Category: Happy At Work

We are extremely proud to be able to announce our newest product, which is called Much Better Meetings.

Basically, meetings often suck and make people unhappy at work.

I talked to a friend today who says he has a doctor’s note to the effect that any meeting longer than 10 minutes gives him a nosebleed.

Much Better Meetings is a complete system, ready to install in any meeting room, which helps you plan and facilitate effective, structured, fun meetings.

However, I’m afraid it’s only available in Danish so far under the name of Meget Bedre Møder. Read all about it at www.megetbedremoeder.dk.

Depending on the interest we get an English version may be coming soon.

Michael Poulsen, software developer and Chief Happiness Officer, shows off Valtech’s order of the elephant.

The Danish division of the French software company Valtech are very committed to creating a happy workplace. One of their developers, Michael Poulsen, volunteered to be the company’s Chief Happiness Officer for a year and his first initative was to introduce an initative based on the most prestitious award in the Kingdom of Denmark, The Order of the Elephant.

This is how he introduced the idea to Valtech’s 100 Danish employees:

I’m happy to be able to introduce Valtechs first Happiness@Work initiative: The Valtech Order of the Elephant.

Purpose:
To bring all the good things we do for each other out in the light.

How it works:
The elephant is passed on from co-worker to co-worker on a weekly basis, with a reason why it is passed to that person in particular.

The reason for passing the elephant on to a new co-worker is up to you. Maybe someone helped you move apartment, fix a bug in your code or just have a positive impact on your day by always being happy and smiling.

There are only a few ground rules:

• Whenever you receive the elephant you may only hold on to it for a maximum of one week.
• Whenever you pass along the elephant you need to tell the person you give it to why they receive it and send a mail to michael.poulsen@valtech.dk with the name of the receiver and the reason why. (I’m working on a way to visualize the reasons).
• When the elephant is in your possession he needs to be in plain view so everyone passing your desk can see him (and maybe even ask why you got it… hint hint).
• Optional: Remember to supply him with lots of peanuts.

The reasoning behind all this is based on the Danish pioneer in happiness at work (arbejdsglæde) Alexander Kjerulf. He states that happiness at work is based on two things. Our results and our personal relations.

I hope you all will accept and support the initiative so we can keep it rolling… Elephants get very old you know :-)

A closeup of the elephant – which was donated by the CEO’s 6-year old son.

Since then the elephant has been circulating around the office, and here are some of the recipients – and the reason why they got it:

The first stop for the Order of the Elephant, on his long journey will be at Michael Gyde Møllers desk. He is receiving the company of the elephant for the next week because he has always been happy to help me when I was in a tight spot, and always did so with a smile, which means a lot to me.

The Elephant has moved, this time to Eri! At Eri’s the elephant will find itself a good home since she with such good humor shares her invaluable insights in the mysterious danish society. Through her cultural background and experience she’s able to help recent visitors to understand Denmark, may it be swedes or elephants :)

Elephant is now moved to Lone. Elephant has chosen Lone because she is always happy and sweet fair and understanding great at project management (so developers can enjoy working on the project)

I think this just fantastic. It is a fun, simple and above all highly visible way to praise and appreciate co-workers. Kudos to Michael for doing this and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.

Related posts

• Richard branson celebrates his employees.
• Specific praise is good praise.
• You… are great.

Your take

What do you think of this? Does your workplace already so something similar? Could this work for you? What does getting praise and recognition from your peers mean to you? Write a comment, I’d like to know your take.

I just discovered a short video on youtube from my keynote at this year’s World HRD Congress in Mumbai India:

In my talk, I told the participants that India absolutely needs more happiness at work. It’s not that workplaces there are particularly bad, it’s just that the war for talent is still going strong. Indian workplaces are facing some stark realities:

• Employee turnover among specialists and middle managers is around 20-30%.
• Annual average pay rises are 12-13%.
• There is a huge fight to attract newly educated Gen Y employees.

In short, Indian workplaces are doing their best to attract the best people, keep them in the workplace and help them perform optimally. The problem is that they’re doing all the wrong things, e.g. wellness programs, bonuses, pay raises, promotions, etc. While there’s nothing wring with any of this, it simply isn’t what makes employees happy at work – at most it makes them satisfied.

In my speech, I tried to focus on what really does make people happy at work – and therefore more likely to stay in the workplace, more likely to do their best work and more likely to try to convince acquaintances, friends and family to also work there. And it seemed to really ring a bell. Here’s some sample feedback from my keynote:

“Your presentation was the best I’ve seen in 20 years in HR.”

“It was really great listening to your talk. I have implemented a lot of it in my life and I can already feel a huge difference.”

“Alexander Kjerulf was the rock star in the World HRD congress this year. He mesmerized participants from 79 countries with a simple yet powerful approach to create a happy work place.”

Your take

What is your opinion of Indian workplaces? Are people there happy and fulfilled or just going through the motions?

Last week I was interviewed about alcohol in the workplace and more specifically the time-honored Danish tradition of occasionally having a beer after work in the workplace with your co-workers.

I’m all for it as a way to create and strengthen workplace relations.

I realize that there are countries or workplaces where you couldn’t possibly have a beer in the workplace for cultural, religious or other reasons. In that case a cup of tea or coffee after work might do the trick. The main point is to find a way to get to know your co-workers as people instead of just as professionals.

In Denmark there are rarely any barriers to having a beer after work. Mogens Nørgård, the CEO of Danish IT company Miracle just told me about his company’s alcohol policy which is this:

“There must always be good beer in the fridge.”

And of course there’s Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote:

“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Your take

Does your workplace allow for the occasional beer around quitting time? Is this something you enjoy or prefer to avoid? What other ways do you enjoy to get to know the people you work with as more than just professionals and co-workers?

In this short video Colleen Barrett, former president of Southwest Airlines, shares some of the tricky (and hilarious) ways they screen job applicants for sense of humor.

I’d love to see way more companies do things like this to ensure a good cultural fit for new hires. The fact is that not every person will fit into every workplace culture and there is currently way too much focus on professional skills and way too little on personality fit.

The Southwest hiring mantra “Hire for attitude, train for skill” has served them well over the years and we’ve seen many other happy workplaces introduce similar approaches.

British sandwich chain Pret a Manger put it like this:

“You can’t hire someone who can make sandwiches and teach them to be happy,” says Jay, “So we hire happy people and teach them to make sandwiches”.

Your take

When you were hired was there any focus on cultural fit? Does your workplace generally try to hire happy people or is the focus mostly on professional skills? What mix do you prefer between professional and cultural fit when new people are hired?

Richard Branson recently blogged about the Virgin Stars of the Year Awards – and I gotta say it looks like a fun affair :o)

Sir Richard sums up his philosophy in this way:

I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish if they’re praised.

These are people who have gone above and beyond in their everyday jobs to make a real difference. I was delighted to meet so many interesting and outstanding individuals and reward them for their hard work.

The event is always one of the highlights in the Virgin Group calendar and a chance to highlight what we are doing right and also learn how we can improve in the future.

This is exactly what businesses need more of and it’s a consistent practice of happy workplaces that they celebrate the people who do something extra. We’ve seen this at workplaces like Disney, Souhtwest Airlines, Zappos, Google and many others.

Unfortunately, many workplaces simply don’t notice when people do stellar work. In other words, if you do great work you won’t hear a word but the moment you screw up or don’t perform adequately, you may be punished.

Of course we should fix mistakes and help people who are underperforming in the workplace, but we can learn as much (or more) from our successes victories.

And that’s why celebrating great performance and great people is one of the hallmarks of happy workplaces.

Your take

How does you workplace celebrate great performance or great people? Do you do it at all? What would you say is the ratio between fixing the bad and celebrating the good? What ratio would you prefer?

Answer: Yes – if you’re in Denmark.

For everyone fortunate enough to live in the homeland of Hans Christian Andersen, we have just opened Arbejdsglædeshoppen, our online store featuring all our physical products. We’ve got books, posters, games, pens, coffee mugs, Steve Shapiro’s amazing personality poker cards and much, much more.

Visit Arbejdsglædeshoppen and check it out for yourself.

Announcement in Danish:
Så åbner Arbejdsglædeshoppen, en online butik med masser af sjove, praktiske ting, som du kan bruge til at skabe mere arbejdsglæde. Du kan finde bøger, plakater, spil, kaffekrus, kuglepenne og meget andet.

Det er superlet at handle – du betaler med faktura (eller over dit EAN-nummer, hvis I har sådan et) og du har varerne om højest 5 arbejdsdage.

Besøg Arbejdsglædeshoppen og se om der er noget du kan bruge, til at skabe mere arbejdsglæde.

Improv Everywhere’s latest stunt is right up our alley: They set up a podium and a megaphone on a New York street corner with a plaque that says simply “Say something nice.”

And people do:

Question: How could this be replicated inside a workplace?