Category: Speaking

I want to say a great big Thank You and a High Five You Rock to the conference arrangers and all who attended my keynote at Talks 2.0 in Oporto on May 7. Thanks for a fantastic time – I really enjoyed it. You guys were great and the entire day was fun and inspiring.

The background for the event was serious, namely the financial crisis in Portugal, which is affecting every aspect of work life in the country.

In my keynote, I presented my view, which is that a serious crisis only makes it MORE necessary to focus on and create happy workplaces. If we don’t the resulting stress, frustration, hopelessness and cynicism ruins peoples’ work lives and private lives, it makes us less productive and creative, and it means that economic recovery takes longer.

It was my first time in Portugal, but I got a great impression of the country and especially of the people. With this much energy, creativity, passion, humor and happiness, there is nothing you guys can’t do!

Here are some materials from the day including, slides, videos, articles and more.
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I’ll be speaking at the WorldBlu Live conference on May 19 and 20 in San Francisco, an event that promises to be absolutely amazing and inspiring.

The theme for the event is democracy at work, ie. how do you create workplaces that are based on freedom rather than on command and fear. There are two reasons why this interests me: First of all, my company is run democratically. I can truly imagine no other way to do it. Secondly, democratic workplaces are happier workplaces. When you grant employees trust, autonomy and freedom to make decisions, there is a much bigger chance that they will be happy at work.

Traci Fenton, the founder and CEO of WorldBlu, spoke at our conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and you can watch her presentation here:

Read all about the WorldBlu conference and sign up for it here.

Three weeks ago I was in India to speak at the World HRD Congress in Mumbai and my speech was very well received – here’s some sample feedback:

“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.”

And India absolutely needs more happiness at work. Not that workplaces there are particularly bad, it’s just that the war for talent is still going strong. While the financial crisis has given many western workplaces an excuse to stop focusing on happiness at work, 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, ie. things like wellness initiatives, 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.

So thanks to everyone who attended my presentation and a great big thank you to all the cool inspiring people I met at

Here are some pics from my speech

I’m speaking in India again on Februay 10 at the World HRD Congress. I’m very excited to be going to India again – the last time I was there to speak at a conference and do some workshops for Tata, I had a blast and I found that the message of happiness at work was very well received.

I have some free time in Mumbai on Feb. 9 and Feb. 12, so if you’d like to meet and discuss happiness at work, maybe we can arrange something. Contact me, and we’ll see what’s possible.

My talk at TEDxCopenhagen went really, really well. I can’t count the number of people who came up after and told me they loved it.

But don’t take my word for how good it was – the talks from the conference are live on the internet already, so you can see for yourself. Click here to watch it.

In my speech, I talk about:

• The happiest bus driver I’ve ever met.
• The strange Danish word arbejdsglæde, and why the rest of the world needs to learn it.
• What makes us happy in life and at work.
• Why Denmark isn’t really the happiest country.
• What you can do to be happy at work.

What do you think?

Here are some reactions to my speech from the #tedxcph stream on twitter:

I highly recommend Alexander Kjerulfs talk about happiness at work.

Eye opener: Alexander Kjerulf on arbejdsglæde.

Great talk by Alexander Kjerulf on happiness at work.

IKEA ought to make an office chair called arbejdsglæde in honor of Alexander

And there were tons of great talks today – here are my three favorites:

• Mikael Colville-Andersen: Why We Shouldn’t Bike with a Helmet
• Kristian von Bengtson & Peter Madsen: Danes in Space
• Morten Sommer: What Bacteria Means for the Good Life

You can see all the talks here.

I’ve got good news, good news, more good news and bad news. What do you want first?

The good news: I’m speaking at TEDx Copenhagen on November 30.This year the talks will be held in English, so I’ll actually be able to share my TEDx talk with an international audience. Wooo-hooooooooo! The talk should be available right after the conference – stay tuned.

More good news: My speech in Bratislava last week went really well and was received very enthusiastically by a mixed audience of leaders, HR people and students. I was even on Slovakian TV news that night :o)

Still more good news: We’re entering the busiest time of the year. Over the next 20 days I and my fantastic co-workers are doing 27 client gigs (speeches, workshops and trainings) in 4 different countries. That’s a lotta workplace happiness right there :o)

And finally the bad news: This also means that there will probably won’t be a lot happening on this blog over then next few weeks. Follow me on twitter instead – I’ll still have time to tweet.

Next week (November 11) I’m speaking about happiness at work at an event in Bratislava. Click here to read more and sign up (in Slovakian).

I have never been to Bratislava before, so I’m also excited to see the city. Do you know Bratislava? Have any good tips for restaurants or sightseeing?

I’ve had to sit on this news for a while, but now I’m finally free to announce that I am one of the speakers at TEDx Copenhagen on November 30.

The theme of the event is “The good life”. As you know, Denmark is often called the happiest country on the planet. I’ll be examining if this is really true, what it takes to achieve the good life and look more at the good life at work. I also have a bone to pick with all the politicians and economists who want us to work more hours in the name of GDP growth. If you think that working longer is really the best path to success and growth, I’ll be showing you exactly why you’re wrong!

Sign up here – and you’d better do it fast. I hear the tickets are selling like hotcakes.