The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Crane, moon, chimney

    The other morning as I was leaving for work the view from our bedroom window contained this tableau:

    I had to grab the camera, improvise a stand of 3 books I grabbed off the bedroom floor and try to catch it.

    And here’s a sunrise from the other day:

    Not bad, huh? Living on the 7th floor rocks! Patricia and I talked about it the other day, and though our place is small, it would take a LOT to get us to move. We have everything we need and the rent is next to nothing. And then there’s the view :o)

  • Today’s word

    ,

    Not only are there people who believe in creationism as a scientific fact. There are people who believe that the earth is the center of the universe and everything else revolves around us, and there are people who refuse to believe that HIV is the cause of AIDS.

    In a comment to a marvellous response to one of these HIV-deniers I found today’s word: A “debunking and a half” :o)

  • Billy Idol

    Billy Idol was in Copenhagen last night playing at a sold out Vega. In short: He still rocks. It was great to hear Rebel Yell, White Wedding (my favourite) and the concert closer, a 15-minute long excellent version of Mony Mony.

    Laugh of the evening: Billy Idol presenting the band:

    On drums [some name]. On bass [some other name]. On guitar Steve Stevens. And I’m Billy F*cking Idol.

    Plus he looks better shirtless than any 50-year old man has a right to :o)

  • Leadership darwinism

    , ,

    In the case where a board can’t figure out to depose self-obsessed, autocratic and power-hungry managers, we’ll probably se in the future that these leaders will in principle be deposed by their own employees, who will leave for better workplaces with better leaders and leadership values, that create a better space for the employees’ personal goals and life visions to unfold.

    This will leave the managers who use hierarchical leadership, control systems and autocratic leadership values without significant access to getting employees. Ie. a leadership with no followers, which is both pathetic and useless.
    – Alfred Josefsen, CEO of Irma

    Right on, Alfred – you tell’em :o)

    There will be two kinds of darwinism operating against bad managers:
    1) Employee selection: Employees will leave bad managers behind and gravitate towards better leaders.
    2) Marketplace selection: Companies with autocratic old-school management are less efficient, and will loose market share to better-run organizations. In the end they’ll die out altogether.

    If I had stock in a company, and wanted to make money out of those stocks, I’d ask the board of directors two questions:
    1) What are you doing to make the people in the organization happy?
    2) How are you training leaders to make themselves and others happy?

  • The future of leadership

    This Fast Company article on leadership according to Harvard’s Ronald Heifetz is ancient (from way back in 1999) but very true. A few choice quotes:

    The real heroism of leadership involves having the courage to face reality — and helping the people around you to face reality.
    …
    Mustering the courage to interrogate reality is a central function of a leader. And that requires the courage to face three realities at once. First, what values do we stand for — and are there gaps between those values and how we actually behave? Second, what are the skills and talents of our company — and are there gaps between those resources and what the market demands? Third, what opportunities does the future hold — and are there gaps between those opportunities and our ability to capitalize on them?

    Now, don’t get the wrong idea. Leaders don’t answer those questions themselves. That’s the old definition of leadership: The leader has the answers — the vision — and everything else is a sales job to persuade people to sign up for it.

    Read the whole article here. I long to see more of that kind of leaderhip in companies, and fortunately it is becoming more and more common.

  • Damn you, Otters

    CNN says: Otters winning battle of wits.

    In an admission that the slick-furred creatures refuse to respect boundaries imposed by man, authorities want to officially abandon their otter-relocation policy.
    …
    Fearful that an oil spill could wipe out otters elsewhere, the agency tried to create a reserve for 150 otters on San Nicholas Island, about 80 miles south of Santa Barbara.

    Biologists had thought the otters would stay near San Nicholas, which has plenty of food and is surrounded by deep water that is hard to swim across. Even if the otters wanted to leave, it seemed improbable that they had the navigation skills to do it — especially since they were taken to the island by plane.

    “We flew ’em out there,” Sanders said, “although we didn’t blindfold them.”

    I always knew otters were smart :o)

  • Business – New school

    , ,

    David Heinemeier Hansson is one of the hottest names in IT right now. He’s been developing something called Ruby on Rails, which is a tool for developing web applications. Now Denmark has become too small for David, and he’s left for Chicago, better to work with his compatriots at 37signals, one of the most admired software shops right now.

    The evening before he left, he gave a presentation in Copenhagen to a small crowd of techies, bloggers, business people and others. I was there and I was blown away by this guy. Not only is he a good developer, he also has an amazing sense for how a business can also be designed. And he’s 26 years old. Interestingly, his software design principles are the same as his business design principles, making his philosophy consistent and credible. Here are the main points I took away from his presentation:

    Solve the next problem
    Whether you’re working on software or building a business, this means that you should tackle the issues that matter right now. Don’t solve the problems you think will appear in 6 months – they probably won’t, you see. Solve the next problem, and then the next. In six months time, you will have plenty of stuff to work on, but it won’t be what you thought six months ago.

    Solve your own problems
    When you work on something that you yourself need, you’re much more efficient. Rather than working on something that some remote client will use, attack issues that are important to you.

    Do as little as possible – or slightly less
    The complexity of any system does not grow proportianl to the size of the system – it grows exponentially. Making a system twice as large makes it waaay more that twise as complex. Therefore, make your system as simple as possible, or maybe even a little simpler.

    And if I may be allowed to brag for a moment here: This is exactly how we work on the Happy At Work Project. Here are a few of our maxims, that I might add:

    Try stuff
    Rather than analyzing a given choice to death, make a quick decision and try it out. If it doesn’t work, try something else.

    Relax
    It’ll all work out. Don’t beat yourself up and don’t work too hard. Take plenty of breaks and do lots of different stuff to stimulate your mind.

    The best of luck to David in Chicago – I’m sure he’ll do famously.

  • German IT outfit bans whining

    ,

    This may not be the best way to go about it:

    German IT outfit Nutzwerk Ltd has come up with the perfect solution to whining in the workplace – it’s made cheerfulness a contractual obligation. What’s more, Manager Thomas Kuwatsch has declared that those who don’t measure up to the prescribed level of jollity in the morning should stay at home until they cheer up.

    Full story in The Register. Funny. I think there’s actually something to this: Give people the right to stay home, if they don’t feel happy, though outlawing grumpiness is probably a bad idea. It’ll only drive it underground where it’s harder to deal with. It may even amplify the complaining.

  • Best speech ever

    ,

    Yesterday I gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever given on happiness at work to Junior Chambers Copenhagen. What made it good? This I think:
    1: I opened up the speech by showing them my prepared notes (on little cue-cards)
    2: I then made a display of tearing them up and throwing them away
    3: And then I had the audience call out suggestions for topics they’d like to hear about

    It also doesn’t hurt if you have an attentive, interested and active crowd listening.

  • Quote

    , ,

    Each individual should work for himself. People will not sacrifice themselves for the company. They come to work at the company to enjoy themselves.
    – Soichiro Honda, founder of (surprise) Honda

    Via Metacool via Mike Wagner.

Connect

Get our newsletter

“I can’t believe it – a newsletter actually worth reading!”
– Subscriber

Over 6,000 people subscribe to our newsletter with tons of tips about happiness at work.

Get our books

“It’s very, very good. It’s incredibly well written, full of insights, and there are exercises to improve your own happiness at work. You can’t ask for more than that!”
– David Maister, author of Practice What You Preach

“What an inspiring book. Every leader should read it. This type of leadership has been integral to our success and I know it will boost your results too.“
– Garry Ridge, CEO WD-40 Company

Get Our Free Newsletter

Over 6,000 people already get our free newsletter with useful tips, videos, links and articles about happiness at work.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Top posts last week

Non-inspirational quotesOctober 22, 2003
Top 10 reasons why constant complaining is so toxic in the workplaceAugust 7, 2007
The movie "The Secret" is entirely fakeMarch 15, 2007
The world is uncertain (again). Happiness at work must be part of the answer.April 9, 2025
How to handle chronic complainersAugust 24, 2006

recent Posts