Humour, Engagement and Positive Psychology
Announcing An Engagement
Announcing an engagement. It’s interesting where words and phrases can take us. I regret I am not newly betrothed, however I do have engaging moments!
What do I mean by that?
Well I am increasingly heartened by what I experience in my encounters in business and life. We are experiencing a new wave of connection that is going to herald the way we do business from here on! This new and positive way is contributing to both individual and team productivity as the following demonstrates. A productive workplace is created when we can engage with others in such a way that we support people to improve enthusiasm and morale, boost their individual performance and optimise their attitude. This degree of connection or engagement contributes to improved personal work satisfaction, creates a sense of belonging, and renewed confidence around engaging with others. This is across the board and includes peers, managers and clients alike.
The degree to which we can achieve this is based on our capacity to remain good humoured in the face of the life events that shape our experience. I should insert here I believe to be good humoured is to be appropriately responsive.
When I first moved here (from Australia) I worked for 2 years with a private training provider. The interview was in a wonderful office in Auckland city and then I turned up day one in downtown Otahu, which was a stark contrast. The facility provided second chance education to to Maori and Pacific Island students.
Over the first month as Team Leader I quickly discovered two things :-
1/ that my top 10 values were the same as the student base but the priority was very different. If I did not shift my thinking I would not reach and engage with this group.
2/ that the student attendance rate was 35% and so were outcomes. Not good! I signed over 150 warning letters the first month – 3 warnings and they were out.
The letters were hardly inspiring and in that moment I decided I would never repeat that process … and I didn’t. Ever! Instead I went in to all the classes and sat with all the students and as I got to know them I wrote them all a one page letter commending their achievements. Sometimes, by other’s standards they were not that great – perhaps someone achieving 12wpm typing …when they arrived with minus 10 wpm.
I knew though, that if I sat with somebody long enough, their strengths would be revealed, and that my acknowledgment of that would count. I had a team of 10 staff, all of whom were of the opinion “ you can’t teach these people anything!” In that frame of mind their ability to influence change was negligible. I started teaching the staff and the students some of the work of Anthony Robbins “Awaken the Power within” . The HR person walked in on a session one day and said to me in front of the students “ What do you think you are doing?” I replied I was teaching empowering language. She said to me, again in front of the students” You can’t give these people hope!”, to which I replied “Watch me!”
I was in that role for 2 years and when I left I had written over 2000 one page letters of commendation to both staff and students. The staff had all achieved a higher level of teaching certification and received about $1000 each towards their ongoing education (previously not there). The branches of the company were being individually managed by each local team and the attendance rate and outcomes of my branch had increased to 95%, with many hundreds of thousands of dollars of new contracts as a result of the energy shift.
Transformation in action requires the ability to see the good and catch people doing something right. When people feel heard and appreciated and can step into another level of performance that they thought impossible, business outcomes improve exponentially. When we use what we know to solve the problems of those around us, we create lasting change and impact on their lives for years.
All it takes is one person to believe in us .
To this day I send 3 pieces of Glad Mail a day commending, celebrating, acknowledging the success, skills and progress of others. That’s over 10,000 pieces of mail since 1999.
Pat Armitstead
New Zealand’s leader in the Science of Positive Psychology and Humour in the Workplace, she has a CVthat’s not to be laughed at! Included in her giggliography are some ground breaking achievements, testimony to her ability to successfully combine her business acumen, creativity, and wit. Pat has presented over 15,000 hours of keynotes, workshops, seminars and lectures reaching an astounding 55,000 people throughout Australasia. She was President of the National Speakers Association NZ 2001, The Most Awarded Speaker at the 2000 NSANZ Convention and 2002 NZ Speaker of the Year. She has coached many people through adversity, is an author, columnist, radio producer and film director.
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Pat, this is inspiring stuff, its just fantastic to read about positive psychology in action.
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Well thankyou very much. Good to know it is landing and being taken up. Your web suggests you work wih horses…is that correct?…Pat
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