Category: Personal Growth & Change
How people actually change, and why so much of what is meant to change them does not. Habit formation, transitions, self-awareness and the uncomfortable gap between knowing something and doing it differently on Monday.
-
Power Distance – How do people behave in proximity to power?
Power Distance is a concept used to describe and explain how people with lower levels of power behave around and interact with people who hold significant levels of power. Power Distance Geert Hofstede developed the concept of power distance as part of his work exploring the interactions of people with different levels […]
-
Values in Action Strengths – A Positive View of Core Strengths
Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson propose that there are 24 human character strengths that we all have in some level. Understanding which of these are strongest in us can help improve our experiences, performance and happiness at work. Values in Action Strengths Values in Action (VIA) strengths are a concept that was […]
-
Ikigai – Helping you find your happy place at work
Ikigai is a Japanese phrase meaning “life worth living” that has been absorbed into western culture as a four lens tool through which to consider if your work is giving you want you need to be happy. As with many things like this, it’s a bit disputed. Ikigai Ikigai, as generally accepted […]
-
The Science of Well-being – Laurie Santos free course on Coursera
Laurie Santos (Yale) has shared a free course on Coursera called “The Science of Well-being”. It’s a great introduction to many ideas, theories and models relating to human happiness. Its central argument is that our intuitions about what will make us happy are systematically unreliable — we chase things that don’t work, […]
-
Agape – selfless, unconditional love and care for others
Agape (Greek Noun) means a sense of selfless and unconditional love that encapsulates a deep sense of supportive care for others. Agape Agape is a noun derived from ancient Greek. It describes a sense of selfless and unconditional love and a deep sense of supportive care for others. Its origins are often […]
-
Career Narratives – why the stories we tell about our careers matter
The stories we tell ourselves about our careers matter. They influence our actions, behaviours and outcomes, as well as our experiences at work and our levels of wellbeing. Luckily, we can be more intentional about them to achieve better outcomes. Career Narratives Career narratives are the stories that we tell ourselves about […]
-
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences – Intelligence can take many different forms
Gardener’s 1983 theory of multiple intelligences proposes that intelligence is not one thing, measurable by IQ. Instead it is eight different distinct abilities that people have in blends, and which may be assessed in different ways. Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences In 1983, developmental psychologist Howard Gardner published the book “Frames of Mind: The […]
-
Cognitive Dissonance: The discomfort of holding conflicting opinions at the same time
Key Points: Cognitive Dissonance is the term used to describe the discomfort experienced when an individual holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously. Cognitive Dissonance At its core, cognitive dissonance arises when there is a conflict between our existing beliefs or the underlying values that we hold or our behaviours. In other…
-
Cartesian Dualism: The Mind-Body Divide
René Descartes’ proposed that the mind and the body are two distinct and very different things. This “dualistic” perspective, introduced in the 17th century, continues to shape our assumed knowledge and understanding of the world, particularly in the West. It also continues to spark debates in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. Mind and […]
-
Social Pain – The impacts of social rejection, discomfort and loss
“Social pain” is the name given to the emotional distress people suffer as a result of negative inter-personal interactions including rejection, exclusion, or other social threats. Research has shown that the brain responds in a very similar way to this social pain as it does to physical pain. Social Pain We’ve all […]
