The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Business – New school

    David Heinemeier Hansson is one of the hottest names in IT right now. He’s been developing something called Ruby on Rails, which is a tool for developing web applications. Now Denmark has become too small for David, and he’s left for Chicago, better to work with his compatriots at 37signals, one of the most admired software shops right now.

    The evening before he left, he gave a presentation in Copenhagen to a small crowd of techies, bloggers, business people and others. I was there and I was blown away by this guy. Not only is he a good developer, he also has an amazing sense for how a business can also be designed. And he’s 26 years old. Interestingly, his software design principles are the same as his business design principles, making his philosophy consistent and credible. Here are the main points I took away from his presentation:

    Solve the next problem
    Whether you’re working on software or building a business, this means that you should tackle the issues that matter right now. Don’t solve the problems you think will appear in 6 months – they probably won’t, you see. Solve the next problem, and then the next. In six months time, you will have plenty of stuff to work on, but it won’t be what you thought six months ago.

    Solve your own problems
    When you work on something that you yourself need, you’re much more efficient. Rather than working on something that some remote client will use, attack issues that are important to you.

    Do as little as possible – or slightly less
    The complexity of any system does not grow proportianl to the size of the system – it grows exponentially. Making a system twice as large makes it waaay more that twise as complex. Therefore, make your system as simple as possible, or maybe even a little simpler.

    And if I may be allowed to brag for a moment here: This is exactly how we work on the Happy At Work Project. Here are a few of our maxims, that I might add:

    Try stuff
    Rather than analyzing a given choice to death, make a quick decision and try it out. If it doesn’t work, try something else.

    Relax
    It’ll all work out. Don’t beat yourself up and don’t work too hard. Take plenty of breaks and do lots of different stuff to stimulate your mind.

    The best of luck to David in Chicago – I’m sure he’ll do famously.

  • German IT outfit bans whining

    This may not be the best way to go about it:

    German IT outfit Nutzwerk Ltd has come up with the perfect solution to whining in the workplace – it’s made cheerfulness a contractual obligation. What’s more, Manager Thomas Kuwatsch has declared that those who don’t measure up to the prescribed level of jollity in the morning should stay at home until they cheer up.

    Full story in The Register. Funny. I think there’s actually something to this: Give people the right to stay home, if they don’t feel happy, though outlawing grumpiness is probably a bad idea. It’ll only drive it underground where it’s harder to deal with. It may even amplify the complaining.

  • Best speech ever

    Yesterday I gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever given on happiness at work to Junior Chambers Copenhagen. What made it good? This I think:
    1: I opened up the speech by showing them my prepared notes (on little cue-cards)
    2: I then made a display of tearing them up and throwing them away
    3: And then I had the audience call out suggestions for topics they’d like to hear about

    It also doesn’t hurt if you have an attentive, interested and active crowd listening.

  • Quote

    Each individual should work for himself. People will not sacrifice themselves for the company. They come to work at the company to enjoy themselves.
    – Soichiro Honda, founder of (surprise) Honda

    Via Metacool via Mike Wagner.

  • Book review: Difficult conversations

    90% of all problems and conflicts in organizations stem from what has NOT been said. NOT been talked through. From issues that should have been raised, but weren’t.

    This makes the skills that allow us to adress difficult issues in constructive ways crucial job skills. And Difficult Conversations by Douglas Stone Bruce Patton and Sheila Sheen is the best book I’ve seen on this subject. It is, quite simply, excellent!

    The book’s main idea is this: In every conversation there are three simultaneous conversations going on:
    * The “What Happened?” conversation about the factual matters at hand
    * The feelings conversation concerning how we feel about this
    * The identity conversation where we assert and redefine our identity

    Ignoring any of these means that you’re not adressing what’s really going on in the conversation, because all of these WILL be going on. And if you’re one of those people who believe that feelings have no place in business and that professional conversations should stick purely to factual matters, let this book be your wake-up call. Humans have feelings and there is no way for us to leave them at home when we go to work. One chapter is called “Have your feelings – or they will have you”.

    Reading this book is a joy. It is well planned, well written and contains many good anecdotes that underscore the book’s messages. The questions it examines are critical in any organizations:
    * How to raise difficult matters
    * When to raise them and when not to
    * How to deal with past conversations that went wrong
    * How to better express your point of view
    * How to better understand others

    The advice given is specific and simple to follow and has already helped me on more than one occasion. Read it!

  • Give it away

    The business question I ask myself most often is this: What can I give away? What do I have, know, think, write, say that I can give away easily?

    This may seem like a strange attitude towards business, but I believe it has been the key to our success in the Happy at Work Project – we have gotten an amazing amount of traction and good will from all the stuff we give away like our newsletter, articles, book reviews and more.

    And here’s a cool example I found during a walk in Washington DC:

    In my opinion, there’s something innately healthy about giving stuff away.

    Here’s a previous blogpost, that starts with the decision that “I accept the idea that I should give everything away”, and then examines what implications this may have on how you work and live. One conclusion: Wealth is relationships.

  • Art: The office assistant

    Consider this a tribute to the unsung heros of the workplace. The people who make the whole thing work. Artist Zen Parry has taken up a seat in the Portland Building in Portland Oregon, where she crochets a a huge blanket while talking to the public.

    During a temporary job I had in the corporate world, the office always functioned well, but “felt” even better when the Office Assistant was present. This woman brought a sense of comfort into that cold sterile environment – she did all of the unseen things that the rest of us didn’t know how to do. I often thought of her as providing a comforting blanket of functionality within that office – you could always rely on her “just being there.”

    This installation symbolizes the comfort experienced in that environment. There is a lot of security in having a routine and identity that a job provides. Even though you might not be happy with your job, you will still come to work on a regular basis, and perform your duties, comfortable in the familiarity of that rhythm. I am doing the same – coming to work each day, performing my duties by being here and making a rug of comfort.

    You are invited to interrupt my performance – sit and chat, call out to me as you walk through the lobby or use the ATM machine – you might even try to ignore me as you hurry to your next appointment. Artists often strive to create an environment as a work of art. In this installation/performance, I will strive to create an environment as the art of work.

    Even if you manage to ignore me, I know that you will miss me when I am gone…..

    What a cool, fun, innovative way to comment on work, especially unfulfilling work without condemning it. Read more about the installation here and
    Zen is blogging about it here.

  • Cross-blogging

    I’m blogging my experiences, thoughts and ideas at the WorldBlu Forum at the forum website.

  • Better meetings

    Here’s an amazing resource for leading good meetings.

    Meetings aims or purposes should be at the top of every agenda. These are the key decisions that must be made or actions that must occur at the meeting. If you aren’t clear on aims and purposes, don’t meet.

    All so you can avoid this :o).

  • Death and music

    The New York Times profiles Frank Minyard, a 76-year old New Orleans coroner known for marching in funeral processions wearing a white suit and plays jazz the trumpet.

    At 76, on the brink of a retirement that was supposed to combine oyster dinners at his favorite restaurants with a simple life on his cattle farm on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, Dr. Minyard has found himself living in an R.V. on the grounds of a temporary federal morgue in St. Gabriel, a small town just outside Baton Rouge, grappling with the still-increasing death toll, the bewildering red tape and the urgent calls of bereaved families.
    …
    In the kind of twist that might strike New Orleanians as perfectly natural, their coroner began his medical career as an obstetrician. Before that, he was a tall, blue-eyed pretty boy: a lifeguard in the summers and, once, second runner-up in a Mr. New Orleans bodybuilding contest. During medical school, he said, he spent his summers in New York City giving “nightlife tours.”

    By the late 1960’s, Dr. Minyard had a successful practice, a family, a tennis court and a swimming pool, beside which he was sitting one day when he heard Peggy Lee singing, “Is that all there is?”

    “Prior to that I was very selfish, like most young doctors and lawyers and dentists,” said Dr. Minyard, who gave up his private medical practice soon after he became coroner. “I was just trying to get the Cadillac and the country club membership.”
    …
    However inexpert his playing, Dr. Minyard became devoted to jazz, and soon he was sitting in with the venerated Olympia Brass Band and hiring musicians as morgue assistants to help them make ends meet. In his first year as coroner, he was arrested while playing in the French Quarter to protest a crackdown on street musicians.