Fresh Ideas at Work

Subscribers to Fresh Ideas have been using different kinds of questions to shift and refocus their  thinking, finding ways to inspire new ideas and new results with new questions.

This week’s Business Week includes a column by Marshall and Kelly Goldsmith that provides a good example of using a different question to get a better result.  New research on drivers of adult happiness show a strong correlation between reported levels of happiness and meaning inside work and reported levels of happiness and meaning outside work.  Since work and home environments tend to be very different, levels of happiness and meaning ”appear(s) to have more to do with who we are than where we are.”

To decrease dependency and increase satisfaction and commitment, they advise employers to stop asking, “What can the company do to increase employees’ experience of happiness and meaning at work?” and to start encouraging employees to ask themselves, “What can I do to increase my experience of happiness and meaning at work?”