KEEPING LEVEL BLOG
It had to be said
The message in this video is not meant to offend but it had to be said. The origins of this story came from a ski trip we took the kids on. The main character is a <more>
The side effects of gratitude
I was reading The Little Book of Gratitude... it's the latest book by Dr. Robert Emmons (the #1 gratitude researcher in the world). In it, he discusses the notion of "side effects" from practicing gratitude. I had never even thought about this before! He got me thinking about the importance of <more>
3 more gratitude lessons from a bridge
We're back to the Macdonald Bridge redecking and we've got 3 strategic lessons from this massive bridge project that relate directly to building a culture rooted in gratitude. All 3 lessons are important but the first one addresses <more>
3 gratitude lessons from a bridge
The largest bridge replacement project in the world is happening just on the other side of town. There is an amazing parallel between this bridge project and our work with gratitude and if you have to deal with change... then it applies to <more>
What grateful people are 4 times more likely to do... and are completely unaware
Whether you've made a gratitude list before or not... I'll give you 4 to 1 odds that you don't know what someone is 4 times more likely to do when they make a list of what they're grateful for.
The answer is <more>
Gratitude from a cold shower
If you're not careful your self talk can be the equivalent of taking a cold shower. It happened to me a few days ago and fortunately I caught myself... all I had to do was <more>
One way to change the trajectory of your next meeting
Over the last 29 years I’ve seen a lot of meetings, both good ones and bad ones. Some I’ve chaired, some I’ve sat through, some I wished I was golfing, some were all over the place, and some were… all of the above.
While there isn’t a common element to what worked or what didn’t work, there’s a technique I started a few years back <more>
What is Halifax grateful for?
In Canada we're celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend. What better way to kick it off than by finding out what folks are grateful for about <more>
How grateful is Halifax? We checked.
How grateful is my hometown of Halifax? To find out we did a simple social experiment. We <<read more>>
Gratitude lists at work… they work but not for the reason you think
Habits are among the best predictors of your success. One such success habit is making a list of what you are grateful for… it’s the quintessential gratitude habit.
I started this habit about 10 years ago and <<read more>>
One Question
We took to the streets of my home town and asked people one simple question. It confirmed what we suspected... watch and see how <<<read more>>
You can know everything about gratitude but it isn’t worth jack if you’re missing this one critical piece
I’ve had businesses who were just interested in the benefits of having a grateful minded workforce (and there are many), the science behind gratitude, the psychology of how it works, the various frameworks for understanding how it operates within individuals and within social settings and the various techniques you can use to develop a grateful frame of mind. And they were interested in teaching their people all this so they could have a more positive, engaged, productive culture.
At first thought it sounds good. But one important ingredient is missing. <read more>
One way to Michigan
l love the story in this video. It's hard to believe but these type of customer interactions happen all the time. <read more>
When gratitude isn't appropriate
Plain and simple... gratitude enables you to draw the positive from the benefits in life. Most people are pleasantly surprised by how gratitude shines light on many of the invisible benefits of life we so often take for granted.
Even challenges can be seen as beneficial, although not always immediately. The benefits of a challenge may <read more>
Grateful Illusions
We just finished our spring cleaning and what I thought was an optical illusion, had me off level. Fortunately, it didn't fool my wife. Watch the <read more>
Dog with Bone
Whether it was adrenaline, cortisol or both, I'm not sure... but whatever it was, it knocked me off level and made me like a dog with a bone. This type of reactive behaviour is typical in <read more>
Ingrates & Ungrates - An Engineer's Manifesto
Ingrateful and ungrateful attitudes are costing North American workplaces somewhere in the order of $600 Billion every year. Gratitude on the other hand drives prosocial behaviours characterized by positivity, helping, inter- <<read more...>>
Let There Be Light
At the extreme ends of the gratitude scale sit grateful and ingrateful. Somewhere in the middle is a very dangerous place called ungrateful.
Ungrateful habits are costly, eroding the cultures at home and in the office. This is not good... especially for building a positive, engaged <read more>
Growing People with Appreciation
People are more productive and more fulfilled when they perceive they are appreciated. One study found that employees who were shown appreciation and gratitude by their supervisor were 50% more productive than <read more>
They Zapped Me
On January 4th I had a health scare.
All is fine now, but as the doctor described my condition, an interesting parallel with gratitude appeared.
I thought it was something that might help you stay level the next time you get busy or stressed <read more>