Book Review: The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

Review: Those familiar with the Gallup Survey know that having a best friend at work is predictive of employee “engagement” e.g. someone who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about their work which in turn furthers their company’s goals. In "The Happiness Advantage" the author provides powerful evidence that shows that social support and nurturing relationships are major happiness factors while also sharing research supporting the positive impact of employee happiness on organizational results. In fact, he quotes research that says it takes a ratio of 2.9013-to-1 positive to negative interactions to make a team successful. To have optimal teamwork the ratio is 6-to-1. One of the examples he gives is of a mining company that increased their positive/negative interaction ratio and achieves a 40% gain in performance. This is the kind of research we need to promote to get companies to understand that suffering in the workplace is bad for business!

If you’re looking to increase your personal happiness this book is very useful. The Happiness Advantage - retrain our brains to capitalize on positivity and improve productivity and performance. It’s an entertaining summary of happiness research and suggestions on how to apply it. The seven principles covered are well proven methods for dealing with setbacks and increasing your optimism and happiness.