happy blogs

TLC: Talk, Listen, Change: Maintaining Culture in a Growing Organisation

Michelle Hill is the CEO of TLC: Talk Listen, Change, a charity that believes every adult and child needs to be surrounded by safe, healthy and happy relationships. They do work around counselling, therapy, domestic abuse prevention and more within that sector. In this video from the 2024 Happy Workplaces Conference, Michelle breaks down the strategy TLC has implemented to ensure that there is an ideal culture in place and how they've maintained that as the organisation has grown.

Isaac Getz: What Makes Progressive Organisations So Successful?

Happy workplaces have many key similarities, such as giving their people more trust and autonomy. From studying and learning more about these similarities, all organisations can become happier and more successful. This is something that Isaac Getz has dedicated his career to, studying what makes progressive organisations successful, both in his home country of France and around the world.

Change Please: A Tale of Innovation, Social Enterprise and Good Coffee

Cemal Ezel has a company called Change Please which helps homeless people become baristas, access vital services and get safely, and sustainably, off the streets. Sir Richard Branson called Change Please his ‘start-up of the year’ in 2019 and it was rated the ‘Best Social Enterprise in the World’ in 2018. Cemal personally was rated the 46th Coolest Person in the World in 2015, and we definitely agree with that! In this video from the 2022 Happy Workplaces Conference, Cemal takes us through Change Please’s journey from inception to the modern day, and beyond.

Shannon Banks: Why friendships in the workplace are vital

People with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be motivated and productive – and yet only 42% of people in the UK say they have a friend at work. Find out the importance of connection in this talk from the 2016 Happy Workplaces Conference by Shannon Banks, coach and consultant at Be Leadership.

Valentina Culatti: How UNIT9 use the principles of the Happy Manifesto

UNIT9 has had the best ever staff survey we’ve ever seen – and Valentina Culatti, Managing Director, explained how she achieved it using the principles from the Happy Manifesto in this inspiring talk from the 2016 Happy Workplaces Conference in May. Watch the full video of her talk (20 minutes).

As Commander of a nuclear submarine, David Marquet determined to make no decisions and instead to coach his staff to be their best. The Sante Fe became the best performing submarine in US navy history. He talks about how he did it in his book Turn This Ship Around. At the 2021 Happy Workplaces Conference, David joined us for an Ask Me Anything session. Questions were crowd sourced from the audience at the event, with David answering the best ones. Watch David's video and read the transcript here.

Simon Fowler, Board Member at the John Lewis Partnership Talks Happy

Simon Fowler, a Board Member of the John Lewis Partnership, talks about their unique culture that aligns very closely with The Happy Manifesto principles in this video from the 2015 Happy Workplaces Conference.

Alun Pomfrett: Why It's Important To Make Pre-Approval Work

Giving your staff more autonomy means they don’t require as much oversight, freeing up the time of managers. It allows people to take ownership of their work, feel trusted and confident, and creates more joy at work. Implementing it, however, can be tricky. Alun Pomfrett, HR Manager at Leicester-based Cocoa Amore and graduate of Happy’s Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme has developed a very simple way to make autonomy work for your staff, as he explains at the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference.

Helen Taylor: Break Free From Bureaucracy with Pre-Approval

How much money would you trust your employees to spend, without checking with their manager first? £50? £100? How about £50,000? Helen Taylor from the London Borough of Hounslow, who is currently enrolled on the Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme, explains in this talk from the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference how she has implemented a system where her staff are Pre-Approved to spend £100,000.

Emma Halahan: How You Could Benefit From a Leadership Apprenticeship with Happy

Many years ago, an apprenticeship was something that young people did at the beginning of their careers to learn a vocation in a hands-on way from an expert. However, in the last 20 years that has drastically changed. Apprenticeships are now available to anyone, of any age and at any stage of their career, in a range of subjects. Happy has run leadership apprenticeship programmes for several years now at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7. Emma is an alumni of Happy’s Level 5 Apprenticeship Programme for Experienced Managers which she found invaluable. Emma talked about her experience with the programme and how it’s affected how she works at the 2024 Happy Workplaces Conference.