Chief Happiness Officer

Seriously?

 

Evidently, some high tech firms in No Cal are so focused on making sure their employees are happy that there is actually a person with the title, Chief Happiness Officer.

Seriously.

But most scientists say that creativity calls on persistence and problem-solving skills, not positivity. Computational scientist Anna Jordanous at Kent University and linguist Bill Keller of Sussex University in England dug through over a half century of study on the creative process in various fields, and isolated 14 components of creativity. Happiness wasn’t one of them.”

In fact, “…rigor is the key to overcoming obstacles and completing tasks—and good mood doesn’t improve problem-solving, which involves judgments that almost by necessity won’t feel good: critique and evaluation, experimentation and failure. The stress that arises from problems may be unpleasant but it also motivates us to complete tasks, Davis says”

“In other words, negative emotions are actually beneficial to the creative process.”

You can read the full article about this topic HERE.

In the meantime, don’t obsess about some unhappiness within your station. Focus on supporting your staff.

None of us love being critiqued. None of us love failure.

And none of us can get better without both.