The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Book review: The answer to how is yes

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    The title of Peter Blocks latest book reads a little strange at first: “The answer to how is yes“, but in it he makes a very important point, one that every decision maker, project worker, consultant, change agent or just plain anybody who works for anything that matters should know: That sometimes “how?” isn’t the important question, and that asking “How?” can actually be a defense against getting an effort started, a defense against change.

    What every important project needs is less focus on “How?” and more focus on “Yes!”, on the affirmation that this (whatever “this” is) is a worthwhile pursuit. That affirmation strengthens the will to do it, whereas continually asking “how?” saps your strength. Saying yes focuses on the goal you want to achieve, asking how focuses on all the obstacles.
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  • I’m featured in the CEO refresher

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    The december issue of the online magazine the CEO Refresher has an article I wrote in it. It’s about the art of hosting, and the editor called it a brilliant insight into leadership… one of the most creative insights I have seen. You’ll have to imagine me strutting around a hotel room in DC (I was at the World Dynamics round table), my arms raised above my head when I recieved that mail :o)

    The article is based on my experiences at a conference in Slovenia which i wrote about here.

  • Allow me to introduce you to…

    My wonderful girlfriend Patricia, who is now getting her feet wet as a blogger.

  • Book review: Quicksilver

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    Well then, reading Neal Stephensons newest book Quicksilver took me a little longer than expected but then it is 900 pages long. It’s set in the 1600’s amid scientists (called natural philosophers at the time), alchymists, kings, nobles and vagabonds. The cast of characters is enormous and contains both real and fictional people. People like Isaac Newton, Leibnitz, Louis XIV and William of Orange mix with names familiar to readers of Cryptonomicon: Waterhouse’s, Comstock’s, Shaftoe’s and especially Enoch Root.

    The book seems extremely well researched, and certainly all I know about that period and its science and politics seemed to fit it. The book is divided into three books, and my favourite is definitely the middle part where the main characters are Jack Shaftoe (half-cocked jack, the king of vagabonds) and Eliza whom he rescues from a turkish harem. This part has a tremendous drive and energy.

    The other two thirds of the book are driven mainly by the amusing and highly detailed descriptions of the political and scientific developments of that age, inventions ranging from calculus to stock markets. The book is enormously complex, and being the kinf od reader I am, I’m sure I missed many of the more subtle points it has to offer. I hope to pick them up when I re-read the book at some point.

    UPDATE:
    I have now re-read Quicksilver, and completely changed my mind about the book. The book is excellent, I just didn’t get it the first time around. As with many truly rewarding works, you may not get it at first, but when you do, it’s that much more rewarding.

    This book is not a single page too long! It IS complex, but that’s why it’s good. Read it!

  • Blogforum.dk notes: Good blog stories

    I suggested a session at blogforum.dk on “good stories about blogging”, and dalager, emme, eatmyshorts, bubber, myagent and I had a fun and exciting exchange.

    The stories ranged from me being invited to a conference in DC by Traci Fenton after posting about her to Guan being flamed by Basse Bergqvist to emme being hired to invent a fictitious past.

    I didn’t write down all the stories, but we did discover some common themes, namely that most of the stories were about:
    * What happens when you interact with ithers on the basis of the content of your and/or their blog
    * Unexpected consequences of blogging
    * What happens when you lose your (real or perceived) anonimity

    So the good stories we tell each other are not about solitary epiphanies stemming from blogging. They’re mostly about social encounters (on- or offline, real or fictitious) that were affected by the contents of a blog.

    If you have a good story about blogging, feel free ro add it in a comment here or blog it yourself and add a link.

  • blogforum.dk

    Blogforum.dk is happening right now at arena.

  • Dream conversations

    I’ve started a list of people I’d really like to have a conversation with. An interesting parallel to the 100 things thing?

  • Quote

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    The radical, committed to human liberation, does not become the prisoner of a “circle of certainty” within which reality is also imprisoned. On the contrary, the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can better transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled. This person is not afraid to meet the people or enter into dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit … to fight at their side.

    – Paolo Freire in Pedagogy of the oppressed

    I’m a radical and I didn’t even know it. I especially like the part about “committed to human liberation”. To me, this goes beyond liberating people from external oppression, and includes bringing people to the realization of their own, basic human freedom.

    The “happiness at work” project expresses this. We believe that if you want to be happy at work, you must first choose to be so. That choice will not make you happy, it’s not that easy, but if you do not start with that choice, no external factor (not even a good boss, nice colleagues and a fat pay check) can make you happy. And that choice is the first step to taking your happiness and your freedom into your own hands. The first step towards realizing, that all change must start with you and be based on what you can do, rather than on waiting for “them” to fix what’s wrong.

  • Happy social workers

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    Today Mette and I facilitated a “happiness at work” workshop for 25 social workers from all over Denmark. It went extremely well, and in just five short hours people whose stories of the workplace are mostly dominated by bad management, stress, too much work and changing laws, suddenly remembered that they actually do good work, and that they have many good stories to tell also. Yeah!!

  • Denmarks best workplaces

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    I spent today at a conference that accompanies the announcement of Denmarks best workplaces, arranged by the greatplacetowork institute of Denmark. This year the winner is Kjaer group from my hometown Svendborg who sell cars to developing countries. Their motto is “Love cars, love people, love life”. You gotta love that.

    The day was fairly interesting, though I have to admit that once you get used to the efficiency, spirit and energy of open space meetings, more traditional conferences such as this one seem a waste of time. I did manage to get in some good conversations with other participants, though tellingsly enough, these all happened in the breaks.

    The keynote speaker was Robert Levering of the original great place to work institute. He set an international context by telling some stories from other such events in the rest of the worlds. Nice to know that the focus on creating good work places is growing all over the world. He also announced that the institute will focus more on the “how” of good workplaces; so far it’s only been about measuring the current status.

    The next couple of events were moslty forgettable with a few interesting highlights. This includes the panel debates; my life is too short for panel debates, though a good side effect seems to be, that while I’m thoruoghly bored by what’s being said I seem to get a lot of good ideas.

    The day ended with Peter Aalbaek of Zentropa, who has some very interesting ideas about how to run a company. Among other things he:
    * Once walked into the accounting department with a straight face and no pants (or underwear) on and asked for some invoice
    * Demands that people work menial and gruelling tasks for six months for free, before hiring them for real
    * Insists that contracts for employees are merely a sign that you expect trouble
    * Claims that it is the job of the workplace to save employees from their otherwise meaningless and boring existence.

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