Close your eyes.
No, wait, don't close your eyes yet otherwise you won't be able to read the rest of my instructions. So DON'T close your eyes until I tell you too...I mean until I tell you to again.
So, when you do close your eyes-that is when I tell you to again-I want you to think about yourself in a happy state. I want you to consider the dynamics of being happy. How does it energize you? What does it do to your mind? How does it make you feel in relation to taking on the challenges of the day?
Then I want you to think about yourself in a sad or depressed state and consider the same questions.
Do this for just about a minute. (Much longer and you'll be in what's scientifically called a nap.)
Okay, go ahead...close your eyes.
Alright, open them. HA! Gotcha! How could you read that if your eyes were closed?
Anyway...I'm going to assume about a minute has passed and your eyes are open again.
Read on...
A brand spanking new study by the University of Warwick (that would be in England) tells us what we already intuitively know, but what not enough leaders of business pay attention to, to wit:
Greater employee happiness results in greater productivity and this-very important-without sacrificing quality.
The study, to be published soon in the Journal of Labor Economics, involved four separate experiments with more than 700 participants.
Some of the participants, for example, were shown a comedy movie clip or treated to free chocolate, drinks, fruit etc. Others were asked about depressing times in their lives, like family tragedies and so on.
In all four experiments happiness made people more productive. The average was 12% more.
I would call that statistically relevant. You?
Happier workers tend to work with greater speed, accuracy, energy and focus, as opposed to the lethargic sluggishness and diffused attention brought on by being over-stressed, sad, bored, fatigued and/or depressed.
"The driving force," says Daniel Sgori from the Department of Economics at Warwick, "seems to be that happier workers use the time they have more effectively, increasing the pace at which they work without sacrificing quality."
Let's see, what do we want from our people?
We want them to use their time more effectively. Check.
We want them to increase their pace. Check.
While at the same time, we want them to produce high quality work. Check and mate.
Facilitating happiness in the workplace.
To this, my friends, we need to open our eyes.
No, really, you can open your eyes now.
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