawn Achor inspires a new formula for creating a positive workplace culture in his 2011 video presentation titled “The Happy Secret to Better Work“.
Society has adopted a common formula for achieving happiness: If I work harder, I will be more successful – then, I’ll be happier. There’s just one problem: as humans, we constantly strive to be more competitive. When we reach these success benchmarks (hitting quotas, doubling our revenue, etc.), we continue to raise the bar. And when happiness lives on the opposite side of this success bar, we’re making it harder and harder to actually reach.
Shawn asks us to flip this model, instead, placing happiness as the priority ahead of success. He shares that your brain performs much better when experiencing levels of happiness, therefore enabling you to perform smarter – what Shawn calls a “Happiness Advantage.” Intelligence, creativity, and energy levels all rise when a person is happy – in fact, your brain performance improves by +31% when compared to productivity levels at negative, neutral or stressed.
The good news – happiness is in your control. Shawn found that 90% of your long-term happiness is dependent not by the external world, but by how your brain processes the world around you. Shawn goes on to share that if we choose to change our formula for happiness and success, we can change the way that we can then, affect our reality.
As a People Manager or Human Resources lead, it’s important to build a culture that enables people to find happiness, and as a result, achieve their idea of success. Shawn finds that 75% of success in the workplace is heavily influenced by these factors:
1. Employee’s optimism levels
2. Employee’s social support
3. Employee’s ability to see stress as a challenge, instead of a threat
Let’s help our employees become more positive in the present, to better reach long-term success. At Blueboard, we offer a catalog of custom experiences as employee rewards for a job well-done, which support Shawn’s recommendation of placing happiness first. Imagine rewarding your employee with a Photography Class to inspire creativity, a Skydiving package to find adventure, or a Kayaking trip to help them explore the outdoors – and seeing them come back to the office spreading their memories with colleagues. You can learn more about our offerings on our experiential employee rewards page and schedule time to connect with our team today.
