Henry's Talk to WorldBlu's Freedom at Work Conference
Henry gave a speech at WorldBlu's Freedom at Work Conference in Miami in 2015. Henry explains why you should allow your people to choose their manager.
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Here you can find all of Happy’s blog posts, covering our Excel hints and tips, ideas for creating happy workplaces, and ways to be more productive at work — and more.
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9 Benefits of Having Happy Employees
Following last week’s article on 7 ways to find more meaning at work, Elinor Schmitz-Jansen has continued her research. This week she covers the benefits of having happy employees.
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.
Reduce Expense Claims: Let Your People Decide What to Spend
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.
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:
SouthWest Airlines - putting your people first makes good business sense
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.
Get More Great Ideas - Spend Less Time at Work
Last week I was in Barcelona speaking to the international conference of the Dogs Trust, and exploring overwork. I asked a simple question of everybody there: Think of a great idea you’ve had in the last year? Where did you get that idea?
Is it time to go beyond empowerment?
For years we’ve talked about empowering people to find their own route to an agreed goal. But is that enough? Does setting the goal itself limit the possibilities? Given the three levels below, what can we do to move to self-management?
