The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Brunch this sunday: Business 2.0

    BrunchThere are some great people in Copenhagen these days, many of which are designing the next iteration of business, among them Traci Fenton who works with democractic organizations, Roosevelt Finlayson who creates festivals in the workplace and more.

    If you have an interest in a better way to do business we would love to see you for brunch this sunday september 3rd. at 11 AM at the Wascator Café. The address is Refsnæsgade 32 in Copenhagen.

    Write a comment here if you want to join us for brunch and an informal and fun discussion of what we want business to be like in the future and how we’re going to get there.

  • How to recieve praise

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    Yaaaaay!I’ve been getting a lot of amazingly nice praise recently, which has .given me a chance to practice receiving praise gracefully.

    I use a method that helps me avoid some common mistakes in receiving praise:

    • Don’t explain the praise away – as in “Aaww, it was nothing special”
    • Don’t reject the praise – as in “You don’t need to thank me, I was just doing my job”
    • Don’t ignore the praise – as in “How about them Dodgers!”

    Remember when people take time out to praise you or something you’ve done, it’s nice to accept the praise in the spirit it’s given.

    I recommend this 2-step process for receiving praise:

    1. Shut up
    2. Say “Thank you!”

    Step 3, jumping up and down, pumping your fist in the air while yelling “I’m the MAN!” is optional and should probably be avoided in many situations.

  • A challenge to all managers: Do you know your people?

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    How happy?

    I’m going to risk provoking business leaders everywhere and state that any leader worth her salt knows how happy her people are at work. This is a leader’s most basic responsibility. You shouldn’t need to see a pie chart – you should know already.

    The question of “How happy are people in our organization??? is typically handed over to HR who can then distribute a job satisfaction survey that results in a lot of statistics which can then be sliced and diced in any number of way to produce any number of results. You know – “lies, damned lies and statistics???.

    I’m not saying these surveys are worthless. Wait a minute: I am saying they’re worthless. They’re a waste of time and money because they very rarely give a company the information or the drive necessary to make positive changes.

    As I said, you as a leader/manager shouldn’t need a survey to know how your people are doing so I challenge you to a simple exercise. It goes like this:
    (more…)

  • Fill your office with kids, dogs and happy people

    Christian of think:lab visited a Montana printing company called Printing For Less. Some teasers from his post:

    The first thing you see when you come walk the parking lot to the front door are little kiddos playing under the Montana sky. All employees pay a pitance to have their young kids on site with them.
    …
    Spaces were vibrant. Team members were free to work in a variety of settings. And the place had a learning buzz about it.
    …
    The dog to the right was one of at least 12 that I saw, roaming happily around the Printing For Less offices/halls. Talk about a perk for employees!
    …
    Man, there just weren’t any spaces in the building that didn’t suggest learning, collaboration, experiment, and team.

    Kinda sounds like he liked it, huh?

    And so do I. It’s a nice break from the traditional, sterile office environment that many other businesses think is necessary for productivity and professionalism. I think this type of office atmosphere lets people be themselves and is much more likely to make them happy at work.

    Also check out my previous post about an ad agency that allowed babies and subsequently dogs, cats and other pets to the workplace. Though they did have to draw the line at goats, they found it to be a real boost for the company and for the employees.

    Via Lifestylism.

  • The strongest force in business (no, not money)

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    Driving force

    As a leader, manager or executive, what is your driving force in business?

    Think about it for a second. What gets you out of bed in the morning and makes you take that drive to work? What is behind the choices you make? How do you set your goals and ambitions?

    There are many possible answers. Ask a thousand people and you’ll get a thousand different answers. Money would probably show up quite often. So would power, influence, getting ahead, recognition, security and success.

    But I believe that there is one underappreciated driving force in business. One force that spurs people on to stellar results, wise decisions and strong business relationships. One strong force that, when harnessed in your work life, will make you more efficient and let you enjoy work more.

    One that all business leaders everywhere need to know about and build into their businesses at the most fundamental level.

    Curious yet?

    Here it is: The strongest driving force in business is happiness! Yes, happiness at work.
    (more…)

  • Homework makes kids hate learning

    Time Magazine has an article on why homework is a bad thing for school kids. They cite Alfie Kohn whose work is a constant inspiration to me both when it relates to our workplaces and schools.

    Kohn’s claim is simple: There is not one single study that shows that homework helps kids learn. At the same time kids have less and less time to just be kids – time spent on homework has gone up 50% since 1981.

    And if your first thought is “But how could you have a school without homework” you’ll be glad to hear that the Sudbury Valley schools have been doing just fine without homework for 35 years now. I previously wrote about these radically different schools and why I would love to have gone to one of them.

    You know what this fixation on homework is? It’s The Cult of Overwork forced on children. Let’s stop it.

    A big thank you to Leandro N. Camargo from Brazil for sending me the link :o)

  • Monday Tip: Praise a co-worker

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    The Chief Happiness Officer's monday tipsHere’s a fun, easy thing to do, to give one lucky co-worker a great start to the work-week.

    First choose a co-worker you want to give a boost. Someone who deserves it or maybe a person who could really use it.

    Grab a piece of paper, and write “Things we appreciate about John Miller” (Or whatever his/her name is) at the top. Then write one thing you appreciate about John and sign your name underneath. Pass it on to another co-worker with instructions to do the same and pass it on.

    Do all of this without John noticing – which can be kinda fun in itself.

    When everyone has written one thing they appreciate about John, it’s time to give the paper to him. Here are some ways to do it:

    • Tack it to his PC screen when he’s not looking and let him find it there.
    • Hang it on the department bulletin board for everyone to see.
    • Go wild and let the whole department/team show up and hand it over to John in an improvised ceremony that could even include balloons, a song and a speech or two.

    You could also arrange the writing thing via email, but handwriting on paper has a nice personal touch.

    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.

  • Reddit made my blog a hit

    I can not believe how popular my blog is getting – and how quickly.

    A few months back it had less than 2.000 visitors a month. And now? Just look at this:

    Stats

    The numbers boggle my mind. 110.000 people read the blog. In august alone. Wow. And Yay!

    How did it happen? Well, the main reason is simple: reddit.
    (more…)

  • EuroGEL 2006 and Festival In The Workplace

    EuroGELTuesday is your last chance to sign up for the EuroGEL 2006 conference on september 1st in Copenhagen.

    Read more and sign up. I hope I see you there :o)

    And don’t forget the pre-EuroGEL presentation on Festivals In The Workplace I’m doing together with Roosevelt Finlayson from the Bahamas and Traci Fenton from D.C. on august 31st from 4-6 PM at Café Enter in Copenhagen.

    Read all about it and send me an email if you’d like to be there. It’s free and it’s fun!!

  • How to get people to arrive on time for meetings

    ClockIt bugs me a little when meetings don’t start on time. I’m fairly punctual myself and while I have no problem waiting five minutes for a meeting to start, it pains me to see ten people waiting fifteen minutes for one or two other people who’re late. It’s particularly annoying when it’s the same people who’re late every time.

    Also, when some people are habitually late other participants start thinking “hey, meetings never start on time anyway, I’ll drop in ten minutes late.” It’s a downward slide from there :o)

    Here are three steps you can take to get your meetings started on time – including one slightly weird suggestion that works amazingly well.
    (more…)

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