Search Results for: productivity

Best of site, Happy At Work, Leadership, Psychology

The 5 most important findings from the science of happiness that apply at work

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Happy workplaces are more profitable and innovative, attract the best employees and have lower absenteeism and employee turnover rates. Simply put, happy companies make more money. But how do you create a happy workplace? We believe some of the answers are found in positive psychology - a fascinating field and one of the main inspirations for the work … Continue reading The 5 most important findings from the science of happiness that apply at work →

Best of site, Happy At Work, Happy companies, Leadership, Motivation

How Toyota Gothenburg moved to a 30-hour workweek and boosted profits and customer satisfaction

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The video has English subtitles. If you don’t see them, press the   button in the video. Could a 30-hour workweek work? It not only could, for the mechanics at Toyota Center in Gothenburg Sweden it has worked incredibly well for over 10 years, leading to happier employees, happier customers and higher growth and profits. In this … Continue reading How Toyota Gothenburg moved to a 30-hour workweek and boosted profits and customer satisfaction →

Best of site, Happy At Work, Leadership, Motivation

Why EVERY workplace needs a culture of positive feedback – and 5 great ways to do it

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Positive feedback not only feels great – it also makes us more effective. Yet another study (this one from Harvard Business School) confirms what we all know: Receiving positive feedback makes us happier at work, less stressed and more productive. From the study: In the study, participants… were asked to solve problems. Just before that, approximately half of the … Continue reading Why EVERY workplace needs a culture of positive feedback – and 5 great ways to do it →

Happy At Work, Leadership, Motivation, Productivity, stress

New study confirms that positive feedback increases performance

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Yet another study confirms what we all know: Giving employees positive feedback leads to more happiness at work, less stress and better performance: In the study, participants… were asked to solve problems. Approximately half of the participants were told to ask friends and family members to send them an email just prior to their participation that described … Continue reading New study confirms that positive feedback increases performance →

Happy At Work, Leadership

To create results, leaders must put relationships first

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  Should a manager focus primarily on results or people? Should the manager be the one who sets KPIs and drives employees towards their goals, or should the manager rather be the one who understands and likes employees and is able to build good relationships with them? In 2009 James Zenger published a study that examined exactly that … Continue reading To create results, leaders must put relationships first →

Best of site, Happy At Work, Leadership

Why every company needs to give employees Free Time on the job

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My first “real” job was for a large and very famous Danish company who’d hired me fresh out of university to work on one of their big new products. One day, about a month into my employment there, I was sitting at my desk thinking big thoughts. To other people it might have looked like I … Continue reading Why every company needs to give employees Free Time on the job →

Best of site, Happy At Work, Leadership, Productivity

What do you do when there’s just too much work?

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Last year I did a workshop for a client in Copenhagen whose main problem was that they were just way too busy. They’re a trade union and new legislation meant that they got an influx of new government-mandated tasks but budget constraints meant they couldn’t hire more people. Consequently they were increasingly falling behind on their work, through … Continue reading What do you do when there’s just too much work? →

Happy At Work

What if a 6-hour work day would let us do MORE work?

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I while back I did an interview with professor Benjamin Hunnicutt about his new book called “Free Time – The Forgotten American Dream.” My favorite thing from our chat was his story of what happened at the Kellogg’s factory during the great depression in the ’30s. Instead of laying people off, they changed to 6-hour shifts, so the workers … Continue reading What if a 6-hour work day would let us do MORE work? →

Happy At Work, Leadership, Productivity

Stop obsessing about working hours

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I’ve written a lot about the obsession companies have with tracking and increasing employees’ working hours – based on the myth that working more hours leads to better results. But the clearest and most concise commentary on this comes from Zach Holman of American software company GitHub, who puts it like this: Hours are bullshit! … Continue reading Stop obsessing about working hours →