What’s wrong with positive psychology?

I have been touring South Asia/India for over a week now. One thing that has left me stunned is the incessant yearning for feedback in the service sector. Every restaurant, cafe, hairdresser, and car rental company wants feedback.

Typically, feedback involves careful attention to customers perception and a calculated response for process improvement. But this is not the kind of feedback. Instead, it is obsessive i.e. you would be chased for feedback, even more, if you compliment the servicer (so think twice). It is selective in that only positive feedback mattes. And it is single-mindedly focused on what goes well, or at least, all that ends well.

Let’s call it the Positive Feedback (PF) Culture.

And I even have a slogan for it:

Happy ending

A number of experiences have led me to this slogan. Here’s one. A week ago, I checked in at a hotel at 3am. I was first offered an unclean room in a noisy alleyway. When I raised my concern the matter was dealt with professionally. I was then assigned a clean room higher up, and once I expressed my happiness, it was all smiles around me. But that wasn’t it. I was told ‘sir, please give good feedback for us.’

No culture can survive without rituals. And PF Cultures also have one to mark happy endings. At the time of my checkout, there was cake cutting and a photo ceremony with the happy staff. I enjoyed it!

But I’ve been reflecting ever since. Where my problems began, how the matter was resolved, what could be learned from a disgruntled customer, how the hotel services could use this experience to improve their offering – none of these was their concern. The PF Culture knows only winning, celebrating and ending stories on a happy note. That’s what gets measured.

I’m wondering how is this PF Culture any different from Safety Reporting Systems?

From the outset the end goal is clear – happiness guaranteed or zero accidents.

Every story follows the same pattern of the Roman myth: one way journey from chaos to order.

If it’s not happy ending, don’t bother to tell your story.

So where does this leave us?

Any successful entrepreneur will tell you that success takes learning from and engaging with failures. If you are collecting too many happy ending stories, chances are that you have a pathological culture. Learn to question such stories.

Photo: As I was coming out of the hotel, I saw this Jeep parked outside. I took it as a sign!