In prep for a “Being Positive” workshop I’m facilitating for a client, I became curious about the early origins of Positive Psychology and came across a wonderful essay written in April 2018 by Daniel Horowitz, “Why Modern Psychologists’ Focus on Happiness Has its Roots in the Worst Human Traumas.”
Concurrently, I’ve been pondering the juxtaposition of metaphors for resilience (e.g., the flower growing up through a crack in the concrete) vs the fact that the need for resilience itself, is often born from adversity… that’s the gnarly side of resilience, that thing you need to “bounce back” from. It makes me think about the dark side of the moon.
Horowitz’s essay revealed more about an author and book I read many years ago, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl. Like many Consultants who provide corporate training on topics including resilience, I was profoundly impacted by Frank’s book. Could there be any greater example of resilience? An Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist who survived Auschwitz, he was regrettably, profoundly, and uniquely a subject matter expert.
However, it wasn’t until I read Horowitz’s essay that I learned Frankl’s book was originally titled, Saying Yes to Life in Spite of Everything, when it was published in Germany in 1946. It wasn’t until 1959 that it was published in the US and in English and eventually renamed. Frankl believed that search for meaning was a primary motivational force and that meaning could be found through purposeful work, love, and courage in the face of difficulty. He is widely quoted; here are three of my favorites:
· “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
· “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
· “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
Post Traumatic Growth: In his essay, Horowitz writes, “Frankl responded to the horrible events he had experienced by asserting that the most horrendous circumstances provided the seedbed of well-being.” Reading this is affirming; it puts into words what I’ve been ruminating over. This made me think of a “post traumatic growth,” a phenomenon that’s been around since mankind, but the phrase was coined in the 90s. In researching more about this, I discovered a wonderful article on positivepsychology.com, “What is Post Traumatic Growth? (+ inventory & scale).” The article starts with a quote, “trauma is a nightmare that comes while we are awake.” Profound. The article is a great read and, if you’re nerdy like me about the topic, I think you’ll enjoy it.
So what? How does all this relate and connect?
Employers have been through a lot. We all have. The opportunity in this storm is to leverage the circumstances that we didn’t choose and choose how to respond… just like Victor Frankl did. Be intentional about cultivating a culture that is health and high performing. If you’re not, yes, a new culture will evolve, just maybe not the one you want.
Wouldn’t it be great a few years from now to look back at this time and be able to say, “yes, it was rough. It was epically volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and ambiguous. Be we got through it and we’re stronger for it.” That’s post traumatic growth.
Workplace Transformation: Resilience and Post Traumatic Growth and workplace transformation are inextricably linked. In today’s post Covid world (can we say post Covid yet?), marked by the “Great Resignation” and other humanity and workplace transformations, employers must rethink and be intentional and agile in supporting new ways of working if they are to recruit and retain best talent. They must be resilient, agile, and intentional about the culture they want to create if they are to experience post Covid traumatic growth. Whether their industry has experienced some form of trauma or not, chances are that many of their employees have. If they’re hoping to just “get back to normal” without a strategy, they’re setting themselves up for disappointment. Hope is not a strategy.
While Pew research reports that top three reasons employees quit a job are pay, lack of opportunity and feeling disrespected (Pew, 2022), headlines also suggest employees increasingly want permanent flexible work options, meaningful work for an employer whose purpose and core values are aligned with their own, to feel valued, the ability to grow and develop, to have meaningful relationships and to be able to be their authentic selves. They want to BE a part of something not just be busy DOing work… even if the pay is great. These intangibles are what will uniquely motivate and inspire them. It’s really not rocket science and it’s really not new, but the pandemic was a tipping point prompting many employees to reconsider what’s really important.
In my work with clients, I like for them to share their vision of a new normal and together, we conduct a gap analysis between their current and desired state. Do they have a clear mission and core values? Can they vividly describe the culture they want to create? Can they tell me what they want employees to feel, hear and see while working there? Equally important, what do employees actually tell others what it’s like to work there? The process is iterative, and, with my coaching, they develop actions for addressing gaps that are within their control; they prioritize and execute them equipped with a strategy and tactics. As basic as it is, sometimes, and objective third party can really help to fast track the process.
If you can relate to this, if you’re a leader who is hoping things will get better, but really don’t have a well-formed strategy to get there, I would love to collaborate with you! Contact me via my website or message me on Linked In!
Good reads:
The Great Resignation Didn’t Start with the Pandemic (Harvard Business Review, March 2022)
Why Are So Many Employees Quitting? (SHRM, February 2022)
Why Modern Psychologists’ Focus on Happiness Has its Roots in the Worst Human Traumas (Zocalo Public Square, April 2018)
