by Larry Senn
—GAUTAMA BUDDHA
As we saw in chapter 2, thought plays a major role in controlling our travels up and down the Mood Elevator. Our thoughts influence all the feelings we experience, from joy to depression. Understanding that our thinking creates our emotional reality is the first step in taking control.
Knowing that our thoughts control our moods gives us a little distance from those moods. It helps us be less gripped by worry, fear, and anxiety and less driven by our emotions to pronounce judgments on other people and on the circumstances of our lives.
This understanding is the first basic principle of riding the Mood Elevator. And it is so powerful that it can have—and has had for thousands of people—a series of enormous payoffs, both in your personal life and in your ability to contribute to any organization to which you belong.
The Personal Payoffs
The payoffs you gain from understanding the power of thought begin with a better moment-to-moment experience of life. When you are no longer buffeted by the winds of moods you don’t understand and can’t control, you’ll find that you can enjoy life much more, with a greater sense of peace and freedom. But the benefits go far beyond that. Learning to control your travels on the Mood Elevator can also help you have a more successful career, a more fulfilling job, a more loving marriage, and healthier relationships. In short, it can help you achieve more success with less stress in your life. This is because when we are up the Mood Elevator, we experience higher-quality thinking. Our thinking is clearer, better focused, more organized, and more flowing.
Think about the last time you felt really rushed, frustrated, bothered, or extremely impatient, with nothing going quite right. It might have been a time when you were late for an important meeting, struggling to finish a complicated project, or dealing with an emergency that was just beyond your competence level.
Recall what your thinking is like in these situations. If it’s like mine, it is probably very scattered and unfocused. The morning when I am under the most intense pressure to get to a meeting on time is precisely when I am most likely to misplace something important—like my keys or phone. It’s also the time when I’m most likely to fumble seemingly simple tasks. My thoughts race, and answering even basic questions or solving easy problems seems difficult. The same result can occur whenever I get overly excited, emotional, or intense.
The fact is that just as our thoughts drive the Mood Elevator, our travels on the Mood Elevator in turn have a profound effect on the quality of our thinking.
When we are down the Mood Elevator, we suffer from lower-quality thinking. Our thoughts are often circular, going around and around in the same cycle of emotions and feelings driven by anxiety, uncertainty, and confusion. Our thinking is busy and more cluttered. We don’t make sense of our environment as well as we usually do. We aren’t as tuned in to other people, what is on their minds, or the impact we are having on them.
By contrast, have you ever found yourself wrestling fruitlessly with a complicated problem only to discover that when you let it go, a creative solution occurs to you? Our thinking improves when we travel up the Mood Elevator. This often happens to us when we relax, quiet our mind, change our pattern of thinking, and escape the grip of anxiety—perhaps by exercising, taking a walk, or listening to music. Even a routine chore like vacuuming the house or mowing the lawn can be helpful. In fact, one study found that people reported having the most new, creative ideas while taking a shower! The sound, rhythm, and warmth of the water blocks out the world and the internal noises generated by our thoughts, permitting our quieter minds to return to higher-quality thinking. When we are up the Mood Elevator and have higher-quality thinking, we have full access to the capabilities of our minds.
At times like these, you may feel as though you are “in the zone.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago, described this phenomenon in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Csikszentmihalyi found that there are “flow times” that all people have when they are absorbed and in tune with what they are doing. During these flow times, people have exceptionally clear, creative, and resourceful thinking; somehow they are able to discover appropriate ways to tackle any problem they are grappling with. These positive responses seem to come to them naturally and effortlessly.
Crucially, in reflecting on my own life and in thinking about the stories others have shared with me, I’ve discovered that flow times are strongly related to the moods people experience at the upper levels on the Mood Elevator. This means flow times need not be rare moments in our lives. Although no one is always in the zone, a form of flow state can become a habitual way of life—once we learn to travel up the Mood Elevator, not just occasionally and accidentally, but frequently and deliberately.
Reconnecting with your best self. One of my deeply held beliefs and a basic premise of this book is that we all come into this world with the potential for mental and emotional health. Our natural state is to be loving, creative, trusting, forgiving, curious, happy, and desirous of warm, close relationships with others.
We often see this state in very young children. To most youngsters life is a wonder. They are spontaneous and they live in the moment. They get over everyday hurts easily, and they don’t hold grudges. They are naturally up the Mood Elevator much of the time. Of course, they sometimes go down the elevator, too. We’ve all seen children exhibit anger, impatience, and irritation, but kids generally don’t stay at the lower levels for long periods as adults may do. In large part this is because children tend to hold their thinking more lightly; they haven’t yet decided how things “are supposed to be,” so they are open to taking life as it comes, not as their minds interpret it.
Unfortunately, as we grow up most of us develop thought habits or beliefs that can mask or obscure our innate health. At some point we are hurt by someone, and we may become more guarded or defensive. We are criticized for a mistake, and we may learn to make excuses and blame others, seeking to become less accountable so we don’t look bad. We play competitive sports, and we may adopt a self-centered win/lose versus win/win mind-set. We are negatively judged for being ourselves, and we may develop an alter ego that is inauthentic. These thought habits can drive us down the Mood Elevator, causing us to lose touch with the healthy child inside us.
Happily, my work as a consultant has shown me that practically everyone retains that childlike health somewhere inside them. They simply need to be reminded of it, encouraged to reconnect with it, and taught simple techniques that will help make that possible. You’ll learn many such techniques in this book. As a result, you’ll be empowered to rediscover the healthy attitudes of openness, creativity, and joy that most children exhibit—and that also characterize adults at their best.
One time when I was fishing with my son Logan, we were using a bobber—a plastic ball that floats on the water’s surface, with the line and bait dangling beneath it. It’s called a bobber because you can see it move up and down when a fish starts to nibble on the bait. The fish periodically pulls the bobber underwater, but the bobber’s natural state is to pop back up to the surface. In the same way, our natural state is to be up the Mood Elevator. Thoughts of worry, judgment, and insecurity are like the fish—they nibble at us and pull us under temporarily. But when we quiet our minds and let go of those thoughts, our natural health bobs back up.
Maintaining your mental traction. People who lose their cool at times of difficulty, stress, or conflict are at a distinct disadvantage, especially when it comes to dealing with the inappropriate behavior of other people. I’ve found that if I can keep my composure when someone I am dealing with exhibits impatience, anger, or hostility, I’ll almost certainly come out ahead. But when I respond by losing my mental traction, the situation tends to spiral out of control.
Many years ago I saw an illusionist’s act at the Universal Studios theme park. The illusionist invited three of the strongest-looking guys in the audience to come onstage, take off the
ir shoes, and stand in a spot he designated.
Next the illusionist asked a petite woman to join them onstage, remove her shoes, and stand on another designated spot about 10 feet from the men. He then gave the men one end of a rope and the woman the other end and asked them to have a tug-of-war. To everyone’s amazement, the woman easily pulled the three large men across the floor.
It turned out that the guys had been placed on a spot where the floor was coated with a very slippery space-age material, so they couldn’t get any traction in their stocking feet. By contrast, the woman was standing on a rubber pad with lots of traction. With this advantage it didn’t take much strength for the woman to move the men.
When we drop several floors down the Mood Elevator—especially without realizing it and adjusting for it—we lose our mental traction. We can’t think clearly, communicate well, or react quickly. Under those circumstances, seemingly modest difficulties can easily topple us.
There are simple steps you can take to maintain your own mental traction. Remember the tug-of-war image the next time you are dealing with a difficult person—someone who’s thinking has trapped them in a negative, arrogant, aggressive, or defensive mood. Then take a deep breath and consciously embrace thoughts that will enable you to regain the sense of perspective, understanding, and insight you get from traveling up the Mood Elevator. You’ll keep your emotional footing and enjoy a far better outcome.
Having access to original ideas. Another reason why we do better when we’re on the upper floors is because we have more ready access to the sources of original ideas.
The fact is that most of what goes on in our thinking is not new or creative. We are usually just reprocessing what’s already in our memory banks or sorting new input into categories based on what we already know and have experienced. Think about a typical conversation around the water cooler or at a cocktail party. When you mention children, the people you are talking to will tell you about their kids; when you mention vacation, they will recount their last holiday. Similarly, in most business discussions the ideas proposed are familiar ones that break no new ground. In all of these cases, the underlying dynamic is the same: nothing new has entered the system, so nothing particularly creative or original comes out.
There’s nothing wrong with reusing what we already know or with sorting new information into preexisting categories. Both are practical uses of our mental capacity. But original ideas come from the highest levels of our minds, where insight and wisdom reside. Some people would say they even come from beyond our individual experience—from some form of collective intelligence that we can tap into only under specific circumstances. That’s certainly how it feels when new, seemingly inexplicable insights pop into our brains.
Original ideas are the source of breakthroughs and inventions—new solutions to old problems and new ways of seeing and doing things. While driving in his 1988 Chevy Blazer on July 4, 1994, a young engineer named Jeff Bezos had just such a novel idea. It occurred to him that the then-fledgling Internet could serve as a distribution system for products to the masses. He pulled over, took out a notepad, and sketched out a business plan for a website to sell books. He named the new business Amazon, after the river with thousands of branches and tributaries, and it led to a retailing revolution.
When we’re on the lower floors of the Mood Elevator, original ideas generally elude us. Driven by the negative moods that dominate our minds and emotions, we lose our sense of perspective. The options we perceive as available to us narrow, and our thinking becomes increasingly restricted and memory-based, making us more inclined to cling to the old than to visualize the possibilities of the new. We become less flexible, less resilient, and less open-minded.
By contrast, when we are higher on the Mood Elevator, original ideas are more likely. Few of us have devised new business concepts that revolutionized an industry, but most of us have enjoyed access to original ideas during our moments on the top floors.
Remember that time you were struggling with a project or problem and seeing very few options because your energy was low and you were tired and dispirited? Then you changed your mood—perhaps through something as simple as a good night’s sleep, a weekend off, or a change of scenery—and all of a sudden a range of possibilities opened before you. The solution to the problem popped into your brain almost effortlessly. You may have found yourself marveling, How obvious! I wonder why that didn’t occur to me before? The effects of the Mood Elevator provide an explanation.
Learning to spend more time on the upper floors can give you enhanced access to the creative, innovative capabilities of your mind. The more you cultivate this phenomenon in your life and work, the more success and less stress you’ll tend to experience.
The Organizational Payoffs
Learning to ride the Mood Elevator offers huge benefits for the individual, but it also offers major payoffs for organizations whose employees practice this skill. It’s no accident that many of Senn Delaney’s clients who teach their employees about the Mood Elevator have appeared on Fortune’s list of most admired companies, won J.D. Power awards for best customer service, and earned high rankings on the employee engagement scores measured by the Gallup polling organization.
One of the core beliefs that guides our culture-shaping work at Senn Delaney is that, in a fundamental sense, we don’t have to teach our clients anything; we just give them practical ways to reconnect with the best of who they already are. That happens naturally for people and organizations when they are up the Mood Elevator. When leaders and teams operate at their best, their innately healthy behaviors are enhanced, and organizations flourish.
I’ve already noted that most people, as they grow up, gradually lose the natural mental and emotional health that characterizes many young children. Instead they learn thought habits that make them vulnerable to negative attitudes and behaviors like fear, defensiveness, and inauthenticity. Many of these learned habits show up as dys-functions in the organizations they join. Win/lose political conflicts and lack of trust cause needless rifts and misunderstandings. Departments and individuals blame one another and engage in battles over power, prestige, and resources. As a result, organizations waste time, energy, and money struggling to overcome personal and cultural dysfunctions rather than focusing on productivity, creativity, and growth.
When we perform the Senn Delaney cultural diagnostics with a new client company, the resulting Corporate Culture Profile often yields scores that indicate problem areas. One of the scores most often found in the red zone, indicating serious dysfunction, is employees’ not feeling valued and appreciated. That is not surprising. These days most organizations operate at a faster pace than ever before—often dismissing the human dimension. But that’s a recipe for trouble because it leads to a lack of employee engagement and a poor customer experience.
Fortunately, we are able to use the concepts in this book to consistently move our clients out of the red zone and toward a healthy, high-performing culture with more positive energy and spirit. It is empowering for our clients to learn that they can return to the productive forms of thinking, feeling, and behaving that elude them when they are down the Mood Elevator—and that they can be highly productive and have employees and customers who feel valued and appreciated. Our clients learn that healthy organizational behaviors are only a thought away—and they learn how to access them.
Values that move an organization up the Mood Elevator. Senn Delaney’s work in an organization generally includes a customized off-site session with the CEO and his or her senior team. Toward the end of the session, after discussing and experiencing the modes of behavior they consider most enjoyable, productive, and rewarding, the team members usually find themselves at the top levels of the Mood Elevator, feeling and operating at their best. At that moment we ask them to define how they want to relate to one another once they are back in the office—and how they want to apply the same style of interaction throughout the organization. In response, the leadership
team compiles a list of values that define a healthy, high-performing culture.
The Essential Organizational Values
Attitudes and Behaviors Found up the Mood Elevator
The foundation: a positive, optimistic spirit based on respect, trust, recognition, and caring (as opposed to pessimism, cynicism, and mistrust)
Personal accountability and an intense desire for excellence (as opposed to blaming and excuses)
Mutually supportive relationships and teamwork dedicated to the benefit of the entire organization (as opposed to selfishness, turf battles, and win/lose political conflict)
Curiosity and an open, learning mind-set supported by encouragement for risk taking and innovation (as opposed to judgment and resistance to new ideas)
Integrity, authenticity, and transparency (as opposed to pretense and secrecy)
A purposeful connection to and focus on the organization’s highest cause or reason for existence (as opposed to cynicism and self-interest)
Over time, having undergone this process with hundreds of organizations, we noticed obvious similarities among the lists of values they developed. We concluded that any group in a healthy place—higher on the Mood Elevator—tends to gravitate toward the same fundamental attitudes and behaviors. We compiled these into a list of what we call the Essential Organizational Values. It comprises all the behaviors that come naturally to people on the higher floors of the Mood Elevator but elude them when they are on the lower floors. We’ve found that the most successful teams and organizations live these essential values better than others. As a result, the individuals who belong to these groups usually find that they can spend more time on the penthouse floor, and they are happier, more creative, and more productive as a result.
Some companies embody the Essential Organizational Values better than others, but practically every leadership team that takes time for self-reflection recognizes their importance and aspires to live by them. The same values have risen to the surface consistently in our work in more than 50 countries with groups ranging from 100-plus CEO teams of Fortune 500 companies to teams of state governors and university presidents. We believe that the Essential Organizational Values represent universal principles of life effectiveness for individuals as well as organizations.