In our MAPP class today we were fortunate enough to have Mark Templeton, O2s Director of Organisation Development, present to us on the positive psychology approach to leadership development that he has implemented with great success over the past year.

One thing that really intrigued me was the mention of David Whyte, a.k.a the “Corporate Poet”. I’m a huge fan of using creative approaches in the workplace, ever since I took the fantastic Open University Business School B822 course in Creative Management (now called Creativity, Innovation and Change).

So I followed this up, to see what David Whyte had to say about using poetry in a corporate setting:

“Every worthwhile organization is asking for qualities of adaptability, vitality and creativity. And none of these qualities can be legislated, none of them can be coerced out of people. You cannot invite anyone into your office and say I want a 9 percent increase in your creativity quotient this week. The request is absurd because there is no lever inside that person that they can pull to turn on their creativity. If there was one, they surely would have pulled it years ago.

The only thing you can do is to create a conversation in the workplace that will be invitational to those great qualities of creativity that have long been associated with the soul, with a person’s sense of belonging. The main task of leadership is no longer strategic management, though this will always have importance, but of creating imaginative and participative conversations that bring out the best in themselves and others“.

I couldn’t agree more – what Whyte says here fits exactly with positive psychology approaches to developing leadership and positive organisations.

Photo Credit: Cygnoir, San Francisco

Here’s an interesting article in Personnel Today magazine; just don’t be fooled by the title into thinking it’s about Positive Mental Attitude stuff and boosting your self-confidence by repeating ‘I’m great’ twenty times a day….

It quotes Dr Tim Anstiss as saying “Wellbeing is not just about long walks, jogging and improving your diet, but about flourishing, discovering and using your strengths, and reaching your potential as a human being.” Here, here. As a medical doctor with a masters degree in sports medicine and a post-graduate diploma in occupational medicine, Anstiss knows all about the benefits of exercise and nutrition. And we’ve been saying for some time now that companies which think they’re got their well-being strategy sorted just because they provide salads in the canteen and issue free pedometers are missing the most important point; positive psychology is about way more than how much exercise you take and what you eat.

Anstiss presented to our UEL MAPP class a month or so ago on one of the projects he’s working on, which is using a positive psychology approach to get the long-term unemployed back into work. I think that shows it’s got credibility, don’t you?

What’s important to make clear from the start though is that in order to be of benefit to business, just like change management positive psychology has to be taken up and championed by leaders and managers outside of the HR department.

Empirical research shows that positive psychology really does present the opportunity of creating more resilient, engaged and productive employees. In a world where change is the only constant, which company could afford to turn their nose up at that?

Photo Credit: bibliogrrl

Thanks to Viv Thackray for the link