Positive psychology teaches us that if you improve the lives of your people you’ll improve the organisation’s performance. When people are happy, positive and resilient, organisations are healthy, stable and profitable.
HR professionals know that if employees are disengaged with the company culture and lacking in motivation and spark, they’re likely to be thinking about leaving. The start of a new year is when the drift in attachment is usually highest.
So now’s the time when organisational leaders should be proactive about retaining their best people. One way is to give them the skills and tools for resilience and self-management.
A new solution comes from how Camp Quality turned itself around from the brink of bankruptcy and the threat of losing its charity licence into a financially strong organisation, enjoying a dramatic increase in clients and volunteers and a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most trusted charities.
Camp Quality survived because its then CEO Simon Rowntree introduced a measurable program based on the science and practices of positive psychology that improves business outcomes by changing the way people approach their lives and work.
Created from research by experts at world-leading universities, the program is called ORANGES and provides tools to help with seven fundamental areas of life – Optimism, Resilience, Attitude, Now (mindfulness), Gratitude, Energy and Strengths. In Camp Quality’s case, it became a survival blueprint and drove sustained results over many years.
After successfully piloting the wellness program with a number of commercial businesses, Camp Quality’s board decided to commercialise it. It chose PDT to be its commercialisation partner and exclusive New Zealand reseller. Part of the cost of each session PDT delivers goes to Camp Quality.
ORANGES targets common challenges such as problem solving; resiliency in the face of change and setbacks; poor attitude and infectious negativity; quality of work and productivity levels; commitment, application and engagement; absenteeism and improving team performance.
It’s about making people more optimistic rather than pessimistic, making them more resilient to bounce back from adversity and giving them the right attitude so they’re always open to an opportunity, solution or possibility. There are times of the year when most people feel stretched, busier than normal or under constant pressure when having the skills to manage our perspective on life and care for our own state of mind becomes very important.
Other modules focus on making people more mindful to stop silly mistakes because you are giving your full attention to the moment, making them more grateful, helping them maintain energy throughout the day and identifying their natural strengths and using them.
When you give someone gratitude they feel good but you feel even better. ORANGES teaches people how to boost their happiness and that of colleagues by expressing gratitude and appreciation. This simple action increases positive emotions and keeps people energised and healthy. It’s a powerful antidote to negative emotion and depression.
A positive mindset is linked to stronger goal setting, innovation, concentration, creativity and mental capacity to make quicker decisions and can have a positive impact on absenteeism. Research shows that people who identify and use their strengths on a regular basis also perform better and are more proactive within their teams.
Government workers facing change fatigue and emergency workers regularly confronted by distressing situations could benefit from ORANGES.
The resilience of government workers is severely challenged by constant and relentless change and an associated fear of the unknown. It’s also tested in client-facing roles where people get a lot of negativity – the constant knocks, regular outcomes that are upsetting or unpleasant and distressing occurrences in an emergency room.
People get worn down and they commonly end up becoming short-fused, negative and mildly depressed. They end up having stress leave days, calling in sick or being cynical or counter-productive in the face of restructuring and organisational redesign.
If government workers learn to be more resilient it’s easier to be at work and feel stable about ongoing changes. Resilience flows positively into optimisim and attitude too.
For more information about ORANGES please contact us at PDT on 1300121400 or email me at [email protected]