In our day-to-day lives, we encounter thousands of messages and interactions that are all competing for our attention, but how many of them bring us joy?
Cultivating joy is about sparking a moment of happiness. The key idea behind this is the concept of "surprise and delight" which was developed by Guy Kawasaki. When you work to surprise and delight, you prioritize user experience with the goal of bringing a smile.
It is valuable to cultivate joy with everyone who encounters your organization including supporters but also staff colleagues. "Joy shared is joy sustained" says Adam Grant. Therefore, humans are most happy when happiness is shared with others. This focus on happiness led to measurable impacts at Pathways to Education including
When your staff knows how to identify, cultivate and express joy, it is easier to express it from people outside the organization. A foundation of innovation can cultivate joy across your whole organization. Part of what brings joy to staff is continuous improvement. It is valuable to ask yourself "What would make your life 1% better?" Because 1% is a small change, it is a quick way to assess opportunities. Don't think that a small change can have a big impact, check out these two calculations
Doing nothing is the equivalent of multiplying (1.00)365 = 1.00. When you do nothing, you have the same result a year later. Doing 1% leads to a very different outcome. When you multiply (1.01)365 = 37.7. Over the course of one year, doing 1% more yields nearly a 40% change. That is big impact based on small effort.
To get to this culture of continuous change, the organization needs to incent this through dedicated KPOs. Bear in mind that you will have to drop things off the plate to allow time for new ones. The goal is to be better, not to ramp up the pace of your work. As part of this process, be prepared to test new things and also to drop them if they don't work or are too time intensive.
Innovating, joy, surprise and delight - none of these things are an individual effort. A key part of this is that it is a collective effort. In your work, strive to "cultivate joy together." Joy is important because, as Guy Kawasaki says "Enchantment is a process by which you improve your likeability, trustworthiness, the quality of your idea, product, cause, whatever. ...It is longer and deeper and more delightful."
Naresh de Silva is the Senior Marketing Manager for Pathways to Education Canada. Through a mixture of marketing strategy, knowledge of UX best practices, and a passion for resonant leadership, Naresh helps socially focused brands cultivate a genuine sense of community among their target audiences.
Jason Shim, CFRE is the Director, Digital Strategy and Transformation for Pathways to Education Canada. How can we harness technology to make a difference in the world? That’s the question Jason loves to explore with organizations. Jason also serves on the board of NTEN, an organization dedicated to helping nonprofits fulfill their missions through the skillful and racially equitable use of technology.
Session summary by Ann Rosenfield.
Cover photo by IIONA VIRGIN on Unsplash
