2021 Happy Workplaces Conference

Join our movement to create happy workplaces

Imagine a workplace where people are in control of the work they do. Imagine they have freedom, within clear guidelines, to achieve their results. Imagine they are able to have the life balance they want. Imagine they are accountable for the work they do, rather than the time they spend at their desk.

This is what we mean when we talk about happy workplaces — organisations where staff feel trusted and have freedom within clear guidelines to do their work.

This year's conference will be hosted online via Zoom, following the huge success of last year's online event! As always, this event will be fun and interactive, with lots of opportunities for discussion in the chat and in break out rooms. We will also be hosting some fun competitions throughout the day too!

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to buy your tickets, or contact our friendly team.

Tom Peters

Tom Peters in Conversation with Henry Stewart

Tom is one of only six management thinkers to have achieved the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award. From his first book, In Search of Excellence (co-authored with Bob Waterman), to his latest, Excellence Now: Extreme Humanism, he has always challenged conventional management practice and argued for the importance of a people-focus.

All conference attendees will receive a free copy of Tom's latest book.

L. David Marquet, Author of Turn the Ship Around and Founder of Intent-based Leadership

Ask Me Anything (AMA)

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 and 11 of his crew went on to be commanders in their own right. He is a world-renowned speaker and author of Turn the Ship Around.

Global business speaker David Marquet will join us for an Ask Me Anything session. We will be looking for questions in advance and crowd source the best ones from those participating in the conference.

Helen Sanderson MBE, CEO of Wellbeing Teams

'Empower and enable', a people-led approach to delivery

Inspired by Dutch care company Buurtzorg, Helen set up Wellbeing Teams in the UK and won Outstanding at the first CQC inspection for an approach based on a real patient-focus and self-managing teams.

Helen has been exploring person-centred practices in care in the UK for over twenty years and gave up her job as a CEO to be part of a self-managed team.

Bruce Daisley, best-selling author of The Joy of Work and host of the podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat

Rewiring Work Culture

Bruce Daisley is a best-selling author and technology leader from the UK. He has become regarded as one the most respected thought leaders on the subject of workplace culture and the future of work. He spent 12 years running Twitter in Europe and previously YouTube in the UK.

His book on improving workplace culture, The Joy of Work, was the Sunday Times number one business bestseller in spring 2019. The Financial Times made it Book of the Month and it was shortlisted for CMI Management Book of the Year. His Audible Original, No Office Required, was a top 10 audiobook on its release in January 2021.

Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Founder and CEO of Jaipur Rugs

Unlearning

Nand set up Indian-based Jaipur Rugs 43 years. It now involves 40,000 artisans in producing rugs and carpets. They are empowered to make their own designs, based on their local surroundings. He will talk about how we need to unlearn, we need business not to be driven from the mind but from the heart, based on love and empathy.

Sarah Pugh, CEO of Whizz-Kidz, ex-CEO Heart of Kent Hospice

How to create a happy workplace in the charity sector

Sarah was CEO of Heart of Kent Hospice from 2015 to 2021 and sought to make it a happy workplace that empowered its colleagues and delivered the best possible care to its service users. She is now CEO at Whizz-Kidz, who help young wheelchair users live a life with no limits.

About our online events

This will be an interactive conference. As well as listening to some great speakers, you will be actively engaged. Using breakout rooms, we guarantee you will be involved in discussions with at least 30 other participants over the day.

In the feedback on our last day long virtual event (on 30th April, on Liberating Structures), it was rated as one of our most engaging events ever. Here’s some of the feedback we had:

• "Very interactive and dynamic, loved it, thank you"
• "It worked very well on Zoom. feeling very energised and excited."
• "Really great interacting with a wide range of people – so many different perspectives"
• "This was immersive, and even though really intense, I enjoyed it a lot. Also meeting so many people."
• "It was a lovely event and although we connected remotely we achieved great discussions. Thank you everyone!"
• "Such a wonderful day. Exhausted from so many brilliant ideas, tools and thoughts. :-) Lovely to meet everyone!"
• "So great to interact with so many people … lots of new things to try!"