I’m sure you’ve all heard the expression “death by a thousand cuts”, well it seems that the opposite is true and that lots of small happy moments are better for our general well-being than rare, profound events.  That at least is the finding of a group of MIT scientists led by Daniel Mochon.

Mochon’s team have tested the idea that whereas rare, massive events have no lasting effect on happiness, the cumulative effect of lots of little boosts may well have the power to influence happiness over the longer-term.

They surveyed people as they left the gym and found that the more times people had attended the gym in the last month the happier they reported being.

Professor Mochon had this to say:

“Our findings imply that, in contrast to the notion of an inescapable hedonic treadmill, it is not pointless for people to seek to improve their well-being,” the researchers said. “However, improvement may not come from major events such as winning the lottery, despite the seemingly life-changing nature of such examples. Rather it seems like the key for long lasting changes to well-being is to engage in activities that provide small and frequent boosts, which in the long run will lead to improved well-being, one small step at a time.”

So if you’re looking to make people happy it seems that the best bet is to make many small steps rather than grand gestures.

I was reading an interesting message by Seth Godin today that asked why companies will often spend an awful lot of time and money to market their products, yet when it comes to trying to attract the best people for new positions they do the bare minimum.

I’ve had some experience of the recruitment process recently and many things do stand out as obstacles to the process of hiring outstanding people, a few of which I’ll discuss below.

1. Hiding the company. I regularly see adverts that contain openings such as “our client, a leading name in xyz industry is looking for….”.  Presumably this is done to protect the recruitment agent from people applying direct to the company, which may sound reasonable enough from their point of view.  From the point of view of the hiring company however I fail to see how this helps at all.  Surely it is in their interests to attract candidates that not only want to work for your company but can also then provide an individual response to how they could benefit your company.
2. Failing to sell the story. Storytelling is without doubt one of the best ways to sell a concept to the reader.  Each of us grows up with stories yet they so often stop when we reach adulthood.  All of which is unfortunate because they still hold an awful lot of power.  In a job advert for instance, why not paint the scene of a day in the life of your new role?  Explain about the jobs you would be doing, the people you’d be working with, the company culture.  What seperates your company out from all the others in your industry?  Changing jobs is one of the more stressful things a person can do so sell it to them, make it sound as exciting as possible to be joining your company.
3. Not taking the time to do the recruitment yourself. I’m sure the use of recruitment agents has many benefits but I can’t help but think that in a modern service economy, where the workforce is the principal asset that recruitment is one of the main roles.  Yet increasingly it seems that agencies are used to fine tune candidates on their clients behalf.  It’s akin to a football manager hiring someone outside the club to suggest players for them.  I remember Jack Welch used to say that human resources is the most important department in the company, and if recruitment is outsourced to such an extent it begs the question how hands on that company will be once you start working there.  Retention is after all just as important as recruitment.

Anyway, a few things that have perked my interest in the past few weeks.  Your comments and thoughts are always welcome.

Yes, according to Vickie Gallagher and Mary Laird, two American psychologists.  They suggest that in highly political work environments, those people with low political skills suffer reduced job satisfaction.

Political skill was measured by participants’ agreement with statements like “I spend a lot of time and effort at work networking with others”.

A sense that the organisation’s decisions are influenced by internal politics was measured by participants’ agreement with statements like “I have seen organisational decisions based on things other than business necessity, like the wants of a certain few.” Finally, job satisfaction was measured as you’d expect by agreement with statements like “I feel fairly well satisfied with my present job.”

They suggest that existing employees should be trained to be more politically skilled, and indeed new recruits should have their political skills considered as part of the recruitment process.

You can see the full study here.

What do you think?  Are political skills vital to enjoy work?  Are they something that can be taught?

The Hell of the Ashdown sounds like something Paddy might suffer from but it is in fact one of the first Sportives of the year in and around Ashdown forest in Kent.  The ride covers 110km and takes in some of the finer hills found in the Kent countryside.  Apparently some of these climbs have featured in the National Road Race Championship and have ominous sounding names such as ‘The Wall’ and ‘Biggin Hill‘ (that is right, although I’m sure once I’m slogging up it ‘Bloody Biggun’ Hill’ would be more appropriate!).

All of which sounds a far cry from the Ashdown forest of Pooh bear fame.  Nevertheless it should be a good incentive to keep riding over the winter and arrive in as good a shape as possible.  Whether I’ll have the discipline to refrain from gorging on Christmas cake however remains to be seen.  Few bites here and there won’t do any harm I’m sure