Consciousness and Happiness at Work
If to be conscious is to be aware of the self and of others in a way that builds an ‘awakened existence’ then it is surely in the pursuit of happiness. Happiness in life in general and happiness at work.
Governments are debating how to measure Gross National Happiness (the life in general type), advocated by Robert F. Kennedy back in the 1968. Psychologists, philosophers and even the Dalai Lama have been adding to the literature on the subject and none agree exactly what happiness is but they do agree that it makes sense to strive to attain such a thing. Moreover, happiness in life is – and will always be – about subjective well-being, and who are we to say that one person’s definition is more correct than another’s? Each person in his or her world is entitled to be happy in the way that is meaningful to him or her.
On the other hand, the subject of happiness at work has been thoroughly researched by an Oxford U.K.-based consultancy, iOpener, over the past 5+ years. iOpener has carried this research out globally; obtaining data from 80 countries. The research findings are turning conventional business thinking on its head; showing that happiness at work precedes performance rather than the other way around; i.e. performance creating happiness at work.
So, Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO of iOpener, has created a business model – The Science of Happiness at Work Model – that maps out the various elements that one must be conscious of nurturing in the workplace in order to maximize happiness and therefore success.
