Bring on the Buzz

A couple of years ago I stumbled onto The Happiness Lab by Dr. Laurie Santos, thanks to an email from my children’s school. You may have listened to it – it’s excellent. The episode mentioned was Mistakenly Seeking Solitude which explored why it is good for us to talk to strangers. While most people don’t WANT to talk to the person next to them on the train in the morning, those who do often find their happiness level increase. The podcast discusses how the cost of not being social makes us feel awful and how tapping into strangers is a low-stakes training ground to practice our social skills, likening each conversation we have with a stranger as a little bit of air into our leaky happiness tyres – frequency matters – cause they keep filling our tyres!

The Wellbeing Officer shared this podcast to encourage new high school students, but it got me thinking that there’s no real difference between them and me—random chats are good for the soul! That’s why at AgileAus this year, we’ll again incentivise attendees (think plush toys, wine, and books) to strike up conversations with people they don’t know. You just never know who you might meet!

I recently shared how much I learn from eavesdropping—there are plenty of opportunities for that at AgileAus! From hearing many of the speaker dry-runs over the last couple of months, I know there will be much to learn from their stories. But what I can’t know yet is how much I will learn from the hallways, the coffee queue—the magic in the people I meet and the vital (sometimes serendipitous) connections I will make. Gathering to learn is a moment of collective effervescence.

Rachel Botsman, a past keynote speaker at AgileAus, recently shared in her excellent Rethink newsletter the importance of ‘collective effervescence’. This great feeling is generated when we come together with a shared purpose. She explains how we need to sometimes thoughtfully carve out and even orchestrate these “moments of us” in our workplaces and communities. She quotes research to explain why we enjoy the footy more at the pub; or someone’s music more at a concert – it is about the buzz created when we carve out time to gather.

AgileAus24 is being held on 12-13 August 2024 in Melbourne. You can find out more and register at agileaustralia.com.au/2024/