The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Book review: Payoff by Dan Ariely

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    Payoff, The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations, is a short book with an important message: “We suck at motivation.”

    Based on fascinating research from workplaces and psychology labs  all over the world, the book documents how we consistently fail to understand what really motivates ourselves and others and consequently end up  killing motivation off, when we try to strengthen it, much of the time.

    Nowhere is this more obvious than in the workplace, where a blind belief in the power of bonuses, raises, promotions and perks has kept managers doing the wrong things for (or to) their employees for decades.

    Dan Ariely, a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is the perfect person to convey this message. As a researcher he has conducted fascinating and very elegant experiments to uncover what motivates and demotivates us. He shared two of these in this TED talk:

    In Payoff he uses his own research and that of others to get to the truth of motivation. And while he clearly shows that performance bonuses can actually reduce performance, he also shares the factors that motivate us to do better. These include things like praise, meaningful work and a real connection to the people you work with.

    This is a short book (120 pages) but that just counts in its favor, in my opinion. It is a captivating read, incredibly useful and highly entertaining – in fact I laughed our loud several times while reading it.

    In short, I hope I have motivated you to read this book :)

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  • Why workplaces should let employees choose their own manager

    If you don’t have a good relationship with your manager, you will never be happy at work. But how can a workplace ensure that every employee has the right manager – someone they trust, like, respect and communicate well with?

    London-based training company Happy have come up with a radical but simple solution: Let every employee pick their own manager.

    That way, anyone who is not happy with their boss can simply pick a new one. Incidentally, bad bosses quickly find themselves without employees, eliminating that particular problem.

    In this inspiring speech their founder Henry Stewart shares how they do it along with two other great practices that have made Happy so… happy :)

  • Celebrate your victories

    This is the moment our bank won first place in the Danish Great Place to Work ranking:

    We really admire them for their decades-long commitment to creating a happy workplace. Congratulations!

  • Get my book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, in Czech

    I am very proud to announce that my first book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, is now available in Czech.

    At the Happiness at Work Conference in Prague last week I got to sign a lot of them.

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    You can buy the book in Czech right here.

  • Satisfaction is not happiness

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    Do you agree?

  • The happiest doctor I’ve ever seen

    Giving a child an injection is important – but not likely to make anyone very happy. Unless you do it the way this pediatrician does.

    Here’s the best part: We showed this video at our most recent Woohoo inc Academy and it turned out that one of the participants had been a patient of this doctor. He’s retired now, but she told the group how awesome it was to be his patient, how he was always friendly and happy and how she basically had to be kicked out once she grew up and had to start seeing a “big-girl-doctor”.

  • Woohoo! We have now spoken in over 40 countries

    screen-shot-2016-10-31-at-12-59-49These are the 41 countries we’ve spoken in. Guess a flag :)

    After our trips to Surinam and Dubai this month, we have now done keynotes and workshops for clients in 41 different countries.

    That’s a milestone I’m really, really proud of :)

    Here’s the entire list in alphabetical order:

    1. Antigua
    2. Bahamas
    3. Bulgaria
    4. Chile
    5. Croatia
    6. Curaçao
    7. Czech Republic
    8. Denmark
    9. Dominican Republic
    10. Estonia
    11. France
    12. Germany
    13. Greenland
    14. Guatemala
    15. Iceland
    16. India
    17. Ireland
    18. Italy
    19. Israel
    20. Japan
    21. Kuwait
    22. Luxembourg
    23. Netherlands
    24. Norway
    25. Poland
    26. Portugal
    27. Romania
    28. Russia
    29. Serbia
    30. Slovakia
    31. Slovenia
    32. South Africa
    33. Spain
    34. Sri Lanka
    35. Suriname
    36. Sweden
    37. ?Switzerland
    38. Turkey
    39. United Arab Emirates
    40. United Kingdom
    41. USA

  • Woohoo: My book – Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – is now available in Czech

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    Here’s some more excellent international news: My first book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, is now out in Czech.

    You can buy it right here.

    The translation was organized by our awesome Woohoo inc Partner Monika Hilm.

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    And if you sign up for our conference in Prague on November 10, you get a copy of the book for free :)

  • I’m electrifying and thought-provoking :)

    The feedback was unanimous: Everyone LOVED Alexander’s keynote.

    Electrifying, energizing, thought-provoking and relevant – certainly one of the best keynotes we’ve heard in a while.

    After my speech at the Global Women in Leadership Forum in Dubai, the awesome people at Naseba (who arrange this event and many others) sent us that evaluation.

    Wow :)

  • Happiness all around the world

    I am back after a 17-day trip to 4 different countries.

    The trip started in Surinam, a small country just north of Brazil. Together with one of our Dutch partners, Gea Peper of The Happiness Bureau, I did a workshop for an HR network.

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    Surinam is currently facing an economic crisis, so we focused especially on how to create happiness at work in tough times. We were also guests on a Surinamese TV show called Panorama.

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    After that Gea and I flew on to Curacao in the Caribbean where we did another workshop for HR leaders.2016-10-14-16-48-40

    The workshop ended with balloons :) We also did an interview with Dolfijn FM who have their studio right on the beach. Awesome! And of course there was time for a little bit of sightseeing. Curaco used to be a Dutch colony, so the capital Willemstad basically looks like Amsterdam in the Caribbeans.

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    From curacao I flew to New York City, where I met up with my awesome coworker Arlette to lead our 4th international Woohoo Inc Academy.

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    SONY DSC

    9 wonderful people from different US companies had signed up for the 3-day Academy and as far as we can tell from their feedback, everyone had a blast and learned a lot. The Academy included a visit to Next Jump, one of the happiest workplaces we know, and some sightseeing, including a guided tour of Grand Central Terminal and a cruise on the East River.

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    And following that I flew to Dubai to speak at the 18th Global Women in Leadership Forum, where I did the opening keynote on day 2 and particularly made the point that if we want to create happier workplaces, we need more women in leadership positions.

    Here are some reactions from twitter:

    And then I flew home. My internal clock is so fried, I’m not even sure I have jetlag at all.

    But I’m also incredibly encouraged to once again have had the chance to spread the gospel of happiness at work in some new countries and to find so many like-minded people all over the world who agree that this is an incredibly important topic that businesses need to act on.

    In fact, this trip brings the total number of countries we’ve spoken in to 41. Here’s the complete list:

    1. Antigua
    2. Bahamas
    3. Bulgaria
    4. Chile
    5. Croatia
    6. Curaçao
    7. Czech Republic
    8. Denmark
    9. Dominican Republic
    10. Estonia
    11. France
    12. Germany
    13. Greenland
    14. Guatemala
    15. Iceland
    16. India
    17. Ireland
    18. Italy
    19. Japan
    20. Israel
    21. Kuwait
    22. Luxembourg
    23. Netherlands
    24. Norway
    25. Poland
    26. Portugal
    27. Romania
    28. Russia
    29. Serbia
    30. Slovakia
    31. Slovenia
    32. South Africa
    33. Spain
    34. Sri Lanka
    35. Suriname
    36. Sweden
    37. ?Switzerland
    38. Turkey
    39. United Arab Emirates
    40. United Kingdom
    41. USA

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