happy blogs

For the last twelve months Happy Computers has been running a Drupal apprenticeship programme, in partnership with the Drupal community, to enable young people (fresh out of school) to get an exciting start in the world of programming. (Drupal is an open source web development framework.) Three of the youngsters have been working at Dennis Publishing and, after just four months there, have produced a very impressive site for the magazine Digital SLR Photography.

Start Your Meetings With Meditation

A surprise hit at Happy Workplaces 2014 was the Google-led meditation session in the afternoon. Even Luis Saurez, who was presenting via video link from Belgium, tweeted about the room going quiet, while other delegates said they felt “very chilled” and “we need this at our organisation.” This is the meditation we used at the conference – why not try it at your next meeting?

Think Big – Like Google

At the Happy Workplace 2013 conference Yvonne Agyei (Google Head of Benefits) explained Google’s Think Big philosophy. Or as she put it, “have a healthy disregard for the impossible”.

Google: Hire Great People and Give Them Lots of Autonomy

At the Happy Workplace 2013 conference Yvonne Agyei (Google Head of Benefits) explained how Google creates happy and healthy Googlers.

1 Million Pounds to Spend and Nobody is Interested

Happy is moving. A month ago, just before the deadline for the landlord’s break clause approached, a law clerk arrived at our office and served a notice to quit. The landlord plans to redevelop the building and we have to be out of our office by 30th October.

In his excellent book “Becoming a Better Boss“, Julian Birkinshaw describes a very interesting experiment at the pharma multi-national Roche. Two groups of staff, in Germany and Switzerland, were told that their travel claims were to become self-authorised.

Is This a Government Committed to Small Business?

Today David Cameron will claim his government has delivered on supporting small businesses. I'm sorry, Prime Minister, but I don't see it.

The Key Business Question: Will it Make Life Better?

“Seven years ago we were a tiny unremarkable company. Last year Propellernet were voted the best search agency in Europe and best small company to work for in UK,” says Jack Hubbard, founder and CEO of Propellernet.

8 Companies That Don't Have Managers

At Happy we let people choose their managers, an idea which has been seen as very radical when I’ve spoken about it. However there are companies that have gone a step further and got rid of managers altogether. Some are small but some are billion-dollar companies:

The annual UK Servant Leadership conference this month was an inspiring event. This movement is based around the idea, first promoted by Robert Greenleaf, that your purpose as a leader or manager is to serve your people. One example of how this makes simple business sense is SouthWest Airlines, which is clear in its commitment to Servant Leadership. Now the third largest airline in the world, Its record of 40 consecutive years of profitability (unique in the US airline industry) is based on founder Herb Kelleher’s philosophy.