Chapter Four
A definition of happiness on the work floor.
This is the fourth little chapter of the story “The Happiness Table: on fueling growth by understanding happiness in creative companies.” It’s my Advanced Work-Based Project and my final deliverable for my MA in Digital Media at Hyper Island. This post in particular is an attempt to define happiness on the workfloor. I start slowly by uncovering truths about happiness that are more related to life in general, to narrow it down to happiness on the work floor.
“One mistake Westerners often make is to resist change and cling on to the things we care about or possess. But change is a constant and universal force — resisting it will inevitably result in suffering as we lose the things we have clung to.”
— Dalai Lama
According to the Dalai Lama, it is possible to systematically train your mind so that you can identify and cultivate positive mental states while eliminating the negative ones. Though this will be a slow and gradual process, it eventually brings a calmness that allows you to live a happy, joyous life no matter what the external situation is. External circumstances cannot create lasting happiness, the right state of mind can. The mind needs to be compassionate and empathic. Learning how to shift perspective is the key to a healthier and happier life.
Link to the work floor
Those who adapt the mind by embracing change and uncertainty will find happiness.
“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Professor and Positive Psychologist
In his book Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi revealed that flow is the thing that makes experiences genuinely satisfying. It’s a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to complete absorption in an activity and results in the achievement of a perfect state of happiness.
“Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times—although such experiences can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is thus something that we make happen. For a child, it could be placing with trembling fingers the last block on a tower she has built, higher than any she has built so far; for a swimmer, it could be trying to beat his own record; for a violinist, mastering an intricate musical passage. For each person there are thousands of opportunities, challenges to expand ourselves.”
Link to the work floor
Those on the work floor, who are able to find “their flow” by identifying their strenghts and then crafting their work around those strenghts, will find happiness.
“There are three types of lives that make people happy. The pleasant life, the good life and the meaningful life.”
— Martin Seligman, Professor and Positive Psychologist
Martin Seligman has fought for three things — with a firm belief that psychology shouldn’t only be concerned about how to make the depressed less miserable, but that the field should also be concerned about how to make the “normal” people happier:
- psychology should be as concerned with strenghts as with weakness,
- psychology should be concerned with building strenght instead of only repairing weakness,
- psychology should be concerned with making the lives of normal people fulfilling and nurturing high talent
According to Seligman, there are three types of happy lives:
1. The pleasant life
Seligman makes the distinction between pleasure and flow (the last one is borrowed from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi) — which both lead to happiness. Pleasure has raw feels. You know it’s happening. It’s thought and feeling. It’s the pleasant life.
2. The good life
On the other hand, during flow, you don’t feel anything. You are one with the music. Time stops. You have intense concentration. It’s what the good life is about.
It is key to knowing what your highest strenghts are and then recrafting your life to use them as much as you possibly can. Recrafting your work, your love, your play. This doesn’t make you smile more, but it gives you more absorption.
3. The meaningful life
Moreover, happiness is about knowing what your strengths are and using them as a service to belong to something bigger. This is the meaningful life.
There is a differency between fun and philanthropy. When you do something fun, the happiness fades away really fast. When you do something to help another person, it lasts.
Link to the work floor
Those on the work floor, who also use their strenghts to not only serve themselves but to make things that actually serve a higher purpose, will find happiness.
“Once a task gets more complicated and when it calls for cognitive, creative and conceptual skills, a larger financial reward leads to poorer performance. Once people gain enough money, an increase of wage won’t motivate them anymore to do better work. The drivers behind quality of work are not extrinsic, but intrinsic.”
— Daniel Pink, Author of Drive
In his book Drive, Daniel Pink explains three drivers that make people’s work better:
1. Autonomy
Our desire to be self-directed. People do better work when they have a choice.
2. Mastery
Our urge to get better at our work.
3. Purpose
Our motivation to serve something that is bigger than ourselves.
Link to the work floor
Those on the creative work floor will create better work when employers tap into these three motivations.
“As an employer, it is important to know what drives an individual. It is about understanding what makes people tick and then tapping into that.”
— David Rock, Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute
In his book “Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long”, David Rock explores five qualities that work as possible motivators for individuals. He uses the acronym SCARF that stands for status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness.
Status-oriented employees can be motivated by a possible title change, or having their name attached to more important projects.
Certainty-oriented employees are motivated simply by the reassurance that their job is important and that they are excelling.
Autonomy-oriented employees may need the ability to work from home, or simply slip on their head phones to tune everyone else out.
Relatedness-oriented employees are energized by opportunities to socialize with their coworkers — happy hours, softball games, etc.
Fairness-oriented employees want to know the playing field is even, and they aren’t being exploited or cheated. They need to hear it consistently.
Link to the work floor
Those on the work floor will be happier when employers tap into the right motivation.
The theories of Daniel Pink and David Rock make so much sense and I believe that the combination of both could be developed into a strong model. On the other hand, I could argue that Pink’s drivers are more related to the idea or product (the work itself), while Rock’s drivers live more in an atmosphere that is outside the actual work. Rock’s motivations are more from a sociological perspective. Finally, if I had to pick one common denominator, I’d go for understanding different motivations of different employees and tapping into those accordingly.
Here comes the definition of happiness on the work floor, which is twofold. It’s about giving and taking.
Happiness on the work floor.
Happiness on the work floor can be found by adapting the mind to embrace change and uncertainty. It can be found in those who know their own strenghts, crafting their work around these strenghts in order to ultimately be in this thing called flow. This feeling of happiness can even be augmented, when their work serves a higher purpose that is larger than the individual.
Happiness on the work floor can be given by understanding colleagues’ motivations. These motivations could be of any kind: autonomy, mastery, purpose, status, certainty, relatedness, fairness,… The most important thought is that the right motivations are identified and tapped into.
Heavy and deep stuff, but essential to understand what being happy on a professional level means.
You can continue your reading with “Chapter Five: Companies who get happiness.”, in which I’ve analysed a couple of innovative companies that both get growth and happiness.
Thank you for reading.
— Thomas
