An article at psychologytoday.com describes the case of a group that met with two Stanford researchers. The get-together focused on how to cope with the challenges members of the group were facing. Over the next three years, the researchers monitored the group and then compared their progress to that of a group of peers who had had no such meetings to discuss problems and challenges. The group who had experienced that one hour of lightly structured discussion fared well in the subsequent comparison:
- They were seeing a doctor 50% less than the control group
- Their self-esteem was nearly twice as high
- They were outperforming their peers
Nine years later these same people were significantly happier and more satisfied in both their career and personal lives.
And all this was because of a session which lasted only one hour. There were no monthly check-ins, no e-mail reminders, no follow-up coaching. So what exactly happened in that one hour?
Three years later, participants in the study were surveyed about that session. Over 90% of them didn’t have the slightest idea what had gone on there. Nevertheless it had somehow worked.
Even a short intervention can be effective
The session described above is one of many similar short interactions which have had astonishingly long-lasting, postive results.
Another example is a 30-minute thought-provoking presentation which transformed high-risk adolescents into high-performing students (while nothing about their parents or teachers changed). Elsewhere, a few three-minute videos emphasising the positive aspects of stress made a group of top managers more productive, engaged and adaptable.
Sources of inspiration are easily forgettable, yet paradoxically they can also prove much more sustainable than we thought.
These results may seem hard to believe. This is because mindsets can be altered even with a very short session. That is how inspiration works.
-jk-