What is Mood?

What is mood? This may seem like an obvious question but think about it. Mood is immediately apparent in a company or a family- and whether we want to spend time in a place depends upon its and our mood. Moods are both individual, collective, geographically linked (e.g. Brighton feels very different from London) and historical (the mood in the recession is different from a few years ago). Mood underpins effective action and coordination in business, intimate relationships, in fact any aspect of life – and yet mood it is ill defined and not addressed by much training, development and coaching.

Influenced by training at Strozzi Institute and with Newfield (see video below) I differentiate between moods and emotions. The latter happen in response to a stimulus (e.g, I’m unhappy because the sun isn’t shining today) and the former occurring over longer time frames (think of a friend with a “sunny” disposition whatever the weather). Moods occur in the body and limit or expand our options. A definition of mood that bears this in mind is: “A physical predisposition for action” – Richard Strozzi Heckler (after Fernando Flores I think).

I’ve found individuals and organisations moods to be a crucial factor in whether they are succeeding or failing, and in whether any training succeeds or fails. Here are some challenges relating to working with moods.

Mood is invisible from the inside
People live “in” their mood like fish live in water and our own moods are largely invisible. We constantly broadcast our own mood and pick up on other’s (often unconsciously) which is a little scary if you don’t know what you’re broadcasting. “Explicit” conversation about mood can be very threatening to people not used to having them and the word alone can put people off if not used with care (e.g. the negative connotation of “moody”)

Moods are bodily
Most training is cerebral in nature so finds it difficult to address moods which exist in the body. Of course Embodied Management Training is an exception 🙂

Moods are tough to shift
Changing someones emotion is relatively easy – just give them a cake or kick them in the shins. Sadly moods are much harder to shift. Repeated practices over time and embedding someone in a community with a very different mood are two ways that work well. A critical realisation in coaching can work but a shift in cognitive understanding alone is often not enough.