Contagious Courage

Published by: Wendy Dickinson
March 5, 2012

Wendy Dickinson: Follower of God, leader of people. Explorer. Traveler. Psychologist. Believer. Thinker. Communicator. Strategic and efficient. Lover of friends, movies, wine, shoes, chocolate, obscure vegetables, and drinks with bubbles. Joyful.

Have you ever notice when you are around someone who is angry, your blood pressure starts to increase? Or when you are in a group of Negative Nancys, your grouch meter starts beeping? Do you have some friends who just make you feel happier when you are around them? If you’ve noticed this phenomenon, you are not the only one. Researchers who have studied this process, call it emotional contagion.

The idea is that we transfer moods or emotions to those around us. When we are around happy people we become happier, when we are around pessimists we start seeing the ways that things can go wrong. The research data backs up what our moms always told us – “you are going to become like you’re friends.” Oh wait, your mom didn’t tell you that? Well if she had, she would have been right.

Another application of this phenomenon that I find fascinating extends to culture within organizations. Do you have someone in your organizations whose negative outlook is rubbing off on those around him/her? You might be trying to build a culture of generosity, hard work, optimism, or courage within your organization but notice that there seems to be a dark cloud hovering over a person or group of people. The reality is that it’s only a matter of time before emotions start “contaminating” the organization. The question becomes how do you make sure that the group is inoculated against the negative ones, and receptive to the positive ones you want to cultivate? The surest way is to root out the emotions that you don’t want to spread. I have a friend who is addicted to using those little bottles of hand sanitizer…it would help if they sold tiny bottles of emotional sanitizer. It might help arrest the growing epidemic of bad attitudes, entitlement, and pessimism that seems to be growing within cultures and organizations.

On a personal level, what is it that people going to “catch” from you? Are they going to be more joyful? Encouraging? Creative? Positive? Courageous? What if we could track the “contamination” of courage as it spread from one person to another? What problems could we change? What people would we see? Would we step out of our comfort zones? Oh that courage would contaminate!

http://twitter.com/shinabarger Jeff Shinabarger

Great post Wendy. In your expertise…how do you best keep a pulse on negative aspects in a organizational culture? What do you do when it is out of order? Any advice?
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Wendy Dickinson

Thanks Jeff! I think we often have a tendency to believe the best too long and ignore problems when they start to appear. I think knowing where we are going (values/direction/vision) is important so that we can quickly identify when we are getting off track. Then we have to be able to communicate where we want to be. We often tell people what not to do – rather than communicating vision in terms of what TO do – for example we tend to think/say “don’t complain,” rather than “praise loudly.” Thats just a start….
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http://twitter.com/shinabarger Jeff Shinabarger

Great thoughts Wendy. Sounds like you should write your next blog on this. I love playing out the idea of creating a culture of what to do, vs what not to do. Wow…I need to work on that.