Conditions for Team Effectiveness

Flourishing Under Fire The Art & Science of Being at Your Best Retail Ireland ConferenceDr. Maureen GaffneyMay 2013

The Problem StatementTruth #1: The pressure for continuous & faster change is putting huge pressure our capacity to adapt to that change Truth #2: Developing our capacity to adapt & change e is our biggest challenge & our greatest opportunity to survive, recover & flourish in a sustainable way

Why so much pressure to change ?Speed:The world used to be a place where the big ate the small. Now the fast eat the slow. Klaus Schwab Relentless competitiveness Pressure to continuously replace products & services with more efficient onesFocus on services : increasingly defined as a solution to a problem or something that worksFear of being left behind : Anxiety that job & workplace may be changed at any moment by economic & technological forces that are anything but stableMicrosoft is always only two years away from failure Bill Gates Only the paranoid survive Andy Gove Intel

The complacency gap A recent survey of customers of nearly 400 US companies revealed that only 8% of them described their experience as superiorYet, 80% of the companies surveyed believe that the experience they have been providing is superior.This disparity should alarm any organisation that is competitive & serious about building sustainable success We KNOW how to change.... J. Kotter Ability to create a sense of urgencyGet a good team with skills, motivation & connections to make the change happenCreate an enterprise vision that people can vividly see, hear, feel, wantCommunicate the vision Remove obstacles out of peoples way so they can make change happen Change fast create small winsKeep on changingMake change stick by creating new organisational culture

Then why is change so often hit-and-miss or unsuccessful? Because change has both an internal & external aspect Over focus on structural change & neglect of internal change how people are thinking & feelingWhether they feel they are flourishing - At Their BestAt work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? When employees answer strongly agree to this questions they are 50% more likely to work in a business with lower turnover 38% more likely to work in more productive unit44% more likely to work in business with higher customer satisfaction

At your best Being at your Best not just about IQ but EQ Longitudinal studies IQ contributes only 20% to life successHigh EI accounts for 2/3 of difference between star & average performers & 4/5 of difference between star & average senior managers/leaders

At Your Best CONNECTIVITY AUTONOMY USING YOUR VALUED COMPETENCIES High PositivityHigh work satisfaction High Productivity VITAL ENGAGEMENTThe Problem ? Only 20% of people & 20% of business teams flourishing

20% are languishing functioning well below par, blocked, frustrated, running on empty

What Blocks Us from Flourishing ? Losing a very precise ratio of positivity to negativityThe Little Meter in Your BrainContinually registering negative & positive emotional reactions to internal & external events

Each emotion triggers cascade of changes in thinking, in body & in behaviour

Critical Positive-Negative Ratios Ratio of 3:1 critical threshold & minimum platform for positive functioning Below 3:1 the languishing ratioRatio 5:1 the Flourishing ratio Ratio of 12:1 - dynamics of flourishing break up

For happy, sustainable personal relationships For individual wellbeing & optimum functioningFor work & organisational success

The Basic EmotionsLiking/LoveAnger JoyFearGratitudeSadnessContentmentShameInterestGuilt HopeEnvy PrideJealousyHumourContempt* InspirationDisgust*Awe1516The Power of Negative Emotions

17Negative designed to be powerful, sticky & contagious Negativity contaminating Loss more powerful impact than equivalent gain Negative first impressions stickier Need 9 bits of positive information to reverse negative first impressionLess than 4 new bits of negative information to reverse positive first impressionNegative mood stronger & longer lasting effects than positive moodIntense negative interactions powerful predictor of long-term outcome in relationshipsTrust easier to destroy than create

Two Principles of Flourishing Consciously & Actively Build the Positive in yourself, in others & in organisations you care about

Consciously & Actively Reduce the Negative in yourself, in others & in organisations you care about

Building the positiveTen Strategies to Build the Positive Build your capacity for happinessSet yourself goalsControl your attention Always know your positive purposeTake charge of your mood Master the art of vital engagement Build meaning in your life - feeling that you matter & what you do matters Build your resilienceStop sabotaging yourself : How you cant be driven crazy without your full cooperation Embrace the future: Why optimism really counts

21Strategy 1 Build your capacity for happiness . 1 Life Success & Happiness Which comes First?

The predictive power of a smile

24Happiness & Health: Exercise, Body Mass, Smoking important factors- but positive feelings more important

25Persistent Negative Feelings

Cut 10 yrs Off Your LifePersistent Negative Feelings

Cut 10 yrs Off Your LifeSo are happy people insufferably self-preoccupied?

Positivity is Contagious (so is negativity....) One person's positivity directly causes another person to feel positive The more direct & face to face the interaction stronger the influenceEffect spreads throughout social network - even to those you dont know.Every positive colleague increases your happiness by 9% & each unhappy colleague decreases it by 7%. So if you can add three positive people to your network your positivity increases by nearly a third. 2. Why having Life Projects counts

Genetic 50%Life circs10%Life projects 40% Happiness Set Point Strategy 5 Take charge of your mood How mood changes everything

Feelings provoke moodMood lasts two hours Mood affects virtually everything you think, remember, feel & doMood is contagious -particularly mood of somebody you depend onSo you cant leave your mood at the door of your life

The Mood of a Group Emotional contagion happens in groups & spreads like virusThe more emotionally interconnected a group, the longer have worked together, the stronger the moods expressed by individuals the more contagion Mood at work counts to individuals but also to productivity Negative mood affects in performance of entire group

In cardiac unit where nurses general mood depressed, death rate among patients four times higher than on comparable units.

More cooperative, generous with time & expertise, more attentive helpful to colleagues & those they serveLess interpersonal conflict, better at creative problem-solving. Less absenteeism & staff turnover.

33Strategy 8 Build your resilienceFlourish - not in spite of adversity but because of it: Stress Related GrowthSurvivalrecoveryFlourishing TIMELevel of functioningStage 1: Coping with immediate distress: Are we there yet? Why me? Why us? Why now? What if....? Now what...? Affecting focus, concentration & productivity

Stage 2. Understanding the meaning of what happened

37Stage 3: Building a new narrativeAbout the kind of person/organisation that you think you areWorthy of love & respect? Or not? About what you expect of other peopleCan you trust others? Or not? About the future Full of opportunity? Or threat?

Story is your lens on the world

Contamination Narrative Set-back or crisis seen as a life that was once good has now gone bad - forever spoiled, ruined, never to be againSense of future robbed Energy trapped in despondency, & helplessness or continually going after goals no longer attainable 40Redemption NarrativesAdmitting the scale of the crisis & setback & accepting new realityUnwelcome yes, but intrinsic to growth that followedCrisis as positive turning point - not as end but beginning of something newRefocus big picture reconnect to deepest values who you are & what is really important to you

Strategy 10Cultivate optimism Remarkably little evidence that optimists EVER worse off than pessimistsOptimism & human power to adapt wired same way in the brainBe ready to respond to both threat AND opportunity by activating positive & negative expectations

Learning to ask transformative questions How are we different in positive way not in spite of but because of what happened? Is there anything about what happened that allows us to do something that otherwise we could not have done? Or would not have done? The answers are the drivers of post-stress growth

43The Incredible Frailty of Predictions....1984 Economist experimentThe classic experiment 284 experts making 27,000 long & short term predictionsFoxes & Hedgehogs

In this world the optimists have it, not because they are always right, but because they are positive. Even when wrong they are positive, and that is the way of achievement, correction, improvement and success. Educated eyes-open optimism pays; pessimism can only offer the empty consolation of being right. The one lesson that emerges is the need to keep trying. No miracles. No perfection. No millennium. No apocalypse. We must cultivate a sceptical faith, avoid dogma, listen and watch well, try to clarify and define ends, the better to choose means.