1. April 8, 2011 Lori DePrete Brown Sharon Younkin

2.  Introductions (15 minutes)  Icebreaker (15 minutes)  Overview (20 minutes) ◦ Happiness (Sharon) ◦ Flow (Lori)  Group Discussion (45 minutes) ◦ Key questions about two posted articles  Wrap up/What’s happening next (15 minutes)

3. ◦ Share with your small groups an experience you have had with happiness and flow in relation to your work.

4.  Happiness=  Life satisfaction + Coping resources + Positive emotions  Authentic happiness is facilitated by the development and practice of character virtues such as: ◦ kindness ◦ gratitude ◦ curiosity ◦ playfulness ◦ humor ◦ open-mindedness ◦ hope ◦ optimism

5.  We measure happiness in moments, sorrows and difficulties typically in longer spans of time  This, however, does not alter the fact that each moment of happiness, no matter how fleeting, increases our resilience and in turn gives us the resources necessary to navigate through life’s difficulties  Moving through difficulties also can allow for the personal growth that in turn contributes to the development of critical factors necessary for increasing happiness.

6.  Key points: ◦ Broaden and Build Theory  Positive emotions allow us to broaden our ability to deal with difficulty and enhance our resilience.  The beneficial effects of positive emotions build over time. ◦ It’s not a zero sum game  Positive emotions benefit us regardless of negative emotions and life challenges.  Recognizing our small, fleeting moments of joy results in meaningful benefits to our well being and resilience.

7.  Pursue intrinsic goals and values for their own sake ◦ Personal growth ◦ Relationships ◦ Community involvement ◦ Health and well being  VS. extrinsic goals like wealth, fame, image and power  Behave in autonomous, volitional or consensual ways  Be mindful and act with a sense of awareness  Satisfy your basic psychological needs for competency, relatedness and autonomy

8.  Relatedness: ◦ Deep, reciprocal, valued relationships with others  Money: ◦ Beyond our ability to meet basic needs, money does not buy happiness ◦ Where money can help:  Experiential purchases can add to happiness, material purchases rarely do.  However, money is not required for positive experiential endeavors  Conversation: ◦ Decrease small talk, increase substantive conversation  Time…

9.  “Time Affluence” ◦ Time is required in order to engage in activities that promote personal growth, connection with others, and community involvement ◦ Having a sense of time abundance is more important to happiness than a sense of financial abundance. ◦ Increased time affluence increases mindfulness and flow

10.  “Time Poverty” ◦ Time poverty can negatively affect happiness by:  Lowering physical health  Reducing civic engagement  Limiting family and relational involvement  Inhibiting “flow”  Reducing mindfulness  “Take Back Your Time” ◦ Organizational movement to address time poverty in a collective fashion. ◦ www.timeday.org

11.  Three critical factors for a happy workplace ◦ Equity  Respectful and dignified treatment  Fairness  Security ◦ Achievement  Pride in company  Empowerment/autonomy  Feedback  challenge ◦ Camaraderie  Positive connections with colleagues

12.  Employees have higher levels of subjective well being when they choose their behaviors, feel efficacious and successful, and when they feel connected to colleagues.  Work hours are negatively correlated with life satisfaction.  Workplaces considering “time affluence” as a means of employee compensation can significantly increase employee well being.  The Journal of Business Ethics suggests that addressing employee’s experience of time affluence is an important ethical business practice.

13.  Happiness and flow are deeply related  “Flow” experiences, like happiness, are frequently identified in retrospect, not in the moment. ◦ Similarly, the happiness we experience when we are in flow is typically recognized after we’ve moved through the flow experience.  Flow is enjoyable, and feelings of enjoyment contribute to happiness and resilience.

14.  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s seminal works about flow: ◦ Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience ◦ Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement in Everyday Life ◦ Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention ◦ Optimal Experience: Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness

15.  Identify one thing from either reading that you can immediately apply to your work  Locus of control: what can you do to increase the likelihood of a flow state and/or happy moments occurring?  Compare/contrast happiness and flow  When you think about experiences that helped you grow, are they experiences of happiness and flow, or are they experiences of suffering and sorrow?  Do the frameworks of happiness and flow have a place for suffering and sorrow? If not, should they?

16.  Consultation Sessions with Rick Foster and Greg Hicks, authors of Happiness & Health ◦ Thursday, May 5  Day long workshop (includes lunch) facilitated by Rick and Greg ◦ Friday, May 6  The book: ◦ Happiness & Health: Nine Choices That Unlock the Powerful Connection Between the Two things We Want Most  The BLE!!

17.  We hope you have gained at least one tool to increase your opportunities for flow, happiness, and well-being.