Integrated Employee Health and Positive Psychology
I am posting this on my own website, and since it directly addresses my interest (mental health and disruptive interventions) I post it here.
Integrated Employee Health and Positive Psychology
WE KNOW A FEW THINGS about happiness. First, it can be changed, reliably and persistently. Second, the ways people try to increase happiness (buying Stuff, having more than the neighbors, and seeking pleasure or excitement) are all dead ends. Third, happy people are healthier and more productive than unhappy people. They live longer, take better care of themselves, and are sick much less often.
In The Innovator’s Prescription website (http://innovatorsprescription.com/), the authors have posted a supplement to chapter six, called “The Growth of Integrated Corporate Employee Health.” They review innovative approaches to improving employee health at Perdue Farms, Toyota, Performance Food and others.
As I look at these programs, they indirectly address happiness. By encouraging exercise and other positive behaviors, they are likely to see happiness rise in their employees. But why not address that directly, by informing the employees of proven methods?
Dr. Marty Seligman and his associates have been studying what will work in raising happiness. One of the most robust approaches to raising happiness is the “Blessings Diary” or the “Gratitude Journal.” A participant jots down at the end of the day three to five things that happened that day that creates a sense of gratitude. Simply doing that will permanently raise happiness over at least a one year period.
A second method is the “Gratitude Visit.” In this exercise, a participant writes a letter of appreciation to someone whom he/she has never adequately thanked. The letter should be three hundred words or more, and should be laminated. The participant then takes the letter to the recipient and reads it out loud, leaving it. This exercise raised happiness for the next four weeks.
A third method is “Expressing Strengths.” The participant takes the Values In Action survey at www.authentichappiness.org and identifies his/her five top strengths. The assignment is to express these strengths in new, creative, or unique ways.
In a small pilot study, combining these three interventions had a more satisfying and robust effect on seriously depressed patients than either treatment as usual (cognitive therapy) or treatment plus medication. Since Seligman has already shown that these interventions can be delivered via a website, this is certainly a disruption of the typical treatment for depression. I suggest that it should also be extended not just to clinically depressed patients but also a wider range of individuals. If employees practice Positive Psychology exercises, will they become more productive, take less sick days, and so forth?
My colleagues and I are currently developing a systems-based approach to improving emotional resiliency which includes Positive Psychology interventions, diet, exercise, social connection, and sleep skills. So far it appears to be effectively treating both clinically depressed patients and people who are not depressed but who want to improve their personal health. It disrupts the usual treatment approach because it is done in a classroom and conceivably could be done through a web site. If you are involved in a similar effort, I want to collaborate. Send me an email to DrJ AT enjoylifebook DOT com. I am told I should not post an actual email address on a blog because there are programs harvesting those, so you have to translate that into an actual email address.
In the mean time, let me challenge each reader to try these three interventions out. Estimate your current habitual happiness level on a 0 - 10 scale, with zero meaning absolute misery and ten is the happiest one could imagine being. Begin with the gratitude diary, then a visit, and then identify your personal strengths and exercise them. Track your happiness rating week-by-week. I predict you will see a very nice rise.
Lynn Johnson
http://enjoylifebook.com
Integrated Employee Health and Positive Psychology
WE KNOW A FEW THINGS about happiness. First, it can be changed, reliably and persistently. Second, the ways people try to increase happiness (buying Stuff, having more than the neighbors, and seeking pleasure or excitement) are all dead ends. Third, happy people are healthier and more productive than unhappy people. They live longer, take better care of themselves, and are sick much less often.
In The Innovator’s Prescription website (http://innovatorsprescription.com/), the authors have posted a supplement to chapter six, called “The Growth of Integrated Corporate Employee Health.” They review innovative approaches to improving employee health at Perdue Farms, Toyota, Performance Food and others.
As I look at these programs, they indirectly address happiness. By encouraging exercise and other positive behaviors, they are likely to see happiness rise in their employees. But why not address that directly, by informing the employees of proven methods?
Dr. Marty Seligman and his associates have been studying what will work in raising happiness. One of the most robust approaches to raising happiness is the “Blessings Diary” or the “Gratitude Journal.” A participant jots down at the end of the day three to five things that happened that day that creates a sense of gratitude. Simply doing that will permanently raise happiness over at least a one year period.
A second method is the “Gratitude Visit.” In this exercise, a participant writes a letter of appreciation to someone whom he/she has never adequately thanked. The letter should be three hundred words or more, and should be laminated. The participant then takes the letter to the recipient and reads it out loud, leaving it. This exercise raised happiness for the next four weeks.
A third method is “Expressing Strengths.” The participant takes the Values In Action survey at www.authentichappiness.org and identifies his/her five top strengths. The assignment is to express these strengths in new, creative, or unique ways.
In a small pilot study, combining these three interventions had a more satisfying and robust effect on seriously depressed patients than either treatment as usual (cognitive therapy) or treatment plus medication. Since Seligman has already shown that these interventions can be delivered via a website, this is certainly a disruption of the typical treatment for depression. I suggest that it should also be extended not just to clinically depressed patients but also a wider range of individuals. If employees practice Positive Psychology exercises, will they become more productive, take less sick days, and so forth?
My colleagues and I are currently developing a systems-based approach to improving emotional resiliency which includes Positive Psychology interventions, diet, exercise, social connection, and sleep skills. So far it appears to be effectively treating both clinically depressed patients and people who are not depressed but who want to improve their personal health. It disrupts the usual treatment approach because it is done in a classroom and conceivably could be done through a web site. If you are involved in a similar effort, I want to collaborate. Send me an email to DrJ AT enjoylifebook DOT com. I am told I should not post an actual email address on a blog because there are programs harvesting those, so you have to translate that into an actual email address.
In the mean time, let me challenge each reader to try these three interventions out. Estimate your current habitual happiness level on a 0 - 10 scale, with zero meaning absolute misery and ten is the happiest one could imagine being. Begin with the gratitude diary, then a visit, and then identify your personal strengths and exercise them. Track your happiness rating week-by-week. I predict you will see a very nice rise.
Lynn Johnson
http://enjoylifebook.com
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Comment
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Comment by Leonie Curran on February 17, 2009 at 6:37pm -
Thanks Lynn, I've become a recent advocate of positive psychology, including Marty Seligman's helpful methods, which I'm applying personally, and would like to extend to our workplace. As an Educator in the Health system, I'm interested in hearing of Positive Psychology strategies applied with Health staff elsewhere.
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