Trained to Feel Joy

I received an email a few months ago. It went like this:

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CC: My manager

Re:Orange Frog

James, why have you not signed up for this mandatory training yet? Training is on Sept 28 and 29. Please respond.

***

I responded right away that I had not received the meeting invite. It was extended and I accepted. It was mandatory after all. I had no idea what it was about though,

Later, I was presented with a soft cover book with illustrations reminiscent of a child’s story book – and prose to match. I felt resentful that I being provided with literature that seemed more appropriate for small children. Prior to the email addressed directly to me, I had not noticed any invitations. I had not seen any communication about the event. This was all a surprise, but I chose not to challenge it. 

I had worked for the company for nearly nine years, but this was my first year in the IT department. My previous 8 years were in the operations department, where I worked directly with customers and sales people. I was used to directors with strong personalities and managers with unapologetic hungry agendas. I was also used to a culture where people generally cared for each other, and took pains not to make poor impressions on one another.  The IT department was a bit of a shock since generating good first impressions was not a priority - or at least it depended on one's rank and seniority within the department. Perhaps, for me it reflected my social standing - which I must acknowledge could not  be very good, given that I was slow to recognize the culture differences and suffered for it.

I call that a learning experience.

Also, I considered my impressions for the training to be merely an offshoot of that. 

I am asked to deliver an Orange Frog book to another developer – which I do. He glanced at it and threw it disdainfully aside. I laughed like it was a joke, but I was the only one laughing. I wondered if he felt the same resentment I did. I wondered if he directed it toward me since I delivered the book.

Then I read the book and I watched Shawn Achor’s TED talk. I have got some idea of what the intent of this training is to be. I have heard of positive psychology before, but I found it distasteful. It felt like a lie.

Nevertheless, I am determined to keep my mind open. I don't want to shut out a good message based on my impressions of how the event was organized. And, as I said, I read the book, which wasn't too bad. 

Clearly, if anything of the above interaction reveals anything - we need some training in positive psychology. It feels that our management too often views us as teams of intractable kindergartners, while we ourselves resemble that in as much as we act like curmudgeons. 

So, prior to going to the event - here is my impression of the book:

It is a parable wherein the narrator imagines himself to be a naturalist in a strange place called “The Island”. The Island consists of four different ponds. Its main features are a large population of anthropomorphic frogs (at the beginning of the story they are green), a migratory population of heron - who are predators of the frogs, and an annual weather pattern of heavy rains – called “the deluge.”

The parable focuses on the doings of the frogs that inhabit three of the four ponds. The frogs self segregate into distinct social groups which are

1.         The workers, who industriously, sometimes blindly build.
2.     The slackers, who never work but are always lounging around.
3.     The despairing, who don’t work or play but instead despair for their situation.

In particular, the parable focuses on one frog, named Spark, who has started to turn orange. As a result of turning orange he becomes a pariah amongst the other frogs. They believe the “orangeness” is a survival disadvantage.

Furthermore, the naturalist narrator lets us know that he believes the other frogs used to be multi-colored but were infected with a disease called “the thrall” that turned them all green. The thrall also had the effect of causing the various behavioral effects listed above.

As Spark comes of age he, and others in his class, are pushed into the uninhabited fourth pond. This pond is uninhabited because it is a breeding ground for herons (who are mostly absent, being migratory).

Spark finds that as he participates in despair or fatalism then he becomes less orange. However, if he appreciates beauty, or feels gratitude then he becomes more orange.

So, being orange colored is a metaphor for being joyful, or positive – happy. Being green suggests a lack of joy or any positive emotion. Spark discovers how to teach other frogs to be joyful. As other frogs experience joy they also become orange. They then find ways to overcome various obstacles (herons, the deluge) as a result of either being orange or their new found attitude.

Are you with me so far?

Like most parables, there is a lot of symbolism and metaphor sprinkled throughout. Some are obvious, like the frog’s name “Spark”, or the herons, or the deluge, others are not so obvious – like the significance of the uninhabited pond.

So, some of the ideas within the book and my interpretation –

1. The Thrall. Negative (read not Orange) frogs are discussed to be under the influence of a disease called “the Thrall.” A thrall is a noun and describes a creature that has been enslaved http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thrall The suggestion is that frogs who are not joyful are slaves to their attitudes. In fact, the three camps – workers, slackers, and the despairing are shown in the story to be completely consumed by their defining attitude. It is their only defining characteristic.
2.  The main character, Spark, is born feeling gratitude. His name is suggests that he is the start of something (a fire?). His friends are similarly named.
3. The herons and the deluge represent bad times. They are the events that typically make people miserable. In this story these events are somewhat predictable.

I’m sure you get the idea. It’s a simple story and the message is clear. A positive attitude results in a better ability to face up to challenges, and even disaster. A positive attitude is infectious.

But there is more here, a positive attitude is smothered in an environment where most are negative. A positive attitude requires time to reflect in order to gain footing and eventually succeed. Consider the fact that had Spark been placed in any one of the ponds that were already inhabited, then his attitude would have been squashed. The story bears this out given how the frogs respond to his attitude, his “orangeness”. They are not welcoming. This is true in real life for people with a positive attitude. They are not welcomed in areas that have solidified their negative attitudes. A positive attitude needs space.

Furthermore, a positive attitude does not mean constantly happy. This probably runs contrary to Shawn’s views. It means that you can acknowledge that something awful has occurred and move past the grief and on to something constructive. Whether it is to prepare for a future disaster, or to recognize that what had been done before doesn’t work. Joy is an ever fluctuating state which is deepened by adversity.

It’s surprising to me how clear this message is, as it seems that it might run counter to the interests of my company.

The message is, if you are unhappy where you are – you must leave or change. You cannot be made happy by remaining static. Any joy you achieve will be destroyed by the people around you who do not share in it. The fact is, they will find it threatening.

I sincerely hope that I am able to take to heart this message. The more I reflect on it, the more I wonder if I've given myself enough space to find joy. 

What I fear is that this message will be subverted. I fear that my management will adopt the language of the training, but none of the underlying wisdom. We will be inundated with Orange Lists and platitudes. We will be able to pay $400.00 for special Orange training and become Orange Masters. I fear that this will all be made into a mere commodity, bench marked, tied to performance evaluations and eventually completely made meaningless, much like the Gallup Engagement surveys that precede it.

I will report how I feel directly after the training, and again several weeks later after some reflection.