James Parr at Omniblog has a great post on happiness at work, and how any company can become happy:

Now you might sit here reading this and thinking “yeah, that’s all very well in another company, but in ours where we’re just making widgets day in day out, who’s going to be that passionate about working for us?” Fair point, in essence. It’s a common notion that we can’t all be Google, with a raft of cool people, eager to sign up. Like many common notions though, it’s complete and utter BS.

You’re worried because you’re not making uber-sexy products, or you’re worried that it’s just too tough to get your warehouse staff excited about stacking boxes right? Well worry no more. Happiness at work can apply to everyone. Call centres (notoriously high attrition rates) can be happy places. Production lines can be happy places. Banks and leisure centres and council buildings and hospitals and schools and compliance units and McDonalds and everywhere else can be happy workplaces! It’s about doing some basic things right.

He then goes on to list 5 things your workplace could try right now.

He also goes on to say some very nice things about yours truly. I’m blushing here :o)

While I’m traveling the world making people happy at work, here is a guest post by Dan Schawbel. Dan is the lead personal branding expert for generation-y. He blogs at The Personal Branding Blog, publishes Personal Branding Magazine, directs Personal Branding TV, and is the head judge for the 2008 Personal Brand Awards.

A happy brand is a successful brand

Ever wake up, dreading your typical routine 9-5 workday? I can picture you waking up, rolling out of bed, getting dressed, running to Dunkin Donuts, dreaming about being successful on the way to work and then finally sitting down at your cube watching the clock until you leave. Now who in their right mind would want to go through such an outrageous process? Today, I write before you, to tell you that you too can be happy at work. You may not be a Chief Happiness Officer or a Chief Technology Officer, but the same concept applies.

Introducing personal branding, the happiness-initiator and guess what, it’s free. Personal branding is the process by which we differentiate ourselves by identifying and articulating our unique value proposition to achieve a specific goal. Wouldn’t you want to be branded as a happy person? People don’t want to be associated with a miserable Grinch-like individual that hates their job and the people around them. Why not start the day with a smile on your face, greet people who walk past you and be perceived as a team player.

Of course, if your job doesn’t fit your brand, then this isn’t possible. Personal branding allows you to use social media vehicles, such as blogs in order to convey your passions, goals and expertise. Now, for free, anyone can have their own website and build a reputable brand name. I used to be in product marketing, but my real interest was in personal branding and social media, so through all of my personal branding efforts, I was able to sculpt a position at my company that I would be content with. You can do the same.

Anyone can achieve happiness, but in order to get to that point, you need to gain confidence in yourself, be optimistic and pursue your passion. Starting a blog is a great way to let others know what makes you happy, and building a community through your blog can link you up with those that share interests, thus you both can be happy. In the workplace, whether you are a consultant or working for a fortune 500 company, your attitude is a reflection of your standing, in terms of customer acquisition and retention. In a web 2.0 world, people deal directly with people, so you need to be a “people person.”

Take Guy Kawasaki for instance. When do you ever see him angry? Never, and that’s because his brand is built on giving back to others, being a good father and sharing business practices.

Being happy at your job is success. If you’re not happy with your job, then build a brand that reflects who you are and be recruited or start a company based on that.

What can your workplace learn from this guy?

Business is about results, processes, achievement, success, goals and profits.

Festivals, such as the carnivals in Rio and the Caribbean and other celebrations worldwide, are about music, dance, arts, self-expression, roots, traditions and fun.

So businesses couldn’t possibly learn anything from festivals, could they?

My Bahamian friend Roosevelt Finlayson is here to tell you that not only can workplaces learn from festivals and carnivals – it’s also good for innovation, team work and the bottom line. He’s been studying carnivals for a long time and, yes, his job does involve going to places like Rio, New Orleans, Barbados, Trinidad and cologne to study and participate in their festivals. The lucky bastard :o)

He’s also been applying those insights to various organizations, and now The Global Intelligencer has picked up on it and written an article about his work. From the article:

“Finally there is a philosophy that can be used in the workplace that brings together productivity, a positive work ethic and an environment that the associates will enjoy. Festival in the Workplace has brought together the need to blend the personal needs of employees to attain self-satisfaction as well as the critical activity to achieve excellence for the employer and the customer.”

Check the article out – it’s good reading.

In my opinion, there are many aspects of carnivals that we could introduce in our workplaces that would create more happiness at work. And no, I’m not talking about making ugly co-workers wear masks :o)

What people often forget about carnivals is, that while the actual parade or performance looks fun, a lot of very hard work goes into it. In fact, Roosevelt started his work when he noticed that while many Bahamians seem to dislike their jobs and always do as little as possible, they would work very hard to prepare for the annual Junkanoo celebration.

And according to Roosevelt, this work goes so well because in a festival:

• Everyone is equal
• Everyone learns from everyone else
• People want to be there
• People work hard without being told
• People care about the end result

Doesn’t that sound like a fairly good work culture to you?

So now, I’m stuck. I’ve been doing more or less the same work for three years (the last 12 months have been utter torture). I have learnt nothing new; my bosses don’t understand what I could potentially do (bad communication on my part) and they don’t know what they could give me to do… So, still stuck.
…
Sick of it all, I decided to take charge. I want a rewarding career and am sick of being a corporate nobody. By chance, I came across this. It has made a world of difference to my attitude. In the end, planning my escape begins with this positive frame of mind: I am responsible for my happiness at work.

Yaaaaaay! I live for feedback like this!

Click here to read my manifesto on happiness at work over at ChangeThis.

My life is now complete – I’ve been on radio in ireland :o)

Rowan Monaghan of Fortify Services appears regularly on Dublin’s Q102 station and invited me along for a ten-minute segment on happiness at work.

You can listen to the whole thing here. I urge you to do it, if just to hear Rowan’s and the presenter’s wonderful Irish accents. And also to read rowan’s hilarious comments on the event, which nearly had me spitting coffee all over my laptop :o)

And I’ve also been featured in a Turkish newspaper:

Click the image above to read the whole article.

It would seem that the idea of happiness at work is spreading far beyond Denmark. THIS IS SO COOOOOL!

Last Tuesday I spoke at The Power of Passion conference in Stockholm which is an annual event arranged by the wonderful people at 4good. I gave the last presentation – after (among others) Pigge Werkelin, a famous Swedish entrepreneur and Renata Chlumska, a lady who has circumnavigated the entire lower 48 American states in a kayak and on a bicycle.

After I gave my presentation (which was very well-received, if I do say so myself) I was interviewed by journalist Jennie Sjöström who asked some great questions about happiness at work.

Jennie also brought along a photographer who was determined to get some especially happy looking photos.

Hence this:

You can read the entire article here (it’s in Swedish though).

I recently visited the City Call Center here in Copenhagen Denmark, and they’re a bit of a novelty: A call center where the employees are actually happy to work.

Call centers are not known as the world’s best workplaces and many are plagued by high levels of absenteeism, stress and extremely high employee turnover. In some call centers, new employees typically last only a few weeks before moving on.

But Pouline Andersen, the founder of City Call Center, decided from the beginning to create a happy workplace and the results speak for themselves. As she puts it:

“We must be doing something right because revenue has grown by 30% annually the last five years running and we’re about to move to a new office that’s 15 times as big as our current one. Also, our employees say for 1.2 years on average, which is far higher than the industry average.”

Here’s a video of a chat I had with Pouline where she explains why she chose to make her company happy, and how she does it.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Pouline also sent me some additional comments on how she makes her employees happy, which you can find below. They’re in Danish though :o)
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