WOM2130. The Happiness Advantage: Linking Positive Brains to Performance

Conventional wisdom holds that if you work harder you will be more successful, and then you can feel happy. That formula is scientifically broken and backward. After a decade of research at Harvard and work in 51 countries, Shawn Achor came to understand that the formula should be reversed: happiness, optimism and social connection are the fuel that increase our potential allowing us to achieve higher success rates. Moreover, Shawn found that conscious positive habits could overcome genes and environment–even in crisis and challenge–to significantly raise our levels of happiness and meaning. In Shawn’s newest book Big Potential, he demonstrates how inextricably linked our potential is with others in our ecosystem, thus we need an interconnected pursuit of happiness and success. In his talk, Shawn uses research and case studies to show practical ways in which individuals and teams can enhance the ecosystem of potential, expand power out, defend the system against the negative, and sustain the gains.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify ways in which individuals and teams can enhance the ecosystem of potential, expand power out, defend the system against the negative, and sustain the gains.
• Recognize how to significantly raise your levels of happiness and meaning, even in crisis.