Shawn Achor, a positive psychology expert, is a teacher and researcher. He has garnered teaching accolades at Harvard University and is a popular lecturer for the university's top course. Achor has shared his insights on enhancing happiness and performance in 36 countries worldwide. His work has been featured in esteemed publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and BusinessWeek. A Harvard graduate with honours, Achor also holds a Master's degree from Harvard Divinity School. Beyond academia, Achor has been a Head Teaching Fellow at Harvard and has studied and advised Harvard students for seven years. His expertise extends to diverse groups, including doctors in Dubai, farmers in Zimbabwe, CEOs in Hong Kong, and students in South Africa. Achor is the author of two books, "The Happiness Advantage: How Positive Brains Raise Performance" and "Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change." These books offer practical strategies for achieving personal and professional goals through a positive outlook. His speaking engagements cover the positive ripple effect, success and happiness, the connection between positivity and performance, and fostering confidence in leadership. Overall, Shawn Achor is celebrated for his positive psychology expertise and his ability to motivate individuals and organizations towards greater success and happiness.
Confidence, trust and job satisfaction are at historic lows. When the economic collapse began, the world’s largest banks called in Shawn Achor to research how to restore confidence and forward progress. While many managers succumb to helplessness, with their teams and clients quickly following suit, Shawn researched those who maintained high levels of success and leadership during the challenge. He found that our brains create confidence based on the belief that our behavior matters to the outcome we desire. To develop this trust, we must create “wins” for our brain necessary to overcome learned helplessness and must train our brains for rational optimism. Based on the science of positive psychology and case studies of working with companies in the midst of an economic collapse, Shawn provides practical applications for raising the belief that individual behavior matters and helping leaders to keep teams motivated and engaged.
According to Shawn Achor's research in "Before Happiness," something more important than IQ and emotional intelligence combined is the ability to construct positive realities in our minds. Before we can enact change, our brains create a mental picture of reality, which significantly impacts our likelihood of success. Achor explores the concept of becoming a "positive genius," who can consistently shape successful, positive realities and transfer them to others. By leveraging insights from positive psychology and neuroscience, Achor demonstrates how leaders can change their mindset about stress to increase productivity and well-being. Attendees gain practical takeaways for navigating multiple realities, reducing noise, accelerating goal completion, and fostering positive outcomes within teams and organizations.
Common sense is not common action. This is because information does not necessarily cause transformation because we require a certain level of “activation energy” to start a change. Shawn’s research in the field of positive psychology has revealed how changes in our own brain due to mindset and behavior can have a ripple effect to a team and an entire organization. This positive ripple effect can create a more productive, positive work culture making positive change easier. Audiences will learn about the latest scientific research on mirror neurons and mental priming to explain how positivity and negativity spread, case studies on how to become a lightning rod for change, and findings on how a positive ripple effect profoundly affects an organization’s ability to transition and change.
Most companies and schools follow this formula: if you work harder, you will be more successful, and then you will be happy. This formula is scientifically backward. A decade of research shows that training your brain to be positive at work first actually fuels greater success second. In fact, 75% of our job success is predicted not by intelligence, but by your optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way. By researching top performers at Harvard, the world’s largest banks, and Fortune 500 companies, Shawn discovered patterns which create a happiness advantage for positive outliers—the highest performers at the company. Based on his book, The Happiness Advantage, Shawn explains what positive psychology is, how much we can change, and practical applications for reaping the Happiness Advantage in the midst of change and challenge.
