The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

People loved our 2017 conference – and 2018 will be EVEN BETTER

March 7, 2018

Conference, Happy At Work

Here’ an awesome writeup from a participant at our 2017 conference on happiness at work. I especially liked this part:

“The Conference has two traditions: perfect, sunny weather and energetic and ambitious participants. Luckily, this time it was no different 🙂”

And this one:

“We left with new knowledge about happiness at work and we were given precise tools we can use right away to make Tooploox employees happier.”

AWESOME! We do the conference to give people around the world the knowledge and tools they need to create happier and more successful workplaces, so we were really happy to read this.

And our 2018 conference will be even better. See the full program here.
Woohoo – we got to visit Ben and Jerry’s

March 5, 2018

Happy At Work, Happy companies, Leadership

We finally got a chance to visit Ben and Jerry’s global HQ in Vermont and it was AWESOME. Not only did we get to hear about the company’s mission to create a better world, see how the ice cream is made and visit the famous flavor graveyard – we even saw a man propose to his girlfriend in the middle of a tour. She said yes :)

Here are some impressions from our visit.

Proudly written on the walls: “Business has a responsibility to give back to the community.”

“If it’s not fun, why do it?”

The flavor graveyard is where Ben And Jerry’s celebrate their mistakes by honoring every ice cream flavor that failed. It looked very pretty in the snow. You can also find it online.

This is brilliant – instead of hiding or punishing their mistakes, they celebrate them. Here are 5 reasons why every workplace should do that.

All in all we got a very positive impression of the culture at Ben and Jerry’s. The employees we talked to clearly loved their jobs, they do their utmost to make great ice cream while protecting the environment and also have a mission to create “Linked prosperity” for their entire ecosystem, including suppliers, farmers and the local community. It’s inspiring to see a company so focused on creating a happier world, which is also why their mentioned in my latest book Leading With Happiness.
Watch this HILARIOUS flight attendant in action

February 28, 2018

Happy At Work, Happy companies, Woohoo

This awesome Southwest Airlines flight attendant turns her pre-flight safety announcement into a standup comedy act.
New speaker announced for the International Happiness at Work Conference: Jane Barnett-Roberts of John Lewis Partnerships

February 28, 2018

Conference, Happy At Work

Some people think it’s easy for a small company to be happy but hard or impossible for larger organizations. Well, John Lewis Partnership (JLP), a British company that operates department stores and Waitrose Supermarkets is here to show that it is possible.

In fact, JLPs ultimate Purpose is “the happiness of all its members, through worthwhile and satisfying employment.”

They achieve this in part by making all employees co-owners (i.e. partners), by sharing profits and by running the company in a democratic way that encourages participation in decision making.

Jane Barnett-Roberts is JLP’s Head of Democratic Engagement meaning that she leads a dedicated team who ensure that partners’ opinions from around the Partnership are heard and continue to contribute to the overall happiness of Partners.

She will bring to life how the Partnership keeps this Purpose relevant and vibrant amongst its 85,000 Partners almost 100 Years after the business was first given away in trust to its employees.

See the full conference program and get your tickets here.
Inspiring video: The two major happiness traps you must avoid

February 28, 2018

Conference, Happy At Work

One of the highlights of our 2009 conference on happiness at work was Dr. Srikumar S. Rao’s wonderfully inspiring and funny presentation which focused specifically on the two main traps we must avoid, that keep us from becoming happy. You can see the whole speech here.And if you like that speech, you should definitely not miss out on this year’s Happiness at Work Conference on May 17+18 in Copenhagen. It’s going to be awesome – 12 smart and passionate international speakers will show us exactly how to create happier and more successful workplaces.

See the full program and get your tickets here.
Wanna win? Have fun!

February 27, 2018

Happy At Work

The Olympic winter games this year offered an extremely rare event in sports history: An athlete won gold in two separate sports.

Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecka shocked everyone by winning gold on skis in the Super-G event and then went on to also win gold in snowboarding parallel giant slalom.

That’s amazing in itself, but what I love even more is her attitude towards her profession:

“For sure I want to win every race, but the first thing is to enjoy and to have good fun with what I’m doing and my sports.”

Her coach agrees, saying:

“The joy that she has for riding, the joy that she has for training and working hard is unmatched.”

What a refreshing change from the “Winning is all that matters” mentality.
Congratulations to the graduates from our Chief Happiness Officer Academy in NYC

February 26, 2018

Academy, Happy At Work

We just completed our 6th Chief Happiness Officer Academy. This one took place in NYC and had participants from 6 countries. One person even flew in from Tokyo to attend!

We had a wonderful three days with the group, where we explored the theory and practice of creating happy workplaces.

The participants loved it – the average feedback rating is a solid 10 out of 10. Here are some of their comments:

“THANK YOU! This was really fantastic.”

“The message was clear and the tasks were helpful. Group work kept engagement high and time for reflection was important.”

“I took away so many good ideas about creating happiness at workplaces and a theoretical background about happiness at work.”

If you want to be a Chief Happiness Officer, our Academy is perfect for you. See the upcoming dates here.
The CEO of WD-40 Company: People Must Come First

February 5, 2018

Conference, Happy At Work, Happy companies, Leadership

In this video Ken Blanchard and Garry Ridge, the CEO of WD-40 Company, explain why employees must come first. What a wonderful, enlightened vision for corporate leadership.

Garry will talk much more about that at our International Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen in May.
CEO Rich Sheridan explains how he created a joyful workplace

January 29, 2018

Conference, Happy At Work, Happy companies, Leadership

This is awesome: Rich Sheridan, the CEO of Menlo Innovations explains why he created a joyful workplace and how joy has business value.

Rich will talk much more about this at our International Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen in May. See the program and get your tickets here.
DHL’s CEO: Increasing revenues is meaningless. Motivate employees by creating a better world.

January 29, 2018

Happy At Work, Happy companies, Leadership
Solar charging station in Taiwan

Financial Times has a great interview with Frank Appel, the CEO of Deutsche Post DHL the clearly outlines his philosophy for motivating employees: Increasing revenue is a meaningless goal. When company goals are mainly financial, purpose is lost. The best companies are “driven by making the lives of customers easier by highly engaged employees.”

Appel has set up three initiatives for his 522,000 staff:
1. Go Teach, where DHL staff educate disadvantaged young people
2. Go Help, where they work with the UN to use the company’s logistics expertise to respond co humanitarian crises
3. Go Green, where they work to reduce emissions to zero
Appel sums up his message like this:

“We cannot say, listen, ‘Our strategy is to make money and if we have time left then we’ll do something which is good for the society’,” he says.

“Our job is to do something good for the society, and to do that we have to make money, otherwise we can’t continue to invest.”

This is AWESOME. It’s a clear articulation of a philosophy where a company aligns the quest for financial goals with a clear mission to create a better world.