Speakers at Arbejdsglæde Live! 2009, our annual conference about happiness at work.

Last week has been the best week ever in the history of our company. It’s fun to be able to look back at and go “whoah – I’m glad we don’t rock that much every week :o)”

Here are a few highlights from the week:

We had our conference about happiness at work on Tuesday. 12 speakers from Denmark and USA and a great audience made this the happiest conference on Danish soil this year.

You can read more about the conference here (In Danish).

Here’s Steve Shapiro, our morning keynote speaker, giving his take on the day:

My new book (Hurra, der er krise / Hooray, there’s a crisis) debuted on the Danish non-fiction top-10 bestseller list. I was mostly edged out of the top spot by sudoku books and cook books:

The book was also reviewed in JyllandsPosten (a major Danish newspaper) and receieved 5 out of 6 stars for usability and 6 out of 6 for entertainment value. Some choice quotes:

Every time you finish a page, you just want to read another one. One of the most relevant books on the shelves right now. Read it and get happy.

You can see the review here (In Danish).

To cap off the week, I went to London to speak at London Business School. I was a guest speaker at Dr. Srikumar S. Rao’s class on Creativity and Personal Mastery and I had a blast with them. I also really enjoyed the previous day’s guest speaker Ben Zander, the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic.

So here’s to a great week – and here’s hoping that not every week has to be this intense :o)

As I previously blogged about (and some commenters took waaaay too seriously) it’s good to be a Dane, because Google likes us :o)

Here are two more reasons why Danes are really lucky:
If you’re getting tired of all this talk of recession and crisis, we have a new web site out in Danish called www.hurradererkrise.dk (which translates to “Hooray, there’s a crisis” – trust me, it sounds a lot better in Danish :o).

You can test yourself to see how the crisis affects you, you can test your workplace or you can join our Facebook group. Aaaaaand you can read all about my new book which comes out on May 14. In Danish. Check out www.hurradererkrise.dk.

And then there’s our fantastic conference about happiness at work on May 26 in Copenhagen. No less than 14 great speakers will inspire us about how to achieve happiness at work – even in a recession.

Read all about the conference and sign up here.

This year’s reboot conference promises to be the best ever – and that’s saying something. The theme this year is Action – something that is very close to my heart.

From the invitation:

it’s time to act, time to focus on the act of acting, time to figure out where to begin the reboot. reboot11 is two days away far from the status quo, two days with old and new friends trying to figure out how to reboot the world!

This is a once in our lifetime opportunity, and so it could be the single most important reboot ever – because this year we’re not in a world that thinks the status quo is working – it’s not only the freaks at reboot that feel the need to reboot things. we’re in times of change and systemic failure unlike anything we’ll probably experience again in our lifetime. we’ve had visionary insights and reflections the last couple of years at reboot (renaissance, human and free – great journeys into the deep insights). now it’s time to act on the insights.

It’s up to us edgelings and participatory folks to take charge and begin building a better future – insight comes with responsibility.

We’re not afraid. we know that we need to reinvent and reboot everything on new scales based on trust, networks and participation.

We are at the cusp of a new approach to sharing, consuming, banking, insurance, journalism, democracy – well almost everything – all the core infrastructure we’ve build our societal systems on. how do we move forward?

Inspiring words. I’ll be there!

As I’ve mentioned before, our HQ here in Copenhagen is in a fantastic place called La Oficina. This is a shared office space for small businesses – but a very different one. The metaphor for the place is not really an office, it’s a café.

When you step inside, the first thing you see is the bar and the grand piano. In fact, there are no desks, office chairs, cubicles or bulletin boards anywhere. You go in, you pick a table like you would at any café and you work, have your meeting, have coffee or whatever.

In short, it’s a beautiful and brilliant place and the café setting makes it really easy to meet and learn from all the other amazingly cool people who come here.

But a place in England has just upped the ante. When I saw this, I became instantly green with envy:

Yes, that is a slide going down three floors. I have not tried it but it looks fast.

It’s in the newly opened Electric Works office complex in Sheffield.

Related posts

• 10 seeeeeeeriously cool workplaces.
• 12 ways to pimp your office.

While I’m attending a conference at the LEGO HQ in Billund, Denmark please enjoy these great (and happy) links.

The Proper Use for Post-its.
Frode Heimen finds a great use for post-its and a great way to praise people.

A few days ago I wrote one post-it note to all my employees, they all started with these words: “I appreciate you because…” and I tried to write what I genuine appreciate about each one, all notes ended up differently, as all of them are appreciated for different reasons.

I thought this was a fun thing to do at the office and I hoped it would make them smile for a while. This evening I was walking around at the office and noticed that several notes where hanging at their partition wall. And I started to realize that this really meant a lot for some of them.

Pay Peanuts, Get Monkeys
Rowan Manahan goes to work on the bail-out mentality. Hilarious!

“And now, you want us to prop up your business.”
“Well clearly we can’t let the savings and deposits of millions of investors …”
“But while we’re propping up your business for all those unfortunate millions of investors, you expect ‘business as usual’ when it comes to your remuneration?”
“Of course!”
“Of course? Why of course?”
“Well if salaries or bonuses drop, we won’t be able to hold onto the brightest and best minds in the industry!”

“I see. And these would be the brightest and best minds who devised and implemented the strategies that have led to the collapse of all these institutions?”
“Ah yes, but as I said, conditions became very hostile …”
“Mmmmm, very hostile. Because someone had the temerity to ask how much the houses behind the Triple-A paper were actually worth?”
“Well when you put it like that, it just sounds stupid …”

And finally the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on a plane: A flight attendant who raps.

That’s happiness at work right there!