The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • “Make Love, Not War” In Business

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    Business as war

    When Kai-Fu Lee, a key Microsoft employee, decided to leave to go work for one of their competitors he had an… interesting experience:

    Prior to joining Google, I set up a meeting on or about November 11, 2004 with Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer to discuss my planned departure… At some point in the conversation Mr. Ballmer said: “Just tell me it’s not Google.” I told him it was Google.

    At that point, Mr. Ballmer picked up a chair and threw it across the room hitting a table in his office. Mr. Ballmer then said: “F*cking Eric Schmidt [Google’s CEO] is a f*cking pussy. I’m going to f*cking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I’m going to f*cking kill Google.”

    – Source: John Batelle’s blog

    I don’t know about you, but I’m getting really, really tired of the “business as war” approach. I’m sick of hearing about the market as a battlefield, competitors as enemies who should be killed and employees as foot soldiers.

    Executives who buy this kind of thinking can be found looking for business advice in Sun Tzu’s “The art of war”, Clausewitz’s “On War” or even Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. A recent business book called “Hardball” praises companies who are “ruthless”, “mean”, “willing to hurt their rivals” and “enjoy watching their competitors squirm”.

    But war is a terrible metaphor for business. It locks a company into an adversarial approach in which almost everyone becomes an enemy. It means spending time looking for ways to defeat your enemies, rather than making your own business great. It leads to zero-sum thinking, in which others have to lose, in order for you to win.
    (more…)

  • Monday Tip: Who are your helping?

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    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsYour mission this monday is to ask yourself who you have been helping today.

    Before you leave work, take five minutes to sit down and write down a list of five ways you have contributed today. Five ways:

    • You have helped others today
    • You have made other people’s lives easier
    • You have made others happier at work

    It can be big things or small things. It can be helping co-workers, customers, business partners, suppliers or others.

    There are three reasons why it’s important to stop once in a while and remember who you’re helping:

    1. When you help someone, you obviously make the helpee feel good
    2. It also feels great to know that you are able to contribute.
    3. It helps you to find meaning in you
    4. job. Work is now about more than just doing your work – it’s about helping others and contributing to something other than just your own welfare.

    Do this exercise today and write a comment to tell us how it worked. If you liked it, repeat it every day this week to get a more complete picture of who you’re helping.

    The Chief Happiness Officer’s monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went.

    Previous monday tips.

  • My favorites

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    Happy SprayJust so you know it, I’ve put all my favorite blogposts from this site in one category, called best of site.

    Some of my all time favorites are:

    Enjoy :o)

  • Friday Links

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    HappyThe Slow Leadership Blog has The Truth about Communication. Have you ever asked yourself why so many communications are “top down???? The answer is simple: because they are all about control.
    That’s a critical insight. I agree!

    Negative people are bad four your brain – a classic from Kathy Sierra. The idea seems to be that “happy people” implies those who are oblivious to the realities of life, in a fantasy of their own creation, and without the ability to think critically. The science, however, suggests just the opposite.
    Where did we ever get the idea, that negative people are somehow more realistic and smarter than positive people? In my opinion, it’s just way too easy to be negative and you can always criticize and shoot ideas down. Being positive and supportive demands more from a person.

    And speaking of negative people, the world sucks, and the Helsinki Complaints Choir will tell you exactly how.

  • A question for ya: Books about happiness at work

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    QuestionSay, I’ve been hankering to read some good books about happiness at work.

    You can see my top 10 favorite books so far here (fiction and non-fiction), with my reviews. Hmmmm… that list is from 2004 – gotta update it soon.

    Can you recommend some more great ones? Write a comment!

    If you’d like to recommend a really great novel as well, don’t hold yourself back :o)

  • How to procrastinate effectively

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    Procrastinate effectively

    Search for procrastination on google and you’ll find a massive number of articles on how to stop procrastinating and get stuff done.

    They will tell you that there is only one reliable way to get stuff done:

    1. Check todo-list for next item
    2. Complete item no matter what it is
    3. Go to step 1

    They’ll tell you that if only you had enough willpower, backbone, self-control and discipline this is how you would work too.

    Well guess what: Most people don’t work that way. Sometimes you’re in the mood for task X and doing X is ridiculously easy and a lot of fun. Sometimes doing X feels worse than walking barefoot over burning-hot, acid-covered, broken glass and forcing yourself to do it anyway is a frustrating exercise in futility.

    Sometimes procrastinating is exactly the right thing to do at a particular moment. This is largely ignored by the procrastination-is-a-sign-of-weakness, the-devil-finds-work-for-idle-hands crowd.
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  • A question for ya: Marketing my book

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    Happy at work bookYesterday I finished the happy at work book, updating it according to all the great feedback you guys gave me. Thank you to everyone who read a chapter, and gave me their input. Today the book goes out to proofreading and then it’ll be done.

    Now I have a question for ya: How do I market and sell the book?

    Here’s what I’m currently thinking of doing:

    • The book will be available in pdf for $20 and on paper from lulu.com and amazon for $30.
    • I’ll give away 100 electronic copies of the book to the first 100 bloggers who sign up to ask for one. (Don’t sign up yet, there’ll be an official announcement later.)
    • I’ll contact all the bloggers that write about happiness at work or similar topics and offer them a free copy of the book as well as the chance to do an interview with me.
    • I’ll advertise the book in the sidebar here on the blog and at the end of every post.
    • I’ll be posting excerpts from the book as blogposts.
    • I’ll make the whole book available for free as html here on the blog.

    What else can I do to make the book a huge hit? Write a comment!

  • Yep, that’s me :o)

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    Wanna see what I look like when I speak? Look below the fold.

    You gotta promise not to laugh, though :o)
    (more…)

  • Me on business networking

    Josh Hinds is asking various people for advice about business networking. Here are my two cents.

  • Monday Tip: Make an apology

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    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsIs there an apology you should’ve made, that you’ve been postponing? Make it this monday.

    Apologizing at work is a hugely important skill. A well-timed, sincere apology is a great way to resolve conflicts, to enhance learning and to move on from difficult situations.

    So if you’ve recently made a mistake, annoyed someone, spoken to harshly, etc. take the chance and apologize right now.

    The Chief Happiness Officer’s monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went.

    Previous monday tips.

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