The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Make change happen

    Gabe recently asked:

    What advice do you have for those who want to improve things and are consistently met with opposition?

    I gave my answer here but then I thought: “Hey, let’s get an expert in on the conversation.”

    I passed the question on to Ann Michael who blogs at managetochange.typepad.com. She wrote an excellent answer in the comments to the post and expanded on it on her own blog. My favorite part is:

    I know it’s an overused expression – but look for “low hanging fruit???. What are the relatively easy things (low or isolated implementation impact – e.g., things you or you and a buddy can do yourselves) that could have a noticeable positive impact on the business? That’s where you start (even if it’s not at the top of list for things YOU want to do first!). You need to gain credibility for your approach. Results speak louder than aspirations.

    There are more great suggestions in the comments on Ann’s post.

  • First interview(s)

    I announced yesterday that I would love to do an interview about happiness at work for your blog, and Mike MacLeod was the first to take me up on it.

    He asked 10 great questions and you can see the whole interview here.

    Update: Andrew Ferrier posts another interview here.

    Update update: And Erno Hannink posts his interview – complete with silly picture.

    Uodate[3]: Can lawyers be happy at work? Read the interview by Anastasia at the Lawsagna blog.

  • Ask the CHO: Making change happen

    Ask the CHOOn my post about liking vs. loving your job, Gabe asked an interesting question in the comments:

    What do you do if you work at a place where, every time you try to “raise your game???, i.e. creating coding standards, improving functionality of commonly used systems, etc, you are told that “We don’t have time for that.??? or “We should put that on the back burner until we have more staff.??? or anything else that ends up sounding like “No???.

    What advice do you have for those who want to improve things and are consistently met with opposition?

    To me, there are few things that are more demotivating than coming up with what I believe is a good idea, only to see it shot down by the usual, boiler-plate objections.

    And it doesn’t have to be this way. London-based innovation agency ?WhatIf! have implemented a practice they call greenhousing. In the book Sticky Wisdom, they write:

    Plants are at their most fragile when they are small and just starting to grow. That’s why gardeners use greenhouses. It’s the same with ideas. They are easiest to destroy when they first appear. Unfortunately, most business cultures tend to stifle ideas before they can take root.

    (more…)

  • An interview for your blog?

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5I will of course be promoting my book in many weird ways – and one that I’ve really been looking forward to is doing blog interviews.

    Here’s the deal: If you have a blog, and would like to do an interview with me about happiness at work, just email me your questions. I promise to answer the same day and if you like the answers you can post them to your blog.

    How does that sound?

  • Quote

    Steve JobsYour work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

    As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

    – Steve Jobs in his commencement address to Stanford in June 2005.

    I have to agree with Steve – especially since I wrote a post last week on why you should not like your job

  • Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5My book is out.

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5
    How to Love Your Job,
    Love Your Life and
    Kick Butt at Work

    It has everything you need to take your job from crappy to happy. From drudgery to luxury. From “shove it” to “love it”. From… I’ll stop here.

    I was up until one o’clock last night finishing everything and today I’m in turns ecstatic, excited and … and nervous as hell. Will people like it? Will they buy it? Will they read it if they buy it? Half the time I’m sure this is the book that will wipe Dan Brown of the map, half the time I fear it won’t sell a single copy. I may be exaggerating slightly here, but you know what I mean :o)

    Anyway: Read all about it. You can buy the book on paper, as a PDF or read it free online.

  • Happiness in the media

    There’s an in-depth article (something they call a career portrait) about me in today’s edition of 24 Timer. For those fortunate enough to read Danish, you can click to see the whole article:

    Me in the paper

    It’s actually a pretty good overview of my core views on happiness at work and how I came to work in that particular field.

    Quiz for all non-Danes: Guess what the headline says :o)

  • Happy blogposts

    LinksIt’s very heartening to see how many blogs out there have a deep focus on making work a nice experience, instead of something we just do to make a living. Here are some great recent blogposts about happiness at work.

    Hidden Mojo on 7 Ways to Make Your Company More Human, Part One. Includes:

    • Incentivize Groups, Not Individuals
    • Encourage Employees to Blog
    • Maximize Work-Life Integration

    I like it already, and it’s only part one.

    The Hog-blog on letting your career of the leash for a spell.

    Since May, I’ve been letting my career rove to and fro. Consciously, I chose to make no plans or goals, do no outreach or inquiry, and instead, simply respond to the clients and opportunities that presented themselves.

    This experiment led me to people and places and possibilities that I’d normally never encounter. I became a brand manager for a celebrity, outlined a new book concept, developed two reality TV shows, and created a new kind of speaking program that’s marketing + entertainment. And that was just October.

    I’ve done this several times, and I highly recommend it. In fact, that’s how I came to work with happiness at work in the first place.

    Slow Leadership on How to Avoid Burnout

    If you look at the six major causes of burnout carefully, it’s clear that all of them are choices, either by management or staff or both. That means you can choose not to suffer burnout. The key is putting your personal values before purely material rewards.

    Great stuff. Slow Leadership is one of the most consistently interesting, well-written and provocative work-blogs out there.

    All Things Workplace on 3 Sure-Fire Steps to Developing Talent

    Something counter-productive is happening on the way to developing your workforce.

    It’s called Talent Management.

    Right. I have sinned. I should know that Talent Management is “what’s happening.”

    No it isn’t.

    It has become a bloated, navel-gazing, bureaucratic, software-selling non-panacea that substitutes for the real thing.

    You tell’em, Steve!

    Valuing Happiness at Think Happy Thoughts:

    On a scale of 1 to 5 what is your level of commitment to happiness? What actions have you recently taken that demonstrate your commitment to happiness? What would happen if you gave 5% more attention to your goal of achieving happiness?

    Exactly – we have to value happiness and give it it’s proper place among our priorities: First.

  • Monday Tip: Flipchart Tips

    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsI got the idea for this Monday’s Monday tip from my good friend Lars, who specializes in this kind of silliness.

    Lars suggests putting a flipchart in place where people pass by often and will see it. On the flipchart, write a question asking for advice, ideas, suggestions – anything really.

    Here are some possible questions you can ask:
    Flipchart

    • I’m buying a birthday present for my seven-year old boy. Got any ideas?
    • I need some good quotes about love for a speech at my friend’s wedding. Know any good ones?
    • I’m taking my husband to dinner. Can you suggest a nice, romantic restaurant?
    • I’m looking for some riddles to confound my children. Write your favorite riddle here.

    Remember to put marker pens by the board so people can write their answers. Lars assures me that silliness usually ensues, but that you generally get some good ideas out of it as well. If nothing else, you’ll have something to talk about and you get to know your co-workers a little better.

    The Chief Happiness Officer’s Monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went.

    Previous monday tips.

  • Arbejdsgl

    Best BuyI got an email from Christian Thompson who wrote:

    I’m a big fan of the site, and have given my principal a copy of the draft of “Happy Hour is 9 to 5”. He really seems to be liking it and has actually put a sign up outside of his office that says “Arbejdsglæde” in big letters, and then he has a tiny paper next to it that has a link to your site.

    Thanks!

    Anyhoo, here is a link to a fantastic article on the ROWE system at Best Buy. It’s quite detailed and shows the pros of flexibility and the possible difficulties in implementing it.

    First: Thanks! It’s great to see the concept of arbejdsglæde spreading :o)

    Second: I agree on the Best Buy point – that is a great article and a great system that Best Buy are putting in place. From the article:

    The endeavor, called ROWE, for “results-only work environment,” seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

    I’ve always felt that companies that treat their employees like responsible adults, capable of making decisions for themselves are much more likely to make their people happy at work.

    After all – who is in a better position to manage your work conditions than you?