Thank you for your many interesting and stimulating comments and observation.

Here are some additional thoughts after reading through your comments:

- schools are workplaces too, as my friend and colleague Jenny Fox Eades reminds us, therefore working with schools is working with organisations

- the military is also a workplace, doing Positive Psychology in the military is an example of doing Positive Psychology in a workplace

- there is clearly a lot happening with the application of Pos Psych in workplaces and organisations. Just because not all the applications are showcased at Positive Psychology conferences does not mean they are not happening

- perhaps different kinds of conferences or gatherings are ‘homes’ for workplace applications and experiences around Positive Psychology and related fields. Or, specific workplace-focused gatherings are attached to a Pos Psych conference so that people who are interested in workplaces have an alternative gathering which is more suited to their interests. Such a gathering would have a title which attracts them

- language is critical, it needs to reach out to the audience

- a number of comments point to the many other fields of relevance, not just Pos Psych. Bringing them together brings depth

- Positive Psychology might appear to be a rehash, but the academic rigour IS of interest to executives. I have met many executives who are relieved “thank goodness someone is studying this!”. They find that the Positive Psychology rigour is an opportunity to bring attention to topics which previously did not get traction

Really enjoyed reading your responses – thank you everyone!
Amanda

While I agree with WJ on several of the points made about business’ perception of PP, perhaps the term PP itself works against us. Perhaps media coverage, and hence public and organizational perception, is ‘narrower’ than the actual discipline. Possible? After all, WE know that PP goes beyond gratitude, but how about the rest ….

Also, my sense is that when one is perceived to to be trying to get into an organization’s ‘psychological shorts’ (so to speak) people get nervous. Especially management. As practitioners, are we perhaps remiss in trying to ’sell’ PP.

I believe that there are many many practitioners applying the broadest of PP concepts – and doing so successfully. (See Jocelyn Davis’ chapter in Linley’s Handbook of PP in the Workplace”. Maureen’s comment is particularly applicable here, where the Central American ‘relational’ culture is certainly more accepting of a PP approach.)

Granted, there is likely insufficient ‘hard evidence’ to satisfy the rigours of science, but at the end of the day..will any one organizational application of PP ever be like another, given the uniqueness of each organization (and the mix of PP concepts applied).

So yes, like you, I would love to hear more, much more, about what’s working, where and how. But, given the challenges of finding acceptable ‘evidence’; your experience in Australia; and mine at last year’s conference in Philadelphia; it seems unlikely we’ll be finding what we’re looking for at conferences.

Perhaps PPND – or a similar forum – can or will step up to the plate. Possible? Hope so .

I think that introducing Pos Psych into workplaces has been more difficult than positive psychologists and practitioners imagined. Originally, the workplace was thought of as a “natural home” for positive psychology – now the natural home is, surprisingly, the US military and, less surprisingly, schools. I accept this change, but I don’t accept neglecting workplaces, and I’m still quite passionate about bringing Pos Psych into organizations and businesses. I’d love to hear from others who have done it, because the successes feel few and far between.

thanks for your post
Kate

In my experience the lack of PP in organisations is due to two things:
1) the obsession in business with calculating an ROI. On the one hand, you migth say well this is what being in business is all about. On the other, it’s ironic, I mean organisations generally fail to calculate the ROI of their IT implementations accurately, so they have no hope of doing it with PP. This leads me to my 2nd point which is that
2) If you have a sponsor at the top of the organisation, anything can be made to work, even when you haven’t been able to calculate the ROI accurately. I’ve seen perfectly good well-being projects fall by the wayside because the sponsor was never fully committed, or moved on to another organisation before it gained traction. This is a common problem in any change management situation. In that sense PP is no different to anything else.

Bridget