I'm a moderately active person.  I play netball once a week; I like to go for a run 2-3 times a week; and with Geoff, I walk the dogs every day.  Playing a number of different sports throughout my life, I've had my share of injuries which is not surprising.  But I never thought I'd get injured from sitting down for too long.

The importance of getting up from my desk and stretching regularly has been made very apparent to me.  I have scaled back work quite considerably over the past 4 weeks so that I can focus on my University Capstone project.  This has meant considerably more time sitting at my desk, which has resulted in an injury to my neck and shoulder with headaches where I could not think ... all because I was sitting for too long.  Headaches have gone, neck and shoulder on the mend with still limited movement, which has also meant no running and netball.

There are some great short videos freely available for use in learning.  Some of my favourites are listed below, along with a few ideas for using these.  

Would love to hear of your favourites and also, how you might use these videos.  Enjoy!

Billy Joel & Friends at the Gershwin:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F4MYJIC1sU

• To highlight characteristics of high performing teams
• To celebrate diversity of strengths
• To encourage empowering another while potentially taking a risk
• To consider impact of contagion of emotion
• To discuss slowing down and the impact of noticing … the video goes for approximately 6.5 minutes!

Organisational Courage

Courage is a pattern of constructive opposition, in which an individual stands against social forces in order to remedy duress in the organisation.

Monica Worline, 2012

The VIA strengths of courage are bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest; practising these strengths have resulted in the following organisational benefits:

• Improved accountability and responsibility
• More effective working relationships
• Increased self-efficacy and self-confidence
• Broadened perception of what is possible and improved resourcefulness
• Increased goal achievement
• Increased ability to learn from mistakes
• Increased positive energy, positive mood, empathy and conscientiousness
• Increased prosocial orientation
• Inspired others to act courageously 

Adapted from the works of Haidt (2002); Herman (1971); Hitz & Driscol (1989), Huhnke (1984); McQuaid& Lawn (2014); Peterson & Seligman (2004); Ryan & Deci (2000); Shepela, Cook, Horlitz, Leal, Luciano & Lufty (1997)

How do you build courage in your organisation?  A few ideas for your consideration that can be easily implemented include:

I recently tweeted about the following clip and thought I would write a very short piece about how you might like to consider using this clip in a strengths and/or wellbeing workshop.

This short clip (less than 5 minutes) from the animated movie, “Up!”, can be found here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTDP-A--BhE

Courage:

The willingness to act towards a moral or worthwhile goal despite the presence of risk, uncertainty and fear

Robert Biswas-Diener, 2012

The VIA strengths of courage are bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest.  The benefits of these strengths include:

• Healthy positive relationships
• Taking personal responsibility for one’s actions
• Increased tolerance for ambiguity
• Increased resilience, personal growth and achievement
• Increased trust
• Increased happiness and wellbeing
• Increased inclusiveness
• Fuller expression of abilities, skills and talents
• Increased resourcefulness
• Increased self-confidence 

Adapted from Peterson & Seligman (2004)

While the following short clip depicts the courage of Buzz Lightyear:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czgmiqhgMCQ

courage is not purely the domain of the heroes in the world - ordinary people have courage too. (Lopez, Rasmussen, Skorupski, Koetting, Petersen, & Yang, 2010).  And yet, being courageous … requires courage.

Think the concepts of mindfulness and resilience are new?  Think again!  Stoicism, which dates back to Greco-Roman times, is "the branch of ancient western philosophy that focuses on mindfulness, resilience, creativity and more, all of which allow us to flourish".  "It requires being mindful, awareness and control, rather than being lost to emotion and random thought processes. Stoic exercises such as “practicing” misfortune and poverty help teach us that the worst case scenario is not in fact, the worst. And it’s great for business.  Stoic principles can build the resilience and state of mind required to rebound from knock-backs, so important in our new world of innovation and entrepreneurship".

Sound interesting?  Think it might have some applicability in your life?  Then for more information, follow this link to a recent article on "The Conversation" website.

"In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue"

"Qualities like kindness, compassion, honesty and hard work, they often matter more than technical skills and know-how. But when our leaders express a disdain for facts; when they're not held accountable for repeating falsehoods and just making stuff up, while actual experts are dismissed as elitist, then we've got a problem"

Food for thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjGUUGw0pQ8

A story of:

• Adventure & play
• Connectedness & relationships
• Connectedness and mindfulness
• Perspective
• Optimism
• Beauty
• Being your best … all of the time
• Happiness and gratitude

"Like so many dogs, they have it figured out. 
Happiness is so much simpler than you might think.”

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05sUhlxFBk0    

The subject of my Master of Applied Positive Psychology course this semester is Positive Psychology and Organisations.  Our first assignment was to find an example of a positive organisation and to analyse it against:

• Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of a positive institution (2000) where they define positive institutions as those that “move individuals toward better citizenship” through cultivating “responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic” (p. 5); and
• Stansbury and Sonenshein’s (2012) three elements of positive ethics; these being morally praiseworthy, discretionary and positively deviant

I chose the Lort Smith Animal Hospital as my case-study.  The following are a few excerpts from my assignment.
 
The Lort Smith Animal Hospital has been committed to caring for animals for the past 80 years.  The hospital’s vision is “to be the recognised leader in Australia for animal health and wellbeing” and its mission is “to improve the health and happiness of animals and the people who care for them,” with the supporting values of care and compassion, quality and affordability, integrity and respect (Lort Smith Animal Hospital, 2014).  The hospital is the largest not-for-profit animal hospital in Australia, providing veterinary care, adoption and fostering services, emergency boarding and bereavement services to animals and their owners…

 … In addition to providing sanctuary, rehabilitation, welfare and a new home for animals, nurturance permeates all that the hospital provides and is linked to its core principle of preserving the human-animal bond … A further example of nurturance is the “Mates for Inmates” program (Humpage, 2015) in which female inmates care for and train rescue dogs, providing a second chance for the inmates by providing responsibility, a sense of purpose and future opportunities for employment.  The dogs also get a second chance where they are loved, cared for and trained to increase their likelihood of finding new homes. 
 
… A strong example of positive deviance and compassionate generosity to victims of hardship as described by Stansbury and Sonenshein (2012), is the hospital’s Emergency Boarding Program which is part of the Adoption Centre; … this program provides care for the pets of some of the most vulnerable members of community – for example, those who have mental health issues, the homeless, the elderly requiring emergency hospitalisation and victims of domestic violence.  The Lort Smith has been providing emergency accommodation since 1936 ensuring that pets are fed, accommodated, receive medical assistance if needed and receive tender, loving care until they can be reunited with their owner.  It can be argued that this program has been deviating existing norms in a way that is positive and honourable (Stansbury & Sonenshein, 2012) for many years.
 
… While the day-to-day actions described provide clear evidence that the hospital is a positive institution and is positively ethical, there many more actions undertaken by the hospital which, while not included, further reinforce its standing as positive and ethical. 
 
insium is a proud supporter of the Lort Smith Animal Hospital.
 
If you are interested in reading the entire assignment, please let me know.


Humpage, A.  (2015, September 3).  Rescue dogs in Mates for Inmates program at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Ravenhall.  Herald Sun.  Retrieved from http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/west/rescue-dogs-in-mates-for-inmates-program-at-dame-phyllis-frost-centre-ravenhall/news-story/1a27937d5ba808b9d783e40511ef0a0a
 
Lort Smith Animal Hospital (2014).  Mission, Vision & Values.  Retrieved from http://www.lortsmith.com/what-we-do/about-us/mission-vision-values/
 
Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. The American Psychologist, 55(1), 5-14.
 
Stansbury, J. M. & Sonenshein, S. (2012).  Positive business ethics: Grounding and elaborating a theory of good works. In K. S. Cameron & G. M. Spreitzer (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship (pp. 340 – 352).  New York: Oxford University Press.

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Following is a simple idea for building wellbeing at work.  The idea involves creating a space for a “board” and then rotating the “subject” of the board on a monthly basis in order to keep the board fresh and novel.  Everyone is encouraged to participate, but it is certainly not mandatory; input may be as often as desired.

The board subjects might include:

• Success – that is, what are the successes – small or large – that you/we/I have experienced
• Gratitude – what are you/we/I grateful for
• Good Things – what are 3 good things that have happened to you/us/me
• Appreciation – that is, this is what I appreciate about you/this team/what you have done/what I have done
• “Surprise/Gift” - everyone has an envelop with their name on the board and others are encouraged to include “gifts/surprises” for that person… this can be playful and/or serious
• Wellbeing Ideas – that is, everyone is encouraged to share their ideas of what they do to maintain/improve their own wellbeing
• Ideas for more boards – that is, everyone is encouraged to come up with their own ideas for board subjects

The idea of having wellbeing boards comes from a number of people - thank you.