The Greatest LOVE of All & What Represents and Approaches the BEST of the Human Condition

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Stay in the POS!

It is up to us as to what we focus on, how we interpret “it” and what if anything we intend to do about it.

Dr. Alan Daly at UC San Diego turned me on to Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) not so long ago, and it has provided a terrific framework for self-awareness, mindset choice and worldview implications. Here is a precis:

Imagine a world in which almost all organizations are typified by greed, selfishness, manipulation, secrecy, and a single-minded focus on winning. Wealth creation is the key indicator of success. Imagine that members of such organizations are characterized by distrust, anxiety, self-absorption, fear, burnout, and feelings of abuse. Conflict, law suits, contract breaking, retribution, and disrespect characterize many interactions and social relationships. Imagine also that researchers investigating these organizations emphasize theories of problem solving, reciprocity and justice, managing uncertainty, overcoming resistance, achieving profitability, and competing successfully against others.

For the sake of contrast, now imagine another world in which almost all organizations are typified by appreciation, collaboration, virtuousness, vitality, and meaningfulness. Creating abundance and human well-being are key indicators of success. Imagine that members of such organizations are characterized by trustworthiness, resilience, wisdom, humility, & high levels of positive energy. Social relationships and interactions are characterized by compassion, loyalty, honesty, respect, and forgiveness. Significant attention is given to what makes life worth living. Imagine that in this world, researchers emphasize theories of excellence, transcendence, positive deviance, extraordinary performance, and positive spirals of flourishing.

Welcome to POS or Positive Organizational Scholarship which does not reject the value and significance of the phenomena of the first world view, but rather, emphasizes the phenomena represented in the second world view. POS represents an expanded perspective that puts an increased emphasis on ideas of “goodness” and positive human potential. It encompasses attention to the enablers (e.g., processes, capabilities, structures, methods), the motivations (e.g., unselfish, altruistic, contribution without regard to self), and the outcomes or effects (e.g., vitality, meaningfulness, exhilaration, high quality relationships) associated with positive phenomena. POS is distinguished from traditional organizational studies in that it seeks to understand what represents and approaches the best of the human condition.

POS like anything else has a number of biases implicit in the name:

“Positive” – represents an affirmative bias and orientation with an interest in exceptional, virtuous, life-giving, and flourishing phenomena.

“Organizational” -POS expands the boundaries of current theories to make visible positive states, positive processes, and positive relationships that are typically ignored.

How organizational practices enable individuals to craft meaningful work through fostering individual “callings,” or, how building on strengths produces more positive outcomes in a diverse array of settings such as classroom learning, employee commitment, leadership development, and firm profitability- in contrast to a more typical focus on managing or overcoming weaknesses.

“Scholarship”- draws from a variety of fields including:

Positive Psychology- and Martin Seligman’s work. Seligman argued that since World War II, traditional psychology has focused almost exclusively on human pathology, or on what is wrong with and lacking in individuals.

Community Psychology- with a focus on the presence of wellness not the absence of disease

Organizational Development and Appreciative Inquiry- Based on the assumption that organizations have a positive core which, if revealed and tapped, unleashes positive energy and positive improvement

Prosocial and Citizenship Behavior- or voluntary actions that provide benefit to other people

Corporate Social Responsibility- which centers on the obligation of organizations, especially corporations, to address societal problems and ills

POS is a fresh and in my view a much needed lens. It offers new ways of looking at old phenomena. By applying this new lens, elements that were formerly invisible become visible. POS helps people look at phenomena in new ways. POS is not value-neutral. It advocates the position that the desire to improve the human condition is universal and that the capacity to do so is latent in most systems.

What’s YOUR view?

The Greatest Love of All:

The Greatest Love of All

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WHAT IF . . . the greatest love of all is loving yourself?

RESEARCH SAYS: Here are a few tips to help you love YOU:

Embrace your feelings with a desire to learn what your feelings are telling you.
Take responsibility for managing your feelings, rather than making others responsible for them.
Stay open to learning with all your feelings, rather than avoiding the painful ones by numbing out with substances or distractions.
You love yourself best when you take smart action regarding your emotional, physical and financial health, your time and space, and your interactions with others.
Value your core self, rather than defining yourself through your looks, performance, and the stories others have about you.
Approve what is good, face what is not good about you, and keep evolving.
Make your needs just as important to you as others’ needs.

TRY THIS: Choose one or two of the tips above to focus on this week. To love yourself is the essence of self-respect.

The Positivity Blog by Henrik

Now, I’d like to look back into the past. Back to the time when I was single. It was a period when I faced rejection a lot of the time.

Which was actually a step forward for me. Because before that I spent much of my
time totally avoiding situations where I could be rejected.

But still, being rejected hurt.

So I’d like to share a couple of things that I learned during those years that helped
me to lessen the sting of rejection and that helps me to this day when I get
rejected in other ways.

1. Take some time to process it instead of forcing a smile on your face.

Trying to force optimism or to move forward when you are still in an emotional
turmoil or a bit shocked usually don’t work that well.

So first just take a bit of time to process the thoughts and feelings that arise when
you have been rejected.

2. Focus on what you still have in your life.

Take some time for the thoughts that arose. But don’t get stuck in dwelling and in
dragging yourself down into an ocean of self-doubt and negativity.

Instead, shift your focus to what you actually still have in your life. The people, the
passions or hobbies, the sometimes taken for granted things like a roof over your
head and that you don’t have to go hungry.

Tapping into gratitude like this helps me to put what happened into perspective
and to not let it overwhelm me.

3. Don’t think it’s all about you.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking there is something wrong with you if you
for example don’t get a second date.

But not everything is about you.

The other person may have his or her own self-doubts. Or things from the past he
or she has not moved on from yet. Or that person may simply be looking for
something or someone else than you.
That’s just how life is. So see if you can learn something from the situation but
don’t put everything that happens on yourself.
4. Strengthen your self-esteem.
A self-esteem toolbox filled with helpful thought habits and strategies do not make
you invincible to rejection or any other negative situation.
But it makes you stronger. It makes more things bounce off you. Instead of them
dragging you deeper and deeper down.
And with kinder self-talk that is actually helpful it is easier to learn something you
can use in the future and to keep going forward.

Have a self-kind day!

Employee Engagement: You’ve Got the Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvDKh31k1fM

If you are local…

Go Red for Women:
Women’s heart health matters!

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Focus on Youth and/or Health Equity:

You might be interested in this community discussion and screening of Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope, presented by SDG members Alliance Healthcare Foundation (iEngageU) & The San Diego Foundation, with community partners.

Resilience explores the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the birth of a new movement to treat and prevent Toxic Stress. Now understood to be one of the leading causes of everything from heart disease and cancer to substance abuse and depression, extremely stressful experiences in childhood can alter brain development and have lifelong effects on health and behavior. The local panel of regional experts, educators, and service providers will discuss how to help build resilience in our community to create bright futures for generations to come.

Tuesday February 21, 3:00 – 5:30pm

Performing Arts Center

Chula Vista High School

820 4th Avenue • Chula Vista, CA 91911

Parking Lot located off K Street, between 4th and 5th Avenue.

Film includes Spanish subtitles.
Snacks and refreshments available.

Who Should Attend?
Educators
High School & College Students
Parents & Caregivers
Service Providers
Probation & Law Enforcement Representatives
Community Advocates

Speakers

Dr. Karen Janney
Superintendent, Sweetwater School District

Barbara Jiménez
Director of Regional Operations, Health and Human Services Agency-Central & South Regions

Dr. Dawn Griffin
Forensic Psychologist & Associate Professional, Alliant International University
MaryRose Peralta
Principal, Chula Vista High School

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Women’s Hall of Fame 2017:

You are invited to the Women’s Hall of Fame 2017, an event that the Department of Women’s Studies at SDSU has co-hosted (UCSD Women’s Center, Women’s Museum & San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women) for the last 16 years. It is on Sunday, March 5th at 2:30 pm at the Jacobs Center. We have a great group of women being inducted this year. Please share this event info. Tickets for students and Women’s Studies folks are $25.00. There is a link to the reservations page and a link to the press release at the bottom of the invite.
This is a great event that recognizes diverse women from different communities and their life-long contributions to the betterment of San Diego–

Thanks for your support,

Please join us in celebrating these outstanding women on Sunday, March 5th!

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