I’ve had the chance to speak about two different topics over the last week. Yesterday I presented Appreciative Inquiry to a team of social workers from a danish municipality, and a week ago I spoke at a conference on motivation and happiness at work in call centers.

And today I realized how similar the two subjects are. Many key insights apply to both and many of the key assumptions are the same. This reflects in part the fact, that much of our thinking in happiness at work is indeed inspired by appreciative inquiry but I also think that there is a deeper connection. That AI and Happiness at Work are two different expressions of the same values and outlook on life. An outlook that bases itself on:
* The positive
* What I can do
* What we can do togehter
* Dialogue as a way of thinking together
* Our individual, basic freedom

In the end, the good life is the one where you focus on the good stuff, start with yourself and work with others to do good.

These are good times for the happiness at work project. Yesterday I spoke at a conference om motivation and employee satisfaction in call centers, and I was a hit. I attended the whole day and was the last speaker, and while the day had been good with some interesting topics and good speakers, all day long it had been the typical format we all know: One speaker, lots of powerpoint slides and an audience sitting in rows looking up at the speaker. When my turn came, I got rid of the tables and made everybody sit in a half-circle. I used talking stick and some open questions to get a dialogue going and it worked really well. Makes me wonder why we even have the old school kinds of meetings and conferences any more.

Today I had a meeting with some people from a danish municipality, and they ordered a workshop in january. Just the meeting itself (which was basically a sales meeting) generated a lot of positivity, and they were really excited about the workshop. Woohoo!