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Cognitive Gridlock? Green Space Could Be The Answer

October 5, 2016 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

 

Cognitive Gridlock

It’s all too familiar, with a seemingly endless ‘To do’ list it’s hard to focus on the task at hand. The overwhelming phenomenon of cognitive gridlock, feeling stressed at work pushes us to plough on when we should be taking a break. Greenspace doesn’t even enter into our day, we’re fast becoming factory farmed humans. Just a few minutes of time outdoors, chilling out with Mother Nature could be exactly what we need.

Information Overload

A recent Lexis Nexis survey of 1700 workers found that employees spend over 50% of their day processing information rather than concentrating on their designated role. When we’re spending our time sorting and sifting through information before we even get down to the real work, there’s no wonder we’re stressed.

A University of California Irvine study revealed that being exposed to constant emails throughout the day increased the heart rate of those studied. Michael Posner, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregan states that when we are in such states of continued focus, our brains become fatigued and less effective. As the pressure mounts it seems counter intuitive to take a break. Instead we labour under the misconception that the harder we work, the more effective we’ll be. Not so. The longer our brains are switched to ‘on’ mode, the slower we get. Downtime replenishes both our bodies and our minds. But not just any old break will do. Greenspace, it seems, could be the answer.

Go Green

Dr Marc Berman at the University of Michigan found that after a twenty minute walk, memory and attention improved by 20%. A twenty minute walk in a busy street resulted in no improvement. It seems not all downtime is created equally. Berman’s research also found that just sitting for ten minutes in a quiet room, looking at pictures of nature had a calming effect producing an increase in cognitive activity and performance.

And if you’re feeling cranky at work as a result of all that information overload, it seems that nature can also improve your mood. A study from the University of Rochester by Richard Ryan discovered that viewing nature had social benefits. Ryan’s research found that 370 test subjects exposed to natural as opposed to man-made environments encouraged people to “Value community and close relationships and to be more generous with money.” Making it worth taking your boss along for a walk if you’re considering asking for a raise.

Dr Ian Frampton at Exeter University found that when research participants were shown pictures of rural scenery the regions of the brain associated with calm were activated. Pictures depicting urban scenes did not produce the same response. Suggesting that when you can’t escape to your favourite greenspace there’s still a viable alternative to increase your ROI for downtime.

Not sure how to inject more nature inspired downtime into your working day?

Here are our top tips.

1. Recognise that you deserve and need a break. If you’re feeling overwhelmed remind yourself it will improve your performance (it won’t slow you down). Prioritise at least one time slot for natural downtime each day.

2. Go off grid. Switch off your electronic devices for the duration of your downtime for maximum impact.

3. Instead of eating lunch at your desk, find a green space nearby and take a quick walk or find a seat to take in the view.

4. Go green. Consider adding nature to your workspace. Think plants, pictures, photos or saved recordings for those times that you can’t physically get out into a natural environment, it’s the next best thing.

5. Unwind by journaling in nature. Find a balcony, garden or park and reflect. Jot down one or two lines about your day.

6. Shelve your mental ‘To do’ list and breathe. Sit in your greenspace, focus on the present moment listening to the sounds around you as you begin the relax. Spend time taking in the natural environment around you, really be in the moment as you sit and enjoy your green ‘me’ time.

At Positive Change Guru we work with individuals and organisations to build resilience and optimise performance. Check out our courses on the events page or contact us to talk about your training, consultancy or coaching needs.

Filed Under: flow, Focus, Mindfulness, mindfulness at work, resilience, stress, stress Tagged With: destress, downtime, Gill Crossland Thackray corporate resilience expert, greenspace, overload, relax, resilience, stress, workplace resilience training London. corporate resilience courses UK, workplace stress. workplace resilience training

Finding Your Flow: Using Positive Psychology for long term impact

May 25, 2016 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

Flow, the model of performance introduced to Positive Psychology by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is big news both in the workplace and outside of it. But what is it? Think of a time when you’ve been completely immersed in a task, when distractions were minimized and you lost sense of time and space. Got it? Well that’s flow. If you can answer ‘Yes’ to the following questions whilst undertaking a task, you’ve probably found yourself in flow;

  • You’re doing it because you’re motivated
  • You’re completely focused on the task
  • You lose sense of time, hours feel like minutes
  • You’re not worrying
  • You have a sense of control
  • You forget yourself
  • You feel inspired
  • You don’t really notice your surroundings
  • You’re enjoying it and feel good as you get on with the task, you’re on a roll!
  • You feel as though you’re achieving something

Csikszentmihalyi narrows it down to two characteristics that must be present for flow to occur:

  • We should know what to do moment by moment whilst participating in the activity or task and utilise feedback instantly
  • The abilities of the person undertaking the task match the opportunities for action

Put more simply, he describes it as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from your previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost”

Or, as Lyubmirsky describes it, “being involved in life” rather than being on autopilot.

Surprisingly, adults often report experiencing more flow in the workplace than in their personal life outside of work. This might have something to do with the parameters and guidelines around work, which you’ll see below, are a necessary part of creating more flow in life. But rest easy, flow is an essential element of happiness whether you’re at work or not and can be applied to friendships, relationships, projects, hobbies and sports.

Why does it matter?

Research suggests that people who feel flow experience greater levels of wellbeing. This doesn’t mean that each time you participate in a task you’ll feel euphoric and instant happiness (if only). Instead, studies suggest that after the task has been completed, people feel a sense of accomplishment, a greater subjective sense of wellbeing along with purpose and meaning. All ingredients of happiness and flourishing according to Martin Seligman, the ‘father’ of Positive Psychology. Csikszentmihalyi says it’s one of the secrets to finding happiness in life. In our book that makes creating flow worth a go.

To introduce more flow experiences into your day to day activities, Csikszentmihalyi recommends the following in his book, ‘Finding Flow”.

  • Seek out situations where you’re fully involved in the challenge. It’s not too easy for you and there is some ‘stretch’ involved in the task for you, you’re pushing yourself outside of a comfortable level of performance.
  • The activity has a set of goals and requires certain actions. The rules help you get into flow because you’re not wondering how to do something. It’s clear.
  • Learn to focus your attention. Train yourself to focus on moment to moment awareness so you’re able to concentrate fully. Try practicing mindfulness to hone this skill.
  • Apply flow to routine tasks. Lyubmirsky suggests ‘microflow’ experiences created by applying goals and rules to everyday tasks. See how you can apply these to something you do every day, for example, creating a personal best time for completing your administrative tasks or seeing if you can bring your full attention to a conversation.
  • Aim for superflow. This is when you’re in maximum flow with the volume turned up. You’ll get there with practice, from small microflow projects, to practicing your moment-to-moment awareness on a regular basis. That’s you rewiring your brain and honing your skills until you’re able to move into superflow with ease.

With a little bit of practice and effort, flow is something that, when cultivated will pay dividends in your wellbeing and happiness. Want to find out more about flow? Here’s the man himself at TedX Monterey, California https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en

We love to talk about all things positive psychology at Positive Change Guru. Check out our forthcoming events or get in touch to find out more about our suite of courses and discuss bespoke positive psychology training for your organisation.

Filed Under: broaden and build theory, confidence, flow, Focus, goal setting, leadership, positive emotions, Positive Psychology, resilience Tagged With: Gill Thackray Positive Change Guru, Gill Thackray Positive Psychology Expert, mihaly csikszentmihaly, performance, Sonia Lyubmirsky, work

5 Positive Psychology Coaching Skills Every Leader Needs to Develop

May 19, 2016 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

 

The business world has long since recognised the value of using coaches for their top performers. But coaching skills don’t have to remain the exclusive domain of a professional coach. What if you were to grow those exact same skills in house? As an internal coach you are uniquely placed to develop powerful relationships along with lasting individual and organizational change. Leaders are increasingly developing their own coaching style of leadership, viewing coaching skills as a core leadership competency. So what are coaching skills and how exactly can you develop them?

Identify Strengths

Traditionally the model of development pivots on shoring up our weaknesses. Good leaders recognize that this is an outmoded (and incorrect) deficit model. Instead, by taking a strengths based approach, looking at what’s working, rather than what isn’t leaders are able to increase efficacy. Enter positive psychology. Research (Linley 2009) demonstrated that by identifying and leveraging strengths we see a bump in performance of around 38%. Once you’ve identified the strengths of your team you can begin to develop them, aligning them with your business goals and challenges. Not sure what a strength is? Go to the world’s most used, free strengths assessment, the VIA at www.authentichappiness.org and take your team with you.

Curiosity

When you’re coaching others it’s important to be curious about them, the environment they operate in and the world around them. Curiosity will help you to stay open to new ideas and innovations, keeping you a step ahead of the game. Being curious will prevent you from believing that you have all of the answers, leaving you open to fresh ideas and suggestions from your team. Growth mindset coaching questions to develop your curiosity and your team are;

“What do YOU think some options are?”  “What would YOU do?”  “What are the pros and cons of each option?” “How would you advise a colleague?” “What is the learning information here?” “What can you do differently next time?” Ask questions that will help your team, to identify their motivations, to see other alternatives and achieve their goals.

Feedback and Accountability in Positive Psychology Coaching

It’s that checking in with staff on their progress that makes such a powerful difference to achieving success. Research by Christine Porath and Gretchen Spreitzer found that the four factors necessary to sustain a high performing team were; feedback, autonomy, civility and information sharing. It’s a growth mindset blueprint for success. Feedback enables your team to know if they’re headed in the right direction. Make it clear, timely, specific, non-judgemental and positive. Once accountability has been established, staff have a whopping 95% chance of achieving their objective. Think about the systems and processes that you have in place to enable staff to build this sort of accountability into their role. Consider how you support, encourage and motivate staff to be accountable for the goals that they have committed to.

Listening

Yup, it sounds obvious but often it descends into either combative listening; waiting for the other person to shut up so that you can interject with your own point of view and tell them how they ‘should’ be doing it or passive listening; peppered with a string of “Umms” “Uhuhs” or nods as you slowly zone out. A coaching skill that is often overlooked.

With genuine listening you’re aiming for active and reflective. Make sure you focus as you listen and regularly reflect back to check your understanding of what has been said. There really is nothing quite like the attention of a good listener and this skill will help you to build rapport to boot. Leave your own agenda behind (remember your curiosity?) keep interruptions to a minimum and watch the dialogue flow.

Positive Psychology Coaching and Communication

Karen Tweedie of Access Leadership says “Better conversations mean better relationships, which lead to better output.” Below are a few tips to help the coaching leader support direct reports or other key stakeholders:

  1. See yourself as a thought partner, listen for potential (of people and ideas)
  2. Keep your questions open-ended (be willing to be surprised)
  3. Encourage self-discovery (encourage colleagues to find their own answers to their own challenges)
  4. Put your attention on the person in front of you, not the issue
  5. Expect that the person is capable of discerning the best approach
  6. Empower the other person to succeed – remove obstacles, provide resources
  7. Maintain accountability, celebrate effort and results

Once you’ve mastered these coaching skills you’ll have a vital addition to your leadership competencies, increasing your impact, developing your people, improving your relationships and your results.

Why coach using positive psychology? Rarely are jobs designed to match the talents, preferences, and aspirations of the individual. Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski, professor of Organizational Behavior at the Yale School of Management, discusses the art and science of job crafting.

We love to talk about all things positive psychology at Positive Change Guru. Check out our forthcoming events or get in touch to find out more about our suite of courses and discuss bespoke positive psychology training for your organisation.

Positive Psychologist Amy Wrzesniew on Job crafting & creating meaning in your own work

Filed Under: Change, confidence, Emotional intelligence, Focus, growth mindset, growth mindset organisations, leadership, Mindfulness, Motivating Others, organisational mindset, positive emotions, Positive Psychology Tagged With: coaching, Gill Thackray Positive Change Guru, Gill Thackray Positive Psychology Expert

Are you working in an attention deficit culture?

May 11, 2016 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

In an attention deficit culture we’re distracted 46.9% of the time

It’s all too familiar, you arrive into work, the phone is ringing, your emails are mounting up at a rate of knots, you’re due in a meeting, an unwelcome alert lets you know someone has sent you a text and you haven’t even taken your coat off yet. It’s a typical day in thousands of offices, schools and businesses across the country. No wonder then that research by Gilbert and Killingworth reveals that we are distracted on average 46.9 percent of the time. And if we’re distracted, we’re not focusing, if we’re not focusing we’re not in ‘flow’ the optimum state of performance. Worst still, we’re probably more than just a bit stressed.

Are you working in an attention deficit culture?

Edward Hallowell in his HBR article has named the phenomenon ‘attention deficit trait’ or ADT for short. ADT stands accused of turning us into ‘frenzied zombies’ overstretched, constantly, in doing mode and unable to switch off. Look around you, are you in an organizational culture that supports your membership of the living dead? If you can answer yes to one or more the following questions, you might be experiencing ADT:

 

  • Do you constantly check emails throughout the day?
  • When you get home do you catch up with work and email colleagues late into the night?
  • Do you see a 3am email as a measure of commitment to the cause?
  • Do you eat your lunch at your desk?
  • Do you respond to texts as soon as they arrive?
  • Do you feel as though nothing gets your full attention?
  • Do you feel out of control?
  • Are you reading these questions thinking ‘Doesn’t everybody do that?’ (Clue: the answer is in the title)

 

So you noticed a few (or a lot) of ‘Yes’ answers? The truth is you may be working in a culture where ADT has become normalized. You’re not crazy and neither are your colleagues (honestly) you’re working in a global culture of neuro – overload and ever increasing environmental pressures. Hallowell makes the analogy of a traffic jam, ADT is part of modern living. But how can you minimize those distractions or create your own internal culture of calm?

Creating your own internal culture of calm

  • Create a support network both at work and outside of it. Daniel Goleman’s research suggests that women are more likely than men to do this, so it’s vitally important that we all have a network of friends and colleagues to talk to and let off steam with.
  • Consider your sleep hygiene. A good night’s sleep is key, sleep deprivation exacerbates ADT. Start to wind down an hour before bedtime, relaxing or taking a bath. Switch off your phone, emails and gadgets at this point.
  • Diet and exercise (obvious, but true) Get those endorphins pumping along with serotonin and dopamine to promote brain cell health.
  • Organisae yourself and keep your work space clear.
  • When you feel the pressure mounting, take a moment of mindfulness. Stop. Take a breath and observe how you are feeling in your body, observe any sensations of warmth or coolness. Notice (without judgement) any thoughts that pop into your head, And when you feel ready, crack on with your day.

Find out more:

We love to talk about all things focus related at Positive Change Guru. Check out our forthcoming events or get in touch to find out more about our suite of courses and discuss bespoke focus training for your organisation.

Filed Under: Focus Tagged With: attention deficit culture, attention deficit trait, Dan Goleman Focus, Edward Hallowell, focus at work courses, Gilbert and KILLINGWORTH, Gill Thackray Focus expert, Gill Thackray mindfulness expert, Gillian Thackray, increase your focus at work, increase your focus at work training, mindfulness at work courses, mindfulness at work London, mindfulness at work training, mindfulness at work training London

Why Multitasking is Making you Sloppy at Work

November 18, 2015 by Gill Thackray Leave a Comment

We uncover the uncomfortable truth about multitasking and why creating ‘Flow’ moments is the answer

The Myth of multitasking

Ever wondered why other people seem to master multitasking whilst you struggle to manage multiple tasks at the same time? If you’re envious of the seven-second attention span of a goldfish, flow moments are for you. Worry no more. Multitasking is and has always been, urban myth.

The truth is out. After decades of articles opining the benefits of multitasking, the ‘how to’s’ ‘Made simples’ and ‘Guides’ – we now know that the ability to focus on several tasks at the same time just isn’t neurologically possible. So when you’re checking your phone whilst talking, reading the paper whilst watching TV or driving and making a call using hands free, you’re not completely focused.

Working faster but producing less

Research by Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics at the University of California found that when we’re continually distracted we may work faster but we produce less. That would explain the plethora of mistakes we typically tend to make when we’re not completely focused on the task at hand.

Leaving mistakes in your wake?

Dr JoAnn Deak author of ‘Your Fantastic Elastic Brain” states that “When you try to multitask, in the short term it doubles the amount of time it takes to do a task and it usually at least double the number of mistakes.” Worse still, researchers at Stanford University found that regular multitaskers are particularly bad at it, suggesting that serial multitaskers are easily distracted. Known as ‘switchtasking’ quickly jumping from one task to another, leaving a slew of mistakes in its’ wake. Rather than making us more efficient, switchtasking makes us less accurate and slows us down. The problem is, we’re so convinced that it’s possible, we just don’t notice our performance has suffered due to our lack of focus.

Feeling focus fatigued?

Switchtasking can also elevate our stress levels, ramping up the pressure, feeding into the feeling that there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Research by René Marois at Vanderbilt University, using fMRI found that the brain responds to multiple tasks with a “response selection bottleneck” slowing us down as it attempts to prioritise tasks. Little wonder then, that multitasking impacts our learning and leaves us feeling even more fatigued, contributing to the release of stress hormone nasties like cortisol and adrenaline. Left unchecked, the long-term effects upon our health can be catastrophic.

The negative impact of distractions

It’s all thanks to the default mode network (DMN) a cluster of brain areas that become active when we’re not actively focusing on a specific task. It’s just the way that we’re wired.

David Rock, author of Your Brain at Work says, “A distraction is an alert. It says, orient your attention here now; this could be dangerous.” The digital world that we now live in offers a multitude of distractions “It reduces our intelligence, literally dropping our IQ. We make mistakes, miss subtle cues, fly off the handle when we shouldn’t, or spell things wrong.” To add insult to injury, multitasking makes us less intelligent than we might otherwise be.

During a Harvard study examining mind wandering by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert 2,000 adults were tested throughout the day. Killingsworth and Gilbert found they were distracted for a whopping 47 percent of the time. What’s more they were less happy as a result, typically experiencing stressful thoughts or negative rumination. All excellent reasons to ditch switchtasking.

How to focus

So if multitasking is dead, how do we focus? The good news is your brain is a muscle, just like any other muscle in your body. The trick is to train it. Flow is a state of optimum performance and you can develop it. Here’s how.

  1. Minimise distractions. That means turn the TV off, put your phone down and concentrate on one task at a time. Don’t start a new task until you have finished the last one.
  1. Identify and work with your circadian rhythms. Keep a log of your energy levels and engagement in tasks throughout the day. Work out when you energy levels best support your focus and plan your day accordingly. Tough tasks that require focus and mental energy should be scheduled at peak energy times, less demanding tasks for when you have a dip in energy. Even better, try and schedule a walk when you know there will be a slump.
  1. Build that critical brain mass with mindfulness. Start with one breath at a time, focusing on the breath, not breathing deeply or changing your breathing, simply noticing what’s here, right now. Notice your breath as you inhale, feeling the breath moving over your top lip as you inhale, the coolness around the tip of the nostrils. Exhaling, feel the warmth of the breath around the nostrils. If you find that your mind wanders, just notice the distraction and bring your focus back to the breath. The more you practice this mindfulness of breath meditation the more you’ll see results in terms of your ability to focus. We know from research that experienced meditators are better able to quieten down an area in the DMN called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) than non-meditators. That’s it, now you’re training!
  1. Get moving. A study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that aerobic exercise improved the areas of the brain related to attention, both long term and short term. Whether it’s walking, jogging, playing tennis or hitting the gym, investing in physical exercise will reap multiple benefits.
  1. Drink more (and no, we don’t mean alcohol). A 2012 study in The Journal of Nutrition found that mild dehydration increased levels of inattention in test subjects. It took as little as a 2% drop in hydration to negatively affect the subjects ability to concentrate on cognitive tests. Make sure that you keep hydrated, drinking between 7 to 8 glasses of water a day.

Positive Change Guru are experts in performance at work. We offer bespoke training, mindfulness, resilience and positive psychology courses as 1 day, bitesize espresso or organisational consultancy. Check out our events page https://planetpositivechange.com/events-2/ Contact us at admin@planetpositivechange.com we’d love to here from you.

Image courtesy of Patrick Tomasso and those lovely people at Unsplash.

Filed Under: Focus, Uncategorized Tagged With: flow, Gill Crossland Thackray Mindfulness expert, growth mindset courses London, mindful leadership courses, Mindful leadership courses Cumbria, Mindful leadership courses Keswick, mindful leadership Courses London, Mindful leadership courses UK, mindfulness, mindfulness at work, mindfulness at work courses, mindfulness at work courses London, mindfulness at work courses UK, mindfulness at work training London, multitasking, performance at work, RESILIENCE AT WORK COURSES CUMBRIA, resilience at work courses Keswick, resilience at work courses London, resilience at work courses UK, resilience at work training, resilience courses Cumbria, resilience courses Keswick, resilience courses London, resilience training, resilience training London

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