If you're happy and you know it.. work!

From the New York Times last Sunday, September 4. Do you agree/disagree? Have you seen this in play where you work? Let me know! Jaya - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do Happier People Work Harder?By TERESA AMABILE and STEVEN KRAMER Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Steven Kramer, an independent researcher, are the authors of “The Progress Principle.” LABOR DAY is meant to be a celebration of work. Yet, on this Labor Day, few have reason to rejoice. Even those who have jobs. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which has been polling over 1,000 adults every day since January 2008, shows that Americans now feel worse about their jobs — and work environments — than ever before. People of all ages, and across income levels, are unhappy with their supervisors, apathetic about their organizations and detached from what they do. And there’s no reason to think things will soon improve. Employee engagement may seem like a frill in a downturn economy. But it can make a big difference in a company’s survival. In a 2010 study, James K. Harter and colleagues found that lower job satisfaction foreshadowed poorer bottom-line performance. Gallup estimates the cost of America’s disengagement crisis at a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually. When people don’t care about their jobs or their employers, they don’t show up consistently, they produce less, or their work quality suffers. Over the past decade, we researched the micro-level causes behind this macro-level problem. To gain real-time perspective into everyday work lives, we collected nearly 12,000 electronic diary entries from 238 professionals in seven different companies. Our study charted each person’s psychological state each day, and asked respondents to describe one event that stood out during that day. Our analysis revealed their inner work lives — the usually hidden perceptions, emotions and motivations that people experience as they react to and make sense of events in their workdays. The results were sobering. In one-third of the 12,000 diary entries, the diarist was unhappy, unmotivated or both. In fact, workers often expressed frustration, disdain or disgust. Our research shows that inner work life has a profound impact on workers’ creativity, productivity, commitment and collegiality. Employees are far more likely to have new ideas on days when they feel happier. Conventional wisdom suggests that pressure enhances performance; our real-time data, however, shows that workers perform better when they are happily engaged in what they do. Managers can help ensure that people are happily engaged at work. Doing so isn’t expensive. Workers’ well-being depends, in large part, on managers’ ability and willingness to facilitate workers’ accomplishments — by removing obstacles, providing help and acknowledging strong effort. A clear pattern emerged when we analyzed the 64,000 specific workday events reported in the diaries: of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important — by far — is simply making progress in meaningful work. As long as workers experience their labor as meaningful, progress is often followed by joy and excitement about the work. “This time it looks good! I feel more positive about this project and my work than I’ve felt in a long time,” one programmer wrote after she’d completed a small but difficult task. This kind of rich inner work life improves performance, which further supports inner work life — a positive spiral. Unfortunately, many companies now keep head count and resources to a minimum and this makes progress a struggle for employees. Most managers don’t understand the negative consequences of this struggle. When we asked 669 managers from companies around the world to rank five employee motivators in terms of importance, they ranked “supporting progress” dead last. Fully 95 percent of these managers failed to recognize that progress in meaningful work is the primary motivator, well ahead of traditional incentives like raises and bonuses. This failure reflects a common experience inside organizations. Of the seven companies we studied, just one had managers who consistently supplied the catalysts — worker autonomy, sufficient resources and learning from problems — that enabled progress. Not coincidentally, that company was the only one to achieve a technological breakthrough in the months we studied it. Working adults spend more of their waking hours at work than anywhere else. Work should ennoble, not kill, the human spirit. Promoting workers’ well-being isn’t just ethical; it makes economic sense. Fostering positive inner lives sometimes requires leaders to better articulate meaning in the work for everyone across the organization. Sometimes, all that’s required is that managers address daily hassles and help with technical problems. If those who lead organizations — from C.E.O.’s to small-team leaders — believe their mission is, in part, to support workers’ everyday progress, we could end the disengagement crisis and, in the process, lift our work force’s well-being and our economy’s productivity.

I Still Love Lucy

Happy 100th

Birthday to my favorite entertainer, businesswoman role model, innovator, television pioneer and style icon - Lucille Ball.

The world is celebrating, too -
Jamestown, NY (Lucy's hometown) is sponsoring a Lucy Look a Like contest; Hallmark Channel is running an I Love Lucy marathon, Google is running video and images. Check out http://www.facebook.com/hallmarkchannel; http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/07/us-lucy and more!

I was in Los Angeles in 1989 when Lucy died - she was in Cedars Sinai Medical Center for a week or so following heart surgery before she passed. There was a huge outdoor banner on the hospital building that said "We Love Lucy." Her home was just minutes away, in Beverly Hills. Even in a town of entertainment legends, she was the most legendary and there was a palpable sadness in the streets during that time. For me, a starry eyed, young communicator looking for greatness to emulate, her larger than life contributions to the industry and the business world meant so much.

Here's to legends living on and on!

Communicate well and often,
Jaya

When all else fails... SMILE!

We all want to have influence and power in our work lives. Turns out it could be as simple as turning that frown upside down! Yale psychology professor Marianne LaFrance, PhD, in her new book, Lip Service

, offers some insights into the power of the smile. Two of them especially caught my eye:

1. Smiles exert subliminal Powers. When study subjects are shown an image of a smiling face for just four milliseconds, they experience a mini emotional high. People who view smiling faces perceive the world in a better light. To them, boring material is more interesting; neutral images look more positive; even bland drinks seem tastier.
2. There are three degrees of happiness... An article in the British Medical Journal reported that within social networks, when one person is happy, the feeling migrates to two people beyond him or her. So if you smile, a friend of a friend - or a co-worker and a staff member - is more likely to smile, too.

Any applications for your next client presentation or staff meeting? Try it and let me know!

Communicate well today,
Jaya

-- Adapted from "The State of the Smile" by Jennifer Margulis in the August 2011 issue of The Oprah Magazine

Journey as Destination

A very big part of being happy is getting and keeping perspective. The annoyances and disappointments of daily life can be managed much more effectively if you keep an eye on the bigger picture. Unruly children underfoot and loud during weekends when you're trying to work or rest? Ah well, you have a healthy and creative family. Overburdened with more than your share of the workload at the office? No matter, you're adding to your resume and your network while gaining professional recognition. I suppose one could view perspective as optimism.

Summer is great for perspective-gathering, with its opportunities of space and time. My favorite perspective-gaining method? Travel. What better place to dream, ponder and envision the future while the details of earthly life are literally miles underneath you - you soaring above it all with nothing but huge sky, stars and sun embracing you? I usually write, read, simply sit and be still during long plane rides. Once you arrive, the newness of most places allows your mind to adjust as if you have moved to a new city, a new home - even if it's just for a day. You are a citizen of that place, albeit as a newcomer. I'm sure you've experienced it and maybe realize it most once you return to your own home - your house looks and smells different, your children seem to have grown... And if your family has traveled with you, then you all come home changed, expanded. This happens on all trips, no matter where you've gone or even if the travel experience was positive. As T.S. Eliot said,

The journey, not the arrival, is what matters.

"

This summer, please take some time to see new places and see yourself in new ways. I'd love to hear about your journeys and how they bring perspective to your life and work.

One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. Henry Miller

Photo: The Links at Spanish Bay, first tee, sunrise, July 2011, Pebble Beach Resorts, California

Intrinsic Joy vs. the Checklist

One of the ways to increase your happiness in the workplace is to figure out which tasks and projects bring you “intrinsic” fulfillment rather than fulfillment after the fact (as in, you’re pleased when you check it off your “to do” list or your boss gives you a nod of recognition or it looks good on your resume). Probably many of you are scratching your heads now, puzzled at the concept. I did, too, when my friend and amazing coach Joyce Bader urged me to think about what intrinsically fulfills me as I continue my transition this summer. We Westerners don’t talk or think about intrinsic joy very much – more we focus on results, the external evidence of our achievements.

So probably no surprise that when I Googled “intrinsic joy,” a bunch of Eastern religious websites and blogs popped up. Here’s a definition from one:

(Intrinsic joy) is organic, that is, it arises from and resides within the organism itself. It's a substance that flows within the body, not an idea in the mind. It's part of the machinery of our lives, not part of the concept of them.

What that means to me is: when I’m doing a task (writing this blog, for example), does the feeling of my fingers on the keyboard, the sound of their clicking, watching the letters form neat rows on the screen, seeing the pages fill, imagining the response of you, the audience… do those things satisfy me and make me happy? Or more, does it make me happy to say I’ve done it?

I’m a runner and heard another runner say once that they didn’t particularly enjoy running, but they loved “having run.” There is something to a great feeling of accomplishment, after all. Getting a to do list completed should make us proud. Intrinsic fulfillment is something different.

When you’re putting your child to bed at night – does it make you happy to lie with them and slowly turn page after page in their favorite book, listening to their little comments and giggles, enjoying the softness of their bed, the stillness of the house…? Or more, does it make you feel like you’ve done a good job as a parent, after the fact, that you read the story to them? Of course there’s nothing wrong with both feelings – we’re just trying to focus on WHY we make the choices we do about, in our topic today, work and work-related tasks.

It might be worth bringing awareness to – what makes you happy DURING a task or project. It could lead to an overall more satisfying work experience, especially if you can create more of those things every day.

I’d be interested to hear what you come up with!
Thanks,
Jaya

Happiness is… running in the early summer morning, the warmth from the previous night and coming day embracing and soothing, the breezes refreshing… life fully in me and ahead.

Designing Happiness - A Summer Series

Everywhere you turn these days, you bump into happiness. It’s become quite a trend, from books to magazine surveys to celebrity interviews, and it’s reached the business world. With the release of The Harris Poll's Annual Happiness Index recently and the resulting media and business attention, it seems this cake is now iced! I’m intrigued. As I delve into finding new meaning and resolve in my communication career and as summer truly heats up, I feel this is an important and topic to explore, from personal and professional angles So in the next couple of months, I plan to use the summer “break” to look at happiness – near and long term. Please join me, and let me know which parts resonate with you!

I’ve drawn four major themes from the recent literature: Health and Happiness; Happiness in Relationships, Happiness in the Workplace and Happiness in general. I’ll mix and match and go in between these topics, as they are all interrelated, one directly impacting the other.

Part One - Happiness in the Workplace: Declare Your Independence
As communicators and business people, we know that a happy and engaged workforce is crucial to business outcomes including sales, productivity and impact on health and quality of life. Companies, probably including yours and those of your clients, invest a lot of money in engagement studies, leadership training, and motivational programs to keep their employees happily productive. Sadly, recent research says those efforts probably aren’t working. Shawn Achor (author of The Happiness Advantage and founder of GoodThink, Inc.) in a recent Harvard Business Review article, http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_happiness_dividend.html cited the Conference Board Survey from this year, which found that employees were the unhappiest they have been in 22 years. Around the same time, CNNMoney reported a survey that indicated 84% of Americans are unhappy with their current job. And earlier this month, Mercer's "What's Working" survey found that one in three US employees are serious about leaving their current jobs.

So it appears that despite best efforts of companies, their employees are struggling to be happy in the workplace. Achor and others suggest that employees stop waiting for companies to get it right, and start claiming happiness for themselves, as individuals. I wholeheartedly support this. I don’t think companies should abandon any of their trainings or surveys-quite the opposite – they should take an even deeper look and find EFFECTIVE methods of dealing with ROOT CAUSES related to employee unhappiness or dissatisfaction. I do think, in addition and simultaneously, all of us as employees can own our work experiences. We can do what we need to be happy each day, each month, each year.

Maybe you’d like to try some of these tips (I’ve adapted from Achor) – and add your own. I plan to try. Let me know how it goes for you!

1. First thing each day, thank someone on your team, your boss, a professional colleague, a mentor with a quick (and heartfelt) thank you email or call.
2. Focus on the positive Write down three new things you are grateful for each day that relate to your work experience. I know – on some days, three will seem an impossible number – keep thinking about it, you’ll find them. Small things count. Even “I’m grateful that the printer is only ten steps from my office” or “I’m glad my boss is on vacation” or “I appreciate the AC being the perfect temperature today…” – you get the idea. It’s about training your brain to focus on what’s good.

So to a degree, you can be independent of what goes on in your company, while you also try to influence the company itself to be more effective when it comes to your happiness and that of your peers. What better time than now to embrace that independence!

Happy holiday weekend, everyone!
Jaya

Happiness is… meeting new colleagues you also count as friends!

Words of the Father

How a person communicates - like height, eye color, temperament, is a product of genetics and environment, largely influenced by family. I thought about this during the weekend, with its emphasis on fathers. For example, my earliest memories of my father are communication-related. Interpersonally, I watched him interact with a smallish circle of people, mostly relatives, in a very authentic way that gave those listening a clear idea of what he believed in, what he was “about.” Voices could be raised to quite a high level during debates with his brothers, also opinionated, extremely articulate and intellectual men themselves. (As I hear it, some of these qualities no doubt come from my grandfather, who was a Seventh-day Adventist preacher in India and so loved public speaking and an audience.)

An avid reader, my father was drawn to biographies and historical books, sharing with my sisters, mother and me what he learned about US presidents, Mahatma Gandhi, other Indian political leaders. He is 82 now, and running the day to day operations of a nonprofit health and social charity for children and families in India (www.cupinternational.org), a dream he fulfilled upon his retirement from international public health service 20 years ago. Taking on this leadership role, I watched my father grow into a prolific and sensitive public speaker, overcoming some of the shyness I’d seen in him earlier in his life. More of an introvert, he didn’t usually welcome a big audience back then. Embracing a newer role for himself, he now projects power, sensitivity and grace when speaking with audiences, whether his own staff, potential donors or the Boards of Directors he leads on behalf of CUP.
And he loves to write.

As much as we urge him to delegate this task seemingly beneath him, he still prefers to write the quarterly newsletters, annual reports, proposals for fundraising – all himself. They are tightly written, with fantastic use of language and business style. He works with his local printers himself to get everything produced in a polished and professional way – I think he doesn’t mind doing it himself, as busy as his days are. For the true creative, the true communicator, it’s so much easier to capture your own thoughts rather than dictate to someone else or rely on someone else to capture your true essence, what you really want to say, the parts of the story that are really important to convey.

My daughter, six and a half, carries with her always a notepad, journal, pen... ready to jot thoughts and news at a moment's whim. My father told me recently this was me as a child - always writing stories, plays, notes, cards, lists... i certainly embraced that childhood tendency and turned it into my actual life's work as a professional. I guess, in that, I am my father's daughter.

What communication tendencies and choices have come from your father, your family? It's a fascinating topic - let me know!

Until then, take care and communicate authentically,
Jaya

Roles of a Lifetime

With Oprah moving on to her next best life, Katie Couric headed to ABC, Mary Hart and Meredith Vieira leaving their respective anchor posts, career transition is difficult to ignore as we head into summer. Whether or not you are personally in transition, the headlines around these powerhouse women moving on to bigger and better things for them have given all of us as communicators a reason to pause, take a breath and think. For me, it’s not so much about “who am I going to pitch now” (a legitimate question we all ask when major transition among media heavyhitters happens). More, I’m reflecting on legacy.

Oprah certainly devoted a lot of shows to self reflection and among the shows of her last season, many were about taking a look back – at the legacy she and her show are leaving us as audiences and professional communicators. Some might have thought it self promotional, and maybe some of it was – but I also found myself AMAZED at all the subjects she covered and in the behind the scenes looks, how much she and her staff debated and dilemmaed about their guests, how to approach the explosive topics like incest, rape, and a range of other highly sensitive, political and emotional subjects. You know – you’ve been watching for 25 years, just like I have.

I didn’t even really realize how much I admired Oprah and her show until the retrospective final season. We’ve all just been going and growing along with her, the world changing as she commented and influenced, and it just all seemed natural, the renowned and celebrated and expert and sad and odd people who crossed her stage every day, every week. So it really hit me in the past months – this woman, this communicator, this journalist BELIEVES in her role as a change agent, as a storyteller, as a social influencer. And… even more important – she finds the courage to live up to that belief. To me, that’s it – that’s all we are here to do, as communicators. Believe in ourselves and our calling, and find the courage to live up to it.

Oprah is one very important role model for communicators. I’m sure you have others – I’m so interested to hear who has influenced you as a communicator? Please comment and let me know!

Talk to you soon,
Jaya

De-listed

If you’re a listmaker like me, holidays are a bonanza. The minute I turned on my browser every day for the past week at least, I’ve been bombarded with lists of best beaches, best day trips, best swimsuits, local activities, most popular cookout foods… an endless array of things to do and places to go for those of us who pressure even our holidays into being productive.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that – I’m a huge fan of productive. But in my recent more mellow state (I like to think of it as newfound wisdow), I give you an idea – ease up on the definition of “success” this Memorial Day.

Don’t make a checklist. Don’t make official plans. Don’t do. Just be. Make the break a real one by focusing on things you don’t usually – such as, your thoughts, your health, being in the moment, finding things to laugh about.

How? Ah… that’s the tough part. I know. I get fidgety when doing fewer than three things at once. Here are some ideas to get you started (disclaimer: this is NOT a list, although it’s playing one for this blog post:
- Stay in bed all morning. Don’t jump up at dawn’s early light to run or make a gourmet breakfast just this once. Read the newspapers in bed, sip your coffee while it’s steamy hot slowly… lie back and close your eyes every once in a while. Feel warm and cozy and let wellbeing soak in.
- Sit with your child, spouse, parent, friend – whoever is important to you – and just talk- try it for thirty minutes. Find a sunny patch in the yard or your kitchen table or snuggle up on the sofa and settle in with only each other. No book, no video, no tv, no computer.Let the only stimulation be each other. You will be amazed at what comes up. We all walk around with thoughts deprioritized by urgent needs of daily life. Those thoughts are who we are. Give them a chance. Quiet times allow those to come out in just the ways that are unique to them and you. Or maybe you’ll both sit in silence or even fall asleep! Great! The point is to be in each others’ presence. Either way, I guarantee you will create memories.
- Breathe. You’ve heard this from everyone from your yoga instructor to your delivery coach… it really is important. Breath is our life force. Breathing reminds us that we are indeed alive. A slow, deliberate and steady set of breaths (try ten inhalation and exhalations) will calm ad energize you, clear your head and make you happy.
- Remember. Appropriate to this holiday, now is a good time to remember all the reasons you have to feel grateful. For freedom, for joy, for beauty that comes with the changing seasons, for the endless possibilities that only you can define for yourself. For life that you can create. For paths paved for us by people who have come before us – some of them believing so strongly in causes and country that they willingly gave their lives.

In being, you are most fully yourself. Be restful and happy this weekend. Talk to you next week,

Jaya

Transitions

It’s before 9am on a Monday and it’s already warm outside, as I guess it should be for the third week of May. I’m not used to focusing on weather on weekday mornings except to be sure to take a sweater to the office to fend off indoor chill, inevitable no matter the season or the outside temperature. I note sunsets and impending storms from my office windows as they might relate to traffic and so my timing. This has been the case for more years than I can say – for good reason. I’ve been working, as a busy communication professional, in an office setting. Monday mornings have been for gearing up, focusing, organizing. And they will be again. For now, though, this Monday is for reflecting, clearing my head, settling down and calming. I am in transition from a corporate position to another one yet to be determined.

I know I’m not alone. I know a lot of you in the communication field and others are going through major transitions, too. Some of these are voluntary, some not, some probably a shock to the system. I’ve been in all those transition situations, too. Times are volatile and our profession, as it is in an influencer function rather than a controlling one in business, can be buffeted according to the whims and conditions of our companies.

With transition being a fact of life, I've found that it’s worth adopting a few strategies for dealing. Here are a few of mine that I’ve found helpful over the years –

Jaya's Tips for Transition
1. Detach. Become an observer. Staying involved yet outside is a skill worth cultivating for now and later. That’s not to say it’s not personal – if it’s happening to you, it’s impacting you on a personal level – it is personal to you! 2. 2. Maintain perspective. Don’t let the situation have more significance than it should. You are still you. You are bigger and better than any one situation.
3. Retain power. Ultimately you are the single most important decisionmaker in what happens to you. You control what happens next.
4. Take care of yourself. Time off is a gift. Use it wisely. Soak up the sun. Exercise. Eat wisely and well. Focus on your physical health so your emotional and mental health can be supported.
5. Stay in touch with professional friends and contacts but do that according to your own preferences and styles. If you’re an extrovert, you’re likely going to find more comfort and support in being around people. If you’re more an introvert or somewhere in the middle, you’ll want plenty of time on your own to reflect, journal, line up your next moves internally before going public with those thoughts. Just be aware of your preferences and what truly energizes you.
6. Find beauty in your situation, whatever it is. Much easier said than done, I realize. I believe, to quote the Rolling Stones, that even if

“you can’t always get what you want...you get what you need.”

Maybe you didn’t think you wanted this transition, this time, this space – you probably need it though.

Any other lessons learned, tips for transition? I'd love to hear! Thanks and talk to you soon,
Jaya

Welcome to Designing Communication - a blog for corporate communicators

Welcome to my blog. I’m Jaya Koilpillai Bohlmann, a corporate communicator and public relations professional. I’ve been in the business world for more than 20 years (despite my youthful looks!), guiding companies to hopefully do the right things by engaging in the right mix of communication practices and interactions with the audiences that matter.

What I know at this point is: there’s a lot still to figure out. Media is changing, companies are not trusted, audiences demand instant responses, anyone in the world can emerge as an influencer of your business at anytime – predictions are useless. Vigilance and sharpness are key. Networks have to be expanded and alliances (even unlikely ones) have to be formed – unity seems to be where we’re strongest as communicators.

My goal for Designing Communication is to share with executives in all industries, consultancies, companies and nonprofits what I’ve learned, and what I continue to learn on my journey as a communication expert. I welcome you as part of my community and hope to become part of yours.