How to keep the Elephant on the path

Transcription

1 Globethics.net International Managing and Teaching Ethics in Higher Education: Policies, Skills and Resources How to keep the Elephant on the path Meggy Kantert Godfrey Okoye University

2 The Elephant, the Rider and the Path A Tale of Behaviour Change

3 Gratitude gratitude has a dual meaning: a worldly one and a transcendent one. In its worldly sense, gratitude is a feeling that occurs in interpersonal exchanges when one person acknowledges receiving a valuable benefit from another. Gratitude is a cognitive-affective state that is typically associated with the perception that one has received a personal benefit that was not intentionally sought after, deserved, or earned but rather because of the good intentions of another person (Emmons & Stern, 2013). Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. Cicero

4 Direct the rider Audience: Goal: Gratitude direct the rider Follow the bright spots Script the critical moves Point to the destination Gratitude at an individual level, or at a greater social level: The practice of gratitude can create a greater social circle of good. The recipient of gratitude may not reciprocate directly back, but in turn, may lend a favour to a third party, effectively expanding a network of good (Chang, Lin, & Chen, 2011). Effectively gratitude can therefore create a social network which can help individuals both advance (career, goals) and better cope in life.

5 Motivate the elephant Audience: Goal: Gratitude direct the rider Follow the bright spots Script the critical moves Point to the destination motivate the elephant Find the feeling Shrink the change Grow your people Help you make friends (Froh et al. 2011) Improve your physical health (Wood et al. 2007) Improve your psychological health (Hill et al. 2013) Enhance empathy and reduces aggress (McCullough et al. 2002) Improve your sleep (Wood et al. 2009) Enhance your self-esteem (Wood et al. 2010) Increase mental strength (Moran, 2016)

6 Shape the path Audience: Goal: Gratitude direct the rider Follow the bright spots Script the critical moves Point to the destination motivate the elephant Find the feeling Shrink the change Grow your people shape the path Tweak the environment Build habits Rally the herd What keeps your staff from being more grateful/showing more gratitude? What one thing can you shift to make the right behaviors more likely? In what environment might be your ungrateful audience suddenly become change Thank-You champions?

7 Keep the elephant on the path Audience: Goal: Gratitude direct the rider Follow the bright spots Script the critical moves Point to the destination motivate the elephant Find the feeling Shrink the change Grow your people shape the path Tweak the environment Build habits Rally the herd keep the path Be a role model Find multipliers Celebrate success Utilise the phenomenon Only multipliers who are aware of their role as a model and act accordingly improve the chance to tag the indifferent people along thus enabling the change of behaviour to happen for the organisation. Once change starts it will feed itself. Small changes can snowball to big changes.

8 Literature Chang, YP., Lin, YC. & Chen, L.H. J Happiness Stud (2012) 13: Emmons, R. A., & Stern, R. (2013). Gratitude as a Psychotherapeutic Intervention. Journal of Clinical Psychology. 69 (8), Fredrickson, B. (2004). The broaden and build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B.359, Froh, J. J., Emmons, R. A., Card, N. A., Bono, G., & Wilson, J. A. (2011). Gratitude and the reduced costs of materialism in adolescents. Journal of Happiness Studies 12 (2), Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2010) Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Random House Business.NY. Hill, P. L., Allemand, M., & Roberts, B. W. (2013). Examining the pathways between gratitude and self-rated physical health across adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences 54 (1), McCullough, M. E., Emmons, R. A., & Tsang, J.-A. (2002). The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 82 (1), Moran, K. (2016). Much Obliged: Kantian Gratitude Reconsidered. Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie 98(3), doi: /agph Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2007). Coping style as a psychological resource of grateful people. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 26 (9), Wood, A. M., Joseph, S., Lloyd, J., & Atkins, S. (2009). Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 66 (1), Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review 30 (7), /06/2018 8