The survey assesses well-being at work by asking employees about

i) job satisfaction,
ii) whether their boss is authoritative or collaborative,
iii) whether there is openness and trust in the workplace and
iv) whether their individual strengths are recognised.

Just over a fifth of full-time employees apparently reported working in a negative environment. Even if only a half of those surveyed are full-time, this still equates to an enormous amount of lost productivity.

Clearly this has significant cost implications for business and for the economy in general; so any organisation, profit-making or otherwise, which doesn’t take employee well-being seriously should probably think again.

* Incidentally, while I was googling Betjeman, I came across many other spoofs, this one celebrating York University’s 40th Anniversary in 2003.

** 11/01/08 Sadly now the late Sir John Harvey-Jones. It’d be interesting to revisit his Troubleshooter TV series from the 90s, to see what became of the companies who were brave enough to call him in…..

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

Image: Orbitcast

There’s increasing research to show that focusing on your strengths at work rather than on your weaknesses brings huge benefits, not just to yourself but also to your organisation. As mentioned in one of our previous posts, companies like Norwich Union are using strengths-based approaches successfully in the business, for example in recruitment. Other organisations are focusing on strengths for personal development, using them as the basis for the Annual Appraisal, for example. It gives employees a boost of confidence and really helps them feel good about themselves, in a way that leads to further performance improvements.

In the last couple of posts we’ve looked at new ways of applying strengths (from the VIA-IS online survey, not from the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which actually measures talents). Today we continue on this theme with six more strengths. Try picking one activity from one of your Top 5, and stick with it for a couple of weeks. If you find it isn’t working after a day or so, try something else.

LEADERSHIP:
i) Organise a social get-together for your team or department
ii) Go out of your way to make a new colleague feel welcome
iii) Take responsibility for an unpleasant task at work and make sure it gets done

GRATITUDE:
i) At the end of the day write down three things that went well
ii) Write and send a gratitude letter
iii) Keep track of how many times you say thank you during the day and increase the number every day for a week.

PERSPECTIVE / WISDOM:
i) Think of the wisest person you know and try to live one day as if you were them
ii) Resolve a dispute between two work colleagues, or two family members
iii) Don’t give advice unless asked, and then do so as thoughtfully as possible

FORGIVENESS:
i) Let a grudge go every day
ii) Write a forgiveness letter, do not send it, but read it every day for a week.
iii) When someone does something you don’t understand, stand in their shoes and try to work out their positive intention

TEAMWORK / CITIZENSHIP:
i) Pick up litter that you see on the ground
ii) Volunteer your time to a charity, community group, Parent-Teacher Association, Parish Council etc
iii) Organize a team / department dinner
iv) Act as a facilitator

BRAVERY:
i) Speak up for an unpopular idea in a group
ii) Stand up for someone even if you disagree with them
iii) Protest to the appropriate authorities about an injustice that you observe

These are just some examples of activities, you can of course adapt them to suit your circumstances.

We’d be delighted to hear your experience of using some of these activities in practice, or if you have any ideas for new ones, so please send us your comments.

We’ll cover the remaining 7 Character Strengths in future posts.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt , author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia and Chris Peterson for many of the suggested activities.

Professor Jonathan Bradshaw of the University of York, one of the authors of the report, links these results to child poverty.Between 1979 -1999 child poverty in the UK rose rapidly (from 14% to 33%) , the numbers of children living with unemployed parents/carers rose rapidly and the numbers of children not in education and training also rose.

In March 99, the government set a target to eradicate child poverty by 2020, and to reduce child poverty by one million (i.e. 25%) between 1998 and 2005; however it missed this target by 300,000, achieving only a 17% reduction. In 2007, child poverty in the UK is still double the rate it was in 1979 (27% vs 14%). For further details, see this report by the Child Poverty Action Group.

Professor Bradshaw goes on to say that the main reason for Britain’s overall well-being rating, which is lower than relatively poorer / less developed countries like the Czech Republic, Greece, Poland and Hungary is inequality; he states that ‘the more unequal a society, the relatively deprived people will feel’. In other words, it’s the comparison effect. There is plenty of research (e.g. Michalos (1985), Myers (1992), Wood (1996), Buss (2000)) on the effect of comparison, and in particular how comparing yourself with others less fortunate (downward comparison) can make you feel good, whereas comparing yourself with others more fortunate (upward comparison) has a negative effect on your well-being.

Vital though it is to eradicate child poverty, I don’t believe that the answer is that simple -  for a start there is plenty of research which shows that, above a level to meet basic needs, more money really doesn’t make you happier.

In commenting on this UNICEF study, Dr Tony Sewell, director of the charity Generating Genius, wrote in the Independent on Sunday (18 February 2007) , that ‘one of the major problems is a lack of sympathetic adults, whether they are role models or just sounding boards’. There is definitely some truth in what he is saying, and I know that Jenny, who has experience of mentoring young people for Oxfordshire County Council, agrees.

My own view, based on casual observation of adult/parent/child relationships in the 13 Western European countries I have visited, is that it has a great deal to do with the culture of the country and societal norms and values with respect to parenting, family life and having children. In the UK generally we seem to have a different relationship with our children than other WE countries, and furthermore, parenting is not a highly valued activity in our society. Has the UK attitude really moved on from the time when children should be seen and not heard? It would seem that children are not, generally speaking, treated as individuals in their own right and included in adult life in the UK; instead they are treated as belongings, things which can be and should be controlled by adults. I’m not an advocate for allowing children unrestrained freedom of choice, however; there is considerable research (e.g. Schwartz 2000) that finds this is equally damaging to well-being.

In the countries I’ve visited, children tend to be better integrated into adult life, are given consideration and guidance by other adults, and are frequently encouraged to engage in a positive way with adults, including those other than their parents/carers, for example teachers, youth leaders, mentors, neighbours and so on.

So if we want to increase child wellbeing in the UK, getting rid of poverty is only part of the answer. There is also an important question about whether our culture and societal norms and values about parenting and children need to change too. And in the words of Tony Sewell, perhaps we need to ‘show our children some leadership.