The January-February 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review explored the effects of happiness on employee productivity and profits."People aren't very good at predicting what will make them happy." Most people, for example, think that achieving a goal will make them happy; it does, but only for a short while.Surprisingly, people who are happy have an easier time achieving goals."Happy people are more creative and more productive," says Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard.It's not the big successes that make us happy.The frequency of good things is more important than the intensity of good things."Happiness is the sum of hundreds of small [everyday] things" that matter most."This also suggests that happiness on the job may depend more on our routine interactions with coworkers, the projects we're invoved in, our daily contributions," says Matthew Killingsworth, a doctoral student at Harvard."Happy employees produce more than unhappy ones," says Spreitzer and Christine Porath.And they are more likely to get promoted."Most people believe that success precedes happiness," says Shawn Achor, but happiness, in fact, precedes success.If happiness is so important to productivity, profits and promotion, why do we so often consider it frivolous, silly and a waste of time? This is one of the lunacies of modern business.We frequent a certain restaurant for breakfast.Many times the workers are chattering and laughing away happily in the kitchen as they work.One waitress complained that there is too much "fun" going on in the kitchen.Isn't laughter and talk an indicator that employees are enjoying their jobs? Yes, there is a balance, but silence and moody workers are not good for business either.There are many ways to increase happiness in daily life, but one of the simplest ways is to develop a sense of humor.How do comedians find the humor in even the darkest of events? They ask themselves a few simple questions..• What's funny about this? • If this were happening to someone else (e.G., your favorite comedian) would it be funny? • What's it like? (What's something similar that would be funny?).Kids laugh hundreds of times a day; adults laugh much less often.Yes there are what we call "jolly people." Maybe they've been told that they've got a good laugh and they take every opportunity to use it.Or maybe they truly find humor in most things.We can all get to this point, with practice, where we turn unfortunate incidents into laughter and eventually may look back on them as funny.
Monday, August 13, 2012
What Is Happiness?
The January-February 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review explored the effects of happiness on employee productivity and profits."People aren't very good at predicting what will make them happy." Most people, for example, think that achieving a goal will make them happy; it does, but only for a short while.Surprisingly, people who are happy have an easier time achieving goals."Happy people are more creative and more productive," says Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard.It's not the big successes that make us happy.The frequency of good things is more important than the intensity of good things."Happiness is the sum of hundreds of small [everyday] things" that matter most."This also suggests that happiness on the job may depend more on our routine interactions with coworkers, the projects we're invoved in, our daily contributions," says Matthew Killingsworth, a doctoral student at Harvard."Happy employees produce more than unhappy ones," says Spreitzer and Christine Porath.And they are more likely to get promoted."Most people believe that success precedes happiness," says Shawn Achor, but happiness, in fact, precedes success.If happiness is so important to productivity, profits and promotion, why do we so often consider it frivolous, silly and a waste of time? This is one of the lunacies of modern business.We frequent a certain restaurant for breakfast.Many times the workers are chattering and laughing away happily in the kitchen as they work.One waitress complained that there is too much "fun" going on in the kitchen.Isn't laughter and talk an indicator that employees are enjoying their jobs? Yes, there is a balance, but silence and moody workers are not good for business either.There are many ways to increase happiness in daily life, but one of the simplest ways is to develop a sense of humor.How do comedians find the humor in even the darkest of events? They ask themselves a few simple questions..• What's funny about this? • If this were happening to someone else (e.G., your favorite comedian) would it be funny? • What's it like? (What's something similar that would be funny?).Kids laugh hundreds of times a day; adults laugh much less often.Yes there are what we call "jolly people." Maybe they've been told that they've got a good laugh and they take every opportunity to use it.Or maybe they truly find humor in most things.We can all get to this point, with practice, where we turn unfortunate incidents into laughter and eventually may look back on them as funny.
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