July 4, 2023 • 34 mins
What if the secret to high performance in your organization wasn't about the latest technology but the way your team communicates and connects?
We explore That question with our guest, organizational behavior management expert Dr. Kimberly Davis.
With her intriguing journey from mortgage broker to behavior management specialist, Dr. Davis shares how she uses her expertise to modify and improve human behavior, touching upon the challenges that arise without good communication in cultures.
Join us and discover the link between emotions and performance and how understanding this connection can lead to work cultures that foster happiness and personal growth.
To connect with Dr. Kimberly Davis, visit:
Website: https://www.motivatingexcellence.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-kimberly-davis-a82b63b1/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr. Pelè (00:00):
Hello happy people.
Welcome to the ProfitableHappiness Podcast.
Hello everyone, this is DrPalais with the Profitable
Happiness Podcast.
Today, i have with me a veryspecial guest, dr Kimberly Davis
.
Dr Davis is an organizationalbehavior management expert.
(00:21):
She talks about things likeprocess management and
accountability and humanperformance management, and we
just share so much nerdy stuff.
I can't wait for you to teachus about all the things that are
involved in creating highperformance cultures.
Dr Davis, how are you doingtoday?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (00:40):
I am fantastic.
Thank you for having me today.
Dr. Pelè (00:43):
Absolutely Whatever I talk to people who, as you
called yourself, a nerd, i getso excited because I know we're
going to go in all kinds ofdirections and I have no idea
where we're going to go.
But let's start with a verysimple beginning, which is from
all the places that you'veworked or consulted.
If you were to boil downsomething for our viewers and
(01:04):
our listeners the core problemor challenge that you've seen in
organizations that requires theintervention of a Dr Davis what
would that core challenge be?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (01:16):
I think the biggest thing I come across and
it's even more pronounced sincewe've had the pandemic and the
isolation of everybody isfinding the common ground for
effective communication andbeing able to really find the
directions that we want to goand how we're going to get there
.
That common ground is, i think,probably the most important
(01:37):
thing that I have to address ineach organization that I go in
and talk to.
Dr. Pelè (01:42):
Interesting, dr Davis.
Let's peel that back just alittle bit When we talk about
the challenges thatorganizations deal with.
Obviously, something broughtyou to this table.
When you look back at yourhistory, what exactly was it
that said hey, dr Kimberly Davisis going to help solve these
(02:02):
kinds of problems?
What puts you on this path?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (02:06):
It's a very interesting story.
Actually, i had been a mortgagebroker and owned a mortgage
licensing school for many years.
At the time that, in 07, whenthe industry imploded, i had
sold my materials and took a nocompete.
I decided at that time I wouldgo back to school.
(02:27):
I had told my collegeprofessors that I wanted to
become a professor.
They said, well, you didn'thave to have public school
teaching on your license inorder to do so.
I thought, well, that doesn'tseem reasonable.
I've been in adult education.
I want to teach adults, but,okay, i'll go do it.
Well, as I got into it and Irealized that I was really good
(02:47):
with behavior students that werenot motivated, that I call them
reluctant students I realizedthat I had an opportunity to
change lives, and that put themon a different trajectory.
My focus became behavior,especially those that were
emotionally disturbed.
They had trauma in their life.
They had different challengesthat made it very difficult to
(03:11):
access Learning.
I really started to focus onwhat does it take to help
somebody not only learnsomething, but how do you
retrieve that learning and useit moving forward in life, not
just in school, but in jobs, inrelationships, parenting skills,
because you're not justchanging that individual, you're
(03:32):
changing generations.
At that point I became veryinterested in human performance
improvement.
I ended up going all the waythrough getting my doctorate in
transformational leadership,which is a very holistic view of
leadership.
My dissertation focused ondetermining the impact of
(03:54):
appreciative inquiry whichappreciative inquiry is a
strength-based change processmodel.
It's a matter of change insuccession in a direction that
we need to go with positivereinforcements.
I started using thosetechniques with my students and
realized that you can improvehuman performance while you're
(04:17):
rewiring the brain from thetrauma.
You can actually change so muchfor that child and so much for
that individual.
But learning to go back into anadolescent brain to do that and
then applying that into abusiness model for organizations
was a very small leap.
(04:39):
I always say from cradle tocrypt we're the same.
That's the only thing abouthumans that does not change.
But if you learn to manage themeffectively and utilize them
appropriately.
There are no limitations forsomebody.
So then it became a humanperformance focus for me.
(05:00):
At the end of my dissertation.
What emerged from the researchwas that there's really only
three ways to determine impactof any change.
You're going to change howsomebody feels about what they
do.
You're going to change how theythink about it, or you're going
to change how they physicallyact around it.
So that took me on pathstowards emotional intelligence
(05:21):
and applied behavior, of course,just leadership in general.
it brought me to this holisticview of changing cultures, one
individual at a time.
So that's what brought me here.
Dr. Pelè (05:38):
That's powerful.
I'm particularly drawn to howyou really embrace the idea that
there are three thingshappening There's how we feel,
then there's how we think, then,of course, what we do, the
actions.
So many of us think I think.
Wasn't it Descartes who said Ithink therefore I am?
But I think you and I wouldprobably agree that it should be
(06:00):
I feel therefore I am becausethat drives thinking and it
drives actions, so much morethan just thoughts alone.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (06:08):
It does.
It goes both ways.
I mean, we could be in aconversation and I could be.
well, i could be talking aboutmy best friend and how much I
care about her and all thethings that we do together and
be in a place of happiness.
But I might call her and shedoesn't pick the phone up at a
scheduled time and it might hurtmy feelings And that may start
(06:33):
a negative thought process.
It was Epstein, seymour Epstein,that coined the terms
constructive thinking anddestructive thinking, and we are
hardwired for destructivethinking, or absolutely thinking
for safety.
That's survival right there.
And so it's a Nelson and LoweAnd I think it was in 2015.
(06:54):
They have a model oftransformative emotional
intelligence And I love theirtheir definition of emotional
intelligence And it's thelearned ability to think
constructively and act wisely.
And so, as I go back into allof this and I really start to
(07:14):
form what I wanted to do, i'mreally thinking about how do we
teach people to do this, becausewhen my friend didn't answer
the phone at our scheduled timeand I got my feelings hurt, i
went into destructive thinking.
I was not acting wisely.
If she called me right back,said sorry I was washing my
hands, then it's all better.
So our feelings and ourthoughts are so intertwined in
(07:36):
behavior and applied behavior.
We call that the inside storybecause it's not overt but it
impacts the overt behavior thatwe do see And how we interact
with ourselves and thoseinternal conversations, with
those feelings when they startto trigger the thoughts, and how
we can curtail that makes ahuge difference in the overt
(07:58):
behavior that we see.
Dr. Pelè (08:00):
You know, i have to say you know earlier, when you
talked about the centralchallenge that you've seen, i
almost feel like you've justunpacked that to what's
happening underneath what you'veseen, Because, my goodness, how
big of a problem could this be?
I mean, look, i have to tellyou this idea.
I think you've already definedsome of it, but I'm going to
just call it the negativity bias, where we are biased.
(08:24):
We are biased to see thenegative before the positive,
and that's just a human thing,as you said, to protect us.
It is so powerful, it is justso devastating and so much in
the forefront of how we are.
It's like, how do we overcomeit to find what I think you call
common ground?
Right, how do we get past allthese negative emotions
(08:46):
everybody's having and find thecommon positives?
Let's talk about that because Iknow you're really big.
You're a proponent of commonground.
Tell us about that.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (08:56):
Well, and actually I'm going to add one
more thing to that, if you don'tmind.
At the end of my dissertation,i talked about moving people
from thoughts to action.
How does that happen,especially in a positive
direction, and I actually calledthat the paradigm fulcrum.
How do you?
choose somebody's paradigm, andthat's what I do in practice
(09:17):
with my common ground activities, and it's based on principles
of several things actuallyAppreciative inquiry, which is,
again, it's a process model fora strength-based change What's
working and how do we do more ofit But also the principles of
applied behavior analysis andunderstanding the inside and the
outside story.
And people don't tell you theinside story unless they want
(09:41):
you to know it, and or theydon't tell you what it really is
unless they want you to know it.
So there's a trust factor.
So the biggest part of beingable to find the common ground
is to not start from positions.
And this is, you know, when westart asking for people's
opinions or we start giving ouropinions, then we are
(10:01):
automatically in a position thatwe have to defend or join to
somebody else's, and that makesus very territorial sometimes,
because not being in the sameposition a lot of times feels
oppositional or needs to bedefended.
So we're territorial with it.
But that's normal, that's humanbehavior, that's a normal
(10:25):
behavioral reaction, a response.
But if we are able to, you know, go through the process of
finding what we all bring to thetable, and even though it's
different, we may not agree andwe have different experiences in
life and education and thoughtsthat have shaped us to where we
are today.
There are still common thingsor themes that come out of our
(10:49):
conversations, if they'restructured properly, that we can
build on.
And now we're not building froma, we're not trying to get
buy-in from people.
We've eliminated that needaltogether.
Now we're building forward froma common ground, from a common
knowledge, a collectivecollaborative knowledge, from
(11:10):
that from those activities.
Dr. Pelè (11:12):
You know, it's really interesting because you know you
have a leader in anorganization, you have employees
, so there's a peer-to-peer needfor common ground.
There's also a need for commonground between leaders and
employees.
You know, i learned once thislittle trick and I'm going to
ask you to give us your how.
How do you build cultures ofcommon ground?
(11:33):
right?
But I want to tell you mylittle trick that I learned.
I was at Dale Carnegie, i was avice president there and we had
this thing called CEO.
So if you and I disagree onsomething right, we're going to
learn how to disagree agreeably.
That's the strategy, right?
So here's what you do.
Ceo stands for give a cushion.
(11:53):
So you don't say what's bad orwhat your opinion is.
You start with a cushion likeoh, i love what you said, or
people agree with what you say,or it's well known, you are
right, i validate them right.
Then the E stands for evidence.
Bring the science, bring theevidence, you know, don't even
talk about what you think.
And then O stands for youropinion.
(12:14):
Last, which is exactly what yousaid Don't bring opinions into
this thing right in front,because everybody's going to go
to their corners and start thefight right.
So, anyway, that's just my CEOstrategy from Dale Carnegie.
Now let's launch into howexactly because it's not a
trivial issue, it's not easy todo How do you build these
(12:35):
cultures of common ground?
It?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (12:37):
depends on the ground that we're standing
on.
I'm going to start Where myfirst phrase is.
That I will say is we're not,we're going to flip the script
today.
We're not going to say that'sbecause that's how we've always
done it.
We're going to use the phraseas evidence to buy, and so we're
(12:58):
going to start with that.
But I usually, when we startthese activities, we're starting
with a reflective interview Andit's based on the appreciative
inquiry interview process veryreflective, very personal to
that individual.
And I'll just give the exampleof the one that I did today
before this podcast.
I'm speaking with educators AndI asked them to.
(13:20):
They interviewed each otherabout a meaningful learning
experience.
What was the?
they had to describe thatexperience, and there's a series
of nine questions that they askeach other.
They take their takeaways fromthat.
They're working in groups ofsix, even though they're paired.
Right now there's, you know,like 42 people in the room And
(13:41):
we go through the iterationprocess of you know what, what
stood out most to you in thatconversation, you know, were
there any themes that emerged?
And we get the group down towhere they have their little
poster papers out and they havetheir, their themes from their
table, and then we vote on them.
They put their little coloredsticker dots on them, and then,
(14:02):
visually, it's very easy to seewhat the three things are that
the that they agreed on as agroup.
What's interesting, though andthis I love the way that this
unfolds every time What'sinteresting is that it doesn't
matter how they worded it.
The meaning and what they'redoing.
That purpose and their work isthe same, just worded
(14:24):
differently.
Interesting.
And so, even though theconversation started from 42
different meaningful experiencesfrom 42 individuals who do not
work together every day, wefound a common ground and made
it a regional mission to fulfillthese.
(14:44):
And then what would that looklike?
So now the conversation is notwhat are you doing that works,
or what are you doing that worksAnd people say, well, that
won't work in my area because wehave a different demographic,
or whatever It's more about.
these are core principles forwhat we need to build on to make
this meaningful.
So how do we build from there?
What does that look like?
And now we have the commonground to build that overall
(15:07):
vision or that overall process,or that overall project.
Dr. Pelè (15:12):
It's like.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (15:13):
But we're on a common ground And I think
it's important to start thingswhatever initiative that you're
working on or trying to fix fromthat, because and I learned
this a long time ago and you canback way back in the day- I
sold the cards, and one of thethings that they were talking
about is different ways to domarketing.
(15:34):
And if you can find a connectionwith somebody, then it usually
really helps.
And this one gentleman, hislast name was O'Brien.
He lived up in the New Englandarea and he lived in a small
town but he sent postcards outto people with the last name
O'Brien And that was hismarketing strategy.
But because they had the samelast name, there was already a
connection And he was in it allthe time, and so it seems like
(15:59):
kind of an off the wall example,but it really really
exemplifies the need for us associal beings, to make a
connection.
If we're going to buy from orwork with or live with or
communicate with somebody, wemust have a connection.
Because we're social beings, weare so conditioned to be an
(16:21):
isolated and siloed and thingsthat we do and competitive that
we've lost that human connection.
And if we're going to progress,if we're going to do the things
that need to get done, if we'regonna do the work that needs to
be done, we must start fromcommon ground.
Dr. Pelè (16:37):
Oh wow, i can't tell you how powerful a manifesto
that is that you've just shared.
I have to say that inorganizations today and I'm sure
you're gonna agree with me alot of leaders versus employees.
They're not even having thatconversation at all.
So there's no sense ofparticipation on the side of the
(17:02):
employees.
There's almost the leaders saywhat it is, and that's what it
is and let's move forward.
Right, we make the decisions.
But I think what you're sayingis, if you can bring employee
participation into the mix as aforefront strategy, then you can
find common ground by listeningand by hearing each other.
Is that what I'm hearing yousay?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (17:24):
Absolutely, and as a leader and someone who
facilitates leadership a lot, itis not unreasonable to guide
that conversation to commongoals that you want, and it's
not just as it's notunreasonable to make your goals
evolve from the themes that areevolved from the activity.
(17:45):
but you could, a skilled coachor executive coach can actually
help leadership guide thoseconversations so that even
though through that commonground activity, you're moving
the direction of leadership once.
But what I don't wanna do ishave people have the idea that
(18:07):
when we involve the employees,there's two things to keep in
mind.
The first one is that as humans,we must have meaning in the
things that we do.
We have to have purpose,otherwise we don't stay in that
job.
We get frustrated, we're justdisgruntled.
We don't enjoy it.
(18:28):
So sometimes having a voice isall they need, but motivation
comes in different forms fordifferent people, and so it's
important to really understandwho your people are and who's
participating and who's not, andwhy.
And so I think that, when wealso look at how we communicate,
(18:48):
what is said as much as what isnot said is a very I want to
try to find the right word here,as I'm talking about
communication What we do is justas important as what we say.
One of my favorite sayings hasalways been and I have a bunch
of them is I can't hear whatyou're saying, because your
(19:10):
actions are speaking so muchlouder.
And when we have leadership whois able to engage and involve
their teams in theorganizational function, human
performance increasesexponentially.
Now, sometimes we just have tohand down decisions, though, and
(19:35):
that's okay, because that'swhat leadership does.
I mean we make organizationaldecisions with and without
specific input.
If we are able to engage themand have that common ground,
even if we don't take theirdecisions or their input into
the final decision that theywere participated makes a world
(19:56):
of difference.
If you give them meaning, givethem participation, and you will
get a lot more from them.
Dr. Pelè (20:05):
Yeah, so true, so very true.
Earlier, you talked aboutfeelings and you talked about
the link between emotions andperformance.
I'd love to dive deeper intothat, because I think there are
actually people leaders even whodon't see that link.
I once worked for a CEO andleader.
(20:25):
she said in a very public placethat she wanted everybody to
stop with all these emotionsalready.
Let's just get the work donehere.
I'm like what wait a second?
Did you just say this placeshould not have any emotions
right here?
But that's truly how somepeople see the world.
So tell us about how you seethe link between emotions like
(20:50):
happiness, profitable happinessand productivity and performance
, or this idea of engagement andperformance.
How do you help peopleunderstand the link?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (21:00):
So, again, this comes from different
schools of thought into what I'mgoing to talk about, and I
really started on this when Iwas working on my dissertation
And I know it's just, it's beenseveral years ago, but it was a
starting point for me And it wasinteresting to go into an
interview.
I interviewed appreciativeinquiry practitioners from
(21:24):
across the world.
I had people from Australia,canada and the United States And
I would just ask them how doyou determine impact when you
have this activity, when you dothese sessions?
Well, it depends, and I'm sorry, hon, that is not going to
write me a dissertation, i needa little more data.
Or I was told well, it's just,it's very similitude.
(21:46):
I'm like, i'm sorry, can youspell that for me?
And then, you know, it'sbasically just that it is known,
it is known that it works Andor that it's a palpable shift of
energy in the room.
I'm like that's not, i don'thave enough here, i need some
more.
So I really started to kind ofthink through that.
I looked up energy, you know,and why is it that some people
(22:07):
can go?
you can have two people you andI might go listen to a great,
you know speaker and amotivational speaker.
We both know some And we canleave that all pumped up right.
We've got this palpable shiftof energy.
We're all hyped up And one ofus may go home and change our
lives And the other one will gohome back to our lives.
(22:28):
What is that fulcrum thatchanges them from thoughts to
action?
What is that thing that shiftsthat energy from deficit
thinking to happiness?
What is that thing that driveshuman performance.
And so I started, you know,digging a little bit deeper into
it, and I did.
(22:48):
I read some of Sean Acker'swork from Harvard University,
who studies happiness.
That's what he does And I knowthat in, you know, applied
behavior, you cannot, you can't,have competing behaviors.
You can only do one behavior ata time.
Thinking and feeling arebehaviors and you cannot be
happy and sad at the same time.
(23:09):
Yeah, behaviors.
So how do you put people inthat happy space then And why
would you want to?
And you know it looked a lotinto his research where we
looked at he looked at brainscans and that reliving and
experience actually activatesthe same parts of the brain and
to the same level as actuallyexperiencing that at that moment
(23:34):
And we go through the sameemotional responses.
So if I tell you a sad story,something that happened, i'm
going to cry again because it'ssame parts of the brain are
activated.
If I tell you a funny story,i'm going to laugh so hard
through the story I probablywon't even tell the story, but
reliving it as a memory.
But what's interesting?
(23:54):
as these they're doing thebrain scans in this research,
they're learning that when youthe neural pathways that are put
in place.
You know, when we, we learnsomething and any, any knowledge
or experience with our sensesthat we have is a learning
experience.
So if we are experiencinghappiness and joy, then we are
(24:15):
actually able to create apathway that has been more worn
like up in a field.
We walk that same path over andover and it becomes an easier
path to cross, so we stay inthat space.
Now let me tell you what I'vedone with this information.
As I was working with studentsin behavioral situations.
I was doing a behavioralintervention group, trying out a
(24:37):
new theory that I had with ifwe can't have a happy and sad
thought and I want to flip thatscript and move them from
destructive to constructivethinking what would that look
like and what?
why would I do it and whatwould I expect the outcome to be
?
And I'm going to tell you aboutthis little girl who came into
my intervention class And itjust so happened.
(24:57):
She was having a really roughmorning, bless her heart.
The backpack came in and didn'tget put on the hook, it got
thrown across the room.
She did not pull her chair outto sit down, she flung it across
the room.
She was crying and I I wasn'treal sure what had happened.
I knew that I did not want togive her more sensory input so I
(25:19):
didn't speak right away.
But I did put a piece of paperout and it's my flipping and
reframing activity that I do,and I do this with adults too.
Again, cradle to crypt were allthe same.
Yeah, it's blank on one half ofthe paper, or the other half
has a picture frame and thenthere's a few lines to write a
sentence at the bottom and I putthat in a pencil on the table
(25:44):
And after a few moments, withoutadditional sensory input, i did
turn dim the lights a littlebit.
Again, we're on sensory overload.
I don't want to.
I want to reduce the amount ofstimulation coming in so that
The body begins to slow down.
The more, the more.
Like you go to a concert,there's a lot going on, you get
hyped up.
I need to slow the body downagain.
Our physical environment isaffecting our emotions, our
(26:07):
heart rate, everything.
So she sits down fine.
I asked her what's wrong Andshe said that it rained on her
birthday and she'd get to be atthe beach.
She had to go eat ice creaminstead.
Yeah and So I had her draw itfor me.
I didn't ask for any details.
Again, i'm not wanting toreinforce that pathway in the
(26:27):
brain for what made her upset.
So I just no color, just apencil, no questions asked her
to draw the beach with the rain,and, and she did, and I said so
what did you get to do instead?
Now I've planted a seed ofpositivity What did you get to
do instead, not what did youhave to do or what did you do,
(26:49):
what did you get to know?
I'm starting to focus on, i'mflipping to a growth mindset.
Dr. Pelè (26:54):
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (26:55):
Okay, pick up her pencil and I'm putting
the crowns down now And now wehave color and I'm asking her to
draw the ice cream parlor atdetails.
I'm asking questions.
We're putting, we're drawingsprinkles on the ice cream.
Mm-hmm and I'm watching her.
It took 17 minutes, when I time, for her to change from
(27:16):
throwing things in the room toBeing able to have a happy
conversation.
Wow, 17 minutes.
Now I'm gonna take this a stepand then I had her rewrite again
.
I'm wanting to reinforce andgive a positive, happy
Experience to the ice creamparlor.
I flipped and re-frame that.
(27:37):
Mm-hmm and now I had her writeit rained on my birthday So I
got to go eat ice cream, totallythat script.
Here's what was reallyinteresting.
I think this is what's gonnatie into what you're asking me.
I To.
I made a list of questions,like three or four questions for
the teachers.
Mm-hmm different ones that shewould have throughout the day,
(27:59):
and I wanted to reactivate thehappy factor, the happy Thought,
to put that, because youre-experience it right.
I wanted to bring that joy backto what she was doing.
So what I asked them to do is,if you see her starting to Go
towards the deficit thinkingagain, don't let her get down
the path.
(28:19):
Just say Did you, did you goeat ice cream?
What, what, what flavor was it?
And watch see if she changes.
Don't say anything else,because we're not gonna satiate
her on the the actual questions.
We want to just, yeah, we would, we would.
We're just going to keeptriggering that happiness right.
Because you cannot have a happythought and a negative thought
(28:39):
at the same time at the sametime Yeah we're just gonna keep
triggering.
You want to flip that switch?
What was amazing to me is weonly had to use phrases from
that experience twice that day.
Mm-hmm and one other timeduring the week, and she had an
Outstanding week with nobehavioral referrals by
(29:00):
triggering that happiness, thathappy thought and taking her
brain, firing those neuralpathways that way.
Now what else happened?
She passed her spelling testfor the first time that year.
Dr. Pelè (29:11):
Wow.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (29:12):
She completed all of her work that
that week.
She was able to complete choresat home.
We got, you know, mom involvedas well, and we kind of played
with it at home a little bit.
The idea, though, is is it bypromoting and Finding a way to
maintain that happiness, thosehappy thoughts?
(29:33):
it increase your productivityand her ability to learn for the
entire week.
Dr. Pelè (29:39):
Wow, wow.
That is a direct link rightthere And in fact I would add
one more thing that I think youprobably were building, which
was those neural pathways andmaking them easier.
You were building habits, youwere making it habitual for that
transference from the negativethinking Habits of yes.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (29:58):
Exactly.
Dr. Pelè (29:59):
Yeah, yeah, and I just I love that.
In fact, that's central to mywork is, you know, the idea not
just of happiness by itself, buthow do you take happiness, turn
some of these processes, likeengagement and so on, into
habits so that our powers ofhabit can push us forward?
You know we could geek out forlike a whole hour here, just
(30:23):
keep going.
But as we wrap up, i'd love toask you what you're excited
about next, what projects you'reworking on and, most
importantly, how people canreach you online so that they
can interact with you or learnfrom you or work with you.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (30:37):
Well, I have a lot going on right now in
several realms.
I am very excited about havingan opportunity to work with the
SBA's Small BusinessAdministration's Thrive Program
right now as a subject matterexpert in leadership.
I also have article.
The International Journal ofEducation is publishing an
article for me on the middle ofJuly 17th, i believe, is the
(31:01):
date in the I'll be presentingmy findings and I actually talk
about you know this particularscenario and how that changed
behavior and increased learningand productivity, and I'll be
presenting that at theirinternational conference on I
believe it's July 17th.
I also have I've got a fewthings going on.
(31:22):
The best way to reach me,though, is on my website,
motivatingexcellencecom, but Ihave wonderful opportunities
that have been presentedrecently to work with.
Like the group of educators thatI worked with today, i've done
training for a lot of differenttypes of organizations, and the
(31:43):
thing that I want to say aboutit is you don't have to be an
expert in an industry.
I'm an expert in humanperformance improvement and
crypto decrypt.
We are the same, and humanperformance is such a passion.
It is such a passion, but look,i'm getting so impassioned now
(32:06):
it's hard to even speak.
The idea of improvingsomebody's life by giving them
the opportunity to be happy, byimproving their life for
generations because that youknow that we talk about nature
versus nurture their habits inlife become everybody's habits
(32:27):
in life.
You know, happiness iscontagious.
Try to be around somebody who'slaughing and not laugh with
them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah It's mirrorneurons We emulate what we see,
And so the joy that is spreadfrom that and the ripple effect
that comes from that knowingthat you have something to do
with that is a blessing thatjust can't be replaced.
Dr. Pelè (32:49):
No, it truly is.
And, by the way, when you weretalking about the mirror neurons
, i couldn't help but just thinkabout the fact that it works
both ways.
There's also the negative,which we need to avoid, and just
a very innocent example is whenyou're talking with someone,
like I'm talking to my wife andshe yawns, for example, before I
knew it, i want to yawn too.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (33:11):
That's a mirror neuron.
We're both yawning Whathappened, oh my gosh.
Dr. Pelè (33:15):
We're falling asleep while we're talking here.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (33:18):
That's a great example.
Dr. Pelè (33:20):
Yeah, no, just exciting stuff, lots of exciting
stuff here.
I really appreciate most of alland you talk about how
passionate that this got youfeeling is that you are really
your community builder.
You bring people toward theircommon ground using your
processes, your body ofknowledge and your experience,
and I really appreciate that.
(33:41):
So I want to thank you so much,dr Kim, for joining us on the
Profitable Happiness Podcast.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (33:47):
Thank you so much for having me.
Hello happy people.
Welcome to the ProfitableHappiness Podcast.
Hello everyone, this is DrPalais with the Profitable
Happiness Podcast.
Today, i have with me a veryspecial guest, dr Kimberly Davis
.
Dr Davis is an organizationalbehavior management expert.
(00:21):
She talks about things likeprocess management and
accountability and humanperformance management, and we
just share so much nerdy stuff.
I can't wait for you to teachus about all the things that are
involved in creating highperformance cultures.
Dr Davis, how are you doingtoday?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (00:40):
I am fantastic.
Thank you for having me today.
Dr. Pelè (00:43):
Absolutely Whatever I talk to people who, as you
called yourself, a nerd, i getso excited because I know we're
going to go in all kinds ofdirections and I have no idea
where we're going to go.
But let's start with a verysimple beginning, which is from
all the places that you'veworked or consulted.
If you were to boil downsomething for our viewers and
(01:04):
our listeners the core problemor challenge that you've seen in
organizations that requires theintervention of a Dr Davis what
would that core challenge be?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (01:16):
I think the biggest thing I come across and
it's even more pronounced sincewe've had the pandemic and the
isolation of everybody isfinding the common ground for
effective communication andbeing able to really find the
directions that we want to goand how we're going to get there
.
That common ground is, i think,probably the most important
(01:37):
thing that I have to address ineach organization that I go in
and talk to.
Dr. Pelè (01:42):
Interesting, dr Davis.
Let's peel that back just alittle bit When we talk about
the challenges thatorganizations deal with.
Obviously, something broughtyou to this table.
When you look back at yourhistory, what exactly was it
that said hey, dr Kimberly Davisis going to help solve these
(02:02):
kinds of problems?
What puts you on this path?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (02:06):
It's a very interesting story.
Actually, i had been a mortgagebroker and owned a mortgage
licensing school for many years.
At the time that, in 07, whenthe industry imploded, i had
sold my materials and took a nocompete.
I decided at that time I wouldgo back to school.
(02:27):
I had told my collegeprofessors that I wanted to
become a professor.
They said, well, you didn'thave to have public school
teaching on your license inorder to do so.
I thought, well, that doesn'tseem reasonable.
I've been in adult education.
I want to teach adults, but,okay, i'll go do it.
Well, as I got into it and Irealized that I was really good
(02:47):
with behavior students that werenot motivated, that I call them
reluctant students I realizedthat I had an opportunity to
change lives, and that put themon a different trajectory.
My focus became behavior,especially those that were
emotionally disturbed.
They had trauma in their life.
They had different challengesthat made it very difficult to
(03:11):
access Learning.
I really started to focus onwhat does it take to help
somebody not only learnsomething, but how do you
retrieve that learning and useit moving forward in life, not
just in school, but in jobs, inrelationships, parenting skills,
because you're not justchanging that individual, you're
(03:32):
changing generations.
At that point I became veryinterested in human performance
improvement.
I ended up going all the waythrough getting my doctorate in
transformational leadership,which is a very holistic view of
leadership.
My dissertation focused ondetermining the impact of
(03:54):
appreciative inquiry whichappreciative inquiry is a
strength-based change processmodel.
It's a matter of change insuccession in a direction that
we need to go with positivereinforcements.
I started using thosetechniques with my students and
realized that you can improvehuman performance while you're
(04:17):
rewiring the brain from thetrauma.
You can actually change so muchfor that child and so much for
that individual.
But learning to go back into anadolescent brain to do that and
then applying that into abusiness model for organizations
was a very small leap.
(04:39):
I always say from cradle tocrypt we're the same.
That's the only thing abouthumans that does not change.
But if you learn to manage themeffectively and utilize them
appropriately.
There are no limitations forsomebody.
So then it became a humanperformance focus for me.
(05:00):
At the end of my dissertation.
What emerged from the researchwas that there's really only
three ways to determine impactof any change.
You're going to change howsomebody feels about what they
do.
You're going to change how theythink about it, or you're going
to change how they physicallyact around it.
So that took me on pathstowards emotional intelligence
(05:21):
and applied behavior, of course,just leadership in general.
it brought me to this holisticview of changing cultures, one
individual at a time.
So that's what brought me here.
Dr. Pelè (05:38):
That's powerful.
I'm particularly drawn to howyou really embrace the idea that
there are three thingshappening There's how we feel,
then there's how we think, then,of course, what we do, the
actions.
So many of us think I think.
Wasn't it Descartes who said Ithink therefore I am?
But I think you and I wouldprobably agree that it should be
(06:00):
I feel therefore I am becausethat drives thinking and it
drives actions, so much morethan just thoughts alone.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (06:08):
It does.
It goes both ways.
I mean, we could be in aconversation and I could be.
well, i could be talking aboutmy best friend and how much I
care about her and all thethings that we do together and
be in a place of happiness.
But I might call her and shedoesn't pick the phone up at a
scheduled time and it might hurtmy feelings And that may start
(06:33):
a negative thought process.
It was Epstein, seymour Epstein,that coined the terms
constructive thinking anddestructive thinking, and we are
hardwired for destructivethinking, or absolutely thinking
for safety.
That's survival right there.
And so it's a Nelson and LoweAnd I think it was in 2015.
(06:54):
They have a model oftransformative emotional
intelligence And I love theirtheir definition of emotional
intelligence And it's thelearned ability to think
constructively and act wisely.
And so, as I go back into allof this and I really start to
(07:14):
form what I wanted to do, i'mreally thinking about how do we
teach people to do this, becausewhen my friend didn't answer
the phone at our scheduled timeand I got my feelings hurt, i
went into destructive thinking.
I was not acting wisely.
If she called me right back,said sorry I was washing my
hands, then it's all better.
So our feelings and ourthoughts are so intertwined in
(07:36):
behavior and applied behavior.
We call that the inside storybecause it's not overt but it
impacts the overt behavior thatwe do see And how we interact
with ourselves and thoseinternal conversations, with
those feelings when they startto trigger the thoughts, and how
we can curtail that makes ahuge difference in the overt
(07:58):
behavior that we see.
Dr. Pelè (08:00):
You know, i have to say you know earlier, when you
talked about the centralchallenge that you've seen, i
almost feel like you've justunpacked that to what's
happening underneath what you'veseen, Because, my goodness, how
big of a problem could this be?
I mean, look, i have to tellyou this idea.
I think you've already definedsome of it, but I'm going to
just call it the negativity bias, where we are biased.
(08:24):
We are biased to see thenegative before the positive,
and that's just a human thing,as you said, to protect us.
It is so powerful, it is justso devastating and so much in
the forefront of how we are.
It's like, how do we overcomeit to find what I think you call
common ground?
Right, how do we get past allthese negative emotions
(08:46):
everybody's having and find thecommon positives?
Let's talk about that because Iknow you're really big.
You're a proponent of commonground.
Tell us about that.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (08:56):
Well, and actually I'm going to add one
more thing to that, if you don'tmind.
At the end of my dissertation,i talked about moving people
from thoughts to action.
How does that happen,especially in a positive
direction, and I actually calledthat the paradigm fulcrum.
How do you?
choose somebody's paradigm, andthat's what I do in practice
(09:17):
with my common ground activities, and it's based on principles
of several things actuallyAppreciative inquiry, which is,
again, it's a process model fora strength-based change What's
working and how do we do more ofit But also the principles of
applied behavior analysis andunderstanding the inside and the
outside story.
And people don't tell you theinside story unless they want
(09:41):
you to know it, and or theydon't tell you what it really is
unless they want you to know it.
So there's a trust factor.
So the biggest part of beingable to find the common ground
is to not start from positions.
And this is, you know, when westart asking for people's
opinions or we start giving ouropinions, then we are
(10:01):
automatically in a position thatwe have to defend or join to
somebody else's, and that makesus very territorial sometimes,
because not being in the sameposition a lot of times feels
oppositional or needs to bedefended.
So we're territorial with it.
But that's normal, that's humanbehavior, that's a normal
(10:25):
behavioral reaction, a response.
But if we are able to, you know, go through the process of
finding what we all bring to thetable, and even though it's
different, we may not agree andwe have different experiences in
life and education and thoughtsthat have shaped us to where we
are today.
There are still common thingsor themes that come out of our
(10:49):
conversations, if they'restructured properly, that we can
build on.
And now we're not building froma, we're not trying to get
buy-in from people.
We've eliminated that needaltogether.
Now we're building forward froma common ground, from a common
knowledge, a collectivecollaborative knowledge, from
(11:10):
that from those activities.
Dr. Pelè (11:12):
You know, it's really interesting because you know you
have a leader in anorganization, you have employees
, so there's a peer-to-peer needfor common ground.
There's also a need for commonground between leaders and
employees.
You know, i learned once thislittle trick and I'm going to
ask you to give us your how.
How do you build cultures ofcommon ground?
(11:33):
right?
But I want to tell you mylittle trick that I learned.
I was at Dale Carnegie, i was avice president there and we had
this thing called CEO.
So if you and I disagree onsomething right, we're going to
learn how to disagree agreeably.
That's the strategy, right?
So here's what you do.
Ceo stands for give a cushion.
(11:53):
So you don't say what's bad orwhat your opinion is.
You start with a cushion likeoh, i love what you said, or
people agree with what you say,or it's well known, you are
right, i validate them right.
Then the E stands for evidence.
Bring the science, bring theevidence, you know, don't even
talk about what you think.
And then O stands for youropinion.
(12:14):
Last, which is exactly what yousaid Don't bring opinions into
this thing right in front,because everybody's going to go
to their corners and start thefight right.
So, anyway, that's just my CEOstrategy from Dale Carnegie.
Now let's launch into howexactly because it's not a
trivial issue, it's not easy todo How do you build these
(12:35):
cultures of common ground?
It?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (12:37):
depends on the ground that we're standing
on.
I'm going to start Where myfirst phrase is.
That I will say is we're not,we're going to flip the script
today.
We're not going to say that'sbecause that's how we've always
done it.
We're going to use the phraseas evidence to buy, and so we're
(12:58):
going to start with that.
But I usually, when we startthese activities, we're starting
with a reflective interview Andit's based on the appreciative
inquiry interview process veryreflective, very personal to
that individual.
And I'll just give the exampleof the one that I did today
before this podcast.
I'm speaking with educators AndI asked them to.
(13:20):
They interviewed each otherabout a meaningful learning
experience.
What was the?
they had to describe thatexperience, and there's a series
of nine questions that they askeach other.
They take their takeaways fromthat.
They're working in groups ofsix, even though they're paired.
Right now there's, you know,like 42 people in the room And
(13:41):
we go through the iterationprocess of you know what, what
stood out most to you in thatconversation, you know, were
there any themes that emerged?
And we get the group down towhere they have their little
poster papers out and they havetheir, their themes from their
table, and then we vote on them.
They put their little coloredsticker dots on them, and then,
(14:02):
visually, it's very easy to seewhat the three things are that
the that they agreed on as agroup.
What's interesting, though andthis I love the way that this
unfolds every time What'sinteresting is that it doesn't
matter how they worded it.
The meaning and what they'redoing.
That purpose and their work isthe same, just worded
(14:24):
differently.
Interesting.
And so, even though theconversation started from 42
different meaningful experiencesfrom 42 individuals who do not
work together every day, wefound a common ground and made
it a regional mission to fulfillthese.
(14:44):
And then what would that looklike?
So now the conversation is notwhat are you doing that works,
or what are you doing that worksAnd people say, well, that
won't work in my area because wehave a different demographic,
or whatever It's more about.
these are core principles forwhat we need to build on to make
this meaningful.
So how do we build from there?
What does that look like?
And now we have the commonground to build that overall
(15:07):
vision or that overall process,or that overall project.
Dr. Pelè (15:12):
It's like.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (15:13):
But we're on a common ground And I think
it's important to start thingswhatever initiative that you're
working on or trying to fix fromthat, because and I learned
this a long time ago and you canback way back in the day- I
sold the cards, and one of thethings that they were talking
about is different ways to domarketing.
(15:34):
And if you can find a connectionwith somebody, then it usually
really helps.
And this one gentleman, hislast name was O'Brien.
He lived up in the New Englandarea and he lived in a small
town but he sent postcards outto people with the last name
O'Brien And that was hismarketing strategy.
But because they had the samelast name, there was already a
connection And he was in it allthe time, and so it seems like
(15:59):
kind of an off the wall example,but it really really
exemplifies the need for us associal beings, to make a
connection.
If we're going to buy from orwork with or live with or
communicate with somebody, wemust have a connection.
Because we're social beings, weare so conditioned to be an
(16:21):
isolated and siloed and thingsthat we do and competitive that
we've lost that human connection.
And if we're going to progress,if we're going to do the things
that need to get done, if we'regonna do the work that needs to
be done, we must start fromcommon ground.
Dr. Pelè (16:37):
Oh wow, i can't tell you how powerful a manifesto
that is that you've just shared.
I have to say that inorganizations today and I'm sure
you're gonna agree with me alot of leaders versus employees.
They're not even having thatconversation at all.
So there's no sense ofparticipation on the side of the
(17:02):
employees.
There's almost the leaders saywhat it is, and that's what it
is and let's move forward.
Right, we make the decisions.
But I think what you're sayingis, if you can bring employee
participation into the mix as aforefront strategy, then you can
find common ground by listeningand by hearing each other.
Is that what I'm hearing yousay?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (17:24):
Absolutely, and as a leader and someone who
facilitates leadership a lot, itis not unreasonable to guide
that conversation to commongoals that you want, and it's
not just as it's notunreasonable to make your goals
evolve from the themes that areevolved from the activity.
(17:45):
but you could, a skilled coachor executive coach can actually
help leadership guide thoseconversations so that even
though through that commonground activity, you're moving
the direction of leadership once.
But what I don't wanna do ishave people have the idea that
(18:07):
when we involve the employees,there's two things to keep in
mind.
The first one is that as humans,we must have meaning in the
things that we do.
We have to have purpose,otherwise we don't stay in that
job.
We get frustrated, we're justdisgruntled.
We don't enjoy it.
(18:28):
So sometimes having a voice isall they need, but motivation
comes in different forms fordifferent people, and so it's
important to really understandwho your people are and who's
participating and who's not, andwhy.
And so I think that, when wealso look at how we communicate,
(18:48):
what is said as much as what isnot said is a very I want to
try to find the right word here,as I'm talking about
communication What we do is justas important as what we say.
One of my favorite sayings hasalways been and I have a bunch
of them is I can't hear whatyou're saying, because your
(19:10):
actions are speaking so muchlouder.
And when we have leadership whois able to engage and involve
their teams in theorganizational function, human
performance increasesexponentially.
Now, sometimes we just have tohand down decisions, though, and
(19:35):
that's okay, because that'swhat leadership does.
I mean we make organizationaldecisions with and without
specific input.
If we are able to engage themand have that common ground,
even if we don't take theirdecisions or their input into
the final decision that theywere participated makes a world
(19:56):
of difference.
If you give them meaning, givethem participation, and you will
get a lot more from them.
Dr. Pelè (20:05):
Yeah, so true, so very true.
Earlier, you talked aboutfeelings and you talked about
the link between emotions andperformance.
I'd love to dive deeper intothat, because I think there are
actually people leaders even whodon't see that link.
I once worked for a CEO andleader.
(20:25):
she said in a very public placethat she wanted everybody to
stop with all these emotionsalready.
Let's just get the work donehere.
I'm like what wait a second?
Did you just say this placeshould not have any emotions
right here?
But that's truly how somepeople see the world.
So tell us about how you seethe link between emotions like
(20:50):
happiness, profitable happinessand productivity and performance
, or this idea of engagement andperformance.
How do you help peopleunderstand the link?
Dr. Kimberly Davis (21:00):
So, again, this comes from different
schools of thought into what I'mgoing to talk about, and I
really started on this when Iwas working on my dissertation
And I know it's just, it's beenseveral years ago, but it was a
starting point for me And it wasinteresting to go into an
interview.
I interviewed appreciativeinquiry practitioners from
(21:24):
across the world.
I had people from Australia,canada and the United States And
I would just ask them how doyou determine impact when you
have this activity, when you dothese sessions?
Well, it depends, and I'm sorry, hon, that is not going to
write me a dissertation, i needa little more data.
Or I was told well, it's just,it's very similitude.
(21:46):
I'm like, i'm sorry, can youspell that for me?
And then, you know, it'sbasically just that it is known,
it is known that it works Andor that it's a palpable shift of
energy in the room.
I'm like that's not, i don'thave enough here, i need some
more.
So I really started to kind ofthink through that.
I looked up energy, you know,and why is it that some people
(22:07):
can go?
you can have two people you andI might go listen to a great,
you know speaker and amotivational speaker.
We both know some And we canleave that all pumped up right.
We've got this palpable shiftof energy.
We're all hyped up And one ofus may go home and change our
lives And the other one will gohome back to our lives.
(22:28):
What is that fulcrum thatchanges them from thoughts to
action?
What is that thing that shiftsthat energy from deficit
thinking to happiness?
What is that thing that driveshuman performance.
And so I started, you know,digging a little bit deeper into
it, and I did.
(22:48):
I read some of Sean Acker'swork from Harvard University,
who studies happiness.
That's what he does And I knowthat in, you know, applied
behavior, you cannot, you can't,have competing behaviors.
You can only do one behavior ata time.
Thinking and feeling arebehaviors and you cannot be
happy and sad at the same time.
(23:09):
Yeah, behaviors.
So how do you put people inthat happy space then And why
would you want to?
And you know it looked a lotinto his research where we
looked at he looked at brainscans and that reliving and
experience actually activatesthe same parts of the brain and
to the same level as actuallyexperiencing that at that moment
(23:34):
And we go through the sameemotional responses.
So if I tell you a sad story,something that happened, i'm
going to cry again because it'ssame parts of the brain are
activated.
If I tell you a funny story,i'm going to laugh so hard
through the story I probablywon't even tell the story, but
reliving it as a memory.
But what's interesting?
(23:54):
as these they're doing thebrain scans in this research,
they're learning that when youthe neural pathways that are put
in place.
You know, when we, we learnsomething and any, any knowledge
or experience with our sensesthat we have is a learning
experience.
So if we are experiencinghappiness and joy, then we are
(24:15):
actually able to create apathway that has been more worn
like up in a field.
We walk that same path over andover and it becomes an easier
path to cross, so we stay inthat space.
Now let me tell you what I'vedone with this information.
As I was working with studentsin behavioral situations.
I was doing a behavioralintervention group, trying out a
(24:37):
new theory that I had with ifwe can't have a happy and sad
thought and I want to flip thatscript and move them from
destructive to constructivethinking what would that look
like and what?
why would I do it and whatwould I expect the outcome to be
?
And I'm going to tell you aboutthis little girl who came into
my intervention class And itjust so happened.
(24:57):
She was having a really roughmorning, bless her heart.
The backpack came in and didn'tget put on the hook, it got
thrown across the room.
She did not pull her chair outto sit down, she flung it across
the room.
She was crying and I I wasn'treal sure what had happened.
I knew that I did not want togive her more sensory input so I
(25:19):
didn't speak right away.
But I did put a piece of paperout and it's my flipping and
reframing activity that I do,and I do this with adults too.
Again, cradle to crypt were allthe same.
Yeah, it's blank on one half ofthe paper, or the other half
has a picture frame and thenthere's a few lines to write a
sentence at the bottom and I putthat in a pencil on the table
(25:44):
And after a few moments, withoutadditional sensory input, i did
turn dim the lights a littlebit.
Again, we're on sensory overload.
I don't want to.
I want to reduce the amount ofstimulation coming in so that
The body begins to slow down.
The more, the more.
Like you go to a concert,there's a lot going on, you get
hyped up.
I need to slow the body downagain.
Our physical environment isaffecting our emotions, our
(26:07):
heart rate, everything.
So she sits down fine.
I asked her what's wrong Andshe said that it rained on her
birthday and she'd get to be atthe beach.
She had to go eat ice creaminstead.
Yeah and So I had her draw itfor me.
I didn't ask for any details.
Again, i'm not wanting toreinforce that pathway in the
(26:27):
brain for what made her upset.
So I just no color, just apencil, no questions asked her
to draw the beach with the rain,and, and she did, and I said so
what did you get to do instead?
Now I've planted a seed ofpositivity What did you get to
do instead, not what did youhave to do or what did you do,
(26:49):
what did you get to know?
I'm starting to focus on, i'mflipping to a growth mindset.
Dr. Pelè (26:54):
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (26:55):
Okay, pick up her pencil and I'm putting
the crowns down now And now wehave color and I'm asking her to
draw the ice cream parlor atdetails.
I'm asking questions.
We're putting, we're drawingsprinkles on the ice cream.
Mm-hmm and I'm watching her.
It took 17 minutes, when I time, for her to change from
(27:16):
throwing things in the room toBeing able to have a happy
conversation.
Wow, 17 minutes.
Now I'm gonna take this a stepand then I had her rewrite again
.
I'm wanting to reinforce andgive a positive, happy
Experience to the ice creamparlor.
I flipped and re-frame that.
(27:37):
Mm-hmm and now I had her writeit rained on my birthday So I
got to go eat ice cream, totallythat script.
Here's what was reallyinteresting.
I think this is what's gonnatie into what you're asking me.
I To.
I made a list of questions,like three or four questions for
the teachers.
Mm-hmm different ones that shewould have throughout the day,
(27:59):
and I wanted to reactivate thehappy factor, the happy Thought,
to put that, because youre-experience it right.
I wanted to bring that joy backto what she was doing.
So what I asked them to do is,if you see her starting to Go
towards the deficit thinkingagain, don't let her get down
the path.
(28:19):
Just say Did you, did you goeat ice cream?
What, what, what flavor was it?
And watch see if she changes.
Don't say anything else,because we're not gonna satiate
her on the the actual questions.
We want to just, yeah, we would, we would.
We're just going to keeptriggering that happiness right.
Because you cannot have a happythought and a negative thought
(28:39):
at the same time at the sametime Yeah we're just gonna keep
triggering.
You want to flip that switch?
What was amazing to me is weonly had to use phrases from
that experience twice that day.
Mm-hmm and one other timeduring the week, and she had an
Outstanding week with nobehavioral referrals by
(29:00):
triggering that happiness, thathappy thought and taking her
brain, firing those neuralpathways that way.
Now what else happened?
She passed her spelling testfor the first time that year.
Dr. Pelè (29:11):
Wow.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (29:12):
She completed all of her work that
that week.
She was able to complete choresat home.
We got, you know, mom involvedas well, and we kind of played
with it at home a little bit.
The idea, though, is is it bypromoting and Finding a way to
maintain that happiness, thosehappy thoughts?
(29:33):
it increase your productivityand her ability to learn for the
entire week.
Dr. Pelè (29:39):
Wow, wow.
That is a direct link rightthere And in fact I would add
one more thing that I think youprobably were building, which
was those neural pathways andmaking them easier.
You were building habits, youwere making it habitual for that
transference from the negativethinking Habits of yes.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (29:58):
Exactly.
Dr. Pelè (29:59):
Yeah, yeah, and I just I love that.
In fact, that's central to mywork is, you know, the idea not
just of happiness by itself, buthow do you take happiness, turn
some of these processes, likeengagement and so on, into
habits so that our powers ofhabit can push us forward?
You know we could geek out forlike a whole hour here, just
(30:23):
keep going.
But as we wrap up, i'd love toask you what you're excited
about next, what projects you'reworking on and, most
importantly, how people canreach you online so that they
can interact with you or learnfrom you or work with you.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (30:37):
Well, I have a lot going on right now in
several realms.
I am very excited about havingan opportunity to work with the
SBA's Small BusinessAdministration's Thrive Program
right now as a subject matterexpert in leadership.
I also have article.
The International Journal ofEducation is publishing an
article for me on the middle ofJuly 17th, i believe, is the
(31:01):
date in the I'll be presentingmy findings and I actually talk
about you know this particularscenario and how that changed
behavior and increased learningand productivity, and I'll be
presenting that at theirinternational conference on I
believe it's July 17th.
I also have I've got a fewthings going on.
(31:22):
The best way to reach me,though, is on my website,
motivatingexcellencecom, but Ihave wonderful opportunities
that have been presentedrecently to work with.
Like the group of educators thatI worked with today, i've done
training for a lot of differenttypes of organizations, and the
(31:43):
thing that I want to say aboutit is you don't have to be an
expert in an industry.
I'm an expert in humanperformance improvement and
crypto decrypt.
We are the same, and humanperformance is such a passion.
It is such a passion, but look,i'm getting so impassioned now
(32:06):
it's hard to even speak.
The idea of improvingsomebody's life by giving them
the opportunity to be happy, byimproving their life for
generations because that youknow that we talk about nature
versus nurture their habits inlife become everybody's habits
(32:27):
in life.
You know, happiness iscontagious.
Try to be around somebody who'slaughing and not laugh with
them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah It's mirrorneurons We emulate what we see,
And so the joy that is spreadfrom that and the ripple effect
that comes from that knowingthat you have something to do
with that is a blessing thatjust can't be replaced.
Dr. Pelè (32:49):
No, it truly is.
And, by the way, when you weretalking about the mirror neurons
, i couldn't help but just thinkabout the fact that it works
both ways.
There's also the negative,which we need to avoid, and just
a very innocent example is whenyou're talking with someone,
like I'm talking to my wife andshe yawns, for example, before I
knew it, i want to yawn too.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (33:11):
That's a mirror neuron.
We're both yawning Whathappened, oh my gosh.
Dr. Pelè (33:15):
We're falling asleep while we're talking here.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (33:18):
That's a great example.
Dr. Pelè (33:20):
Yeah, no, just exciting stuff, lots of exciting
stuff here.
I really appreciate most of alland you talk about how
passionate that this got youfeeling is that you are really
your community builder.
You bring people toward theircommon ground using your
processes, your body ofknowledge and your experience,
and I really appreciate that.
(33:41):
So I want to thank you so much,dr Kim, for joining us on the
Profitable Happiness Podcast.
Dr. Kimberly Davis (33:47):
Thank you so much for having me.
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