Change

Part 1 ended with a question about whether human beings are capable of holistic growth throughout their adult years. In Part 2, I contend that the passing of youth does not leave us confined to learning only very specific grownup skills for which a capacity is already in place. We can go beyond skill training to growth. Kegan and Lahey give us existence proofs, three very different corporate cultures where continuous personal growth is the norm. They call these existence proofs deliberately developmental organizations (DDOs).

What if a company created a culture in which everyone could overcome internal barriers to change and use errors and vulnerabilities as prime opportunities for personal and company growth? What does growth even mean in adulthood?

Therapist self-care represents a unique application of the principles of positive psychology. Self-care that supports and sustains clinicians’ well-being through positive evidence-based strategies has immense potential not only for the therapists’ wellness, but also for the benefit of those they serve.

Dan Tomasulo is a master storyteller with a purpose. After reading this book, you’ll face the world a little bit differently.

On May 9, we will have a Positive Psychology News webinar featuring Pete Berridge and Jen Ostrich, co-inventors of Shift Positive 360®, a method for creating sustainable positive change by changing the way people give and receive feedback.

To work on positive medicine, I had to decide where to start. The opportunities to make medicine a more positive discipline are vast. Finally I decided that the place to start was with the healers themselves. Principles of self-care and positive psychology could be embedded in medical training starting as early as Day 1 of medical school.

We are so excited to have the esteemed author Louisa Jewell as our guest for the first ever PPND webinar. Join us for a three part program: A brief interview, followed by a highpoint from her brand new book, and live questions from the audience.

There are so many creative people out there finding ways to apply positive psychology in so many different settings, from childhood to old age, from home to school to work to retirement. So how do you stand on the shoulders of these giants in our field? Hint: short window before the price of the Positive Psychology Toolkit© goes up.

Pondering the possibility that the theory of learned helplessness is both backwards and incomplete.

It’s time to break the silence about suffering at work. Suffering happens everywhere. From page 11 in this book, “Without compassion, workplaces can become powerful amplifiers of human suffering.” Read on to explore the alternative, where organizations and the people in them awaken compassion at work.

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) is a strong tool for exploring the past, enhancing mindfulness in the present, and imagining the future.

How might we create a deeper understanding of the elements that drive well-being? How do we capture meaning, ensure learning, and build collaboration so that people engage in the issues that strengthen their well-being? What about using LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to help people think with their fingers and eyes as well as their minds.

Early in my career I had learned that if you want your product or service to be successful, all you have to do is (ask and) listen and act on what you hear, or don’t hear. We asked. You all spoke. We acted on your suggestions, bringing you Positive Psychology Toolkit 2.0. We also added a community forum so that all of our toolkit users could request new tools and interact with each other.

Positive Psychology News has a tradition of pulling together thoughts for the New Year, remembering that many people are taking stock and making resolutions. As you look ahead, perhaps the ideas below will help you find ways to make your life more happy and healthy. We also recommend that you follow Alicia’s lead and look back at 2016. What worked especially well then? What do you want to make sure you do more of in 2017?

The Positive Psychology Toolkit is a science-based, online platform containing 120+ exercises, activities, interventions, questionnaires, assessments and scales in PDF-format. 1.000+ practitioners are now working with this toolkit in their coaching practice, teaching, therapy trajectories and corporate wellness programs. There are only a few more days to subscribe at the current price.

What do we want in the near-term?

In the long term?

What are our goals in our work, recreational, relational, and personal lives?

There is good news on the horizon for parents! The top-down trend characteristic of decades of parent education programs and educational institutions is showing signs of shifting. Experts are exploring the value of involving parents and children in co-creating curricula to meet their academic and household needs.

The 5i Change (∆) Agent Model characterizes recurring themes in the ways that people use positive psychology in their livelihoods. While they may be teachers or coaches or therapists or doctors or dancers, what they actually do with positive psychology can be described by 5 verbs. Knowing which of these verbs characterize your own approach helps you take steps to augment your impact on the world.

What resources are available to design an organizational well-being strategy? To become informed you could read every article here on PPND and find the threads that to weave into your strategy. Or you could refer to the strategies that others have implemented. To get the ball rolling, here are some Australian examples of reusable strategies.

We can leverage the power of routines by personalizing them to meet our needs and to match our goals. Using a design thinking mindset, three elements to consider when crafting a routine are habits, practices, and rituals.