15 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Happier. Forget success. Forget fame. Forget fortune. Happiness is something everyone wants, and wants to feel a lot more often--because where happiness is concerned, too much is never enough. Unfortunately we all have a hereditary "happiness set point. " That means approximately 50% of our happiness is outside of our control. But that means 50 percent of our level of happiness is totally within our control. So even if you're genetically disposed to be somewhat gloomy, you can still do things to make yourself a lot happier. So doesn't it make sense to create habits and build a lifestyle that allows you to feel more satisfied and more fulfilled? Check out this infographic on the science of happiness from Happify...and start making changes that will make you feel a lot happier. Urban Europe — statistics on cities, towns and suburbs - Statistics Explained. Click on the image for an interactive view of the data Executive summary 1.
Introduction 2. The urban paradox 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. How happy are you with your city? EU report data – in pictures | Cities. Output and analysis of subjective well-being measures - OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being - NCBI Bookshelf. The Economics of Well-Being. Artwork: Yue Minjun, Noah’s Ark, 2006, lithograph and silk screen, 105 x 134 cm Money isn’t everything. But for measuring national success, it has long been pretty much the only thing (other than, of course, sports). The specific metric that has prevailed since World War II is the dollar value of a country’s economic output, expressed first as gross national product, later as gross domestic product. This is an improvement over ranking by military victories—the most time-honored gauge. And the era of GNP and GDP has been characterized by a huge global rise in living standards and in wealth. At the moment, though, GDP is embattled. Economists and national leaders are increasingly talking about measuring a country’s status with other metrics and even with a squishy-seeming concept like “happiness.”
As everyone in business knows, you manage what you measure. From Happiness Calculus to GDP Although the basic idea of utility took off, Bentham’s approach to it did not. Measurement error. Daily chart: The world’s most “liveable” cities. WHILE residents of Melbourne enjoy another year in the world’s most liveable city, according to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking from our corporate cousin the Economist Intelligence Unit, spare a thought for those who live in the 57 cities that have steadily deteriorated over the last five years.
The ranking, which considers 30 factors related to things like safety, healthcare, educational resources, infrastructure and environment in 140 cities, shows that since 2010 average liveability across the world has fallen by 1%, led by a 2.2% fall in the score for stability and safety. Ongoing conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Libya have been compounded by terrorist shootings in France and Tunisia as well as civil unrest in America. In Athens, austerity rather than unrest has weighed on the provision of public services, while Kiev saw the sharpest fall over the last 12 months and is now among the ten least liveable cities ranked. Understanding How Gallup Uses the Cantril Scale. The Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale (Cantril, 1965) has been included in several Gallup research initiatives, including Gallup's World Poll of more than 150 countries, representing more than 98% of the world's population, and Gallup's in-depth daily poll of America's wellbeing (Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index; Harter & Gurley, 2008).
The Cantril Self-Anchoring Scale, developed by pioneering social researcher Dr. Hadley Cantril, consists of the following: Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top.The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you.On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time? (ladder-present)On which step do you think you will stand about five years from now?
(ladder-future) One distinct value of the Cantril Scale is the fact that a respondent can self-anchor themselves based on their perspective. Standard of living. Standard of living refers to the level of wealth, comfort, material goods and necessities available to a certain socioeconomic class in a certain geographic area. The standard of living includes factors such as income, quality and availability of employment, class disparity, poverty rate, quality and affordability of housing, hours of work required to purchase necessities, gross domestic product, inflation rate, amount of leisure time every year, affordable (or free) access to quality healthcare, quality and availability of education, life expectancy, incidence of disease, cost of goods and services, infrastructure, national economic growth, economic and political stability, political and religious freedom, environmental quality, climate and safety.
The standard of living is closely related to quality of life.[1] In 2013, the Human Development Index ranked the top six countries for quality of living as: Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands, United States and Germany.[2] Herzberg's Motivators and Hygiene Factors - from MindTools.com. Learn how to Motivate Your Team © VeerSergey Nivens Enabling your people to move forward motivates them. What do people want from their jobs? Do they just want a higher salary? Or do they want security, good relationships with co-workers, opportunities for growth and advancement – or something else altogether? This is an important question, because it's at the root of motivation - the art of engaging with members of your team in such a way that they give their very best performance. The psychologist Fredrick Herzberg asked the same question in the 1950s and 60s as a means of understanding employee satisfaction.
These results form the basis of Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory (sometimes known as Herzberg's Two Factor Theory). Motivation-Hygiene Theory Herzberg's findings revealed that certain characteristics of a job are consistently related to job satisfaction, while different factors are associated with job dissatisfaction. Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Review. Note: Tip 1:
Understanding How Gallup Uses the Cantril Scale. Monocle’s 2015 Quality of Life Survey: Melbourne is better than Sydney. Sydney Harbour and Harbour Bridge are seen from Circular Quay. Apparently Melbourne tops this. SHERINE CONYERS and WIRESAAP SYDNEYSIDERS might not want to hear it, but apparently Melbourne is a better place to live. In a world ranking of the most livable cities, Monocle’s 2015 Quality of Life Survey has put Melbourne in fourth place, just ahead on Sydney on fifth.
But Sydney is on the rise, climbing to fifth from 11th, while Melbourne was bumped from third. Tokyo has been crowned the most livable city, earning high marks for its “defining paradox of heart-stopping size and concurrent feeling of peace and quiet,” the magazine said. While lovers of Australia’s largest city may disagree, they can rest knowing they’re still ‘more livable’ than Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth — none of which made it to the top 25. Last year’s champion and three-time winner Copenhagen took a nosedive, falling to number 10.
But the marking system has made some significant changes to how cities are rated. Top 25 cities: Monocle's Quality of Life Survey Is an Alternative Top Destinations for 2015 – Skift. The annual Quality of Life Survey in Monocle magazine’s July issue has always functioned as an un-Places to Go list, with a collection of cities that are excellent places to live, work, and enjoy life rather than take a selfie atop a high-altitude attraction or embark on a safari. For travelers, the list is typically one of second- or third-tier cities, mostly in northern Europe but also Australia and Asia. North and South America appear infrequently and Africa and the Middle East have never ranked. Neither has an Italian city, for that matter. From a travel perspective, the list highlights how difficult it can be to live in tourist hubs like New York, London, or Rome, while also extolling the public transit benefits of Copenhagen, the smart urban planning of Portland, or the low-budget appeal of Berlin.
In every case the selections are good for visitors, but not at the expense of locals. The Monocle Quality of Life Survey 2015 from Monocle on Vimeo. The Value of Rankings and the Meaning of Livability | International Making Cities Livable. Since first using the term “livable cities” back in the 1980s to describe quality of life and the characteristics of cities that make them livable, IMCL has seen the term used in countless ways to describe standard of living, rather than quality of life. Every city wants to be considered the “most livable,” a title that can attract new business and investments, boost local economies and real estate markets, and foster community involvement and pride. The term has become so widely, if not overly used, that its meaning is becoming lost. Now, numerous rankings of "most livable cities" exist, the most renowned being those from the Economist, Forbes.com, and more recently, Monocle.
The Economist and Forbes base their rankings primarily on data from the Mercer consulting company, which annually measures "quality of living" standards, using data such as crime rates, health statistics, sanitation standards, and expenditures on city services. How does your city compare to others? New ISO standard to measure up (2014-05-14) A landmark ISO standard outlining key measurements for evaluating a city's service delivery and quality of life has just been published. Its use will help city managers, politicians, researchers, business leaders, planners, designers and other professionals to focus on key issues, and put in place policies for more livable, tolerant, sustainable, resilient, economically attractive and prosperous cities.
Why do we need city indicators? Currently, 53 % of the world’s population resides in cities, a figure that is expected to rise to 70 % by 2050. Cities are cultural and economic centres which today generate 70 % of the global GDP. Investing in them may be a priority for many governments, but doing so sustainably and effectively can be a challenge – this where ISO 37120:2014 can help.
The indicators included in ISO 37120:2014 will help cities to assess their performance and measure progress overtime, with the ultimate goal of improving quality of life and sustainability. Is it for me? The Balanced Scorecard—Measures that Drive Performance. In the same way that you can’t fly an airplane with just one instrument gauge, you can’t manage a company with just one kind of performance measure. Think of a balanced scorecard as the instrument panel in the cockpit of an airplane. It’s a set of interrelated gauges that links seemingly disparate information about a company’s finances and operations. Together, they give you a more complete view of how your company has been performing, as well as where it’s headed. A balanced scorecard asks you to think of your company’s mission and strategy from four key perspectives: 1. How do customers see us? 2. 3. 4. Next, identify the handful of measures that are most critical to your company’s success in each of the four perspectives.
The Idea in Practice What you measure is what you get: the measures you use strongly affect the behavior of your managers and employees. 1. 2. 3. 4. A semiconductor company that the authors call Electronic Circuits Inc. Performance measurement. Daily chart: The world’s most liveable cities. COMING up with a list of the world’s best cities is a near-impossible task.
The bustle and hum of megacities like São Paulo or Tokyo might be too much for some people; others might struggle with the pace of life in Cleveland or Frankfurt. A ranking released on August 18th by our corporate cousin, the Economist Intelligence Unit, attempts instead to quantify the world’s most “liveable” cities—that is, which locations around the world provide the best or the worst living conditions. The index, measured out of 100, considers 30 factors related to safety, health care, educational resources, infrastructure and the environment to calculate scores for 140 cities. Those that score best tend to be mid-sized cities in wealthier countries. Melbourne tops the list for the sixth year in a row (see chart, right), and six of the top ten cities are in Australia or Canada. Melbourne, Australia Vienna, Austria Vancouver, Canada Toronto, Canada Calgary, Canada. The World’s Most Liveable Cities - Our World.
Do you live in the most liveable city in the world? But what does that really mean? We love ranking cities and attaching fancy titles to them. Perhaps you live in a global city? According to the American Journal of Foreign Policy, global cities are the most interconnected cities, serving as hubs for global integration and helping to set international agendas. Those same cities appear in other rankings such as the Global Power City Index, the Global Economic Power Index and the Global City Competitive Index.
However, the three rankings I want to discuss in this article focus more on liveability of a city than on economic power and global influence. Taking the rankings at face value, Vienna would clearly be the winner as it is the only city that appears in all three rankings. Seeing the funny side The honest truth is that if you see a newspaper headline along the lines of “Vienna is the world’s most liveable city!” Turns out that he is completely right. I was fooled. To Thrive, We Must Be In Touch With Each Other by Sarah van Gelder. Imagine that instead of reading these words on a screen, you are sitting across from me over a cup of coffee.
You’re sharing your stories, and I’m sharing mine. As we talk, we notice many things about each other, because our words are just a small part of what we communicate. I watch your eyes, which may be focused or may be darting to a cell phone. The corners of your mouth might turn up slightly, or you might raise your eyebrows when you’re provoked.
As we learn about another person in these many ways, we have a harder time dismissing them, because even when they say something we disagree with, we have these other indications that we are with a living, breathing, flawed yet miraculous being who struggles and falls short, just as we do. On my road trip last year, I realized when I listened to the conversations I’d recorded how often they took place over coffee or a meal. Nelson Escobar, an immigrant from El Salvador, and Elmer Zavala, originally from Honduras, started the farm. Net promoter: Creating a reliable metric - Loyalty Insights #2. The Ultimate List of Net Promoter® Best Practice Tips | Genroe. How to calculate Net Promoter Margin of Error and other stats | Genroe.
Most People Don’t Understand Sample Size | Genroe. Transactional Vs Relationship Customer feedback: Which is right for you? | Genroe. Relationship vs. Transactional Customer Satisfaction Surveys - FedPulse. NPS Best Practices: The most effective way to send a Net Promoter Score℠ survey. Net Promoter Network. Customer Experience Strategies: Set Your Business Apart with Net Promoter Score | Customer Feedback.
A Startup’s Guide to Net Promoter Score - Retently. What's Common Between Companies With High Net Promoter Score? Why Doing In-App NPS Surveys Is a Bad Idea - Promoter.io Blog. 55% of Visitors Spend Fewer Than 15 Seconds on Your Website. Should You Care? 3 Things You Can Learn from T-Mobile’s NPS Mistakes. Deconstructing Apple's Transactional NPS Survey - Promoter.io Blog. The "Secret" of Apple's Success: NPS as a measure of Customer Delight.
Net Promoter Score: A great system badly weakened in the hands of poor execution. How often should I survey the net promoter score (NPS)? - Quora. Measuring Customer Satisfaction Shouldn’t Be Complicated. Forbes Welcome. Measuring happiness | Net Promoter System Blog. Measuring happiness: What's the difference between CSAT and NPS? | Relate by Zendesk. The 6 Ways To Measure Customer Happiness And Why NPS Takes The Cake. Past Winners - Santa Monica - 2016 Mayors Challenge. About the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Take the Gross National Happiness Index - Happiness Alliance home of The Happiness Initiative & Gross National Happines Index. Happiness Alliance home of The Happiness Initiative & Gross National Happines Index - Home page for the Happiness Alliance - Home of the Happiness Initiative and GNH Index. On Gauging the Pursuit of Happiness. How Can a City Measure Its Happiness? Santa Monica found some surprises in creating well-being index.
The Wellbeing Project. Santa Monica: the city that wants to design itself happier | Cities. Measuring national well-being: Life in the UK - Office for National Statistics. In Bhutan, Gross National Happiness Trumps Gross National Product. Gross national happiness in Bhutan: the big idea from a tiny state that could change the world | World news. Grossnationalhappiness. Culture Counts. Culture Counts - Dimensions.
Culture Counts - Creating your first evaluation. Culture Counts - Designing your survey.