Replying to Chris's LO29886:
Thanks for picking up on this, and for the good reference.
> Good idea except I disagree about Joy being a trailing indicator. It
> connotes a place where trust and win-win is going on and there are no
> serious stakeholder conflicts or hiden agendas. I would invest in any such
> place knowing its value could only keep going up with the joy..more at
> http://www.knowledgeboard.com/community/zones/sig/kmei.html
When I suggested that it might be a trailing indicator, I was thinking of
measuring it "from the outside". From the inside, one can probably sense
it coming on, so from that perspective it certainly wouldn't be trailing.
On the other hand, constantly asking "Are we having fun yet?" might damage
the spirit, so the indicator might best be evaluated in retrospect.
> A study at Yale University showed how upbeat moods boost cooperation,
> fairness and business performance. Laughter, in particular , demonstrates
> the power of the open loop in operation- and therefore the contagious nature
> of all emotion.
> Laughter offers a uniquely trustworthy sign of friendliness. Unlike other
> emotional signals - such as a smile which can be feigned - laughter
> involves highly complex neural systems that are largely involuntary: it's
> harder to fake. In a neurological sense, laughter represents the shortest
> distance between two people because it instantly interlocks limbic
> systems.
Wonderful observation! With the tragedy of last Saturday, we've
(re)learned that shared sadness can also reduce the distance.
Also, there's a kind of joy that doesn't involve laughter, or even
smiling. Read the second paragraph of the Team Learning chapter of Fifth
Discipline, where Bill Russell talks about the "magical" quality of
certain games he participated in. To me, that's a good description of
what I sometimes call "fierce joy". It can be individual as well -- think
of an olympic athlete in pursuit of a personal best (or an architect or
engineer in pursuit of the "quality without a name").
And then there's the joy of interacting with you good folks on this
list...
Thanks for that, and best wishes to all,
--Don Dwiggins d.l.dwiggins@computer.org "I heard the grating shrieks and clanks of a locomotive while the engineer heard the smooth symphony of a thousand moving parts." -- Emil Gobersneke, as reported by Lon Badgett
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.