Chief Enjoyment Officer

By Gillian Adendorff

Lively, eye-opening, confronting, and instructional, this book is full of perception-shattering insights about what's lurking in the background of your decision-making process, inadvertently making life more difficult for you, and your team members, stakeholders, and family.  

In this mind-blowing yet simple narrative, organizational behavioral researcher, consultant, and thought leader, Gillian Adendorff, (aka The Dancing Coach), is dedicated to one goal only—illuminating and shifting the barriers between you and your best self, for the benefit of your entire team. But don't be fooled, this is not your average boring business guidebook. It is filled with creative, real-life stories and tried-and-tested change management strategies for developing fun and effective ways to interact in business and society. If you sincerely follow the guidance and tools in this book, you will, without a doubt, positively transform, starting now.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gillian Adendorff
• Release date: Feb 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215381892

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Dedication

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Introduction

The Problem

W e are facing a national mental health crisis that could yield serious health and social consequences for years to come. — American Psychological Association (APA) . Recent business and scientific research show a decline in mental health worldwide.

Congratulations! You have taken a brave step – CURIOSITY! I have a feeling you may have been contemplating the current way in which we manage organizations, communities, and countries, and like me, you are noticing the downward-trending wellbeing in humans, animals, and their environments. Are we ready for an upgrade? I definitely am. Whoop-whoop!

If you’re reading this, chances are you have already realized that the problem our modern-day authority figures are facing now, is not how to cut costs or overhaul corporate technology solutions, or even how to improve efficiency and effectiveness. On the contrary organizations at face value are performing better, in terms of material wealth, than ever.

Since all organizations are human, an increasingly significant issue organizational and societal leaders are facing today is an urgent need for leaders to recognize the consequences of declining wellbeing on engagement and resilience. Are human experiences like worry, stress, anger, sadness, addiction, lack of sleep, exhaustion, and hopelessness sustainable costs of achieving material goals?

A comprehensive analysis by The American Institute of Stress found that the total economic impact of stress on US employers was estimated at $300 billion annually.

This book aims to share lessons gleaned during 30-plus years of involvement in major transformation programs across multiple countries, industries, and sectors, combined with academic research and support from the arts.

Particularly during the past 10 years of leading organizational change management efforts for private and public sector-related transformation programs in Australia and the USA, I interviewed and surveyed thousands of people at all levels of organizations about their work, connected life experiences and perceptions, to consider what leads to burnout and addiction, versus what makes people feel energized, joyful, and inspired in a group.

Consistently, I observed distressed leaders failing to deliver on financial and strategic business goals and I recognized that the key to these leaders’ success was the ability to transform their teams’ workplace experience through understanding their unconscious behavioral strengths and weaknesses, in other words, culture. However, culture is often viewed as intangible, and somewhat mystical, so these leaders sheepishly didn’t know where or how to begin.

But, soon you will know! This book serves to expand a passionate mission to explain, quantify, and strengthen workplace culture.

The Case for Change

DURING MY DEVELOPMENTAL years, while my biology was machine-learning, I began to sense that naively expressing my silly, Abba-loving, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Mary Sunshine singing, dancing, oblivious self in my family appeared to have repeatedly cost me my most valued life goal and desire—to love and be loved. One of my parents and one of my siblings seemed profoundly irritated by my enthusiasm and my endless positive energy. In a massive attempt to earn their love and recognition, I began to perform like a superstar, striving to excel and win at a plethora of talents. For their personalities, this inadvertently moved the needle from annoyance to intense agitation. But none of us had any idea about the effects our responses were having on each other. I interpreted their agitation as rejection, and boy did I not see this coming. It hit my teenage self like a ton of bricks and sent shockwaves through my body that reverberate today. Constantly chattering in the background is the sound of radio interference in my head. You don’t belong. It didn’t physically kill me; on the contrary, I became a strong, independent rock. And as I mustered an ounce of courage to begin to tear down the facade and become conscious of my motives—my true self, I became embarrassed. I realized I was maimed socially, emotionally, and psychologically, and I could not for the life of me hide from my inside self.

Fast forward to my entry into the corporate world at age 18, and without me being aware of why, it seemed those irrational behavioral assumptions, (mine and others), seemed to follow me wherever I went, rendering my workplace environment distressful, yet the work itself was so enjoyable.

1.  The Human Condition

How did we smart humans get so messed up?

Itook a great interest in investigating this irrational behavioral mystery and pursued corporate environment analysis with vigor. While supporting a variety of large organizations I found every enterprise had an underlying, unsaid group mentality. People appeared to follow the crowd and this behavior was the most prominent elephant in the room. I wondered what makes a crowd do