• Friday Woohoo

    Here – have a happy elephant:


  • Announcing Woohoo Labs – our research division

    We’re conducting 3 different and really cool studies right now. Which is why we’re proud to announce the inauguration of

    … drumroll please …

    Woohoo Labs logo

    Woohoo Labs is our research division and currently consists of 1 full-time employee and two interns. Expect cool things.


  • Plan for slack

    Workplaces must give employees unscheduled play time. If work days are overloaded, there is no learning or creativity. Plan for slack.


  • Study: Positive feedback increases intrinsic motivation

    Motivation

    Here an interesting study on the effects of positive feedback:

    Male and female undergraduate students performed an interesting task and received either positive or negative feedback relative to their performance.

    Subjects then filled out intrinsic motivation and feelings of competence scales.

    Results showed that, relative to negative feedback, positive feedback led to higher levels of intrinsic motivation and competence feelings for both males and females.

    So not only did positive feedback increase feelings of competence, it also gave the subjects more intrinsic motivation.

    This is crucial, because intrinsic motivation (i.e. your own desire to do something) is the only kind that reliably and sustainably makes us work towards a goal.

    This is just one more reason to praise people who do good work.

    Related posts

     


  • Do you want to be a Chief Happiness Officer?

    Do you want to be a Chief Happiness Officer?

    Here’s one of the next big things we’re working on: We want to create a training program for other potential Chief Happiness Officers.

    We’ve been doing this work for corporate and government clients for over 10 years. We’ve spoken in over 30 countries and worked with organizations like IKEA, LEGO, IBM, Pfizer, Accenture, Oracle and many, many others.

    In short, we have collected a lot of experience and knowledge on making workplaces happier – and we’d like to share that as widely as possible.

    Here’s the idea: We will create a 4 or 5-day training some time in the first half of 2015. Possibly in Copenhagen (where we are), possibly in London or New York.

    Space will be limited to approx. 25 people. We’re still working on pricing and exact timing.

    The academy is for:

    • Managers and HR people who want to become internal CHOs inside their organization.
    • Consultants/speakers who want to build a business creating happier workplaces.

    Happy at work in CuracaoThe content of the training will include:

    • The theory and science of happiness at work. Everything we do is based on research from psychology, neurology, sociology, management science, etc. We will give you an overview of the most relevant findings from these fields and how they apply in the workplace.
    • The practice of happiness at work. We will share all of our favorite tools and interventions, so that you can then use them yourselves.
    • Presenting happiness. We will work on your presentation skills, specifically aimed at giving you tips and tricks on how to present on happiness at work.
    • Measuring happiness at work. How do you measure happiness at work, so that you can document progress from your work.
    • How to sell this to others. How do you sell the idea of happiness at work – either inside your own organization or to potential clients.
    • Pitfalls and traps. What can go wrong? What must you avoid? How and why do happiness interventions fail?

    As part of the training we will share many of our materials – including master slide decks, interventions, tools, articles and more so that you will get a ton of tools to use right away.

    After the training, we will create a network so we can continue to learn from each other and develop new and better ways of creating happy workplaces.

    We can safely say that being a CHO is challenging but also one of the most fun and rewarding jobs in the world :) It’s not for everyone – it takes a lot of creativity and courage to go up against established thinking – but the world needs more of us. Which is why we’re doing this.

    Are you interested? Do you want to be a Chief Happiness Officer? Please fill out this form and we will keep you updated as we develop this:

    Yes, I want to be a Chief Happiness Officer

    * indicates required




    If you have any questions or suggestions, you can also leave those in the comments.


  • Get to know new employees

    2014-08-12 11.40.13

    In the last two months we have doubled the size of our company. We used to be three but we have added two interns and one full-time employee, who are working on some really cool projects for us.

    Basically, Thomas, Nanna and Sofia in the picture above are our research department. We call them Woohoo Labs :)

    Any time you add people to a team, it’s essential to get to know each other. The best tool we know for that is Personality Poker, so of course we played a game and ended up learning a lot about ourselves and each other.

    2014-08-12 11.40.06Here are the personalities of everyone in the team:

    2014-08-12 12.16.52

    No matter which tool you use, it’s important to get to know the people you work with – both their professional skills and their personalities.

    How do you do it? How does your team welcome new members?


  • Are you a happy boss? Take this test and find out.

    Happy boss quizz

    What kind of manager are you? Are you a happy boss or do you spread fear and misery all around you? We’ve created an online test that you can use to find out.

    Being the boss used to be about making tough, ruthless decisions. This is changing. More and more wildly successful leaders today devote themselves to creating happiness – for employees, customers, shareholders and themselves.

    Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, committed his company to “Delivering Happiness” to both clients and employees. Richard Branson  has said that “more than anything else, fun is the secret behind Virgin’s success.”

    Take our test and learn if you are a happy boss.

    Related posts


  • Author interview with me

    I recently did this interview with my publishing company Pine Tribe. We talk about happiness at work (obviously) but they also asked me to share the story of how I came to do this work – a story I rarely share.


  • A crucial question

    Here’s a crucial question for you:

    All things considered, what is the net impact your job has on you?

    Ever considered this?


  • Weird Al’s Mission Statement

    How could I possibly NOT share Weird Al Yancovic’s latest song called Mission Statement:

    I mean, look at it. It parodies both business jargon and those ubiquitous RSA-style whiteboard videos. Brilliant.

    The sad thing is that his parody lyrics are only slightly less comprehensible than some actual mission statements I’ve seen :)



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