What does it mean to be happy? From ancient philosophers to modern day psychologists, attempts to answer this very question continue to stimulate debate and discussion. Nonetheless, despite potential differences in how its defined within our places of work, we all remain united by the continued pursuit of happiness within our professional lives.
As part of this year’s International Week of Happiness at Work, organisations have been encouraged to pledge their commitment toward the creation of a happier working environment. As part of this pledge, we at KnowledgeBrief, are encouraging businesses to create their own happiness manifesto and in so doing, have provided four key recommendations we believe will aid organisations in their pursuit of happiness.
1. Spread good C.A.R.M.A
Happiness in the workplace is often characterised by a strong sense of meaning and purpose. Purpose not only proceeds passion, it also fosters perseverance, and propels workplace performance. In addition, purpose driven employees are more committed and intrinsically motivated to help their organisation in the pursuit of its strategic objectives. In attempting to foster a deeper sense of meaning and purpose within our own organisations, it’s always beneficial to try and spread good C.A.R.M.A:
I. Clarity: Organisations need a clear vision and mission which can be shared across all levels. In addition, they should not underestimate the employee’s voice when creating and shaping this vision.
II. Authenticity: Managers and leaders should always endeavor to behave ethically and honestly toward their employees, and lead by example in the pursuit of objectives.
III. Respect: Manager and leaders must always aim to be respectful in their communications and pave the way for beneficial interactions.
IV. Mattering: Employees should be regularly reminded of how vital their contribution is to the success of the company.
V. Autonomy: Organisations must encourage increased self-expression through promoting self-direction, positive failure, innovation, and idea interchange.
2. Foster flow
Happiness in the workplace is often characterised by high levels of engagement, immersion in one’s work, and the feeling of being challenged. Interestingly, all three of these core happiness components are deeply reflective of flow; a psychological state rooted in feelings of immersion, energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in activities. Within research circles, flow has come to be regarded as the optimal performance state, however, it can be highly elusive, and often difficult to both obtain and maintain. That being said, we may be able to better help our employees find their flow through seeking to satisfy the following core conditions:
I. Clear goals: Ensure everyone within the organisation knows exactly what they have to do in order to achieve their goals, and wherever possible, provide them with the resources required for success.
II. Immediate feedback: Whether through formal or informal mechanisms, ensure employees are provided with opportunities to better understand what they are doing well and what can be improved.
III. High perceived challenges: Ensure we maximise our efforts to provide stimulating work-related activities, which require members of our working teams to utilise their professional, psychological, and cognitive capabilities (ideally, without exhausting them).
IV. High perceived skill: Work to ensure employees possess the capabilities required to meet the demands of challenging tasks.
V. Freedom from distraction: Seek to limit unnecessary distractions within the working environment, in order to better able members of our working teams to achieve a state of deep concentration and present moment focus.
VI. Locus of control: Remind employees that success is largely determined by internal effort as opposed to uncontrollable external forces.
3. Remember the role of resilience
Unfortunately, a happy workplace doesn’t necessarily equate to a stress free one. As such, we shouldn’t do our employees a disservice by naively assuming we can always protect them from the perils of professional stressors. We can however, seek to foster a team of robust and resolute employees through the promotion of practices which help develop psychological resilience (known commonly as the ability to recover, adjust or even thrive following misfortune, change or adversity). Resilience promotion pratices may include:
I. Cultivating mindfulness: Mindfulness relates to the capacity to focus one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Within our places of work we have the capacity to cultivate collective mindfulness by taking the time to provide access to mindfulness based apps, promoting workplace meditation, or simply allowing space for discussion and reflection regarding aspects of working life which draw us away from the present moment. Through the development of greater self-awareness, we allow ourselves the opportunity to anticipate and respond to stressors in a more effective and mindful manner. In turn, we enhance our ability to make space for (and ultimately accept) discomfort, as opposed to being consumed by it.
II. Promoting self-efficacy: High levels of Self-efficacy (i.e. the belief in our ability to influence and achieve positive work-related outcomes) have been found to contribute to lowered levels of anxiety, better coping skills, and enhanced workplace wellbeing. As such, leaders and managers must continually seek to encourage a self-efficacious culture through taking the time to remind employees of their workplace accomplishments, whilst also providing positive reinforcement (predominantly in the form of feedback and expressions of gratitude), and acting as a positive role model to personify what can be achieved with a little effort and self-belief.
III. Provide coping strategies: Resilience requires a capacity to cope with aftermath of adversity. To enhance our employee’s capacity to cope, it’s important we focus on the promotion of problem and emotion focused strategies. Problem focused strategies relate to processes which are aimed at directly tackling the practicalities of a situation in an effort to formulate solutions, whilst emotion-focused strategies prioritise the mitigation of unpleasant emotional states through the deployment of techniques such as cognitive reframing (i.e. working to change our perceptions or beliefs about an event) or facilitating greater opportunities for social support.
4.Don’t forget to have fun
When it comes to happiness, all work and no play isn’t always the best way. Don’t be mistaken in thinking that injecting a sense of fun into our working practices is a fruitless or unproductive exercise. In fact, if deployed correctly, play provides a multitude of benefits to our working teams. With that in mind, let’s consider some ways in which we can attempt to promote a more playful working environment:
I. Physical play: This type of play may include sports, fine-motor practice, or junk modelling (e.g. constructing objects). Physical play is a great way in which to prompt team building, foster trust, and refine those all-important social skills.
II. Games with rules: Rule based activities such as board or virtual-based games, are not only fun, they are also a great way in which to encourage collaboration, whilst also enhancing our collective problem-solving capabilities.
III. Role play: As uncomfortable or awkward as this form of play can make people feel, it’s a great way in which to develop key interpersonal skills, such as emotional intelligence and developing our capacity to respond to uncertainty within our environment.
In advance of these activities, we must also not forget to inject a sense of fun in the workplace through forms of symbolic play such as stories, music and joke telling. In acknowledgement of the latter of these activities, positive (e.g. affiliative and self-enhancing) humour has been shown to help boost positive emotions in the workplace, whilst also helping to facilitate improved working relationships between manager and employee. Put simply, a little bit of play goes a long way.
Final thought
As previously mentioned, happiness in the workplace will undoubtedly mean different things to different organisations. However, research strongly evidences positive connection as an important pathway to happiness. As such, irrespective of whether you choose to adopt the recommendations highlighted in this article or create your own unique happens manifesto, never forget that we are often at our happiest when we feel connected to others. With this in mind, it’s important that pratices which foster feelings of friendship, cultivate closeness, and build professional bonds remain at the heart of your company’s happiness manifesto.
Sources
Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The concept of flow. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 239-263). Springer, Dordrecht.
Rees, C. S., Breen, L. J., Cusack, L., & Hegney, D. (2015). Understanding individual resilience in the workplace: the international collaboration of workforce resilience model. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 73.
Steger, M. F. (2016). Creating meaning and purpose at work. The Wiley Blackwell handbook of the psychology of positivity and strengths‐based approaches at work, 60-81.
Stewart, H. (2012). The Happy Manifesto. Happy.