The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Book review: Tyranny of the moment

    Subtitled “Fast and slow time in the information age”, this book by norwegian Thomas Hylland Eriksen details the struggle between two kinds of experiences. Fast time is when you’re doing 10 things at the same time. You’re talking on the phone while reading email, listening to the radio and half-following another conversation in the room. Slow time is when you focus on one thing only. You take time to cook a nice meal, to play with your child or to do nothing.

    Eriksen argues that the information age is geared almost exclusively towards fast time and that consequently we have to make slow time for ourselves. Eriksen also argues that in any contest between fast time and slow time, fast time will win, because it is immediately gratifying and (not least) addictive.
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  • Back from Goa

    We’re now back from Goa after two wonderful weeks that seemed to contain a little of everything and a lot of pool-side relaxation. Here are some pictures, and here are some highlights from the trip:
    * Feeding, riding and washing elephants. Not to mention being washed by an elephant.
    * A bookshop so cheap, that I bought 40 books to take home and give away.
    * The incredible service at the hotel.
    * The food. Aaaahh, the food :o)
    * Finding that once again, the happy at work project inspires people. We may even get the happy at work project India going, and if that’s not an interesting idea I don’t know what is.
    * Stirring up trouble at the Open Space on Open Space conference :o)
    * The sunsets.
    * Meeting so many wonderful people – both locals and at the conference.
    * The insane traffic. Cars, trucks, scooters and motorcycles. And bicycles and pedestrians. And cows, dogs, goats and more cows.
    * Fooling around with the new camera. Excellent!

  • In Goa

    Well, Patricia and I are taking a break from lazing at the pool enjoying the Goan sun to sit in the business centre and write a few emails, and I thought I might give a short update for those of you not here and for those of you coming later for the Open Space on Open Space conference.

    Executive summary: This place rocks!
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  • Open Space World Map

    I’m on the map. Go see, and click on Denmark.

    Michael Pannwitz rocks for being behind such a cool tool.

  • The unmentionable designer

    I’m currently talking to our designer about a re-design for the Happy At Work Project’s web site, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.

    She’s done all our design work so far (you can see some examples here), and if you’re ever in need of good design, on or off-line, I can’t recommend her highly enough. She’s extremely talented, and most importantly, she can grasp the important features of a task really quickly.

    I’d like to translate her company name into english, but unfortunately, what is in danish a quirky and fun word becomes, when translated into english, something that is entirely unmentionable in polite society :o)

  • Ricardo Semler

    The ever blogging Chris Corrigan points to an excerpt of Ricardo Semler’s book The Seven-Day Weekend. A small teaser:

    I believe the old way of doing business is dying, and the sooner it’s dead and buried the better off we all will be. Incendiary words, yet Semco’s alliance with Cushman & Wakefield, as well as other joint ventures that I will describe shortly, suggests that the transition from the old to the new can be hugely profitable and not nearly as socially disruptive as might be feared at first. On the contrary, the path Semco has been blazing for more than twenty years has led to an unprecedented record of innovation, customer satisfaction, growth, and an end to repressive command-and-control management practices that cause much labor unrest and personal misery, from the top to the bottom of many organizations.

    That does it, Semler is going on my list of people I’ve gotta have a conversation with.

  • Book review: Smart Love

    I try to gather input for the Happy At Work Project from many sources. Web sites, books, movies, magazines – whatever may give me some new angle on what makes people happy at work. So please don’t read too much into it when I tell you, that I just finished reading a book called Smart Love: The Compassionate Alternative to Discipline That Will Make You a Better Parent & Your Child a Better Person by Martha and William Pieper :o)

    I saw the title, and thought that any alternative to discipline might be a nice thing to know about, in the search for ways to create better work environments. Indeed, much of what is says CAN be transplanted from the world of bringing up children to that of working together on the job.

    The obvious notion NOT to take with you, is the one where managers take on the roles of parents and employees become the children. Where knowledge, authority and responsibility is seen to lie only with some people (those who happen to be leaders) and employees are expected to do as they’re told. Fortunately this mindset is slowly disappearing.
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  • Happy at work – world-wide

    At the Interactive Organizations Conference 2004, I offered the idea of creating an international IO, based on the happy at work project.

    Instead of getting all theoretical, we could simply organize around the purpose of making people happy at work, and create an IO for just that. Here’s the idea: We already have some proven methods and technologies in the work we do in Denmark. We have lectures, a workshop, a book, a game, a video, a conference and much more. All of this we are willing to give away to anyone who’s interested in using it, and we’ll make this the basis of the world-wide happy at work project.

    If you’re interested in participating in this drop me an email. The exact details are still a little hazy – but mostly, I think it could be a LOT of fun :o)

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  • Interactive Organizations Conference

    The interactive organization is one that is less dominated by traditional control structures and where people are more free to do their work. Interactive organizations (IO’s) are therefore more efficient, adapt faster to changes in their environment – and they’re a lot more fun to be in. They can also be chaotic and frustrating :o)

    I’ve been a leader and participant (in interactive orgs everyone is both) in three different organizations which were interactive, and I can assure you, that I will never again work in a “traditional” workplace. I could simply never function again under the old, inflexible ways defined by the org chart.

    So when I heard that the first conference on IO’s was being organized in Krakow I knew that I had to be a part of it. The term Interactive Organization was defined in Harrison Owen’s book The power of spirit, how organizations transfrom and describes what a workplace organized around Open Space Technology might be like.
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  • Corporate Culture and Spirituality Conference

    Corporate culture and spirituality may look like strange bedfellows, but with the increasing awareness in businesses today on the importance of fostering personal development and excellence on the job, a spiritual focus is not a surprising development.

    Spirituality can be many things to many people, but to me it is a tool to get to know yourself, to improve your understanding of the world and to become happier. And these aims make a lot of sense at work.

    That’s why I think the 2004 conference on Corporate Culture and Spirituality looks very interesting. It’s held this year in Bangalore, India, and aims to:
    * Challenge the general perception about business & spirituality as dichotomous areas
    * Enhance the value and efficacy of conventional management practices by partnering with spirituality
    * Evolve a larger joint-role for corporate and spiritual leaders in addressing complex global issues like terrorism, corruption and poverty
    * Develop business models that create and sustain inspirational communication and bonds within organizations

    Which sounds pretty good to me. With sessions like “Maximizing Ethics and Profits”, “Persevering Excellence amidst the Chaos of Change” and “The Bottom Line, a Perspective in Time” it looks like the conference is firmly anchored in the current needs of organizations worldwide.

    The conference was held for the first time last year and was a great success. In 2003 it was mostly attended by indian business leaders, this year the focus will be more international. The conference fee is 700 euros, which isn’t too steep for a 3 day conference aimed at top executives.

    I’m going to Goa, India in September for the Open Space on Open Space conferece, and now it looks like I’ll have to seriously consider going to India twice in two months.