The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Happy At Work

How to be happy at work

  • Book review: Man’s search for meaning

    This is a very unusual book, spanning topics rarely encountered in one and the same volume. The author, Viktor E. Frankl, was a pshychologist and he spent most of world war 2 in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. And these two backgrounds have gone into this book which is both an account of his experiences in the concentration camps, a psychological analysis of how people react under such extreme conditions and a short introduction to his psychological school called Logotherapy.

    The basic underlying theme here is meaning (logos in greek). Frankl argues, that what made some people endure the trials of the concentration camps, while many others gave up, was their ability to see meaning in their suffering. And in general, Frankl sees the drive to discover meaning as our most basic need, and he believes that many psychological problems (from neuroses to alcoholism) stem from a lack of meaning in peoples lives.
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  • Book review: The inner game of work

    I discovered Inner Skiing about 15 years ago, and enjoyed it immensely. That book describes how the inner game principles pioneered by Timothy Gallwey can be used to create better learning conditions for skiers. Gallwey originally used it for teaching tennis, and the method basically consists of teaching not by telling people what to do, but simply by helping them direct their attention to different aspects of what they want to learn.

    In this book, subtitled Overcoming mental obstacles for maximum performance, Timothy Gallwey applies the same principles to work. How can we create the best learning conditions at work and what advantages would this give us?
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  • Fun

    The more balanced your life is and the more diverse your interests are, the better your thinking will be. If you work 20 hours a day, your product will be crap
    – George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research Inc. in an article in Fast Company

  • Spreading happiness at work

    Last wednesday Project Happiness at Work had it’s first paying customer!! We held a seminar for 15 secretaries at nch, and judging from the feedback it was a great success. This is of course only the beginning, but it did prompt me to create a page for companies on the project’s website, outlining the products we intend to market to businesses.

    Over the next two months we’d like to find 10 companies interested in trying the workshop. The workshop is an excellent way to start spreading happiness in any workplace. It can be done in one or two days, with up to 40 participants. Afterwards the participants have all the knowledge they need to hold more workshops in the company themselves, and they also get all the necessary workshop materials. This can make the spread of happiness self-reproductive within the company.

  • Yes, and…

    Lately I’ve been using a very simple but VERY powerful method called “yes, and…”. This method comes from improvisational theater, where it is the most basic rule. When you’re on the stage doing improv theatre, every idea proposed by another actor must always be accepted. You can add to it, but you can’t reject it – and you’d look pretty foolish on the stage if you tried. Hence the “Yes, and…”

    But “yes, and…” can be used in many other situations, and mainly it can be used to counter the ingrained tendency to say no, that many people today exhibit, particularly when pressed or stressed. It’s often safer , easier and more comfortable to say no.

    One case where “yes, and…” works especially well is when brainstorming for ideas. When people know in advance, that any idea proposed will be received positively, they feel much more free to suggest any ideas they may have. In this way you get many more ideas to work with. Ultimately, “yes, and…” can teach us a positive and healthy attitude of saying yes to life, and to whatever reality surrounds us.

    More info here and here. Try it!

  • Book review: Freedom and accountability at work

    Can the business world learn anything from existential philosophy? Do concepts such as freedom, good and evil, accountability and anxiety have any meaning in a corporate setting?

    After reading this book by Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block, I have no doubt whatsoever that the answer is a resounding yes. The subtitle “Applying philosophical insight to the real world” is beautifully realized throughout the book.
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  • Happiness at work marches on

    Project Happiness at work took a giant leap forward last saturday. I’d invited some people who’ve been following the project or who liked the idea of doing an effort to promote happiness at work, and we spent four hours refining the project and coming up with a game plan for the next three months.

    The highlight of the meeting for me was to see how the idea of spreading happiness at work grabs people. To know that the project is now more than just my dreams and ideas. To hear people say “We” as in “We need to find ten companies willing to give this a try. How do we do it?”. To see people assume ownership and leadership in different areas, and to see each contribute according to their interest. (Need I say that the meeting was an Open Space meeting? Of course it was).

    But mostly: Thanks the people who came. It’s a great feeling for me to know, that I’m no longer alone, and that it’s no longer just my pet project. I look forward to spreading some work-happiness along with you guys, and along with anybody else who wants to help. Thanks!

    Click more to see pictures.
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  • Book review: What should I do with my life?

    Good question, huh? What exactly should you do with your life? Where is that one job that will make your life eternally happy and remove all doubt about whether you’ve made the right choice?

    Well, Po Bronson has talked to a lot of people who have faced that very question, and he has some good news and some bad news for us in this book.
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  • A sh*t job

    If ever you’ve doubted that meaning and satisfaction can be found in any job, read this article about a guy whose job it is to clean up dog waste.

  • Conversation ideas at work

    The CEO Refresher has an article that suggests ten conversation topics in organizations. This builds on the idea, that conversations are the way that human beings think together, as explored by Margaret Wheatley in Turning to one another.

    An excellent way to conduct the discussions, would be circles of conversation. This is a very simple method that promotes deep discussion and deep listening.