The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Month: February 2008

  • HP and I are making the UK happy!

    Today I’m in Stratford-upon-Avon (birthplace of William Shakespeare) helping Hewlett-Packard promote their Happy People campaign to their UK channel partners.

    I wrote about this campaign previously. The cool thing about it is that they’re using happiness at work to promote their products – and of course that they hired me for it :o)

    As part of the campaign, they made this sweet little flash presentation:

    Neat, huh?

    And remember, if you work in the UK, there’s still a chance for your company to win a workshop with me. More information here:

    Full disclosure: HP are paying me to participate in media activities related to this project and to do the workshops for the winning companies.

  • An inspiring story

    Here’s another great little video from youtube: My friend Stephen Hopson who is deaf from birth and a pilot and a professional speaker talks about a life changing moment.

    Also, catch Stephen’s excellent blog at Adversity University (and isn’t that a great name).

  • Eu-phoric and other -phorics

    Johnnie Moore and Rob Paterson have come up with a podcast interview format they call phoric in which the interviewee picks three youtube videos to set a theme for the conversation.

    I immediately jumped at the chance to participate, and here are my three clips:

    The opening from Love Actually.


    A fantastic Coca-Cola ad.


    Randy Pausch’s last lecture.

    Try and guess what my theme is :o)

    You can hear the resulting conversation here – there’s a short 10-minute version and an extended director’s cut.

  • Feliz en tu trabajo – my book is out in Spanish

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5Yaaaaaay: My first book is now out in Spanish!!!! You can read it free online, or buy it on paper for 27 euros or as a pdf ebook for 17 euros.

    You can read all about it at www.felizentutrabajo.com.

    The title in Spanish is “La hora feliz es de 9 a 5 – Cómo adorar tu trabajo y tu vida y arrasar en tu empresa” and it was translated by María Rodríguez de Vera of Contentspanish.

    But wait – there’s more: My book is also coming out in Danish in March which is really exciting and I’ve been talking to a Chinese publisher about a version in simplified Chinese AND to an Iranian about translating it to Farsi!

  • Spotted on my travels

    From a shop in Copenhagen:

    Coffee

    I spotted this one in the airport on my way to Austria:

    101 way to kill your boss

    And finally, this is what taxis look like in Sölden:

    Taxi Quaxi

    In Austria, they have frog taxis – Taxi Quaxi!

  • Back from Austria

    Skiing Sölden Austria

    I’m back from snowboarding in Sölden Austria and it absolutely rocked. I was very curious how my new Ride Snowboard + Burton boots would work out and they were excellent. I have never ridden so fast. In fact, I managed to seriously scare myself a couple of times :o)

    Steve RoeslerWhile I was gone Steve Roesler of the All Things Workplace blog did some excellent posts on change and happiness which I really enjoyed reading. My favorite has got to be the one on the backlash against happiness. Good grief!

    That post also inspired some great comments, especially Kevin Carson’s on the unethical use of Fish and similar tools in the hospital where he works and Scott Nutter’s notion that it’s not about being happy but happier.

    It’s interesting to notice that Steve’s style is more open and inquiring, where my blog posts tend to be more argumentative and “here’s what I think!”-like.

    So thank you Steve for giving the blog a great peek into a very important topic and for introducing some great conversations.

    To thank Steve for his help, I sent him a small present: a copy of my very favorite book on change. This is one book that changed me.

    And if you want another look at what I was up to in Austria, here’s a POV video of me snowboarding some fresh powder, ending with a major crash :o) Man, I love falling in powder!

    The video was taken with my new helmet-mounted video camera. Yes, I looove gadgets :o)

  • Vacation + guest blogger

    Steve RoeslerNext week I’ll be absent from the blog – and present on some Austrian ski slopes trying out my new Ride snowboard. Can I get a Yaaaay!

    While I’m gone, Steve Roesler of the All Things Workplace blog has promised to guest blog here. Over on his own blog, Steve’s been running a long series on change (he’s up to post 39 so far) and he’s promised to blog here about “Happiness, Satisfaction, and Change.” Thanks, Steve!

    I currently see three major things that make people unhappy at work in companies all over the world: bad management, too much work and large organizational change, so I look forward to seeing Steve’s thoughts on happiness and change. He’ll be introducing himself further in a post Friday.

    Meanwhile, I’ll be doing lots and lots of this:

    Wheeeee!!!