A roll of the dice is about as predictive of your future earnings and success as your college GPA.
That’s according to happiness researcher Shawn Achor, who explains that about 25% of success is driven by technical skills and knowledge while the remaining 75% is driven by things like intentional behavior, social connection, and perceptions of stress. In other words – happiness (i.e. flourishing) is the ultimate competitive advantage for productivity.
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In this week’s practical insight from the art and science of happiness we look at the intersection of happiness and productivity. This comes from the work of Shawn Achor, Harvard research professor and author of several books including The Happiness Advantage.
It’s funny how telling people science can make them happier is like pulling teeth – “oh I don’t have time for that”. But tell them it can increase productivity – they’re all ears! What again are we really after here? Anyway, that’s an observation for a different article.
As Achor explains it, the key issue with our traditional view of happiness and productivity lies in the universal success-happiness formula. It’s found everywhere from business to school to sports. Basically, as soon as I do/get/become ______ I’ll be happy. If I get good grades I’ll be happy. That becomes if I get a great job I’ll be happy. That becomes once I hit my annual performance goals I’ll be happy…
This formula sets us up for failure. It’s happiness procrastination ad infinitum (‘til death).
There’s a better way for individuals and organizations to structure their thinking. It’s the inversion. Instead of “we’re going to accomplish our goals so that we can have happiness and success”; it becomes “we’re going to invest right now in our happiness in order to achieve our goals”. Because research shows that happiness and psychological well-being are absolutely critical for getting results.
This shift in thinking is already taking place. Achor describes it as the companion of the current technological revolution. The paradigm of the tech revolution is – leveraging technology has an exponential impact on human productivity. The paradigm of the happiness revolution is (taking some liberties with that title) – we can’t continuously pile on workload, stress, and demands and expect increased productivity. Instead we have to focus on optimal human experience (viz. flourishing) to drive optimal human performance (viz. productivity).
Here are a few considerations to take with you (and perhaps to your organization) courtesy of Achor’s research.
Prioritize state. Productivity rises 31% when we simply move from assessing how we feel as neutral to positive.
View stress with resilience. Professional at a Big 4 services firm who were taught to perceive stress positively – as a challenge to embrace and overcome – showed a 23% reduction in the physiological markers of stress six weeks later.
Connect with people. Social connection is the greatest predictor of happiness within organizations AND as influential on lifespan as obesity, high blood pressure, or smoking.
It’s certainly worth understanding the productivity power of happiness, but remember the question I posed earlier… if we’re looking at happiness as a means to an end of increased productivity – as a tool to get the job done – then perhaps there are some higher-order questions we need to address first? So take this information. Use it. Apply it. But don’t lose sight of what we’re after here!