When freedom is your goal…
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Much Better Meetings – for Danes
We are extremely proud to be able to announce our newest product, which is called Much Better Meetings.
Basically, meetings often suck and make people unhappy at work.
I talked to a friend today who says he has a doctor’s note to the effect that any meeting longer than 10 minutes gives him a nosebleed.
Much Better Meetings is a complete system, ready to install in any meeting room, which helps you plan and facilitate effective, structured, fun meetings.
However, I’m afraid it’s only available in Danish so far under the name of Meget Bedre Møder. Read all about it at www.megetbedremoeder.dk.
Depending on the interest we get an English version may be coming soon.
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Friday Spoing
This is happiness pure and simple:
… even if it is completely the wrong season :o)
Have a happy weekend!
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Happiness at work at Atlassian
This is how Australian software company Atlassian present their values on their web site’s about page:
Open company, no bullshit
Atlassian embraces transparency wherever at all practical, and sometimes where impractical. All information, both internal and external, is public by default. We are not afraid of being honest with ourselves, our staff and our customers.
Build with heart and balance
Everyday we try to build products that are useful and that people lust after. Building with heart means really caring about what we’re making and doing — it’s a mission, not just a job. When we build with balance we take into account how initiatives and decisions will affect our colleagues, our customers and our stakeholders.
Don’t #@!% the customer
When we make internal decisions we ask ourselves “how will this affect our customers?” If the answer is that it would ‘screw’ them, or make life more difficult, then we need to find a better way. We want the customer to respect us in the morning.
Play, as a team
We want all Atlassians to feel like they work with Atlassian, not for Atlassian. We think it’s important to have fun with your workmates while working and contributing to the Atlassian team.
Be the change you seek
We think Gandhi had it pretty right when he said “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world”.
At Atlassian we encourage everyone to create positive change — we’re constantly looking for ways to improve our company, our products and our environment.Not only are these some good values to have, they’re also presented in a way that is fun, irreverent and different. I love that number one is “No bullshit” and I love the little icons that support the message.
Your take
What do you think of Atlassian’s values? Does your company have values? Do you know’em? Does anyone? Do you live by them? Do they inspire you in any way? Write a comment, I’d like to know
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Motivation – you’re doing it wrong
Here’s (yet another) great TED presentation – this one is by Dan Pink and is about the mismatch between what science knows and what businesses do to motivate people.
Dan’s point is that rewarding performance mostly doesn’t work and often leads to worse performance.
For tasks that are simple and straight-forward and require no creativity or cognitive skills, extrinsic motivation works fine and promising people rewards for good performance increases performance.
But as soon as a task requires even rudimentary cognitive skills, performance decreases if you offer performance rewards. And the larger the reward, the worse the performance.
Related posts
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My piece for BusinessWeek.com is live. Join the debate on performance reviews!
My mini-piece for BusinessWeek.com on why performance reviews are a waste of time just went live along with a counter-piece arguing for them by Bob Rogers.I first blogged about this back in 2008 listing the top 10 reasons why formal annual performance reviews are actively damaging to motivation and happiness at work, including:
- Everyone hates them
- They become an excuse for not talking the rest of the year
- They focus too much on the quantifiable
I argue that formal review meetings are just a crutch for bad managers who can’t figure out how to give their people regular timely constructive feedback on their performance.
What do you think? Do you see performance reviews as an essential tool? Or are they just another annoyance keeping you from doing your job?
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Pop and happiness at work
You’ve gotta watch this video:
Watch his eyes when he talks. That’s happiness at work right there.
Are you as passionate about your job? Do you know as much about your products/field? Do you care as deeply about making your customers happy and helping them make good choices? Are you as free to do things your way, rather than do what everyone else does?
If you are – kudos! I bet you’re happy at work.
If not, I humbly submit to you that you are wasting your work life.
This level of happiness at work is not reserved for a few special individuals who luck into the right career or the right genetic makeup for happiness. Anyone can get it. Anyone!
And it’s not just that you could. You should.
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Quote
I found this quote over at Kenny the Monk’s excellent blog:
“The people you have to lie to, own you. The things you have to lie about, own you.
When your children see you owned, then they are not your children anymore, they are the children of what owns you. If money owns you, they are the children of money. If your need for pretense and illusion owns you, they are the children of pretense and illusion. If your fear of loneliness owns you, they are the children of loneliness. If your fear of the truth owns you, they are the children of the fear of truth.”
– Michael VenturaHe has a whole post of great quotes here.
If you don’t know Kenny, you should. He’s a former catholic monk turned consultant and author and he has a very refreshing outlook on all things business.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kenny in New York last year over lunch. My favorite quote of his is this one, explaining why he quit as a priest:
I had no problem with God but I couldn’t stand the church!
:o)
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Friday Spoing!
I spoke at this year’s Reboot conference and had a great time as always.
And here’s the coolest little side project to come out of this year’s conference:
Notice how people can’t help but look happy when they’re jumping..?
