Harkn Round Up - A Focus on Optimism

The new year is often a chance for new beginnings and positive change. No different for us at Harkn as we say goodbye to Cultivating Organisational Happiness (the name was always too long anyway) and welcome its replacement, The Harkn Report.

Representing more than merely a change of name, alongside the content we share from outside sources, we hope to include more insight and experience from our unique vantage point, offering a different perspective about what matters inside organisations around the world right now.

This month, for many reasons, we’ve decided to lead with the theme of Optimism.

The Real Reason to Be(come) an Optimist Even as Your World Falls Apart & How to do It

Having an optimistic outlook is scientifically proven to have health benefits, optimists do not just feel healthier, they are healthier. Optimists also experience better mental health and higher levels of well-being. Winston Churchill once said, “Optimists see opportunities in every difficulty.” If you are actively working to recognise the positive aspects of your life, you will naturally start to see silver linings in challenging situations.

This article looks at how to cultivate optimism to aid you in your journey to a more optimistic and positive outlook on life... Read more...

Guest contributions this month come from the fabulous Teresa Quinlan and Sarah Ratekin, both friends of Harkn.

What we love most about Teresa is her ability to connect our emotional state (both desirable and undesirable) with the specific skills we can develop to be most effective. In this video 'Resiliency and Optimism During Challenge', Teresa discusses how you can cultivate greater levels of resiliency by flexing the emotional intelligence skill of optimism. 

Sarah Ratekin personifies positivity and optimism. She's also on a mission to connect the science of happiness with practical actions that companies can take to make work better for all concerned. In her article, Sarah offers 3 easy tips to help you stay positive when everything around feels negative.

Mark (not his real name) put his hand up at the back of the room in response to his manager's question: "What do you think of Harkn?". 

"I used to think Harkn was crap! To me, it was just another management gimmick. I only used it to be a good corporate citizen." 

I should probably explain that 'using it' refers to responding to our daily nudges, asking people to check-in and share how they're feeling at that time. Ok, back to the story. 

"After a couple of months, I was looking at my tracker, and I noticed that everything I was sharing was negative. My daily ratings were negative, and my comments were negative. I didn't recognise myself, and I didn't like what I was seeing. It made me think about how I was choosing to respond (not just to the Happiness Lab requests but also my situation). Now, I look forward to the daily nudge as it's an opportunity to momentarily step away from what I'm doing and consider what's going on. I'm looking for positives, and they're all around me."

Regularly checking in with our emotional state or mood in the way Harkn encourages, improves our emotional awareness and provides the insight that we can turn into positive action. 

Employee wellbeing is increasingly the focus of senior leadership teams. Progressive organisations are aiming to create a work culture - and experience - that allows employees to flourish on a personal level, as well as for the benefit of the business and feedback is an essential component of an effective culture.

Behaviours need to be integrated into daily routines in order to normalise them. If feedback is something that happens periodically, it will never become be a part of the organisational culture. To be meaningful, it has to show up in everyday life. In other words if we really want to know, we have to ask often.  

If you'd like to know more about Harkn, how it works, and why we believe we're uniquely placed to provide the insights required... please get in touch hello@harkn.com.