Can Money Buy You Happiness?

 

Recently the WSJ had an interesting article on happiness and money. Turns out that it isn’t how much you have but how you use it. No surprise to psychologists who study personal satisfaction (aka happiness).

Boosting Engagement – Making Decisions

 

 

 

When I began consulting in organizations, that would be when Moby Dick was a minnow, we often heard the term participation, then somehow it morphed into involvement (I  liked this one better); then it  morphed into empowerment (I didn’t like this one at all) and now it has morphed into engagement (pretty good). What do these synonyms mean? Mary Kay Asche wrote a wonderful management book about 20+ years ago entitled “Mary Kay On People Management.” Full of common sense, practical, do-it-tomorrow advice. Here is her definition of the above terms: PEOPLE SUPPORT WHAT THEY HELP CREATE.

Ain’t it easy? Nope! How do you do it? One way is by understanding the nature of decision making in organization, having a repertory of each of the four and knowing when to use them appropriately. To see how go to Boosting Engagement – Making Decisions.

 

Archimedes” Lever OD#1

 

Over the past several years I have written very little about organization development, preferring to focus on personal, managerial and leadership development. this blog begins a sometime series on OD.
We start with a very big picture of OD by thinking about Archimedes’ Lever. “”If I have a lover long enough I can move the Earth.” We begin by going to a recent article on organizational change: Archimedes Lever and Organizational Change.

 

 

 

Just For Fun

From time-to-time someone sends me a video that is pure fun.

Behold four minutes of delight:

 

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

Parenting and Managing

In meetings, people occasionally ask “What’s the difference between managing and parenting?” I pause for a long second and say: Children are shorter. A recent Corner Office article in the New York Times has an excellent conversation about this topic.

For a more explicit  perspective, but one very much in agreement with the former here is 700 words on How parenting and managing inform each other.

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

Decisions and Happiness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great article in the WSJ on Maximizers and Satisficers. It’s a chuckle about the feeling content of making decisions. There’s a fun little self-test in there – which are you?

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

The Marshmallow Experiment #2

 

 

Several weeks ago I posted a blog about the marshmallow experiment.

Recently the New York Times had a similar article entitled Learning How To Exert Self-Control. At age 84, Mr. Mischel, the original researcher, is about to publish his first nonacademic book, “The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control.”

It seems that the original children and now turning 50 so this is getting to be a serious longitudinal study. I just ordered the book on my iPad. If it’s worth while, I will mention it in a future blog.

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

 

Gallup #6: Strategic Consulting

Strategic consulting is perhaps the most interesting area in the Gallup website. Along the right hand side there are 14 topic areas. If you love survey data, as I do, you will find much of interest here. Because there is so much here you need to focus on your major interests (unless you’re one of those who stays up all night surfing the web).

As a pump primer, here are a couple articles you may find of interest: Managers create high performance cultures and Engaged workplaces are engines of job creation. so ends out tour of Gallup. I hope you have found material of value.

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

Gallup #5: Powerful Measurement Tools

As noted earlier, the deeper we delve into the Gallup site the more interesting the information becomes.

Gallup has developed two powerful and available tools to carry out  assessments: the Clifton Strengths Finder and the Q12. For a 700 word overview of their two major tools as well as their relationship to engaging people in their work places read Boosting Engagement, Making Decisions.

 

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.

Gallup #4: Well -Being

 

For me and I hope for you the Gallup site gets more interesting as we go deeper into it.

When Don Clifton purchased Gallup he gradually altered the mission of Gallup to include employee engagement, customer engagement, talent management, and well-being. At the Well-Being area we can see some of the early results of this reformulation. Click on Thriving and you can see multi-year data on this polling. Clicking on Happiness yields a similar result. Clinking on Standard of Living gives another interesting picture of the effects of the great recession

 

Next week this blog is going to get more interesting for those of you interested in leadership and management (all of you?)

There are a couple of ways that people can subscribe to this blog. Click the “+ Follow” link on the bottom right section of the site and enter your email address. This is a very easy way to receive the newest post as an email. The other way is via RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed. The RSS Feed link is located on the right sidebar of the site, directly above the Categories section. Click on “RSS – Posts” to receive your posts in their favorite RSS reader. The RSS reader that many prefer is Google Reader (http://reader.google.com). It is free, well organized, and easy to use.