Following Shawn Achor’s opening keynote, this interactive workshop is designed to bring the science of happiness, belief, and intrinsic motivation to life through experience.

While research clearly shows that extrinsic rewards attract talent, sustained performance depends on intrinsic motivation and the beliefs people carry about their work, their impact, and one another. This session invites participants to move from insight to application by experiencing how belief shapes behavior, connection, and performance in real time.

Through guided activities, discussion, and storytelling, participants will explore how positive psychology principles show up in everyday leadership moments - and how small shifts in mindset and behavior can meaningfully influence engagement, resilience, and culture. To support shared language and memorable learning, participants will receive a complimentary copy of Shawn Achor’s parable, The Orange Frog, which uses story and metaphor to help teams internalize and apply the research long after the session ends.

This workshop is intentionally experiential, practical, and human - designed to complement Total Rewards strategies by strengthening the intrinsic drivers that determine whether those strategies truly work.

Key Takeaways: 

• A clearer understanding of how belief and intrinsic motivation influence performance, engagement, and retention
• Unexpected ways that prevailing social scripts unintentionally reinforce - or undermine - intrinsic motivation through everyday expectations
• A shared language for discussing optimism, meaning, and connection at work
• Insight into how storytelling and metaphor support emotional learning and lasting behavior change
• Concrete ideas for aligning recognition and rewards with how people actually experience work