How do you measure thriving?
How do you spot a thriving organisation?
This is a question I posed on LinkedIn recently.
And the answer that came up from those who responded surprised me.
It probably shouldn’t have done but it did.
How do you know?
The sound of laughter.
Wow.
The sound of laughter. The expression of happiness, fun, joy, connection. When it is heartfelt and joyful laughter requires ease, acceptance, belonging.
And so, my question is, how much laughter have you heard this week? Yours? Others?
What type of laughter was it? Was it the heartfelt, joy-rising, connected, accepted type? Because that’s the only type that really counts right?
Our work is often deeply serious. It can be heart-breaking. It can be draining.
And so, it is even more important to create environments where we can connect, and laugh and find joy. Because if this isn’t what we want for the world, what is? And if this is what we want for the world, then why would we not want it for ourselves?
When I look back to the ‘old’ me, when I was on the verge of burnout and giving myself constantly to everyone except myself, I can see that laughter was pretty absent. There may have been some hollow, make someone else feel comfortable laughter. But not so much of the heartfelt joyful type. It was a sign I was slow to clock.
How would laughter as a measure of your state of thriving be rated right now?
What do you want to do about that?
You can arrange a free Time to Thrive exploration call here.
|| Caroline Doran || Coach | Facilitator | Trainer || Book a call here ||