Are Wellbeing Our Measures Doing More Harm Than Good? with Peggy Kern

Peggy Kern is a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education in the Center for Positive Psychology. Originally trained in Social-Personality and Development Psychology, Peggy's research examines the question of who flourishes in life physically, mentally and socially, and she's one of the world's leading researchers on the subject of measuring wellbeing, particularly using the PERMA pillars.

In this episode, we explore new research to understand why most wellbeing workplace measures and strategies are falling short, and the small practical changes we can make to help more people thrive at work. 

Connect with Peggy Kern:

Website: http://peggykern.org

You’ll Learn:

• [02:43] - Peggy explains the surprising findings of a new survey on wellbeing across Australian workplaces, and what this might mean for other workplaces.
• [08:24] - Peggy explores how our current approaches to measuring wellbeing may have unintentionally created more stigma for people who are struggling.
• [10:58] - Peggy shares her concerns for how wellbeing is being taught in schools and what this could mean for workplaces as well.
• [12:23] – Peggy suggests workplaces need to embrace wellbeing diversity, just as they are starting embrace neurodiversity.
• [13:38] - Peggy explains why wellbeing is a not a solo endeavor in workplaces, and how teams and organizations impact people’s wellbeing at work.
• [17:09] - Peggy shares some practical strategies emerging from the research that workplaces can use to help support their people’s wellbeing.
• [20:23] - Peggy explains why workplaces shouldn’t be aiming for perfect wellbeing scores, and what they monitor instead to determine the success of their programs.
• [22:49] - Peggy Completes the Lightning round.

Your Resources:

• MPPW Podcast on Facebook

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

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Until next time, take care!  Thank you Peggy!