Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast

In this week's episode - join us for a chat and a laugh as we reminisce about the highs (and lows!) of 250 episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work.  Thanks for listening! MPPW Podcast on Facebook Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Thank you!

Dr. Peggy Kern is an associate professor at the Centre for Wellbeing Science within the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education. Originally trained in social personality and developmental psychology, Peggy's research focuses on understanding, measuring, and supporting wellbeing across the lifespan. She works with schools and workplaces to examine strategies for supporting wellbeing and bridging gaps between research and practice and has published three books, over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and most recently the wonderful and freely available Palgrave Handbook of Positive Education. In this week's podcast - our very last one ever – we explore what we’ve learned from 250 episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work and the best of these insights can be used to support wellbeing strategies in workplaces, schools, and communities." Connect with Peggy Kern: https://www.peggykern.org/ You’ll Learn: [03:55] - Peggy reflects on the evolution of the field of positive psychology and what

Halla Tómasdóttir is the CEO of the B Team, a group of courageous business and civil society leaders working together to transform business for a better world. Halla started her leadership career in corporate America, working for Mars and Pepsi-Cola. She was on the founding team at Reykjavik University, where she established the executive education department, founded and led a successful women's entrepreneurship and empowerment initiative, and was an assistant professor at the business school. She was the first female CEO of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce and later went on to co-found an investment firm with a vision to incorporate feminine values into finance. The company successfully survived the infamous economic meltdown in Iceland, and in 2016, Halla was an independent candidate for the president of Iceland, where she entered a crowded field of candidates and finished as the runner-up with nearly 30% of the vote. In this week's episode, we explore why we need to throw out the old leadership playbooks a

Greg Walton, who's an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University. Much of Greg's research investigates psychological processes that contribute to major social problems and how wise interventions that target these processes can address such problems and help people flourish even over long periods of time. Dr. Walton's research has been recognized with awards from numerous organizations, including the American Psychological Society's Rising Star of the Year Award. And has been published in leading journals and covered in major media outlets all over the world. He's the co-editor of the Handbook of Wise Interventions: How Social Psychology Can Help People Change, and we are so honored to have him here with us today. In this episode, we explore how wise interventions - simple shifts to the way we make meaning of what's happening in the world around us - can have a big impact at work. Connect with Greg Walton: https://www.wiseinterventions.org/ You’ll Learn: [03:05] - Greg explains what makes an i

Luke Burgis, who's the entrepreneur in residence and director of programs at the Ciocca Centre for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Catholic University of America, where he also teaches business and develops new education initiatives. Luke's co-created and led four companies in wellness, consumer products, and technology. He is the founder and director of Fourth World Ventures, an incubator for people and companies that contribute to the formation of a healthy human ecology. And Luke's new book Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life has just been released. In this week's episode we explore how desire impacts our wellbeing and the simple steps we can take to positively shape our desires for the good of ourselves and others. Connect with Luke Burgis: https://lukeburgis.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:39] - Luke explains why understanding what shapes our desire is an important part of caring for our wellbeing. [04:07] - Luke explains what mimetic desire is and how it influences our motivation. [06:49]

Kim Cameron is a professor of management and organizations at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. He’s co-founder of the Centre for Positive Organizational Scholarship and professor of higher education in the school of education at the University of Michigan. Kim is recognized as among the top 10 organizational scholars in the world and his work on virtuousness, downsizing, effectiveness, corporate quality culture, and the development of leadership excellence has been most frequently downloaded on Google. He has also published more than 140 academic articles and 15 scholarly books, the most recent of which is Positively Energizing Leadership, which is due for release in August this year. In this week’s episode, Dr. Paige Williams talks to Prof. Kim Cameron about Positively Energizing Leadership. Connect with Kim Cameron: https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/ You’ll Learn: [03:47] - Kim explains the inherent tendency in all living systems that underpin positively energizing leadership [06:05] - Kim explai

John Hagel, who’s recently retired as a partner from Deloitte, where he was the founder and chairman of the Silicon Valley-based Deloitte Centre for the Edge, which focuses on identifying emerging business opportunities that are not yet on the CEO’s agenda. With more than 40 years of experience as a management consultant, author, speaker, and entrepreneur, John has just released a new book, The Journey Beyond Fear, which addresses the psychology of change. And he’s also developing a series of programs to help people navigate through change at many levels. In this week’s episode, we chat with John Hagel, who helps us discover how positive emotions can help us move beyond fear. Connect with John Hagel: https://www.johnhagel.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:20] - John shares why psychology is as important as strategy [04:31] - John shares how narratives help us move beyond fear [10:07] - John discusses the power of alignment with your personal and organizational narratives [13:07] - John outlines how the passion for th

Robert Biswas-Diener, as we remember and savor the incredible research and life of his father, Ed Diener, who recently passed away. Over the last 40 years, Ed published hundreds of articles, amassing more than 250,000 citations. Ed’s earliest work focused on defining and establishing measures for happiness, and his satisfaction with life scale is the most widely used measure of wellbeing today. And has been cited 30,000 times. Ed’s w- later work focused on the relation of personality and of income to happiness, the cultural dimensions of happiness, the consequences of happiness, and happiness policies. Ed won the highest prize in psychology, The Distinguished Contribution to Science Award, was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. And was a founder of Perspectives of Psychological Science, and The Journal of Happiness Studies. In this week's episode, we honor and savor the research of Dr. Ed Deiner and discover what his 40 years of happiness research can teach us. Connect with Robert Biswas D

Stephen Trzeciak is a physician-scientist and chief of medicine at Cooper University Healthcare, and professor and chair of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. Stephen specializes in intensive care medicine, and is a National Institutes of Health-funded clinical researcher, with more than 100 scientific journal publications. Currently, Stephen’s research has focused on a new field called Compassionomics. And he is the co-author of the best-selling book of the same name, which we are going to dive into in our discussion today. In this week’s episode, Dr. Paige Williams speaks with Dr. Stephen Trzeciak about his research into compassion and the difference it can make in organizations. Connect with Dr. Stephen Trzeciak: https://www.compassionomics.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:05] - Stephen defines compassionomics [07:20] - Stephen describes what research suggests is the difference Compassionomics makes [10:36] - Stephen explains the impact of compassionomics in reversing the effects of burnout

Michael Bush is the CEO of Great Place to Work. The global research and analytics firm that produces the annual Fortune 100 best companies to work for list, and dozens of other distinguished workplace rankings all over the world. Driven by a love of business and an unwavering commitment to fair and equitable treatment, Michael joined Great Place to Work as CEO in 2015, bringing 30 years of experience leading and growing organizations. He’s also a former member of President Obama’s white house business council, and a founding board member of the private equity seed fund, Fund Good Jobs, which invests in small Inner-City businesses. In this week’s episode, we discover what the latest research suggests creates a great place to work and why prioritizing people’s wellbeing improves productivity and profitability. Connect with Michael Bush: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:32] - Michael outlines the business case for companies to be great places to work. [04:39] - Michael shares the evidence-b

Professor Brian R. Little has been a major innovator in the field of personality assessment and motivation, beginning when he received his Ph.D. in personality psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and most recently he has been the 2020 winner of the Henry A. Murray Award for distinguished research on the study of lives. He is currently a Senior Fellow in Person-Analytics at the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania, and Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is also a widely renowned educator, having received major awards for his teaching at a number of universities, including Harvard where for four consecutive years he was elected a Favorite Professor by his students. Along with Brian’s bestselling books – “Me, Myself and Us: The Science of Personality” and the “Art of Well-Being”; Brian has a very popular TED talk that has been viewed over 20 million times. In this week's episode, Brian Little shares insights from his innovative research on

In this week's episode, we discover the five evidence-based approaches teams can playfully experiment with as they head back to the office to improve their resilience and wellbeing. Connect with Nic Marks: https://fridaypulse.com/ [free_product_purchase id="112024"] You’ll Learn: [02:47] - Nic explains how we can differentiate happiness and wellbeing in our workplaces [03:58] - Nic outlines the business case for investing in employee wellbeing. [06:45] - Nic outlines the five evidence-based ways we can improve the wellbeing and resilience of teams at work. [08:35] - Nic provides an example of how we can make hybrid working arrangements fairer for teams. [10:52] - Nic shares how leaders can help their teams strike the right balance of learning and challenge without burning people out. [12:29] - Nic explains why encouraging teams to playfully experiment as they work can boost psychological safety, creativity, and innovation. [15:17] - Nic shares how we can optimize meaning and purpose in our teams without cr

Dr. Paige Williams is co-founder of The Leaders Lab and honorary fellow and researcher at the Centre for Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne. Paige creates practical evidence-based pathways to teach leaders how to leverage their energy attitudes and mindsets to benefit from the dynamic complex and uncertain environment in which most organizations now operate using the latest research in neuroscience, positive psychology, leadership, and systems thinking. And you can see how all of these ideas come together in her book, Becoming AntiFragile: Learning to Thrive through Disruption, Challenge, and Change. In this week's episode, we explore new research that explains how some leaders are supercharging the well-being and performance of themselves and their teams as they try to shape the new normal of work. Connect with Dr. Paige Williams: https://www.michellemcquaid.com/theleaderslab/leadingtothrive/ You’ll Learn: [02:45] - Paige explains why new data suggests that old leadership approaches are no longer wo

In this week's episode, we bust the outdated myths about how our brains work and discover what the latest science really suggests about how we can work better with others. Connect with Lisa Feldman Barrett: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/ You’ll Learn: [03:29] - Lisa explains what the latest research suggests about how our brains really work and what they are best for? [06:21] - Lisa shares how our brains are structured like a network, to share the information that makes up the experiences and actions of our lives. [08:16] - Lisa shares why our brains are predicting organs and what this might mean practically for us as we go about our work. [15:12] - Lisa explains how our brains are impacted by each other as we work together. [20:16] - Lisa explains the 5Cs of the human brain and how these help us to create a social reality as we work together. [33:14] - Lisa shares how we can use our brains to more intelligently navigate the socially constructed worlds in which we live. [35:51] - Lisa enters the lightning

In this week’s episode, Dr. Paige Williams chats with Associate Professor Carol Kauffman, who shares her insights into how leaders can more effectively build bridges of connection with their people. Connect with Carol Kauffman: https://carolkauffman.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:17] - Carol shares her favorite question to help build leadership capacity and impact [05:48] - Carol explains how we can overcome ego through a shift in perspective [09:14] - Carol suggests how we can shift to a more constructive leadership perspective [10:37] - Carol shares how to build bridges with people who are reluctant for connection [14:28] - Carol explains the risk of resilient leaders missing compassion [17:18] - Carol explains a technique to build bridges in feedback conversations [20:08] - Carol shares a guiding principle to use when ‘coaching up’ [28:35] - Carol enters the lightning round... Thanks for listening! MPPW Podcast on Facebook The Institute of Coaching Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoy

In this week's episode, we explore how workplace wellbeing programs can benefit from understanding the best practices of trauma theory and attachment theory. Connect with Dr. Sandra Bloom: https://www.geniuswithin.co.uk/ [free_product_purchase id="108735"] You’ll Learn: [02:49] - Sandra explains what trauma theory can teach us about caring for each other in workplaces. [04:38] - Sandra outlines why attachment theory can teach us about caring for each other in workplaces. [06:30] - Sandra shares how trauma theory and attachment theory can help us to care for wellbeing in workplaces. [10:09] - Sandra explains how workplace wellbeing approaches can balance the science of human flourishing with the science of human suffering. [11:49] - Sandra offers some tips for how we can create sanctuaries of wellbeing in our workplaces. [18:05] - Sandra shares why we need a safety plan in addition to a wellbeing plan. [20:06] - Sandra offers some tips for how we can build more psychologically safe organizational cultures.

Dr. Nancy Doyle is a Chartered Psychologist, in organizational and occupational psychology and the founder and owner of Genius Within, a social enterprise dedicated to facilitating neurodiversity inclusion. Her work has included advising NGOs, international and national civil servants, and political groups, as well as working with organizations towards a future where all Neurominorities are able to maximize their potential and work to their strengths. Nancy is also a Research Fellow with Birkbeck, University of London. And In 2019 she was recognized by the British Psychological Society with an award for her contribution to Policy Impact in Occupational Psychology. In this week's episode, Dr. Nancy Doyle talks us through the wonderful benefits of a neurodiverse workforce and how we can best support this. Connect with Nancy Doyle: https://www.geniuswithin.co.uk/ You’ll Learn: [02:38] - Nancy explains what neurodiversity is. [07:55] - Nancy shares what are considered Neurominorities. [10:06] - Nancy shares wh

In this week’s episode, we explore how teams and leaders can work together to lower the risk of burnout.  Connect with Paula Davis: https://stressandresilience.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:46] - Paula explains why addressing burnout has become such a big issue in workplaces in recent years. [05:00] - Paula defines the difference between burnout and stress. [08:51] - Paula shares why we need to cause approach – and not simply a symptoms approach – to addressing burnout in workplaces. [12:20] - Paula explains why teams play such an important role when it comes to addressing burnout. [14:34] - Paula shares some of the simple steps teams can take to lower the risk of burnout. [18:49] - Paula explains how tiny noticeable things in teams can have a big impact on burnout. [23:06] - Paula provides some suggestions on what leaders can do to positively impact their team’s stress level and try to decrease burnout. [33:19] - Paula completes the lightning round. Thanks for listening! MPPW Podcast on Facebook https://breneb

Jim Harter, Ph.D. is chief scientist for Gallup’s Workplace and Management and Well-Being Practises. Jim is the primary researcher and author of the first large-scale, multi-organization study to investigate the relationships between work-unit employee engagement and business results. This study currently includes 2.7 million employees across 54 industries in 96 countries. In this week’s episode, Jim Harter shares his insights from the latest Gallup research to help us understand how to create a Net Thriving Culture at work. Connect with Jim Harter: https://www.gallup.com You’ll Learn: [02:29] - Jim explains how thriving is defined in 'Wellbeing at Work' [03:54] - Jim explains the research that underpins this definition of thriving [06:45] - Jim unpacks a measure of thriving that all organizations can use [08:41] - Jim explains the five factors that can help us move from struggling to thriving [10:53] - Jim explains how the Gallup Net Thriving Score fills a gap in well-being measurement [13:39] - Jim share

Peggy is an associate professor at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at the University of Melbourne. Her research is collaborative in nature and draws on a variety of methodologies to examine questions around who thrives in life and why and she has published 3 books and over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. Danielle is a registered psychologist, and the Co-Founder of The Wellbeing Lab, and the Co-Creator of The PERMAH Wellbeing Survey. In this week's episode, we discover the practical steps communities are taking to care for people’s well-being, even in the face of significant struggles. Connect with Dr. Peggy Kern: https://www.peggykern.org/ You’ll Learn: [02:41] Peggy explains how people are managing to thrive even in the face of challenging circumstances. [07:32] Peggy shares the factors interpersonal, intrapersonal and external factors that appear to be supporting people’s wellbeing. [13:07] Peggy outlines how people can boost their levels of thriving across their communities, even in the face o