The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Meeting Meg

    Last night I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret Wheatley (or simply Meg) for the first time. I was part of a circle conversation about leadership, arranged by my good friend Carsten Ohm. Meg is the author of (among others) A simpler way and Turning to one another.

    We had a very diverse group in the circle, and as always the discussion was deep and intense. Megs presence gave the discussion an added dimension, because she could use her background and experience to point out the deeper roots of the discussion at a few critical points.

    We started from the definition of a leader, that they use in the Berkana Institute, namely that a leader is someone who wants to help (or someone who wants to contribute to positive change).
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  • Positive psychology

    In 1998 Martin E.P. Seligman decided to teach an undergraduate seminar in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. This was based on his idea “that psychology should turn toward understanding and building the human strengths to complement our emphasis on healing damage”.

    Simply put, the seminar focused on what gives people positive experiences. Themes included kindness, play, life as art, flow and more.

    His experience is described here, and apparently it was extremely positive. One student put it like this: “Positive psychology was a course that seemed to grab all of the young burgeoning psychologists in the room by their throats and say ‘Hey! The world should be smiling a lot more than it is! What are you going to do about it?’”

  • Book reviews

    You can see a list of all the book reviews on the site so far. It’s quite a mix, but mostly it relates to new and better ways of working. Of better and more “natural” ways in leadership, organization, change, psychology and learning.

    If I had to pick the five books from that list that have influenced me the most, I’d go for:
    ++ Harpo Speaks
    Harpo Marx’ autobiography.
    ++ The fifth discipline
    The book that defined the learning organization.
    ++ Birth of the chaordic age
    Dee Hocks autobiography, the story of Visa and the definition of chaordic organizations all in one book.
    ++ Nuts!
    The story of Southwest Airlines, and their crazy and succesful employees.
    ++ A simpler way
    Presents a simpler, more positive and truer way to look at the world and at organizations.

  • Quote

    I suspect I have spent just about exactly as much time actually writing as the average person my age has spent watching television, and that, as much as anything, may be the real secret here.
    – William Gibson

  • Generosity in action

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    My good friend Lars Pind runs a company, Collaboraid, which embodies generosity in a number of ways. They develop e-learning software based on an open source platform, which is generous in itself, since they spend time and energy not only on creating solutions for their customers (among which you’ll find MIT, Heidelberg University and Greenpeace), but also on improving the platform itself.

    And now they’ve taken it a step further, and have arranged a two-day conference about the technological platform for anyone who’s interested, and people are coming from all over the world. Cost of participation: Zero! They spend a lot of time arranging this event but won’t make a single buck on it. They do it simply for the sake of the community, and because they think it will be fun.

    What does it signify, when a company does something this generous?
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  • Book review: Expanding our now

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    This book is Harrison Owens second book about Open Space, and it contains stories of how he arrived at the concept of Open Space, and of how it has helped and transformed various organizations.

    Also, the book touches on time, or rather on our perception of it. All we really have is now. The past is over, the future hasn’t yet begun. But how long is that now? A week? A year? An instant?
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  • Participative democracy in Porto Alegro

    In the Brazillian city of Porto Alegro, every single citizen is allowed to contribute to deciding the city’s budget. There’s articles on it here and here.

    The decision process includes two huge annual assemblies and myriads of smaller special interest meetings – which sounds a little like Open Space. One of the lessons learned is, that everybody can contribute, including the poor and the less educated. They are given time and space to learn the process, by those who are more experienced.

    The results have been amazing. Since they started doing it in 1989, the number of houses with running water has gone from 75% to 99%. Housing assistance has gone from 1.700 families to 29.000 families, the number of public schools has increased from 29 to 86 and literacy is now at 98% (better than some parts of eg. the US). And of course, the benefit of having a population who feels part of the decision proces is hard to quantify, but impossible to ignore. And best of all: The process has spread to more than 100 cities in South America.

  • Quote

    , , ,

    Perhaps it is the hedonist in me, but I believe that gatherings designed to achieve useful results can only be fully effective when the participants are having fun. The issues on the table, and the implications of the outcome, may all be deadly serious, but creative interchange, to say nothing of innovative results, seems to disappear quickly when a dark cloud of solemnity hangs over everything.

    – Harrison Owen in Expanding our now.

  • Self-organizing motorcycles

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    Every year, on the last thursday in march, motorcyclists from all over Denmark meet in Copenhagen. This is the day when Bakken (an amusement park outside town) opens, and it has become an event for thousands of motorcyclists.

    The most fantastic thing about it is that nobody organizes it. There’s no planning committee, no sponsors, no management, no advertising, no participation fee, nothing. Motorcycle riders know about it, and all day long they arrive from all over the country, parking their bikes all up and down Nørrebrogade and adjacent streets.

    The whole thing started around 15 years ago, with just a few friends meeting at a certain cafe, to drive out to Bakken. This year they were expecting 8.000 bikes.
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  • Free books on leadership

    Questia.com are putting a lot of free books and articles on the net, and this week the focus is on leadership. Here are their prime picks in that category.

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