In today’s new lesson from the New Psychology Insights mini-course, “Unhappiness Is a Right”, I told everyone the story of America’s “happy boss”, Tony Hsieh, and his company Zappos. Actually, Zappos’s approach is pretty common in American business today. At many American companies these days, happiness isn’t just a bit of fun; it’s taken extremely seriously.
Silicon Valley now hosts an annual Wisdom 2.0 conference. Don’t let the name fool you: this isn’t some tech conference about artificial intelligence. It’s a “happiness” conference. Thousands of executives from major companies gather at Wisdom 2.0, sharing not their technology but their experiences in improving employees’ moods and supporting their spiritual growth.
Ruth Whippman once attended a Wisdom 2.0 conference. In America the Anxious, she recorded some of what she saw there. It’s pretty entertaining, so let me retell a few snippets and give you a feel for it.
First, take a look at the titles of the keynote talks Whippman heard at the conference:
“Why Mindfulness Matters in Business”;
“Activating Starbucks Values: Inspiring and Nurturing the Human Spirit through “Living in the Present””;
“Unusual Business: How a Leader’s Journey of Recovery Transformed a Company”.
—If you left out the few business terms, you’d believe this was a religious seminar, wouldn’t you?
Whippman also joined a roundtable at the conference. Its topic was called “The Most Important Principle in Business—I Love You”.
As soon as Whippman sat down at the discussion, the moderator said to her, “Ruth, I love you.”
Whippman was startled, and the moderator went on to explain: “Imagine a world where every conversation begins with ‘I love you.’ Every time the president addresses the American people, he starts by saying, ‘I love you.’ Every debate in Congress begins with ‘I love you.’ Every business interaction starts with ‘I love you’ too.” “I now hold workshops for businesses to promote this idea.”
Whippman, of course, looked completely bewildered again (a look that runs through America the Anxious from beginning to end ^_^). She casually asked, “Don’t you think that after saying it for a while, it would lose its meaning?”
Before the moderator could answer, someone sitting beside him exploded. She jumped in and said, “I completely disagree. Let’s not waste this precious time making him—the moderator—defend an idea that obviously needs no defense.”
The moderator immediately looked as if he’d found a kindred spirit and began chatting with her enthusiastically, leaving Whippman sitting on the sidelines.
Whippman thought: Um… I guess they don’t love me anymore.
References:
Whippman, R. (2016). America the anxious: how our pursuit of happiness is creating a nation of nervous wrecks. Macmillan.
Notes
- This article from the “New Psychology Insights mini-course” series was written at the time as a popular-psychology piece/short ramble to accompany content related to Wei Zhichao: New Psychology Insights Course. It was published on the now-closed platform Fàntuán, and the original link no longer exists.
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