Posted on October 8, 2009 by Stephan Wiedner

Q: What do you call a barber walking along the seaside?
A: A beachcomber!

Har, har, har! What’s the point of the joke?! Hopefully it caught your attention. But more importantly, hopefully it put you into a happier state of mind in order to prime yourself for better learning.

This is just one of the things that I took away from a recent presentation given by Noomii’s CEO Kurt Shuster called “Positive Psychology for Coaches: How to Use the Science of Well-Being to Help Your Clients Flourish” to a group of Kelowna coaches. Research in positive psychology demonstrates that certain emotionally uplifting activities can prime us for better learning and problem solving.

As a coach and someone who attended Kurt’s talk, I find this quite fascinating. As Kurt’s business partner, it’s fun and challenging to incorporate the research into Noomii. The research is why Noomii recommends that all coaching sessions “start with a bang”. As a coach, before you get into the details of your client’s or coaching partner’s weekly progress, consider doing any of the following:

• a gratitude exercise
• ask what the three best things to have happened in the last 24 hours are
• watch a funny or inspiring video clip
• do jumping jacks.

Notice the variety of activities. When we first tested the Noomii system, we only had one activity and testers got bored after doing the activity one or two times. As a result, we offered a greater variety of exercises. This is a good product development approach but not a very scientific one.

What was missing from our approach, as pointed out by Kurt in his talk, was an understanding of the mechanism that supports our observations. Researchers in the field of positive psychology are adamant about discovering what the mechanisms of human happiness and well-being are. Kurt gave the analogy of bridges. Arched bridges made from stone have been around for hundreds of years but it was not until Isaac Newton could explain the forces with mathematical formulas that architects and engineers could design the incredible buildings that we have today. Early bridge builders noticed the inherent strength in arches (the observation) and Newton explained them (the mechanism).

The mechanism that underlies our observations that resulted in a variety of ‘begin with a bang’ activities is what researchers call human adaptability, which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because we rebound quite nicely from bad events or circumstances. It’s a curse because we quickly get used to the benefits of positive events or circumstances, such as doing the same activity over and over again from one week to the next. Like architects and engineers, now that we understand the mechanism, we can apply it in a variety of creative ways, in a variety of settings.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Kurt also touched on the power of relationships, theories on strengths, goal setting, and more. I recommend this talk to anybody with a love of learning, especially on topics related to psychology. If you belong to a group of coaches (get CCEU credits!), HR managers, psychology students, or any other group of people interested in human well-being, feel free to contact us about booking Kurt for your event. Email info@noomii.com or call toll free 1-800-278-1057.

In the meantime, you can attend at one of the following locations:

Where: Calgary
When: October 15th, 2009 at 7am
Host: Calgary Association of Professional Coaches
More information: http://www.calgarycoaches.com/Default.aspx?pageId=353727

Where: Montreal
When: January 9th, 2009 at 7am
Host: Quebec International Coach Federation
More information: TBA