Positivity: Post #5--The Positivity Ratio

The Positivity Ratio
a.    Marcial Losada studied high-performing business teams. One-way mirrors watching various business teams working with each other. Recorded and coded every remark made.  Tracked data especially three dimensions on whether remarks were: 1) Positive or Negative; 2) self- or other-focused; 3) based on inquiry (asking questions) or advocacy (defending a point of view).
i.    Over 60 teams—The top 25% of high performing teams scored high in positive comments, being other-focused and inquiry observations by researchers. The bottom 30 teams scored low in business results (profitability, etc.) and had high scores in negative comments, self-reference and advocacy—the exact opposite of high functioning teams.
ii.    Positivity Ratios: Losada’s research team discovered that high-performing teams had a 6:1 positive-to-negative ratio. Low scoring teams had a 1:1 ratio and mixed-performance teams had a 2:1 positivity ratio.
iii.    Negativity has a powerful effect, about 2 to 1 over positive. We respond far more to a boss’s negative comment than we do to a positive one. So, bosses, be careful.
iv.    Negativity and teams: Low-positivity teams lose their cheer and flexibility. They defend, deflect, self-refer and advocate. Instead of listening, they only wait for their turn to advocate their position.

Positivity: Post #4--Building with Positivity

Positivity Builds Your Best Future by Building:
a.    Psychological strengths. People get more resilient, optimistic and purpose driven.
b.    Social connections. Positivity and gratitude strengthen, energize and reinvigorate relationships. More friends (and stronger ones) emerge, divorce decreases, and collaboration abounds.
c.    Good health. Positivity lowers stress hormones, builds bond-related hormones, enhances immune functioning, and results in less illness.
i.    Hugs have an effect on your mood and happiness.
ii.    Higher mood-elevating and lowering-stress hormones occur when husbands and wives (and partners) “…have learned to touch their partners’ head, neck and shoulders in loving ways.”
d.    Resilience—the ability to bounce back after setbacks.
i.    Build resilience by increasing a higher positive ratio
1.    Doing things that you love to do and that calm down your brain and heart
2.    Meditating, walking, exercising, being with friends, hugging someone!

Positivity: Post #3--Broaden the Mind

Broaden the Mind: Positivity prepares your mind for opportunity and options.
a.    Back-of-hand exercise: Study the back of your hand and describe to yourself what you see. Next, make a list of what you might do if you had a half-hour free. Then, think of a former joyful moment in your life. Savor it for a bit. Then again construct a list of what you might do if you had a half-hour free. Now compare the two lists.  Often the “positive” experience list is longer because positivity opens (broadens) our minds, allowing creativity.
b.    Positivity opens the brain, allowing it to see “the big picture” of possibilities. Neutrality or negativity shrinks our peripheral vision, not allowing us see options.
c.    Students do better on standardized tests when they have a self-generated positive experience before taking the test.
d.    Doctors and positivity: Cornell researchers gave doctors candy which they could not eat until after a diagnosis was made; as a result, their diagnoses were more thoughtful, creative, and accurate.
e.    Positivity and trust: As positivity grows, we trust others more, and they trust us more!  A positive spiral up—a virtuous cycle.
f.    Positivity makes you see others more like you and less separate (from Me to We). Experiments using positive, negative and neutral experiences before classifying how we view others demonstrates this “me-to-we” phenomenon. And, it works cross culturally.
g.    Oneness: Positivity creates a sense that we are all one and “breeds
helpful, compassionate acts.”
h.    Positivity transforms us by connecting us to something bigger than ourselves—oneness with others and nature.