Amy Blankson is the only person to be named a Point of Light by two Presidents (President Bush and President Clinton). She received a Presidential appointment to serve a five-year term on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service, and was one of the youngest delegates to the Presidents’ Summit for America’s Future. Amy received her BA from Harvard and MBA from Yale School of Management. In 2007, Amy co-founded GoodThink to bring the science of happiness to life for organizations and individuals. Amy brings both passion and practicality to GoodThink. She is currently doing research in partnership with Google to determine how to make positive psychology strategies stick and create sustainable positive change. She serves as a Visioneer for the Xprize Foundation for Personal Health, and was a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. Amy is the author of two books: Ripple’s Effect and The Future of Happiness: 5 Modern Strategies to Balance Productivity and Well-being in the Digital Era.
Amy Blankson
Research Focus: Technology, Productivity, and Well-being
Co-founder GoodThink, Presidential Point of Light, Award-winning Author Learn More
Sample Topics
Technology—at least in theory—is improving our productivity, efficiency, and communication. Yet the average mobile user checks their phones more than 150 times per day, and 67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating. Mindful attention is a scarce resource. As one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and technology, Amy Blankson unveils five strategies that successful individuals use to find a sense of balance between technology, productivity, and wellbeing in the Digital Age. In this talk, you will learn how to move from partial attention to full intention, how to hack your distractions to achieve maximum productivity and life satisfaction, and how to rid yourself of the tech graveyard in your office drawers to create more mental and physical space to do the things you love. By rethinking when, where, why and how we use technology, we can begin to recapture our focus, deepen engagement, and find flow in our everyday activities and relationships.LEARNING OBJECTIVES:Discover the impact of distraction on your productivity and happiness.Establish positive technology boundaries to shift from a mindset of inattention to one of full intention.Learn healthy habits for tech use to maximize flow and engagementUnderstand how your technology use impacts your perception as a leader.Increase your flow and engagement by using brain-training techniques.BEST AUDIENCES:Sales, Entrepreneurs, Financial Services, Direct Sales, Technology, Education
Happiness is the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy, yet so often it is seen as a luxury at work. However, a decade of research shows that training your brain to be positive at work actually fuels greater success. In fact, 75% of our job success is predicted not by intelligence, but by your optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way. It is time to get strategic about how we can raise happiness levels at our organizations to empower teams to reach their full potential. In this talk, Amy draws on her experiences working as Co-founder of global consulting firm GoodThink to empower teams that happiness is a choice, happiness is a habit, and happiness spreads. She explains how we rethink stress in the midst of change and challenge and how we can lead positive change from any position in the organization.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Learn how the field of positive psychology has changed everything we thought we knew about finding happiness and success.
- Understand why happiness is a choice and not a genetic or environmental byproduct.
- Discover practical strategies for practicing happiness on a daily basis.
- Uncover the power of emotional contagion and use positive social influence to deal with toxic co-workers.
BEST AUDIENCES:
Sales, Entrepreneurs, Financial Services, Direct Sales, Technology, Education
In the information economy, collaboration is the ultimate currency. Digital communities now enable us to “upsource” projects to collective wisdom, thereby tapping into vast reserves of knowledge and creativity. Yet at the heart of this movement are individuals, many of whom have ceased to believe that they can overcome systemic barriers to making a difference in their organization. The Ancient Greeks defined optimism as “the belief that our behavior matters,” which is a critical concept for helping individuals to remove limiting beliefs and to shift towards solutions-based thinking. In this talk, Amy will share inspiring stories of individuals who have mobilized their communities for positive change and will reveal core strategies for how to leverage the potential of teams. Using a combination of design thinking and experiential activities, Amy will show audience members how we can all be innovators if we act together with intention.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Learn how upsourcing knowledge has fundamentally shifted the nature of collaboration in the Digital Era.
- Discover how leaders are leveraging collective wisdom to innovate faster and more effectively.
- Understand why positive individuals are 3X more creative than negative individuals.
- Identify and fact-check limiting beliefs that hinder creativity.
- Empower individuals to use a growth mindset to fuel innovation and create positive change.
BEST AUDIENCES:
Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Technology, Civic/Government, Education, Nonprofits
In the information economy, collaboration is the ultimate currency. Digital communities now enable us to “upsource” projects to collective wisdom, thereby tapping into vast reserves of knowledge and creativity. Yet at the heart of this movement are individuals, many of whom have ceased to believe that they can overcome systemic barriers to making a difference in their organization. The Ancient Greeks defined optimism as “the belief that our behavior matters,” which is a critical concept for helping individuals to remove limiting beliefs and to shift towards solutions-based thinking. In this talk, Amy will share inspiring stories of individuals who have mobilized their communities for positive change and will reveal core strategies for how to leverage the potential of teams. Using a combination of design thinking and experiential activities, Amy will show audience members how we can all be innovators if we act together with intention.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Learn how upsourcing knowledge has fundamentally shifted the nature of collaboration in the Digital Era.
- Discover how leaders are leveraging collective wisdom to innovate faster and more effectively.
- Understand why positive individuals are 3X more creative than negative individuals.
- Identify and fact-check limiting beliefs that hinder creativity.
- Empower individuals to use a growth mindset to fuel innovation and create positive change.
BEST AUDIENCES:
Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Technology, Civic/Government, Education, Nonprofits
Book: The Future of Happiness
Technology—at least in theory—is improving our productivity, efficiency, and communication. Yet the proliferation of smartphones and the Internet also coincides with historically high levels of depression and life dissatisfaction. As the speed of innovation only seems to be increasing, researchers are turning attention to one of the most important questions of our time: will we continue to see declines in physical, emotional, and mental health due to our current use of technology, or can we harness technology by using new strategies to actually raise happiness, wellbeing and deep connection?
Instead of technology getting in the way of happiness, we have a unique opportunity to become digitally-enhanced optimists, using technology to fuel greater levels of happiness and meaning within our lives. In The Future of Happiness, author Amy Blankson, Harvard graduate, Yale MBA, and co-founder of the global positive psychology consulting firm GoodThink, unveils five strategies that successful individuals use to not just survive—but to actually thrive—in the Digital Age. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to move from partial attention to full intention; when to fuse it [new tech] or lose it; how to hack your distractions to achieve maximum productivity and life satisfaction; and even how to finally get rid of the tech graveyard in your office drawers to create more mental and physical space to do the things you love. By rethinking when, where, why and how we use technology, not only are we able to influence our own wellbeing but also we’re also able to help proactively shape the future of our communities.
Book: Ripple’s Effect
It takes big actions to make big changes. Or does it? In Ripple’s Effect, residents of an aquarium learn that sometimes a smile is all it takes to make a world of difference. Awash with charming illustrations, this delightful tale will show children that happiness is a choice they get to make for themselves. Recipient of the Mom’s Choice Gold Award and digital bestseller on Amazon Kindle for Children’s Books. Read more…
What People Are Saying
“She was absolutely FANTASTIC to have! Our nurses have more positive, outgoing, and passionate about patient care since her chat today. We are extremely grateful to have had the pleasure of working with Amy and having her speak to our nurses. Our entire leadership team had a wonderful experience as well. We are just so very grateful to have had the opportunity to hear Amy speak. Thank you, thank you, we can’t thank you enough!”
— Dignity Health
“Amy’s keynote at the Entrepreneur’s Organization Conference “One Level Up” (Munich, September 2016) delivered phenomenal take-home value for our participants. She played an integral role in our vision to create a very special learning event tailored on personality development – and allowed our member entrepreneurs to better understand how to actively influence their happiness and lead a better life. The scientific findings about positive psychology helped to understand “why” happiness is not just a genetic predisposition – and the daily habits provided the specific tools needed to transform one’s life.
—Entrepreneur’s Organization
“Amy gave an inspirational presentation to our legal team and SPLC leadership, leaving everyone fabulously energized and ready to make a choice for happiness.”
— Southern Poverty Law Center