[Ailist] A worldwide appreciative inquiry into happiness?

Thu Jan 10 14:51:31 MST 2008

Hi, Nick

I love the idea you are describing.  Remember the Howard Zinn  quote that 
passed through here a few months ago?  I think that is  a great place for some to 
begin...

Also, you might want to look at Mark Anielski's The Economics of  Happiness: 
Building genuine wealth which looks at ways to look at the real  determinants 
of well-being.

Helen  Spector
Spector & Associates
Organizational Process Consulting
9601  NW Leahy Road #309
Portland OR 97229
1.503.296.7248  voice
1.510.701.4035 cell
1.503.296.7243 fax 

In a message dated 1/10/2008 1:37:34 P.M. Pacific Standard  Time, 
nick at nickheap.co.uk writes:

Here are some rough notes for an Ai project on happiness. I  would appreciate
any
thoughts or experiences you may have that might  show whether these ideas
are sound and could work, and what might be the  first practical steps.

Vision - Initiate a worldwide appreciative  inquiry into happiness

Why? Systems move in the direction of what they  inquire into. So, an
appreciative inquiry into happiness will help the  world be a happier place.

Why "happiness"?

I think most people  are interested in being happy and enjoy making other
people happy so it has  a very wide appeal. The US declaration of
independence states: - "We hold  these truths to be self evident, that all
men are created equal, that they  are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among  these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness." The Dalai Lama,  Aristotle and William James all agree that the
purpose of our existence is  to seek happiness. There is widespread support
from these different  directions that happiness is interesting to most
people.

Here is the  idea

In spite of many people being stressed and miserable, some people  are happy
and some people make other people happy too. Perhaps they know  the secrets
of happiness.

People love to tell stories about their  experiences. So I think it would be
nice to find two or three friends and  listen to their stories about
their happy times. When you have listened,  you could ask one of them to hear
your stories too. Just doing this will be  lovely.

Ask your friends:-
· Tell me about a time in your life when  you were happy? Why was that? What
was it like?
· Tell me about a time  when you made someone else happy? What was that like?
· If you had three  wishes to make the, or your, world a happier place what
would you use them  for?
· What are two practical things you will do in the next week to make  you and
someone else happy?

Then
· Talk together about what you  learned from this experience and what it was
like to talk about happiness  and hear about it.
· What were the themes or key ideas that underpinned the  happy times or made
people happy? What were your secrets of happiness?
·  How could you use these in your lives?

A story

I tried this with  my wife and another couple. We spent about half an hour
going round the  table answering the questions. It was very easy and
enjoyable. The most  difficult bit was deciding which of many happy
experiences to share. This  makes you realise you have had lots of them,
which is great. It was  interesting to learn what made other people happy.
For instance, Barry  became deaf quite young and spends time, and gets much
pleasure, helping  elderly people use their deaf aids. This was a lovely way
to get happiness  from something problematic. We all agreed that making other
people happy  was a great source of personal happiness. I heard one of my
wife’s happy  times again of being utterly overwhelmed by a sunset, but I
also heard her  describe it to our friends and this gave me a new and vivid
perspective on  her and her experience. I talked about a time I was reading
passages from a  very funny book with a group of friends and my

uncontrollable laughter  caused a shared explosion of helpless laughter from
all of us. We were  laughing with each other like a group of very small
children. It was  lovely.

We all felt the conversation had been a most enjoyable and  different way to
spend time together. We felt both happier and closer  afterwards.

In the context, the first two questions worked  best.

The stories might be shared on a website and people would use it  to
1. Find interesting and stimulating stories
2. Get ideas about how  they could create more happiness
3. Stimulate a happiness epidemic
4.  And, perhaps, discover the secrets of happiness - which might be  very
simple.

The website could –
1. Inspire people to become  happy
2. Attract and contribute to research
3. Help people contact each  other
4. Catalyse projects
5. Attract advertising

Business and  financial reasons for organisations to support this initiative
1. Happy  people will relate better and this will help create  better
businesses.
2. Happy people are healthier, thus there will be  less demand on health and
other support services.
3. Happy people learn  faster and better so educating them is easier and
cheaper.
4. Happy  people tend to be law-abiding.
5. Happy people want to spread happiness so  will work to create peace and
harmony.

What do you think of this?  Could it work to make the world a happier place?

Best  wishes
Nick
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