Cheers

In the Positive Psychology Masterclasses that my colleague Miriam Akhtar and I co-facilitate, one of the important topics we cover is how to develop positive relationships. Many people who attend want to know what positive psychology can tell them about making their relationships more successful, more enjoyable and more enduring. Our group activities include practicing a technique called Active Constructive Responding, in other words, responding to other people’s good news with enthusiasm, energy, and engagement. Research suggests that this style of communication helps others capitalize on their good news, conveys understanding, validation and caring, and leads to greater well-being….

For the full story, see Positive Psychology News Daily

Image courtesy of  Håkan Dahlström

Here’s a great animated video supporting Daniel Pink’s presentation on intrinsic motivation and why profit-related pay (PRP) doesn’t actually motivate people to work harder.

According to Pink, psychology research shows that economists have got it all wrong. If you want to motivate and engage people, and get them work harder, they need to experience the following 3 things at work:

1) AUTONOMY (i.e. being able to choose what you do and how you do it)
2) MASTERY (i.e. being able to get better at whatever you do – so there needs to be some challenge in the job), and
3) PURPOSE (i.e. being able to make a meaningful contribution. A profit motive is OK as long as it’s linked to a ‘purpose motive’).

Organisations which fit the bill include Skype (now owned by private investment company Silver Lake, and Ebay) and Apple.

Pink’s theory is that if we treat people like people, we can make organisations better off and make the world a better place.

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You can get FREE online access to SAGE journals 1999-2010 here until Oct 15 2010.

Thanks to Paul Barrett for the link