A research study (Emmons, 2003) required a group of
students to keep daily gratitude journals and another group to journal their
frustrations. “The students who kept gratitude journals, compared to frustrated
or neutral students, experienced fewer physical symptoms such as headaches and
colds; felt better about their lives as a whole; were more optimistic about the
coming week; had higher states of alertness, attentiveness, determination, and
energy; reported fewer hassles in their lives; engaged in more helping behavior
toward other people; experienced better sleep quality; and had a sense of being
more connected to others” (Cameron, 2008).
Could the positive effects of journaling gratitude also
come from simply practicing gratitude more frequently? Each year our visiting
professors from Kien Giang Community College in Vietnam observe and comment on
how often we say “thank you” – “Americans say thank you three times for
everything.” Expressing appreciation for gifts and other tangibles is, indeed,
deeply layered into our society. Regularly showing gratitude for a job
well done, however? Not so much.
One of my favorite “Thank You” cards has a cover that says,
“Thanks for being...” The notion
of expressing appreciation for simply being who they are, is to me, a powerful
message. We’ve all done some very good work developing a comprehensive
recognition program at MVCC. However, the most meaningful
recognition often comes from the simple, positive, supportive individual
interactions between caring colleagues every day. Equally as powerful might
also be what is not said – people being more intentional with their choices to
find their words, and deliver their messages, in the kinder, gentler ways more
likely to sustain or build effective working relationships.
I think human instinct most often favors paying close
attention to negative signals – probably going back to our early days of
hunting and gathering when ignoring negative signals was often fatal. We need
far more positive interactions to outweigh the significance of and orientation
toward negative ones. It’s often too easy to spend time at the end of a workday
reflecting on one negative interaction, despite having had plenty of positive
interactions. With a greater emphasis on gratitude, perhaps we can help create
a more supportive, more reaffirming environment of gratitude and inspire a
reciprocity that might provide results similar to those achieved by the
students who journaled their gratitude in those studies a decade
ago.
Emmons, R.A. (2003). Acts of gratitude
in organizations. In K. S. Cameron, J.E. Dutton, & R.E. Quinn (Eds.),
Positive organizational scholarship (pp. 81-93). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler
Publishers.
Cameron, K.S. (2008). Positive
leadership: strategies for extraordinary performance. San Francisco:
Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
