Moodset for TEDx

On 31 July 2021 I had the privilege to share an idea with fellow Aberdonians, and soon via the TED platform, with the world. The essence of the idea is that moodset is as important as mindset.

Organisational culture can be compared to someone’s personality, unlikely to change over a short period of time. Performance climate, however, is like a person’s mood, it can be influenced, affected, and changed on a daily basis by factors such as leadership language and behaviour. Climate takes daily effort and awareness from those in charge!

So, a big Energy Company may be known to have a certain culture, but one of their rig teams in the desert or the middle of the ocean will have its own performance climate or mood, its own team atmosphere.

Creating a climate for excellence is like setting an inspired mood. Yet I know from conversations with hundreds of professionals that while mindset or attitude is understood, mood or atmosphere is often ignored.

Leaders need to set the collective mood much like we need to set the collective mind, so it occurred to me that the word moodset should be formalised to help leaders address it as a key leading indicator for campaign success.

Moodset is about what we feel and sense; the atmosphere, the energy, the heart and soul of a group in a certain place.

A recent study by Oxford university proved conclusively that individuals are affected by how others around them are feeling. Mood is contagious.

In other studies, researchers have found that happiness makes people around 20% more productive than unhappy workers!

So, mood is proven to be contagious, and a positive mood can boost productivity by more than 20%!

These academic findings align with empirical experience I have had supporting dozens of campaigns where the right performance climate has helped to safely deliver quality results.

Appropriately, the experience our 10 TEDx Aberdeen speakers had as a cohort preparing and then delivering our talks last weekend, benefited from a very special moodset which was carefully curated and nurtured by several mentors and coaches; servant-leaders who inspired excellence in us.

My closing line to the audience is a message I am passionate about, and it also represents how we as a cohort felt at the end of the four-month journey involving the application, preparation, and delivery of our ideas from the red spot on the stage at the historical Aberdeen Arts Centre.

“Set your mood to inspired, and change your world!”