This session explores a question at the center of Shawn Achor’s newest research: how much do the beliefs people hold about themselves, their work, and their world shape what happens next? Drawing on two decades of research across 51 countries — and work spanning Fortune 100 companies, NASA, the NFL, public school systems, and six battalions of Marines — Achor introduces a set of seven core beliefs he has found to be most consistently linked to performance, health, and well-being, ranging from the belief that one’s behavior matters to the belief that one’s work is meaningful. He situates these findings against what he calls the Great Drift — the concurrent rise of burnout, anxiety, loneliness, and depression — and argues that as technology has grown more powerful, beliefs have become more predictive, not less. You will leave with several research-tested strategies for shifting limiting beliefs in yourself and others, and a framework for understanding how belief change spreads through teams and organizations.

Shawn Achor is the New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential. Shawn graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and earned a master’s from Harvard Divinity School in Christian and Buddhist ethics. After spending 12 years at Harvard, Shawn traveled to 50 countries studying how to create an interconnected approach to potential and happiness. He has now worked with over a third of the Fortune 100 companies, and at places like NASA, the NFL, and the Pentagon. Shawn has battle-tested his research in high-challenge environments, from working with all the public schools in Flint, Michigan, to six battalions of Marines at Camp Pendleton, to government leaders at Camp David, to students in a shantytown in Soweto, South Africa, to hospitals in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando and the Boston bombing. In every place, Shawn has found that optimism can be increased through mindset and behavioral change, and that by creating an interconnected approach to happiness and success, we shine brighter together. Shawn’s research made the cover of Harvard Business Review, his TED talk is one of the most popular of all time with over 20 million views, and his lecture airing on PBS has been seen by millions.

Hosted by Monica Worline, Faculty Director, Center for Positive Organizations