The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • See us speak in San Francisco on August 4

    ,

    Update: 106 sign-ups already – that’s fantastic. The venue holds 130 people, so if you want to be there, make your move :o)

    Do you ever feel like work has stopped being fun and become just a chore? When you wake up on a Monday morning, do you feel energized and excited about the work week ahead of you – or do you feel tired and dispirited?

    What would it mean to you if you LOVED your job? What would it do for your business success, for your work days and for your spouse, partner, friends, family or children?

    Come hear some of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work when Danish company Woohoo Inc. comes to San Francisco.

    We’ll be talking about these topics and more:

    • Why you should be happy at work and the cost of hating you job.
    • The business value of happiness.
    • What makes us happy or unhappy at work.
    • What you can do right now, to start enjoying work more.
    • What some of the world’s happiest workplaces do.

    The presentation is aimed both at people who would like to become happier at work themselves and at HR people and managers who want to make their employees happy.

    You will get:

    • A deeper knowledge about happiness at work
    • Specific tools that you can apply on the job right away
    • A boost of energy to get you started on improving your work life

    Here are the details:
    Time: Thursday August 4 7PM-9PM
    Place: The Hub, 925 Mission St, San Francisco
    Price: $0 – yep, it’s free!

    Sign up here to attend.

    Please help us out by spreading the word about this event any way you can (twitter, facebook, Google+, etc…)

  • Don’t buy the happiness hype

    Happy at work

    I got this comment last week on my post on how to find a job you’ll love:

    My advice, find a job that pays well, stay there and make your life outside work worth it. Don’t believe the hype about getting your degree and living a great life with a job you love. I tried it and now I’m going to lose my house, my car and probably my family cause I can’t find work.

    There’s something to this. Making happiness one of the primary goals of your career and work life carries a cost. It may make finding a new job harder, because you can’t just take any job out there. It means taking action and working to improve you job if you’re not happy. It may even mean having to leave a workplace because you realize that you will never be happy there no matter how hard you try. This is why I never tell people to put happiness first. I ask them to consider making that choice – and making it with open eyes.

    However, the simple counter-argument to the comment above is this: People who hate their jobs get fired all the time too.

  • Another seeeeeeriously cool workplace


    The Toolbox office space in Torino, Italy.
     

    I got an email a while back about Toolbox, a professional incubator in Torino, Italy.

    From the material describing the space:

    The project is believed to meet the needs of a city in a phase of substantial transformation.

    At a time when, with a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection, it is possible to work from anywhere, the question emerging is what professional space is needed for. How is it possible to design a space combining users’ plurality with the coherence of the whole design? How is it possible to mediate between a need for socialisation and privacy, between relaxation and concentration?

    From the functional point of view, the project consists in the creation of an open space with 44 individual workstations combined with other services and activities. The goal has been to keep the modular concrete structure unaltered.

    The main span of the building has been divided lengthwise by a series of ‘filter volumes’ used as technical spaces for storing lockers and equipment. On one side, there is the co-working space, on the other side, the corridors and the functional ‘box’ containing shared facilities such as meeting rooms, print rooms, informal meeting spaces, mailboxes, a patio and a kitchen.

    Sounds good, but what really knocked my socks off was these pictures:

    That is just stunning!

    What I like about this space is not just that it’s colourful and inspiring – that’s nice but it’s only a start. What I especially appreciate is that it caters to to many different working styles and personalities. Some people thrive in a large open space others hate it like the plague. For some tasks you may prefer one area – for other tasks

    The true crime of many office buildings these days is both that they’re drab, uniform and boring but also that they assume that everybody is the same and only offer one type of working environment.

    Your take

    How about your workspace? Does it inspire you at all? Does it work for you and your wo-workers and does it allow for different working styles for different tasks?

    Related posts

  • Friday Spoing

    ,

    If your job is wrapping the customers’ purchases (in this case silk saris) in a shop in India, you face a choice. You can either think “MAN, what a boring job” and try to get it over with as quickly as possible.

    Or you can do what this guy does:

    That’s happiness at work in 15 seconds :o)

  • Pics from my keynote at Umbraco CodeGarden

    Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at 5 very different events:

    • For 200 bankers on Tuesday
    • For 300 IT people at the Umbraco CodeGarden conference on Wednesday
    • For 60 IT people from Saab in Karlskoga, Sweden
    • For 120 people from the Danish Building Association on Friday
    • For 320 people from Estée Lauder at their Nordic Product Kick Off on Saturday in Copenhagn

    And to my great pride, 4 out of these 5 events ended with a standing ovation. That is not really any serious measure of success, but lemme tell ya – it feels great :o)

    Douglas Robar from Percipient Studios just sent me some great pics that he took from the Umbraco event, where I went a little out of my comfort zone and spoke not about happiness at work (I gave that speech at the same conference last year) but about how to create a great conference and a happy community. My awesome co-worker Arlette also came on stage and did a little dancing with the crowd. Yes, she made 300 IT people dance. She’s THAT good :o)

    Check these pictures out:

  • Two interesting conferences

    There are two great events coming up in my region that I’ll be keynoting at.

    The first one is WorldBlu Live Copenhagen, a local follow-up to last month’s Excellent WorldBlu Live conference in San Francisco.

    The theme is democratic workplaces. Research shows that engaged employees are more productive, more profitable and more customer-focused. In the best organisations, spreading freedom at work is more than a human resources initiative – it is a strategic foundation for the way they do business.

    WorldBlu LIVE Copenhagen showcases democratic innovation and radical thinking which will leave you inspired, full of fresh ideas, and connected with a world-class community of leaders!

    The WorldBlu LIVE Copenhagen experience will enable you to:

    • Connect with cutting edge speakers who are industry leaders and rule-breakers, rewriting the way we do business.
    • Learn about leading technologies and tools that help implement and reinforce democracy and full engagement in the workplace.
    • Engage in truly meaningful conversations in an intimate setting with some of the most remarkable and enlightened people from all over the world.
    • Leave with inspiration to “next” practices and tangible steps that you can immediately apply in your workplace.
    • Get inspired and energised by learning about how freedom and democracy can propel your organisation forward, attract top talent, and boost your bottomline.

    Even though it is a Copenhagen event, we’re having the whole day in Danish and bringing in some great international speakers, including:

    • Will McInness, the co-founder and Managing Director of NixonMcInnes, a leading social media consultancy in the UK.
    • Mark Dowds, the co-founder and CEO of Brainpark in San Francisco.
    • Traci Fenton, the Founder and CEO of WorldBlu, Inc.

    And of course yours truly :o)

    Read all about it and sign up here.

    The other conference I want to mention is 360 Entrepreneurship, a conference in Malmö, Sweden for female entrepreneurs. From the web site:

    Don’t miss this European conference for women entrepreneurs and business owners and make the most of your potential in business!

    You will have access to a Mastermind group of internationally renown, inspiring keynote and workshop presenters delivering leading edge strategies, tools and resources to strengthen your business results! Get the answers to your questions and walk away with the strategies and the tool kit you need to accelerate your business. Take advantage of the opportunities to build valuable international connections and promote your business in the 360 Business Expo.

    Whether you already run a successful company or just started out, give yourself and your business the boost you deserve. Join the 360Entrepreneurship Summit in Sweden as we celebrate the potential and success of women entrepreneurs!

    Read all about it and sign up here.

  • Highlights from our conference

    ,

    On May 26 we had our annual conference on happiness at work here in Copenhagen and it was our best event yet.

    Here’s a 3-minute video with some highlights from the day:

    Part of the video is in Danish, part of it in English.

    You can also find materials, slides and photos from the conference here.

    The day was absolutely fantastic and participant feedback has been phenomenal. The average rating for the day is 4,8 out of 5 – that is almost unheard of :o)

  • Fun and games in meetings

    Meetings

    Check out this comment from Cindy:

    I made up a game for my weekly department meetings to refresh and train the staff in a fun and competitive way.(I was managing a despatch department in a manufacturing company)

    The Game
    I made a list of questions relating to the department, it’s procedures and the stock etc.
    I purchased a bag of lollies and treats (a couple of dollars taken from petty cash)
    I gave each person at the meeting a bell and the first one to ring the bell and get the question right got a lollie or treat.
    The overall winner was the person who scored the most lollies/treats.

    This game created excitement because the staff had to beat each other to the buzzer and that got them thinking at the same time. It made them all feel like a winner in the end because everyone ended up with some prizes.

    However the best benefit from this game was that if they did not know the answer or couldn’t remember the answer (sometimes a person may have their facts wrong and you have been trying to enforce the correct answer – usually someone who has been there a while and think they no longer need training) that person walked away from the meeting having learnt something they will probably remember because it was taught in a fun environment.A fun way of refreshing and training.
    The staff grew to love the weekly quizzes and became quite competitive about it.

    Try it at your next meeting
    Cheers

    What do you think – could this work in your workplace? What’s the weirdest thing you’ve done in a meeting?

    Original post: Five weeeeeeeeird tips for great meetings.

  • Materials from my keynote at Talks 2.0 in Portugal

    ,

    I want to say a great big Thank You and a High Five You Rock to the conference arrangers and all who attended my keynote at Talks 2.0 in Oporto on May 7. Thanks for a fantastic time – I really enjoyed it. You guys were great and the entire day was fun and inspiring.

    The background for the event was serious, namely the financial crisis in Portugal, which is affecting every aspect of work life in the country.

    In my keynote, I presented my view, which is that a serious crisis only makes it MORE necessary to focus on and create happy workplaces. If we don’t the resulting stress, frustration, hopelessness and cynicism ruins peoples’ work lives and private lives, it makes us less productive and creative, and it means that economic recovery takes longer.

    It was my first time in Portugal, but I got a great impression of the country and especially of the people. With this much energy, creativity, passion, humor and happiness, there is nothing you guys can’t do!

    Here are some materials from the day including, slides, videos, articles and more.
    (more…)

  • “Happy Hour is 9 to 5” e-book is free in Portuguese

    ,

    Happiness at work

    I recently spoke in Portugal at the amazing Talks 2.0 conference on Happiness and Creativity in the Workplace.

    At the event I announced that I would release the Portuguese translation of my first book “Happy Hour is 9 to 5” as a free e-book. Consider this my tiny contribution to workplace happiness and economic recovery in Portugal.

    So here it is – it’s a completely free and unprotected pdf which you may copy and send to as many people as you like.

    > Click here to get the book.

    Feel free to copy it far and wide:

    • Send it to everyone you know who is sad, frustrated or unhappy at work.
    • Send it to every manager who’d like to help create a happier and more successful workplace.
    • Send it to any politicians you know, so that they can help create better conditions for workplace happiness.
    • Send it to any journalists you know so they can help spread the message.

    I’m releasing it under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

    This means that you may not change the e-book or make money off of it. Apart from that, go wild :o)

    Happy reading – and please let me know how you like it in a comment here.

Connect

Get our newsletter

“I can’t believe it – a newsletter actually worth reading!”
– Subscriber

Over 6,000 people subscribe to our newsletter with tons of tips about happiness at work.

Get our books

“It’s very, very good. It’s incredibly well written, full of insights, and there are exercises to improve your own happiness at work. You can’t ask for more than that!”
– David Maister, author of Practice What You Preach

“What an inspiring book. Every leader should read it. This type of leadership has been integral to our success and I know it will boost your results too.“
– Garry Ridge, CEO WD-40 Company

Get Our Free Newsletter

Over 6,000 people already get our free newsletter with useful tips, videos, links and articles about happiness at work.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Top posts last week

Non-inspirational quotesOctober 22, 2003
Top 10 reasons why constant complaining is so toxic in the workplaceAugust 7, 2007
The movie "The Secret" is entirely fakeMarch 15, 2007
How to handle chronic complainersAugust 24, 2006
I'm on BBC Radio 4 advocating for open salariesDecember 2, 2015

recent Posts