The Chief Happiness Officer
Make Yourself and Your Business Happy At Work
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Whoah – we’re on TED.com :o)
Holy crap – one of the videos from our conference last year is featured on the front page of ted.com. And featured very prominently! Which means that it has now been viewed over 50,000 times! And it’s no wonder – the presentation in question was one of the highlights of our 2009 conference on happiness at work: Dr. Srikumar S. Rao’s wonderfully inspiring and funny presentation. It very satisfying for me to know that something we helped create has now inspired so many people... |
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Kill your chair
Most of us spend most of the work day sitting down. We sit at our desks, we sit in meetings, we sit down at lunch and we sit down for seminars, phone calls, orientations and just about anything else that goes on during a regular work week. Which is why this excellent NY Times article by Zack Canepari is so important. It opens with these provocative words: Your chair is your enemy. It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest... |
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Dog is watching you
This dog lives across the street from our office: He is regularly found at his post, surveying his domain which is (i’d guess) the whole street. I especially like how his elbow is up on the banister. It’s suave yet domineering! |
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Friday Spoing!
Here are two very different ways to start your working day: Which one did you use this morning? Have a very happy weekend! |
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Good morning – in German!
Last week I wrote about the value of touch in the workplace. Basically, I’m for handshakes, high fives, pats on the shoulder and even hugs in the workplace as one way of creating and maintaining good workplace relationships and there’s science to indicate the importance and value of touches. Gaby from Germany wrote this comment on the post: I once worked for a bank in Germany (well these are two locations in which you would not normally expect “personal affection” ;-)). The... |
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The crisis? Let me tell you how I feel about the crisis!
Like just about anyone else, my favorite café here in Copenhagen is tired of hearing about the financial crisis. And this is how they’ve reacted: That shows guts, initiative, playfulness and a commitment to fun. I love it! It doesn’t stop at the posters and postcards (which I apparently inspired), the owner does many things to make this a happy workplace. Here’s one: As an employee on your birthday, you can either get a gift from the café or you can throw a party and the... |
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Quote
If you’re crazy enough to do what you love for a living then you’re bound to create a life that matters. - Herb Kelleher, ex-CEO of Southwest Airlines Here’s Herb: Looks like he’s having fun :o) Related posts Servant leadership at Southwest Airlines Leadership is… |
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Friday Spoing!
Here’s a group of people who know how to celebrate their victories: You may want to turn the sound down or off before watching – the accompanying music is LOUD :o) What if people in your workplace were just as good at celebrating success? Have a very happy weekend! |
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The science of touch
The NYTimes has an excellent article that looks at what happens when people touch and concludes that: Momentary touches — whether an exuberant high five, a warm hand on the shoulder, or a creepy touch to the arm — can communicate an even wider range of emotion than gestures or expressions, and sometimes do so more quickly and accurately than words. … The evidence that such messages can lead to clear, almost immediate changes in how people think and behave is accumulating fast. Students... |
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Look what I got
There are good clients and then there are GREAT clients. And LEGO definitely falls in the latter category. I gave a presentation to 200 people at their Corporate Center today on better meetings, which they really liked. And afterwards they had a present for me. Here I am with the director: Yes, that’s the Star Wars Death Star kit. It has 3,800 parts shows 14 scenes from the movies and contains 21 minifigs. Wooo-hoooooo :o) |
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Conference on happiness at work on May 20 in Copenhagen
We had a fantastic time with our conference on happiness at work last year. You can read more about it here and you can see Srikumar S. Rao’s presentation here. This year’s event promises to be even better. We have speakers from companies like IKEA, ISS and Zappos. We have Lars Kolind, Alfred Josefsen and Fred Gratzon (the self-proclaimed laziest man in North America) sharing their insights. Unfortunately, unless you speak Danish you will miss out on about 2/3 of the day :o( Here’s... |
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Friday Spoing!
Did you know that there’s a Flickr group called bed jumpers? It’s for pictures of people who… well, figure it out for yourself :o) I wish you a very happy weekend. |
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Are you a procrastinator or an incubator?
My good buddy Robert Biswas-Diener, AKA the Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology, tells this story in an article on cnn.com, that fits in perfectly with my post from yesterday about the rules of productivity of knowledge workers: Mark had only a handful of days to write applications for internships, turn in final papers and secure letters of recommendation and had fallen into a deep funk. Not only was there no progress, but he had frittered away hours in meaningless pastimes like downloading music... |
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The top 5 new rules of productivity
We all want to increase productivity and get more done with our working hours. There’s just one problem: Most people’s view of productivity comes from an industrial age view of work. This leads to some fundamental misconceptions about work, including some of these: If you work more hours, you get more work done. Adding more people to a team means you can finish sooner. Productivity is more or less constant and can be easily scheduled. For knowledge workers, i.e. anyone who works... |
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A great human
Movie critic Roger Ebert has lost his voice, his ability to eat and drink and most of his jaw to cancer, but as this fantastic interview in Esquire shows, the man still has a lot to say. Towards the end of the article, he sums up his life philosophy: I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime.... |
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Getting to action: My latest Reboot talk
Here’s a video of my presentation at last year’s Reboot conference in Copenhagen: For a long time, I’d been wanting to do a speech in shorts and flip-flops and since Reboot is a) held in the summer and b) mostly attended by IT geeks, this was the perfect venue to do it :o) The theme of the presentation is action. My point is simple: A bias for action is good for you because stuff happens when you act. But mostly I talk about how you get to action. Your take What about you? What... |
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A question for ya
I’m currently writing an op-ed piece for a Danish newspaper about how to treat new hires. A lot of companies get this wrong and more or less toss in new recruits at the deep end to let them sink or swim for themselves. Others, like for instance Disneyworld or Zappos.com spend a lot of time and money on their new people to make sure that they “get” the company culture and are given all the tools, instructions and knowledge they need to succeed. For all of us, starting a new job... |
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Hooray – it’s snowing
Denmark is having the coldest winter in many years and the whole country has been covered in snow for the last several weeks. This, predictably, annoys the Danes. The roads are icy, the trains are late, your feet get wet, etc… So last night I went on Danish TV to explain why snow makes us happier. Here’s the clip: Basically, it’s because snow reflects light which means that the days are brighter which counteracts winter depressions (or SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder).... |
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Quitting time
I got an email from Red in the Philippines, who took a major step towards happiness at work last week: Red writes: I have been your follower and i really admire your writing style. In fact, I have adapted your style in my report writing. I just talked with my boss this morning (after reading your article on fear about being fired – now what vs. so what) and told him that I have reached my quitting point and I am resigning effective March 31, 2010. You know what, I felt a sense of relief... |
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Friday Spoing!
Here’s some major happiness at work at the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. What you see is their staff doing a Pink Glove Dance for breast cancer awareness. Thanks, Elaine. |