BONUS SEASON: Take Tiny Steps – Sustaining Momentum
Making Positive Psychology Work
Release Date: 10/16/2025
BONUS SEASON: Leading Human-Centered Change - Your HEART Check
Making Positive Psychology Work
While new data suggests 58% of changes fail, organizations using human-centered methods achieve 93% success rates. What's the difference? This final episode reveals how the HEART framework helps teams thrive through today's supercycle of change by helping people feel 'safe enough' to embrace not having all the answers, self-organize around actions they care enough to own, and measure success by growing their capabilities to navigate uncertainty together. We bring together all five HEART factors into one simple practice you can do anywhere, anytime. 02:00 Michelle shares how she talks...
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BONUS SEASON: Take Tiny Steps – Sustaining Momentum
Making Positive Psychology Work
Change initiatives often start with such confidence - neat timelines, clear milestones, everyone aligned - yet within weeks things feel messy and unpredictable. What makes the reality so different from the plan? This episode explores why "tiny is mighty" when it comes to navigating complex change. We share the T in our HEART framework with practical tools for embracing polarities rather than false choices, starting where you are, sensing when to adapt, and celebrating small wins that build the resilience needed to thrive in ongoing uncertainty. 01:04 Chelle explains the benefits of Taking Tiny...
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BONUS SEASON: Reach Out – Connecting Ideas & Resources
Making Positive Psychology Work
Why do some teams emerge from uncertainty stronger and more connected, while others splinter into silos where everyone's fending for themselves? The difference lies in whether people feel safe enough to admit they're struggling and ask for help. This episode reveals why reaching out is often the one simple act standing between you and success during change. We share the R in our HEART framework with practical tools for normalizing struggle, making it easier to ask for and offer help, and ensuring no one burns out from caring. 01:12 Chelle explains why Reaching Out helps us to navigate the...
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BONUS SEASON: Appreciate Strengths – Fuelling Confidence & Capability
Making Positive Psychology Work
Ever notice how some changes leave people feeling energized and capable while others leave them exhausted and overwhelmed? What creates this difference? Why do some uncertainties feel like exciting challenges while others trigger that familiar "Oh FUD!" spiral of fear, uncertainty and doubt? This episode explores how to fuel people’s confidence, make the most of their capabilities, and help them stay curious about how they can navigate change more effectively together. We share the A in our HEART framework with evidence-based approaches to help you build on people’s strengths while also...
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BONUS SEASON: Engage Purposefully – Winning People’s Commitment
Making Positive Psychology Work
Have you ever been in a meeting where someone shares a "big announcement" and you can practically hear everyone's minds turning off? Compare that to times when you're figuring out a problem together with people you trust - same amount of work, totally different feeling. What makes some complex changes feel safe enough to lean into while others feel dead on arrival? This episode explores how to turn grudging compliance into willing commitment during change. We share the E in our HEART framework with practical tools for meaningful conversations that support self-organization. 01.09 Michelle...
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BONUS SEASON: Honor Feelings - Your Nervous System’s Navigation System
Making Positive Psychology Work
Why do some people thrive during change while others get completely overwhelmed? It comes down to whether their nervous system feels "safe enough" to stay curious and collaborative. This episode explores how your emotions impact your brain's internal navigation system and energy for change. We share the H in our HEART framework with concrete tools for reading these signals at individual, team, and organizational levels, transforming emotional chaos into psychological safety. 3:00 Chelle explains why Honoring Feelings is the best neurological place to start when navigating change. 8.13 Chelle...
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BONUS SEASON: Navigating The Human Side Of Change
Making Positive Psychology Work
Ever wonder why change feels so much harder than it did in the past? We're in an unprecedented supercycle where disruptions collide and create ongoing "Oh FUD!" responses - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt that are flooding our nervous systems. Based on our work with organizations around the world, we share why traditional approaches miss what matters most and introduce our HEART framework for supporting teams through the emotional reality of transformation, even when uncertainty is the only constant. 1:49 Michelle discusses the concept of a "poly crisis" and why we are in a supercycle of change...
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Making Positive Psychology Work - Afterparty with Chelle, Paige and Michelle
Making Positive Psychology Work
In this week's episode - join us for a chat and a laugh as we reminisce about the highs (and lows!) of 250 episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work. 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. Please . Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them. And don’t forget to to get automatic updates....
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Do You Have A Wellbeing Strategy? with Dr. Peggy Kern
Making Positive Psychology Work
Dr. Peggy Kern is an associate professor at the Centre for Wellbeing Science within the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education. Originally trained in social personality and developmental psychology, Peggy's research focuses on understanding, measuring, and supporting wellbeing across the lifespan. She works with schools and workplaces to examine strategies for supporting wellbeing and bridging gaps between research and practice and has published three books, over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and most recently the wonderful and freely available Palgrave Handbook of...
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Can You Unlock The Leader Within? with Halla Tómasdóttir
Making Positive Psychology Work
Halla Tómasdóttir is the CEO of the B Team, a group of courageous business and civil society leaders working together to transform business for a better world. Halla started her leadership career in corporate America, working for Mars and Pepsi-Cola. She was on the founding team at Reykjavik University, where she established the executive education department, founded and led a successful women's entrepreneurship and empowerment initiative, and was an assistant professor at the business school. She was the first female CEO of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce and later went on to co-found an...
info_outlineChange initiatives often start with such confidence - neat timelines, clear milestones, everyone aligned - yet within weeks things feel messy and unpredictable. What makes the reality so different from the plan? This episode explores why "tiny is mighty" when it comes to navigating complex change. We share the T in our HEART framework with practical tools for embracing polarities rather than false choices, starting where you are, sensing when to adapt, and celebrating small wins that build the resilience needed to thrive in ongoing uncertainty.
01:04 Chelle explains the benefits of Taking Tiny Steps when it comes to navigating change.
09:30 Chelle shares the four elements that make it easier to take tiny steps together from polarities to celebrations.
16:44 Chelle offers a metaphor from Peter Senge to understand why we need to sense, learn, and adapt when it comes to navigating complex change.
20:52 Chelle provides two personal tools to embrace "both/and" thinking as we navigate the polarities of change.
25:58 Chelle shares two team tools to leverage The Progress Principle practices to celebrate small wins together.
32:49 Chelle offers two organizational tools to embed adaptative learning across organizational cultures.
39:24 Chelle shares an example of how her team apply these tools for The Michelle McQuaid Group.
48:13 Chelle explains where workplaces tend to struggle when it comes to taking tiny steps.
50:50 Chelle shares the post-it note a-ha for taking tiny steps.