Congress Innsbruck building
In July I was excited to visit beautiful Innsbruck for the 11th (and my 1st) European Conference on Positive Psychology.
The Conference welcomed over 1,200 people from 55 countries, and promised a packed agenda focused on the theme: “it's you - it's me - it's us”. This theme recognises the interdependence of human beings embedded in the surrounding world.
In summary, the Conference was fantastic, and the whole experience lived up to my (high) expectations. A huge thank you goes to Marta Bassi and Stefan Höfer in particular, as well as everyone involved in making the conference a success.
Now that I've had time to digest and reflect, I wanted to share my top 10 takeaways.
(If you make it to the end you’ll be rewarded with some scenic photos)!
My top 10 takeaways
As ever, when making notes on presentations, I’m conscious not to dilute or misrepresent what I’ve heard. So please take this summary as my best attempt at a snapshot, and if there is anything that has been misrepresented or misinterpreted please know it is unintentional.
1) It's you - it's me - it's us
A theme that resonated across the entire conference was the importance of our environment - both physically and in terms of the context in which we all operate, individually and collectively.
Yes there are strategies and interventions that can work really well at an individual level, however approaches and interventions that are contextualised and personalised are likely to be the most effective.
This struck me most when listening to Michael Ungar’s captivating keynote: "Diagnosing, Nurturing and Maintaining Resilience in Stressed Environments". When we fail to recognise the bigger picture, we fail the individual.
Marta and Stefan opening the Conference
2) A different way of looking at resilience
Resilience is not just about ‘bouncing back’. Michael Ungar presented a different way of looking at resilience, which captures our capacity to navigate our way to resources that sustain wellbeing, AND our capacity to negotiate for these resources to be provided in meaningful ways.
This approach recognises that whilst resilience requires individual capacity, it also relies on community, organisations, government etc. to provide resources in ways that individuals value. I really liked the metaphor Michael gave of Cinderella, whose story is arguably about the power of the fairy godmother.
I also loved hearing Michael talk about the ‘birthday person’ who we probably all have in our teams. It reminded me of the ‘office quiz’ person, who I often talk about in job crafting sessions. (At Tailored Thinking this is me!) I’ve long known people who engage in such organisational citizenship behaviours (OCBs), which are not part of anyone’s job description but happen regardless. I’d argue it’s a form of relationship, purpose and wellbeing crafting all wrapped in one, and has benefits on multiple levels.
How could we stimulate more of this at work?
Michael Ungar’s keynote
3) Creating Sustainable Wellbeing
I’m still fan-girling over Suzy Green!
Suzy is renowned in the fields of Coaching Psychology and Positive Psychology, and there was a building excitement to hear her speak. (You can tell from how many phone cameras were in the air)!
Suzy started her keynote in the most brave and meaningful way, embracing physical and emotional discomfort. Suzy’s talk centred on sustainable wellbeing, and focused on the role of people and planet - again encouraging us to consider the impact of environments, systems, and communities in enabling flourishing.
Suzy shared insights from her extensive coaching practice and research, and I was pleased to hear that the complementary fields of positive and coaching psychology are evolving in a collaborative way.
Suzy also talked about how as humans we are great at goal setting but less good at goal striving. That made me think about how we design and deliver sustainable wellbeing interventions, and how coaching is very well placed to support this.
I particularly appreciated the intentional and repeated ways that Suzy credited others in her talk. Suzy is clearly brilliant in her own right, but the fact she recognised those who have inspired and supported her makes her even more inspirational in my eyes.
Suzy Green’s keynote on Positive Psychology Coaching
4) AI raises more questions than it answers
The opening keynote of the conference was an insightful discussion between Huma Shah and Robert McGrath on the role of AI in Positive Psychology. Similar to other talks and conversations I’ve had recently on the topic, I’m left with the conclusion that AI has promise and it also has risk - we need to address both.
I appreciated Huma asking the questions that need to be asked:
Who is developing these tools?
What are they being developed for?
What is the environmental impact?
How do we address the inevitable bias of AI tools?
The panellists also talked about what role AI could play in coaching. I’m not (yet) convinced that ‘humanness’ can be entirely replicated. However I did hear a positive example in another session where AI and human-combined approaches have increased rare disease identification by 20%.
So in answer to the talk’s provocation: can wellbeing be enhanced through technology? I think it depends. We definitely don’t have all the answers, but I’m sure the conversation will continue.
5) Meaning is the future
Omid Alaei also shared insights around Meaning-Based Coaching (MBC). This approach is rooted in unlocking meaning in life, where a coachee focuses on continuously developing understanding around meaning, and taking relevant action. You could argue that “being on purpose” is a life skill that can be developed with practice.
We talked about how what makes life meaningful for individuals can change over time, and whilst the research reveals some broad trends (family, health, work), these differ cross-culturally. It was interesting to reflect on the below statements and I’d encourage you to answer these too:
My life is meaningful right now because…
5 years ago my life was meaningful because…
In 5 years my life will be meaningful if…
Sources of meaning across countries - slide from Omid’s presentation
Omid also talked about “megatrends”, and shared some interesting research suggesting that 48% consumers want products and services that are uniquely tailored to them.
Music to our ears at Tailored Thinking, where we believe that the future of work is personalised!
6) What’s your why?
The keynote from Corey Keyes was fascinating. Corey shared insights from his new book, “Languishing: How to feel alive again in a world that wears us down”.
Corey describes languishing as the absence of well-being. When people feel they have nothing positive going on in their lives. No meaning. No mattering. No quality relationships. No happiness or joy. Yet there aren’t necessarily any negative emotions. More a feeling of nothingness, a bit ‘meh’.
Corey talked about saying no to things that aren’t feeding the soul, and how important it is to find your tribe. I was also struck by the idea that if you want to flourish, you can start by doing things for others. “It's good to be happy but it's better to be happy because of someone else” (or words to that effect!)
Corey Keyes in conversation with Marta Bassi
7) Interesting developments in Character Strengths
Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath shared recent developments in character strengths, and how they can be used to stimulate powerful conversations at work.
It was exciting to hear more about a newly researched strength: ‘gentleness’. I had a fascinating conversation with a fellow delegate about how people interpret the term, and who we are most or least gentle with (and why). Like most strengths, the key is finding the ‘just right’ zone where gentleness is neither over or under-played.
I’m a huge fan of VIA Strengths, and find it to be a particularly powerful tool in my coaching practice. I look forward to hearing more from VIA as they continue researching and developing.
8) There is a place for humour at work
Bea Bincze and Alexandra Cser facilitated a really enjoyable and practical workshop on the role of humour at work. I completely agree that humour builds trust, humour is human, and for me it can also serve as an indicator that something else might be going on with someone.
Did you know that children laugh around 400 times a day? We were all children once, we just don't exercise this muscle enough. We could certainly do with more laughter at work!
‘The benefits of humour’ slide from Bea and Alexandra’s presentation
You don’t have to BE funny (phew), but you can notice the humour around you. I’m going to play with the idea of ‘fun-pairing’ or ‘fun-framing’ which is to match something fun with something you’re procrastinating on, or finding frustrating.
How could you inject some humour into your work?
9) Positive psychologists are…. positive!
Name badge on top of a feature in the programme
I came alone but I did not feel alone. The positive psychology community is new to me, and I was grateful to be met with such a warm welcome. People I’ve never met in person even recognised me and came to say hi (thank you).
So I was not surprised when enthusiastic and engaged delegates came to my workshop. We explored the Job Canvas as an alternative to a traditional job description, and shared stories and ideas about using it to enable job crafting, performance conversations and coaching. I was grateful for the energy and curiosity people brought.
The benefit of being a small business is that we are in control of our strategic decisions, and if something could be improved we should change it. So I use opportunities like this to gather as much feedback as possible.
We’ve already made some small improvements to the Job Canvas that will enhance the experience for future users.
A special thank you to Vincent for supporting me on the day, and capturing me in action!
Charlotte presenting a workshop on the Job Canvas
10) Don’t underestimate the environment
I said there was a running theme about the role of the environment in our individual and collective wellbeing. So it was very fitting to experience the conference in such a stunning location. Even the conference dinner was a bus and gondola ride to a restaurant based over 2km above sea level.
In fact, the first thing most people said to me when I arrived home was “your photos looked incredible". (I even had a friend mute my Instagram stories when the jealousy got too much)!
Conference Dinner at Hoadl-Haus
It really was a mind-blowing postcard view everywhere you turned, and a reminder of the power of nature. Who knows what is in store for our planet. If you get the chance, I’d definitely recommend a visit to Innsbruck.
To rub it in further, some of my favourite snaps are below.
We hope you enjoyed reading this summary. We would love to hear some of your reflections too.
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