On Monday October 30, the Danish National Worklife Balance Week kicks. It’s a whole week of activites that companies can participate in to create awareness around worklife balance. You can read all about it here (in danish).
The week starts with a conference about leadership on Oct. 30 in Copenhagen. One of the speakers will be yours truly, talking about how some of the best organizations in the world make their people happy at work.
My book about happiness at work is practically done and is coming out in November. I’m revising the text one last time and I’m really, really happy with it.
I had a meeting monday with Palle Schmidt who is going to illustrate it throughout. Palle is a great artist (you can see his work here – click under “gallerier”) and is really good at illustrating business concepts. The incredibly talented designer Lone Orum will create a beautiful cover and design the inside of the book so it will look not just good but grrrrreat!
There’s just one, tiny, insignificant detail missing: A title! I really suck at coming up with names (always have) and the best I’ve been able to come up with so far is “Happy At Work Now”. Surely we can do better!
What do you think I should call the book? I need a title and a catch-phrase, as in The Seven-Day Weekend – Changing The Way Work Works. I also like that title because it immediately evokes a positive image of what the book is about.
The book is of course about happiness at work. What it is, why it matters and how we can get it. The book is for anyone who has a job and anyone who wants one. You can read all about it (and even read the first draft of it) here.
Help me out here – I really need some ideas. Write a comment if you have any suggestion!
I found a great interview where Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines explains some of their thinking behind leadership and culture. Here’s what he says about hiring leaders:
For our interviewing in general and looking for leadership in particular, we use model employees to do it. We bring in our mechanics to interview mechanics, pilots to interview pilots, flight attendants to interview flight attendants, etc. We want their insights. They’re out in the field, they know the kinds of people we want and so we involve them in the hiring process. And of course they can give us some pretty good insight. Most of our pilots have a fairly keen sense of humor. One day a bunch of applicants thought one of our pilots was also an applicant and sat down and started discussing things very frankly and two or three of them eliminated themselves from consideration by their comments. We also watch applicants when they go to the cafeteria and watch how they relate to our people while they’re up there.
So it’s not just a question of sitting down with them and asking, “Are you a good person? Do you have great leadership qualities???? We try to put them in situations and have conversations where this naturally comes out.
This is a fine application of Southwest’s “hire for attitude, train for skill” principle. When you put people skills and being a nice person first when hiring or promoting leaders, you get waaaaay better leaders. And waaaaay better employees!
UPDATE: And this is what happens in real life, when you hire your employees that way (a great story about Soutwhest from Church of the customer).
Some businesses seem to think that they must protect their employees from all the dangers of working life.
Before people can be happy at work, the thinking goes, they must be shielded from all manner of ills: angry customers, unrealistic deadlines, unfair decisions, overwork, boring meetings, stress, annoying co-workers, insecurity, diffiult situations, hard choices – you name it.
Wrong.
The best and happiest workplaces in the world haven’t become so by shielding their people from problems, but by giving their people the skills, the energy and the freedom to deal constructively with problems.
(more…)
Allengirl4 asked how you can spruce up an otherwise boring workplace and Mack came back with this question in the comments:
Sorry I just don’t get this!! Work is work play is play. I cannot stand it when people “decorate” their cube etc. this is not kindergarden it is a place of work treat it as such.
Grow up! This constant moaning from people really annoys me. If you are not happy at your Job leave. How about this for a motivation to do your job, your SALARY!!
Look at people in the third world and their plight and get some perspective! Be glad you have a Job!
I believe there is relevance to Mack’s question. Why do we want to be happy at work? Why is it not enough to go to work and get paid for it? Why do we want work to be more engaging, playful and fun?
What’s your take?
Your mission this monday is to learn three things about a co-worker, that you didn’t already know.
That’s it: Over lunch or in a coffee break or something, take the time to learn at least three new things you didn’t already know about one co-worker. About their professional background, education, private life, etc…
Simple, huh? :o)
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.
Allengirl4 saw my post on 10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces, and wrote this in a comment:
What a beautiful, and inspiring environment to work in! However, some of us are not so fortunate – so I pose the question, If you live in a fairly regimented pod-based cubicle world, how do you make your own space creative?
I guess you could always hang up some Dilbert cartoons, though that is probably more an expression of desperation than an actual attempt to create a better looking, more inspiring workplace.
So I’ll pass the question on to you, dear reader: What would you do to a perfectly ordinary office or cubicle to make it more creative?
Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business and it has been the key to everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success.
– Richard Branson
Steve Farber on The Greatness Paradox. “There is no law of physics, no universal rule–that I know of, anyway–that says your succeeding requires my failing, your fulfillment requires my emptiness, your happiness, my grief.” Steve is looking for stories on how you make others great. Go give him one.
Fred Gratzon on Weeds and Life’s Purpose. “The problem is that most folks, besides not believing they are special (a tragic oversight, by the way), are so dulled out or fatigued that their innate intelligence, creativity, and passion are encrusted with inertia and thereby rendered sluggish.”
How not to apply for a job in banking. Funniest thing on the net this week. You can’t make this stuff up, but Aleksey Vayner has. You MUST watch the video!
Our employees’ tatoos. The missing link corporate website has a page showing it’s employees’ tattoos? Btw: It would be kinda funny if this company has one guy who’s just different and refuses to fit in – because he doesn’t have a single tattoo or piercing anywhere on his body :o)
And have an amazingly great weekend!
Anna Farmery has posted the second (and last) part of our conversation at her blog.
In the second part we talk mostly about how you can create a happy business. Give it a listen and tell Anna what you think of it!
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