Category: POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Everyone wants to have constructive relationships. But what helps us do this? Well, it seems that it is more effective to reinforce positivity in a bunch of small ways, rather than in one big way. Studies by The Gottman Institute show that regular, small acknowledgements are essential for maintaining a healthy relationship dynamic.

The researchers shared this story. An employee felt neglected by her supervisor. Why? Because he didn’t respond when she greeted him each morning. It turned out this was not intentional. He was simply pre-occupied. The supervisor started responding to the employee’s cheery greetings. And guess what? The employee began to feel more positive about her job and her (already good) performance skyrocketed.

About the author of this fast fact:

Eleanor Shakiba is a specialist in positive psychology training. She works with people in high intellect professions – such as academia, education, project management, research and development and engineering. Her skills in interactive training make Eleanor a highly sought-after facilitator. Eleanor is author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners.

The Nun study is a well-known case study in positive psychology circles. It’s a great example, which is often used by positive psychology trainers and human resources professionals who want to show the practical implications of positive mindsets.

In a large research project on the brain and ageing, scientists studied the brains of more than 500 nuns. Whether you’re a positive psychology trainer, a HR business partner or a professional who wants to excel, you will find the results inspiring. The researchers analysed the letters the nuns had written when applying to join their orders. They discovered that the nuns who expressed more positive emotions in their writing lived much longer than those who were less cheerful. In fact, 60% of the unhappy nuns died by age 80. On the other hand, the positive sisters often lived to be past 90 years old.

This is an interesting indication that there could be a direct relationship between positivity and longevity. Whether that link is causal isn’t clear yet – but it is something to ponder. Looking to increase your own positive outlook? It’s easy to start. Positive psychologists recommend writing your thoughts down in a daily journal. Try focusing on the blessings you have received and how your positive experiences can lead you into a more positive future. This is a simple exercise in gratitude.

Looking for more examples of positive psychology in action? Follow Eleanor Shakiba on LinkedIn or Facebook today!

About the author of this article:

Eleanor Shakiba is passionate about helping talented people flourish professionally. She coaches and trains high performers who want to excel in business. Her core expertise is in positive psychology. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs master practitioner level retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.

Research suggests that positivity influences cognitive function. When you’re happy, you perform better. Based on this idea, some positive psychologists believe that maintaining a higher positivity ratio is the key to success. If you maintain a greater balance of positive emotions compared to negative ones, you are more likely to flourish in life and work.

Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada developed the “positivity ratio” by building on earlier research completed by Fredrickson. She created the “broaden and build” theory, which suggests that positive emotions help broaden your awareness and lead to greater self-awareness. Increased self-awareness allows you to build your strengths and develop more meaningful relationships.

A lot of the concepts used by Fredrickson originated with work completed by Alice Isen. Her early research involved studies using three types of tasks – typicality rating, sorting and word association. In a 1984 study, Isen found that those who receive positive emotions categorised stimuli more inclusively.

Basically, the experiments explored the idea that happiness can increase performance when completing tasks that require creativity or ingenuity. The subjects watched a few minutes of a comedy film and then completed a task. Those who watched the comedy film performed better compared to those who didn’t.

Isen and other researchers found that people are better at categorisation when in a positive emotional state. It becomes easier to see the interconnectedness in things and ideas, helping people process information in a more flexible way. Further research also suggests that positive emotions increase attention and engagement, which are also useful in the business world.

Watching a comedy may not transform the productivity and morale of an entire workforce.

However, this research does suggest that promoting a more positive work environment can lead to greater results.

About the author of this article:

Eleanor Shakiba is a master trainer and coach. Her passion is teaching ‘positive deviants’ to think positively and communicate constructively. A specialist the field of Positive Psychology, Eleanor is author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also provides coaching and training for trainers and facilitators.

Sharing a laugh improves team dynamics more than any other behaviour. Studies show that sharing an amusing moment immediately before performing a task, improves performance of that task when it is done by a team. This dynamic is called ‘elegant social coordination’. It’s a powerful tool that can be used in any business or organisation.

Here’s an example of elegant social coordination put to use. Researchers asked a pair of strangers to perform a task involving cards. They had to work together to complete the task. Some pairs were simply given their tasks. Some were prompted to laugh together before starting. The study showed that strangers sharing a positive emotional moment beforehand, worked better together to finish the task.

Think about how this small fact might be applied in your workplace. Shared dynamics like laughter can improve team focus and coordination – so it makes sense to laugh more often.

About the author of this fun fact:

Eleanor Shakiba is a positive psychology trainer. She teaches smart professionals to build positive thinking, communication and leadership habits. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She is an expert in experiential training and delivers dynamic and engaging training for corporate clients.

Low morale is a plague that can quickly spread through an organisation, significantly decreasing productivity and performance. It turns out that positivity is also contagious. And leaders can use their ‘positivity ratios’ to create contagion. By working with positive psychology trainers and coaches, you can successfully shift your behaviour and become an inspiring leader.

So what, exactly, is a positivity ratio? It’s the ratio of positive to negative feelings someone experiences in a specific timeframe. That timeframe could be the length of a conversation between a team member and their leader. This is why great leaders focus on their own communication patterns.

Smiling at a team member may be enough to shift their perception of you and lift their positivity ratio. According to the well known expert in relationships, John Gottman, the minimum positivity ratio for a flourishing relationship is 5:1. For every negative interaction you have with a direct report, you need to have 5 positive exchanges.

Leaders can also directly influence the behaviour of subordinates, to shift the positivity ratios of entire teams. Here are five tips positive psychology trainers recommend using to improve your positivity ratio in the workplace.

• Express gratitude for hard work via an email or thank you note
• Greet people with a smile and say hello as you pass co-workers
• Take the time to celebrate workplace milestones or achievements
• Always take a deep breath before responding when you’re feeling negative
• Actively listen to suggestions and feedback from everyone on the team
• Set achievable goals instead of setting the bar too high

Do not overlook the power of positive communication in the workplace. To combat low morale, focus on increasing positivity ratios across the board. Work with your Human Resources or training department to build a thriving culture. If necessary, call on the expertise of positive psychology trainers from outside your business.  Staying positive and engaging in positive social exchanges helps foster a happier work environment. And with happier workers comes greater results for everyone.

About the author of this article:

Eleanor Shakiba is a positive psychology trainer. She has helped over 50,000 people to build confidence, presence and impact at work. Her passion is working with the ‘positive deviants’ in organisations – equipping them to think creatively and produce exceptional results. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.

Positive deviance is constructive aberration from the norm. People who deviate in this way solve problems in ways others don’t even consider. The Power of Positive Deviance argues that positive deviance can be a formidable force for social change. It explores techniques for noticing and learning from positive deviants in groups and communities.  

The book focuses on why it is important to foster and connect with positive deviants in your business. It’s an excellent resource for anyone who wants to identify and learn from the deviant thinkers in their team or organisation. This is what makes The Power of Positive Deviance a great resource for leaders, trainers and Human Resources experts. 

My favourite part of this book is the chapter on how experts in positive deviance used their model to solve the problem of childhood malnutrition in regional Vietnam. Not only is this a great case study, it ties back to theoretical concepts beautifully. Trainers, in particular, will find this a great story to add to their toolkits.  

About the author of this review 

Eleanor Shakiba specialises in teaching positive thinking and communication techniques to people in mind-based professions. Her clients work in academia, education, IT, engineering, finance and health. Eleanor is qualified in Social Anthropology, Positive Psychology, Counselling, Coaching, Adult Education and Neuro Linguistic Programming.  

I’m fascinated by the idea of modelling excellence. This is a concept I first came across when studying Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) more than 15 years ago. And the same concept informs the discipline I now specialise in – positive psychology. Modelling excellence involves seeking out what anthropologist Gregory Bateson called the “difference that makes the difference”. In positive psychology we refer to the notion of positive deviance. This means aberrating from the norm in a constructive way.  

Take this stunning example of positive deviance in action. A group of volunteers from villages in Thailand taught mothers to become vigilant about putting mosquito nets over their children at night. Using positive reinforcement techniques, the volunteers made the use of mosquito nets more common and widespread. This helped the entire western region of Thailand significantly reduce malaria rates.   

Sometimes it just takes one role model to seed positive change in a group. Keep this in mind when you’re thinking about ways to improve performance at work. Positive deviance techniques work just as well in teams as they do in Thai villages.   

About the author of this fast fact: 

Eleanor Shakiba is a master trainer and coach. Her passion is teaching ‘positive deviants’ to think positively and communicate constructively. A specialist the field of Positive Psychology, Eleanor is author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also provides coaching and training for trainers and facilitators. 

Are you interested in boosting positive deviance in your team or organisation? Here’s a great positive psychology case study for anyone who wants to spread the word about the power of positive deviance.  

The BackTrack program in Armidale is a non-profit organisation that focuses on helping young people get back on track. The program seeks to take children between the ages of 12 and 19 years and place them on a path to positivity. Some children are faced with complex challenges that can make it harder for them to achieve success than others. However, non-profit members at BackTrack have noticed that seeing the good in these young people, rather than seeing them as no-gooders, has the biggest impact on their future success.  

BackTrack has an 87% success rate when it comes to showing young people the right kind of training and education. The program employs a model of positive deviance to show that pointing out good behaviours and rewarding young people for these good behaviours is much better than punishing them for the bad ones. Treating at-risk youth like family members is proven to accelerate their chances of success. This is just another example of positive deviance in action. Individuals, organisations and institutions can benefit from implementing a model of positive deviance in the workplace – or even in personal life. 

For more positive deviance case studies, follow Eleanor Shakiba and her team of positive psychology trainers on Facebook or LinkedIn today.  

About the author of this article: 

Eleanor Shakiba is a positive psychology trainer. Her passion is working with positive deviants – the people in communities and organisations who break paradigms and build new solutions to entrenched problems. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of specialist retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators. 

Every team or community has outliers – people who think and behave in exceptional ways. Positive psychologists call these people ‘positive deviants. If you become a positive deviant you will stand out as a thought leader and a master practitioner in your field.   

Positive deviants succeed where others fail. They learn from others and they design new solutions to old problems.  So how can you think in a constructively deviant way? There are three main steps involved in thinking like a positive deviant.  

1. First, pinpoint a problem that the majority of people struggle with in your business. This should be a problem which impacts efficiency because it happens so often.  
2. Next, seek out people who  do not seem to struggle with that problem. Look for people who are succeeding where others fall short, despite equal access to resources. Observe them. Watch what they do and how they do it. The more you understand their behaviour, the easier it will be to take on that behaviour yourself.  
3. And that’s step three: adopting – and possibly improving – success strategies which already exist. Keep doing your new, deviant behaviour until it is no longer deviant, but a habit.  

The benefits of learning to think with constructive deviance include increased creativity, better problem-solving, enhanced relationships and more personal engagement with your work. So get started today!  

About the author of this tip: 

Eleanor is a master trainer and facilitator.  She specialises in positive psychology, helping leaders and HR practitioners build flourishing organisations. She is known as a creative, dynamic facilitator with a flair for helping ‘positive deviants’ excel at work. Eleanor is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She runs a range of practitioner retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators. 

Want to run training in positive deviance strategies for your team? Call Eleanor Shakiba. 0433 126 841 

A group of researchers tested the concept of positive deviance to help Vietnamese communities tackle childhood malnourishment in 1990. Within two decades, the approach reduced severe malnutrition by 74%. 

Positive deviance is one of the most discussed examples of positive psychology. It’s the process of looking for people who succeed where others fail given the same resources. 

The concept originated with work completed by Marian Zeitlin at Tufts University in the 1980s. Zeitlin researched developing communities in Egypt to find out why small groups of children were healthy when most children were malnourished. 

The healthy children were the “deviants.” Their parents’ positive deviance allowed them to thrive despite having access to the same amount of food and resources as other families. 

Jerry and Monique Sternin then came up with the idea of amplifying positive deviance. They worked with communities in Vietnam to uncover examples of positive deviance instead of trying to find new solutions for dealing with malnutrition. 

By finding positive deviants and learning more about their secrets to success, the Sternins could apply the same techniques to the entire community. This led to a major reduction in malnutrition among children and is now the model for rehabilitating malnourished children in over 20 countries. 

Organisations often spend a tremendous amount of time and resources devising new business strategies. Based on the concept of positive deviance, some solutions may already exist within the organisation. Using the same techniques employed in poor communities to overcome malnutrition may help leaders or supervisors uncover effective work methods. Look for those who thrive in areas where others fail despite having access to the same resources. 

If you want to learn more about the power of positive deviance for businesses, contact Think Learn Succeed to book a training session. 

About the author of this article: 

Eleanor Shakiba is positive psychology trainer. She teaches highly skilled professionals to think creatively, communicate constructively and become positive leaders. Eleanor’s clients work in academia, education, IT, engineering, finance and health. She is the author of the Positive Psychology Toolkit for HR and L&D practitioners. She also runs a range of retreats and workshops for trainers and facilitators.