Joy at Work, how we harness the sense of wellbeing

Joy at Work, how we harness the sense of wellbeing

Cath, our joyful learning facilitator, takes some time out of her wellbeing delivery schedule for a few moments of joy…

Our purpose at Team Boo is to help create healthy and happy workplaces, paying attention to wellbeing, helping colleagues to be great leaders and supporting people to flourish.

We talk about joy a lot; the emotion evoked by wellbeing, the people, places and things that support our happiness and we also talk about joy in work, yes work!

A few questions for you to consider…

• Does it feel too much of a stretch to consider joy at work?
• Does joy and work go together?
• Does joy feel like a nice thing to have at work but unlikely to happen?
• Are we stuck in a rut of stressful, busy days at work just to plough through till we have some time off?

We spend a lot of time at work, wouldn’t it be great to pay attention to joy, that sense of wellbeing from making a difference?  Maybe joy isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when we think about work but here’s why it’s important…

As humans we are intrinsically wired to seek joy, it’s a core part of being human and supports us to connect to purpose.  Recognising and paying attention to joy at work not only makes for better days and increased engagement, it also helps us find meaning and purpose, reduces turnover, sickness and burnout and supports better communication and a sense of belonging.

Rachel Pilling and Dan Wadsworth are the winners of the 2017 NHS Improvement Sir Peter Carr Award and creators of 15s30m, a quality improvement approach that aims to help anyone identify how they could spend a few extra seconds on a task now which will save someone else 30 minutes or more later on and by doing so will reduce frustration and increase joy.  In their Tedx talk they share how joy is the biggest factor in improving patient safety and experience, happier staff provide better care.

So how we go about embedding joy at work?

People are an organisations greatest assets.  How are we paying attention to what matters to people?  What makes a great day?  What are you most proud of?  Let’s celebrate the good stuff, recognising our unique gifts and qualities so that people can be their authentic selves.  Gallups Strengths Finder is a fabulous tool for helping us understand our strengths and recognising what energises us and what drains us.  Let’s pay attention to what supports us to be our best.

Consider how our values are showing up.

Values act as our moral compass and influence our choices and our behaviours.  Conscious connection to our values supports our wellbeing and helps us make sense of the world around us.  How are values showing up for you?

Alongside the good stuff, there will be stressors and tensions…

Focussing on what matters to us as individuals and appreciating our uniqueness helps support wider relationships and a sense of belonging within teams.  Listening deeply and building trusting relationships helps create a space of psychological safety where we can have open and honest conversations about what’s working and not working and where we are comfortable to share ideas.  Let’s invite participation and create a space for ideas and actions.  Gallups Employee Engagement Survey provides some great questions to measure engagement and helps open up the conversation about what changes are needed.  What are the small positive changes and quick wins that help grow joy?

Pay attention to wellbeing.  We can’t give what we don’t have and if we’re not at our best joy is hard to find.  How are we paying attention to our wellbeing that helps us be our most productive selves?

At Team Boo joy at work is our default setting but as complex humans (or Boomans as Amy, our Happiness Ambassador, likes to call us) we know that joy differs for all of us.  We recognise and pay attention to these through our personal profiles which record what matters to us, our values and how these show up in our work and how we can best communicate with each other.  Using the Gallup Strengths Finder we know what our strengths are and how these can shine when we are at our best and the conditions that support us to flourish.  Equally, we pay attention to when we are not at our best and what we need from each other.

Creativity is one of my values and I feel my most creative when I’m collaborating with colleagues, thinking together and sharing ideas.  Going for a walk also helps me to lean into my creativity, sitting at a computer screen can feel stifling and sometimes I can stare at a blank page struggling to string a sentence together!   Most of this blog was thought about while walking Buddy Beagle, enjoying the quiet and fresh air early in the morning.  So next time I feel in need of a creativity boost, you’ll find me working while walking, phone in hand to record sparkly thoughts and ideas, while leaning into joy.

Find out how joy shows up and what works for you.

Cath x

Find out more about how Team Boo can help your teams boost their joy levels through our popular Caring For Yourself programme