Change is Choice

Dr Paige Williams speaker

Dr Paige Williams brought us into the world of positive psychology with some theory and background in the work. She took the group through some exercises for a practical take on 3 key concepts:

  1. Strengths focus - Paige spoke about creating a breadcrumb trail of person praise and process praise that is strengths based, naming what you see in staff and colleagues.
  2. Fixed and Open Mindsets (from the work of Carol Dweck) . Neither is right or wrong, they are what they are. Different areas of your life will benefit from different mindsets.
    Growth requires time, effort and energy. Balance this with the idea that if I shift a fixed mindset, then it might make a difference to my life/work/relationship...
  3. Questions you ask - In conversations, what we ask about is what we'll get more of. Sounds like common sense - but there is an art to Appreciative Inquiry. If we ask different questions we can lead the conversation towards a particular line of information and exploration.  This is certainly worth a longer exploration. Paige offered some suggestions for  starters:
    1. What do you want to know more about?
    2. When have we been at our best in relationship to our past?
    3. What could we dream of being - the best possible option for this?

If you bring together the elements in this acronym they can go a long way to turning on positive attitudes in the workplace - HERO:

  • Hope
  • Efficacy
  • Resilience
  • Optimism

And if you would like to hear Paige discuss this you can listen to this podcast where she discusses her work.  .

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