Poetic, urban and beautiful: Copenhagen autumn road graffiti.
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The cult of the NDA
Frozen North has an excellent piece which argues that a certain level of openness (as opposed to total secrecy) can actually be healthy for startups.
This is right up my alley: I believe that openness and generosity (in many forms) is one of the ways to become happy at work – and to succeed!
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Heaven, I’m in heaven
I’m in book heaven: It seems that all my favourite authors have new books out right now. I just finished Chuck Palahniuks new book Diary, Douglas Couplands Hey Nostradamus! is waiting for me and, wonder of wonders, I walked into a bookstore today and they had Neal Stephensons new book Quicksilver which is a kind of prequel to Cryptonomicon. I’m 50 pages into it already, and it looks excellent – and best of all: There’s still 900 pages to go!
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Ideas needed for book
I need your help: I’m currently writing a book about happiness at work. The book is directed at both managers and employees, and should give the reader a better understanding of what makes people happy at work, as well as a lot of practical tools to use.
If you were reading such a book, what would you like to see in it? Drop me a comment if you have any ideas – good or bad :o)
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More happiness at work
The happiness at work project is really taking off now. We’re working on a lot of interesting things, and the newest development is that customers have actually started calling me up to arrange seminars and workshops. I just looooooove that.
This afternoon I have a workshop with a large european car manufacturer and on tuesday I’m giving a speech to 50 employees at a danish sports school. I’m really excited about this development – I’ve felt, that all we need is a few paying customers and some good references, and now we have just that. I think there are interesting times ahead, and I can’t wait to see’em.
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Pumpkinspiration
I had the pleasure of visiting aarstiderne on monday to see how they achieve happiness at work, and the visit and conversations were extremely inspiring.
For those not in the know, aarstiderne (the seasons, in english) deliver fresh, organic vegetables and other foods straight to peoples homes. Their mission is expressed in one word, “jordforbindelse”, which means grounding or being connected to the earth, and this permeates everything they do, including how they treat employees. Much of what they say on this topic you can also hear in other companies, but these people are serious about it, and show a true dedication to the welfare and growth of their employees.
I also got the grand tour of their headquarters and surrounding organic fields and forests, and the high point of the tour was – a compost heap. Aarstiderne also test and produce organic seeds in a greenhouse and all the dead plants end up on a large compost heap right outside. Since the compost contains pumpkin seeds, and pumpkins grow well on the heap, the whole thing has beautiful orange pumpkins groing out of it. Click more to see it.
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new books coming
I’m running a little low on books, so I ordered up some more (and one movie) from Amazon:
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
The Philosopher at the End of the Universe
The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (Penguin Psychology)
Good Business: Leadership, Flow and the Making of Meaning
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living
Good Work: When Excellence and Ethics Meet
Good to Great
All Hat and No Cattle: Tales of a Corporate Outlaw: Shaking Up the System and Making a Difference at Work
The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion Through the Art of Storytelling
How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves
Getting It Done: How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge
Gesundheit!: Bringing Good Health to You, the Medical System and Society Through Physician Service, Complementary Therapies, Humor and Joy
The Deep Democracy of Open Forums: Practical Steps to Conflict Prevention and Resolution for the Family, Workplace and World
Answer to How Is Yes: Stop Looking for Help in All the Wrong Places
Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi [1983]Can’t wait!
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Monkey fairness
In a recent study, brown capuchin monkeys trained to exchange a granite token for a cucumber treat often refused the swap if they saw another monkey get a better payoff — a grape.
This indicates that our sense of fairness and justice has evolved and is therefore built-in in humans. From an article on CNN.com.
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Book review: Impro for storytellers
Keith Johnstone is the inventor of theatresports and in Impro for Storytellers, he writes about the importance of stories in improvisational theatre. He argues, that without interesting storylines impro simply degenerates into a loose collection of gags and becomes a lot less interesting.
The funny thing is that I bought this book thinking it was about storytelling, when its focus is actually on impro theatre, but I still enjoyed reading it and I learned a lot from it.
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Control
A financial analyst once asked me if I was afraid of losing control of our organization. I told him I’ve never had control and I never wanted it. If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don’t need control. They know what needs to be done, and they do it. And the more that people will devote themselves to your cause on a voluntary basis, a willing basis, the fewer hierarchs and control mechanisms you need.
– Herb Kelleher, ex-CEO of Southwest AirlinesFrom this article. Read more about Southwests way of doing business in Nuts!.
