What leads to a happy life? What are the various ways to be happy? Happiness means different things to each of us, yet after doing extensive research, Management 3.0 founder, Jurgen Appelo, discovered a common thread:
Happiness is something we create, it is not something to achieve. It is a path you choose, not a destination to arrive at.
So many of us spend our time in pursuit of happiness, yet instead of searching for it we need to find ways to live it, embrace it and implement it into our daily lives.
The 12 Steps to Happiness
Thank someone and be appreciative toward your colleagues, every single day.
Give something to another person or make it possible for others to offer gifts.
Help someone who is in need of assistance, or enable colleagues to help each other.
Eat well, and make good, healthy foods easily available for everyone.
Exercise and work out regularly and make it easy for people to take care of their bodies.
Rest well, sleep sufficiently, and enable colleagues to refresh their minds.
Experience new things, try stuff out, and let people run all kinds of experiments.
Hike outdoors, enjoy nature, and allow people an escape from the office and the city.
Meditate and get people to learn and adopt mindfulness practices.
Socialize, relate to other people, and make it easy for colleagues to develop connections.
Aim for a goal and get people to understand and realize their own purpose.
Smile whenever you can, appreciate humor, and get colleagues to engage in fun activities.
Download the Happiness Poster
Bring some happiness to your office.
We have the 12 Steps to Happiness available in three languages:
12 Steps to Happiness Case Stories
As we’ve spread the word about the 12 Steps of Happiness we began speaking to companies who were actively implementing those practices into their culture.
Rather than us trying to tell you how it works, we’d rather show you the value added through the testimonies and stories of companies who care about happiness at work:
Cyberclick: Thank
“Every Monday we eat lunch together as a team and end the meal by giving an internal example of one of our values that was seen in the previous week,” says Kelly Rogan, digital marketing strategist at the startup Cyberclick. Kelly says giving thanks allows their team to always look for the positive and to live out their values every single day.
Redbooth: Hiking
Redbooth project management software has a monthly step competition. With a dangling carrot of a mere $25 Amazon gift card, they’ve sparked a healthy competition that gets teammates cheering each other on and gets a team of mostly developers out in the beautiful Californian and Spanish sun.
Read on to learn more about Happiness at Work.
Mobile Jazz: Experiencing and Socializing
Why work in the same place all year round if all you need is a strong internet connection? Not only does Mobile Jazz encourage remote working (one of their employees is currently traveling around the world), they foster experiencing and socializing as much as possible. Every year the startup organizes several 1-2 month company retreats, where they rent out a villa so that everyone can work and be together. Past trips have included Bali, Thailand, the Swiss Alps and Cape Town. Bets are on as to where they’ll take off to next.
Listen to Stefan’s interview on our Happiness at Work Podcast
