Small interactions can make a big difference! 

Have you ever considered the importance of your everyday working relationships? Have you really taken the time to consider the impact that daily interactions have on our happiness and lives? Obvious really? Perhaps…

I recently read a book called The Good Life by Robert Waldinger, Marc Schulz. The book follows an 80-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development including the insights of relationships and the effect it has on people throughout their lives. It reveals research behind the world’s longest study on happiness. “Dr Robert Waldinger and Dr Marc Schulz bring together scientific precision, traditional wisdom, incredible real-life stories and actionable insights to prove once and for all that our own wellbeing and ability to flourish is absolutely within our control”.

As a reader you are taken on a journey from childhood to the same person talking in their late life – a study hugely successful and profound and still going today. What I find fascinating is that everyday interactions and working relationships play a huge part in happiness and the way we move through life. As we work in an environment of continuous improvement and are always seeking out the best way to handle patient safety, quality and cultural change it’s important to explore how we can improve ourselves and our working relationships in order to make the best impact. The study illustrates how meaningful change is possible – which goes hand-in hand with quality improvement methodology and tools we use every day.

I now notice how this research applies so much to our learners on our Improve ONE thing: The Full QIP course. They flourish because they access a social learning platform and The ability to interact continuously over 4 months with peers, mentors and faculty. The Good Life refers to studies showing how participating in small conversations, giving advice, acknowledging comments from others and offering help hold huge benefit to our wellbeing. Our mentors and faculty are able to comment on work uploaded, give feedback and praise and pose questions throughout and this highlights how well this fosters a great learning environment. Even small positive interactions daily can contribute to our happiness and the way we get on in the world.  I see this each year. I see a pattern when I think about our learners who ask to come back to be our mentors. They have enjoyed the course and social learning so much they want to keep going – they want to give back and mentor subsequent cohorts. They share experiences, give advice, they mentor a small group of learners over four months and build relationships. This fosters a really positive environment which again helps boost productivity, happiness and thus a safer working environment back at work and at home.

The Good Life mentions a study regarding everyday small transactions.  Even something as simple as going to a Café to have a coffee can impact our lives. A study between two groups ensued. One group was briefed to interact with the Barista, be friendly and make small talk. The other group was briefed to treat it as a transactional process with little communication other than an order. The results revealed that the group with the positive communication were a much happier group and found the interaction much more pleasant than the second group.

It’s definitely food for thought, and something to consider in our improvement world. We know this world can be tough, you need a thick skin to stand up and make change happen. And so we always consider our communication style and how we can help manage our happiness, and those of our learners within the workplace.

We consider how we’re interacting: are we giving praise at the right time? Are we acknowledging and feeding back enough?

It’s clear our relationships at work have a positive impact on our lives,  and we’re in work a really long time! It’s really important to seek out positive relationships and label them in our minds – try to improve on other work relationships that need more effort – so makes an impact on the work that we do and enhance our happiness within the workplace.

Have you made a mental note of the colleagues you work with – when and how they make a positive influence on your day? Do they know that? Have you told them recently?

In fact, have you thought about this at all? Remember small interactions can make a big difference to the lives we lead.

I would highly recommend the book it is definitely worth a read.

If you’d like to find out more about what we do visit our website at www.qiclearn.com