Shawn Achor

Two or three stars seems appropriate for this one, and here’s why. On the one hand, the book does present a fairly decent overview of the findings of positive psychology, and, in particular, on how to apply those findings to your life and career.

At the same time, I can’t imagine that the studies cited in this book have aged well. Keep in mind that the book was released in 2010, which happens to coincide with the beginnings of the “replication crisis” in the behavioral sciences. This show more crisis, of course, found that several previously released studies could not be replicated upon further testing.

So in addition to the fact that some of the studies referenced in this book seem far-fetched, Shawn Achor basically begs us to assume they’re part of the replication crisis when he writes, on page 75, in reference to one of his examples, that “while this was only one study and its effects were probably temporary, it illustrates how strongly our beliefs can affect our abilities.”

In other words, he might as well have written, “the study may be total BS, and it may not at all be replicable, but because it supports my main point, I’ll think I’ll just go ahead and include it.” This is not so much a good sign for the rest of the book. For example, I can’t help but think the study suggesting that people can slow the physical aging process by pretending they’re younger is one such study that would fail the replication process.

Of course, the “replication crisis” doesn’t mean that every psychological study ever conducted is fraudulent or mistaken. But the problem is that Achor does not distinguish between the studies that have more extensive scientific support and those that do not. The reader is simply left guessing.

Also, it’s worth noting that the entire premise of the book seems bizarre. It’s a little odd for the author to tell us that success does not create happiness, but that we should pursue happiness FOR success. The whole concept of happiness is a bit cheapened when it is commodified and presented only as a MEANS to achieve “success and performance” at work, which the author just told us is not an integral part of overall life satisfaction.

Happiness should be pursued for its own sake as an ultimate good; productivity or “success” at work may or may not follow, but if you’re already happy, why should you care? Following Aristotle, we know that it would never make sense to pursue a superior end (happiness) for the sake of an inferior one (productivity), and that claiming otherwise is a bit like telling a doctor that they should heal the sick so that they can practice medicine.

Achor even defines happiness as “the joy we feel striving after our potential,” which we do by exercising our signature strengths. The pursuit of meaningful work for its own sake—and not for the sake of being more “productive”—therefore seems to be the better way to present the findings of positive psychology. This is, in fact, how Harvard professor Tal Ben-Shahar conveys the findings of positive psychology in his book Happier.

Nevertheless, it does seem to be true that happiness is largely, as Achor maintains, a subjective phenomenon, and therefore at least somewhat within each person’s control. And certain activities like meditation, keeping a gratitude journal, committing acts of kindness, and exercising signature strengths, among other things, does seem to boost happiness, as the book maintains. It’s just that this advice is better expressed elsewhere, perhaps from someone with a less corporatized mind. In fact, there are, in my opinion, superior books on the subject, for example The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell, Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar. show less

Achor builds a compelling argument for the Happiness Advantage with a combination of research, real-life application, and wit. While his TED talk felt a bit hyper, I took the book at my own pace and found him a wise and gentle companion.

Evidently Achor's books frequently come packaged alongside corporate management seminars and conference keynote speeches; they came to me that way. Most such don't capture my interest except in the moment, and then primarily as a foil. ("The executive team are pushing a new initiative, here's the proposal. So what merits do I see? What weaknesses? How is this novel, and how merely new packaging?") Some few speakers and books, Achor's among them, hold my interest beyond this, are curious for show more possible utility with an aspect of my day job, and partially as social science with a corporate / commercial slant.

In this case, the question centered on building consensus among disparate colleagues for a task typically received as at best irrelevant to their roles and at worst, deleterious to them. Achor's keynote speech was typical in its delivery: humour, a barrage of eclectic examples illustrating common challenges, an appeal to demonstrated success with past clients. What wasn't typical was his original psychological and sociological research, and working within an academic frame of behavioral economics.

Achor never employed the metaphysical terminology I constantly used in considering his argument: universals, the ontological status of collectives versus individuals, distributed consciousness. Nevertheless I believe they are usefully applied to his various examples as well as to his concepts of Small and Big Potential.

It would be easy to assume that if you put a group of high-IQ people together, naturally they would exhibit a high collective intelligence. But that's not what happens. Indeed, research found that a team on which each person was merely average in their individual abilities but possessed a collective intelligence would continually exhibit higher success rates than a team of individual geniuses. [38]

This quote nicely illustrates both the superficial lure of typical management books (a weakness this book does not entirely avoid), and the more substantial insights grappled with despite that lure. No, despite the initial idea of thinking a group of smart-er people will perform better than a group of people less smart, a minute's pause makes almost everyone realise that isn't the case. We're all familiar with groups of high performers who for various reasons can't perform together: selfishness, lack of communication, lack of coordination, backstabbing, basic personality incompatibilities ... the list is endless. Similarly, so much is smuggled into that term, "success" -- by that is it meant simply that the group best meets management expectations? That the group makes more money for the company than other groups? Solves problems better, faster? Depending on the answer, that claim, too, dissolves pretty quickly. So this quote doesn't introduce any novel insights, though it's phrased as though it does.

What is interesting is the claim that social scientists are beginning to reliably measure collective intelligence separately from individual intelligence, and that it correlates strongly with various other reliable measures of success which are not simply increased efficiency or higher revenue, but happiness, job satisfaction, physical and mental health, learning new skills, with each considered individually and collectively.

Small potential is what people achieve (or could achieve) individually. Big potential is what they're capable of collectively. Achor's book and research outlines how it can be argued that both are quantifiable, in reasonably robust ways, such that the most accurate predictor of success for any one person is their social network. show less

This book is one of a growing library of research that supports what I've believed for the past few years: that happiness is a skill you can develop. What's great about this book is that it doesn't make the assumption that something is inherently wrong with the reader, and gives readers practical advice on small things they can do to get their brains more tuned in to being happy. It's a state of mind—one that does come more naturally to some than others—but it's also a muscle that can be show more exercised. And there's no "secret" to it, as many so-called self-help books suggest. It's just doing small things, such as writing three good things down every night, whether it's three good things that happened over the course of a day (no matter how small) or three things you're grateful for. Doing this can help rewire your brain to see more possibilities, more insights, and help you see and seize upon opportunity when it arises. It's a book that's geared more toward helping leaders and business people make their workplaces happier, but I think anyone could benefit from reading this. Also, he's funny. show less