Making Positive Psychology Work

Today we're talking to Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business whose research explores social cognition, and how people think about other people, to understand why smart people so routinely misunderstand each other. His research has appeared in more than two dozen empirical journals, has been featured by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal among many other media outlets and he's the author of Mindwise, How We Understand What Others Think, Believe, Feel and Want.

In this episode, we discuss how your brain's ability to understand what others think, believe, feel and want helps you to connect with others. Nick also explains how this often goes wrong at work due to over-confidence that results in interpersonal misunderstandings and what you can do to improve your ability to mind read when it comes to your relationships.

Connect with Nick:

Website: http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/nicholas.epley/

• [01:57] - Nick explains how we all have a sixth sense that can help us to read each other's minds.
• [03:28] - Nick shares why our ability to read the minds of others is vital for our ability to thrive in the world.
• [05:08] - Nick explains how our ability to read each other's minds can often go wrong at work.
• [07:48] - Nick shares what his research has found about how our tendencies for social interpersonal misunderstandings can shape our relationships and our actions at work.
• [09:57] - Nick explains why interpreting people's intent in our relationships can be so challenging.
• [11:31] - Nick explores how our ability to mind read at work could impact people's levels of psychological safety.
• [13:15] - Nick shares what his research has found can help us to mind read more effectively.
• [18:09] - Nick explores how staying out of judgment, and sitting in curiosity might help us to get perspective and be better mindreaders.
• [19:33] - Nick outlines the findings from his recent research on why people are often reluctant to express gratitude to each other.
• [23:53] - Nick completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Nudge by Richard H. Thaler
• The Wisest One in the Room by Tom Gilovitch

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Nick!

Today we're talking to Robyn Stratton-Berkessel, who's an adjunct professor in the School of Management at Champlain College, where she teaches online in the positive organizational development MBA programme. She's the author of Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions, hosts the popular Positivity Strategist Podcast, and is an advisor on various appreciative inquiry initiatives, for organizations all over the world.

In this episode, we explore how positivity is improved in workplaces when people are given a voice using participative approaches like Appreciative Inquiry and how leaders can learn to feel confident about these generative approaches.

Connect with Robyn:

Website: positivitystrategist.com

• [02:18] - Robyn explains the characteristics of a positive workplace.
• [04:45] - Robyn shares how we can help leaders feel more confident about the benefits of giving people a voice when it comes to improving positivity in workplaces.
• [07:37] - Robyn shares an example of how Appreciative Inquiry can be used to help cynics with diverse views find a meaningful way forward together.
• [10:56] - Robyn explains how we can craft generative questions that help people to see old things in new ways.
• [13:50] - Robyn explains why appreciative inquiry is more than simply always talking about the positive.
• [16:24] - Robyn shares how workplaces can harness the opportunity and power of self-organization as one of the outcomes of an Appreciative Inquiry experience.
• [18:34] - Robyn offers some caveats and cautions about when an Appreciative Inquiry approach might now work so well.
• [20:07] - Robyn talks about the importance of not using an Appreciative Inquiry approach to gloss over difficult or painful conversations in workplaces.
• [23:02] - Robyn completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Robyn's Ted Talk

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Robyn!

Today we're talking to Dan Cable, a Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and whose research and teaching focuses on employee engagement, change, organizational culture, leadership mindset, and the linkage between brands and employee behaviors. An award-winning researcher, Dan has published more than 50 articles in scientific journals, been extensively featured in business publications around the world, and the author of several books, the latest being 'Alive at Work'. Dan's clients include Deloitte, McDonald's, Twitter, and many more.

In this episode, we explore how workplaces can harness people's neurological seeking system to help them bring their best selves to work each day and why self-expression, serious play and purpose can help us to achieve what we're truly capable of doing while looking after our wellbeing.

Connect with Dan:

Website: dan-cable.com

• [02:33] - Dan explains why researchers continue to find why many employees still feel like they can't really be their best selves at work each day, even after almost 20 years of positive psychology research and applications in workplaces.
• [05:25] - Dan shares why finding ways to harness our brains seeking systems is one of the keys to helping people bring their best selves to work each day.
• [10:24] - Dan outlines how we can help leaders better understand the impact of fear on people's behaviors and their ability to bring their best selves to work.
• [14:44] - Dan explains the importance of encouraging playfulness in workplaces in order to trigger our seeking systems and bring our best selves to work.
• [17:51] - Dan shares his tips on how to help leaders and teams leverage storytelling to make their work more purposeful.
• [20:31] - Dan shares his evidence-based interventions for helping people to bring their best selves to work more often.
• [23:14] - Dan offers some important cautions about helping people to bring their best selves to work in a way that is good for them and good for others.
• [27:41] - Dan completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Redirect by Timonthy D. Wilson
• Give & Take by Adam Grant

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Dan!

Today we're talking to Rob Baker, who's a specialist at bringing positive psychology to workplaces, and strives to be a force for good in the world of work. A graduate of the Masters of Applied Positive Psychology programme at Melbourne University, Rob is the founder and chief positive deviant of a leading evidence-based positive psychology, well-being, and HR consultancy called Tailored Thinking. His ideas and research on how people can personalize work and bring their whole and best selves to the workplace have been presented at academic and professional conferences around the world.

In this episode, we discuss how job crafting and in particular micro-crafting (small changes to what you do each day) can help you to align your work with your strengths, interests and passions to help you balance the demands of your job and feel more engaged, satisfied and effective at work.

Connect with Rob:

Website: tailoredthinking.co.uk/

• [02:15] - Rob explains what job crafting is and how it might help us at work
• [03:30] - Rob explains what researchers are finding out about the potential benefits of job crafting for employees and for workplaces.
• [05:45] - Rob explains why we need more flexible approaches to job descriptions as many jobs continue to become more complex and unpredictable.
• [06:38] - Rob shares practical examples of how people can engage in task crafting, relational crafting and purpose crafting at work.
• [10:35] - Rob offers simple steps for micro crafting your job.
• [14:15] - Rob explores how on-the-spot job crafting may benefit people as they go about their jobs.
• [16:09] - Rob explains how leaders can help their people to job craft.
• [18:11] - Rob offers some cautions on when job crafting is likely to be less effective in workplaces.
• [21:07] - Rob completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Alive at Work by Daniel Cable
• Job Crafting - Amy Wrzesniewski
• Eat Sleep Work Repeat Podcast

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Rob!

Today we're talking to Dr. Fred Luskin, who founded and currently serves as Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects. Fred is also a senior consultant in Health Promotion and Wellness at Stanford University's health center, where he teaches classes on positive psychology, the art and science of meditation, forgiveness, wellness, flourishing, and the psychology of storytelling to undergraduate and graduate students, and conducts numerous workshops and staff development trainings in relationship enhancement, stress management, and positive psychology through the Stanford Be Well program. He's the author of several best-selling books, including Forgive For Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness, and has been interviewed by mere outlets around the world.

In this episode, we discuss how forgiveness can help to improve our wellbeing, grit and psychological safety at work.

Connect with Fred:

Website: https://learningtoforgive.com/

• [02:02] - Fred explains the value of forgiveness in workplaces.
• [02:51] - Fred shares how the Stanford Forgiveness Project has helped to improve forgiveness in workplaces.
• [04:48] - Fred outline why it can be hard to forgive others at work.
• [06:41] - Fred explains the two practices that work best when it comes to improving our ability to forgive at work.
• [09:08] - Fred outlines the H.E.A.L method for forgiveness.
• [12:13] - Fred explains how forgiveness can impact our levels of grit and resilience.
• [13:08] - Fred shares how forgiveness shapes our relationships at work.
• [16:20] - Fred explores how important it is for us to be able to forgive ourselves.
• [17:30] - Fred shares his thoughts on the intersection of forgiveness and psychological safety.
• [18:20] - Fred explains how we can intelligently forgive at work so we don't get taken advantage of.
• [20:12] - Fred shares some of the bottom-line outcomes he has found in workplaces who teach the skills of forgiveness.
• [21:43] - Fred completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• 8 Minute Meditation by Victor Davich
• Forgive for Good by Fred Luskin

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Fred!

Today we're talking to Darren Coppin, who is a Ph.D. researcher and businessman, who implements positive psychology methods, not because of any deep-seated faith in the movement's principles, but because it works. Darren's mother is an outrageous hippy who is at one with the universe, so Darren over-zealously tries to ensure that everything he says and does is evidence-based. In that vein, since 2014, over 105000 people have been through his government-funded model to increase the return to work rates for welfare recipients, and these tools are now being adopted by higher education and apprenticeship institutions around the world.

In this episode, we discuss how to optimize people's motivation and resilience for work.

Website: Darren Coppin on LinkedIn

• [02:01] - Darren explains how the motivation for behavior change is often misunderstood in workplaces.
• [03:26] - Darren shares how he's applied the principles of behavior change to help long-term unemployed people find work.
• [06:23] - Darren outlines how he's applied the principles for motivation to help secure funding for his program from key stakeholders.
• [08:45] - Darren shares what his research has found about the most effective positive psychology practices for improving resilience and accomplishment for job seekers.
• [10:49] - Darren explains why fusing resilience interventions and coaching can be a powerful way to create behavior change.
• [14:43] - Darren explains how workplaces can provide the right type of support at the right time to improve people's resilience.
• [16:12] - Darren explains how workplaces can better support people's levels of resilience.
• [20:28] - Darren shares the impact teaching resilience skills to long-term unemployed job seekers has been having.
• [21:23] - Darren completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• How Sadness Survived: The Evolutionary Basis of Depression by Paul Keedwell & Philip Barker

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Darren!

Today we're talking to James and Janice Prochaska. Jim is the Director of the Cancer Prevention Research Center and Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Rhode Island and is internationally recognized for his work as a developer of the stage model of behavior change for which he has won numerous awards, including being one of the Top Five Most Cited Authors in Psychology from the American Psychology Society. He is the author of over 400 publications, including four books of which the latest is Changing to Thrive which he co-authored with his wife Janice, who is one of the most published authors in the field of social work having applied the model of behavior change to cutting-edge issues.

In this episode, we discuss the stages of change most people move through and how understanding this process can help to improve people's wellbeing and enable leader's to embed positive changes in workplaces.

Website: jprochaska.com

• [02:13] - Jim outlines the stages that his research has found people move through when they are creating changes.
• [06:41] - Jim explains some of the new breakthroughs his research has found recently about how changes can be made to enhance people's wellbeing.
• [08:23] - Jim shares why it's important to meet people where they are when it comes to creating change in order to move them into action.
• [11:21] - Jan shares her tips for helping people to take effective actions to create the changes they want.
• [13:15] - Jim shares his tips for how we can maintain our motivation for the changes we've started making.
• [18:43] - Jim explains what happens when our desired change behaviors become unstuck.
• [20:00] - Jim explains how the stages of change can overlap.
• [21:58] - Jim outlines how leaders can use the stages of change to help people thrive at work.
• [24:42] - Jim completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• www.prochange.com
• Changing to Thrive by James & Janice Prochaska

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Jim & Jan!

Today we're talking to Dr. Acacia Parks, who is the chief scientist at Happify, an online platform that turns the science of happiness into activities and games to create lasting changes and whose research focuses on self help methods for increasing happiness via books and digital technology with an emphasis on objective, observable outcomes such as physical health indicators. Acacia regularly publishes articles in scientific journals, has edited three books, and is also the associate editor at The Journal of Positive Psychology.

In this episode, we explore how positive psychology and wellbeing interventions can be delivered in workplaces through technology platforms like Happify to create behavior changes that stick.

Connect with Acacia:

Website: happify.com

• [02:05] - Acacia explains how positive psychology interventions can be delivered through technology platforms to create behavior change that sticks
• [03:19] - Acacia outlines how the Happify technology platform works
• [04:40] - Acacia shares the STAGE framework Happify uses to classify different types of wellbeing interventions for users
• [07:16] - Acacia weighs up the pros and cons of using technology to improve people's wellbeing
• [09:31] - Acacia explains some behavior changes are better suited for technology platforms than others
• [11:32] - Acacia explores the potential of wearable devices to improve our wellbeing
• [13:23] - Acacia provides an example of how workplaces are using wellbeing technology platforms like Happify to improve their employees' wellbeing
• [14:40] - Acacia explains how artificial intelligence may shape wellbeing interventions in the future
• [17:48] - Acacia shares the impact Happify is having on people's wellbeing
• [22:54] - Acacia completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• How Digital DNA Could Help You Make Better Health Choices - TED Talk with Jun Wang
• Thirteen Reasons Why on Netflix

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Acacia!

Today we're talking to Alex Linley and Trudy Bailey from Capp, whose vision is to match the world to their perfect job. Alex is one of the early leaders in positive psychology and its applications, particularly around strengths, and he's the author of From Average to A+. Trudy's been responsible for the relaunch of Capp's Strength Profile tool and ensuring that practitioners have access to the tools to build a strengths-based culture that's sustaining.

In this episode, we discuss the business case for understanding how the use, energy, and performance of our strengths can improve our performance, wellbeing and business outcomes.

Connect with Alex & Trudy:

Website:

• www.capp.co/Home
• www.strengthsprofile.com/

• [02:22 - Alex summarizes his three most important findings on developing people's strengths at work.
• [04:25] - Trudy shares new research on how using our strengths can help us to achieve our goals.
• [05:48] - Trudy explains how the Strengths Profile tool works to help people develop their strengths.
• [07:32] - Alex explains how understanding the use, energy, and performance impact of our strengths is so important for their development.
• [10:05] - Trudy offers some practical tips on how to make the most of people's strengths at work.
• [12:47] - Alex outlines how a strengths approach can be used to help match people to their perfect jobs and the business benefits it can bring.
• [17:10] - Trudy provides some practical approaches for leaders to develop their people's strengths as they go about their jobs.
• [19:04] - Alex shares his three alarm bells when it comes to workplaces wanting to take a strengths approach.
• [21:52] - Alex shares his thoughts on the single biggest challenge for organizations to remain strengths focused.
• [23:44] - Alex & Trudy completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Alex & Trudy!

Pernille is an experienced Business Consultant, Trusted Advisor, Facilitator, Board Member, Author and Speaker with a specialty within the Future of Leadership & Work, Change Management & Strategy Execution, Organizational Culture and Development. Passionate about developing Organizations, Leaders, and Leadership Teams from a Strengths-Based Perspective, focusing on their Core Ideology and how to add value to the world.

In today's episode, we cover the strengths-based approach to leadership and team development, and how focusing on these strengths has greater effectiveness than trying to improve peoples weaknesses.

Website: https://hippebrun.com/

• [01:51] - Pernille gives the business case for a strengths-focused approach.
• [06:05] - Pernille explains how the acronym IDEAL PIT helps to remember the philosophy behind a strengths-based approach.
• [10:47] - Pernille explains how to run strengths-based meetings at work.
• [12:46] - Pernille covers using a strengths-focused approach for conflict resolution
• [14:46] - Pernille talks about giving strength-based feedback.
• [18:46] - Pernille completes the lightning round.

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook
• Marcus Buckingham Books
• Diana Whitney Books
• Team of Teams by General Stanley McChrystal

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don't forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It's free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thank you Pernille!