Writing is a key part of life in the modern world. Whether you are sending emails to a client or writing a Facebook post, the written word is an important part of how we present ourselves. Making simple spelling and grammar mistakes can have a huge impact on your credibility, and change people's impression of you. In this blog, brush up your grammar skills and start writing better emails, reports and social media updates.
“How many of you feel you need to be managed?” asked Alison Sturgess-Durden at the 2019 Happy Workplaces Conference. Nobody raised their hand. Alison, a Director at the software company Mayden, asked why we assume that people need to be “managed” at work. A small, but growing, number of organisations are taking a different approach.
When people attend the Chairing Remote Meetings workshop, they often come looking for insight into the best online tools: Jamboard, Miro, Sli.do, Mentimeter, etc. We discuss them, and then we talk about the most important tool that a remote chair can use: the tennis racket.
Most people are so busy going from meeting to meeting, with one meeting spilling over into the next. No time to plan meetings, no time to reflect on what might work better — just getting through the day. But there is one thing that brilliant leaders do all the time. In this blog, Dr Carrie Goucher shares this one ridiculously simple thing you can do that will improve all of your meetings.
AI is big news at the moment, and it is going to change the way we use software forever. Microsoft is adding Copilot to Microsoft 365, and we’re seeing the first hints of what it can do. Copilot will offer AI driven help to all parts of Microsoft 365, from helping you manage your email inbox, to refining a report and polishing a PowerPoint presentation and, yes, even write Excel formulas for you! This type of AI-driven help has been turning up in Microsoft products for some time, especially in Excel. But how does it work? Darren explains more in this blog.
If your team’s productivity is getting hammered by meetings, shortening them all to 30 minutes or insisting on an agenda won’t be enough. You need to create your own collaboration system: how you make keep each other updated, spot problems, make decisions, hit milestones and learn together. In this workshop, you’ll learn a simple system for streamlining your meetings and collaborating efficiently.
Building Self-Confidence is a one-day course looking at working with thoughts, feelings and behaviour to create a greater sense of self-confidence. We also look at how self-confidence is already a part of our lives and what we could do to increase it.
Multipliers are leaders that expect great things from their people and drive them to achieve extraordinary results. They identify and tap into the intelligence in their teams. They understand that their role is to invest, to teach, and to coach. Using the best thinking from the book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman, we will show you how to become a Multiplier of others.
The idea of the four-day week is that you will get 100% of your salary for 80% of your time, as long as you are 100% as productive. Of those taking part in the UK’s four-day week pilot, 95% say they are getting as much done as before and expect to continue after the pilot. This one-day programme, online or in the classroom, will help you understand the key elements required to make the four day week work.
Publishing the Happy Manifesto has led to a lot of organisations contacting Happy. Some call us in to help them improve their workplace and we love doing this. But there is an even bigger thrill when I get a letter from somebody we’ve not been involved with, who has taken the Manifesto and put the ideas into practice. So I’m delighted to copy the blog below, originally published on the Spiral Health site, about the work they are doing at an NHS site in Lancashire.
You’d think that there would be an AGE function that worked out how many years since the anniversary by passing in a date. However, life is not that easy. Our trainer Ian Balboa explains step-by-step how to calculate how many years since an anniversary – both the easy way and the hard way.
Engaging PowerPoint Presentations is one of my favourite courses to teach. I get people to evaluate which slides work and which don’t. They look at their own experience of great presentations. Believe it or not, it is never to do with slides full of bullet-pointed text appearing on screen.
Glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking, is incredibly common – impacting up to 75% of people globally. In this blog, Billy gives four recommendations for how you can fight the fear and give effective presentations.
Managers: Will you take the Happy challenge and make no decisions for three months? Here, Henry explains what happened when he took our ‘no decisions’ challenge and why you should do it too.
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