Some cause Happiness wherever they go: others…whenever they go

- Oscar Wilde

…and some businesses create an environment for the happiness of their employees and cus-tomers: others, have made Friday the best day of the week. This blog explores how Happiness by Design can provide a roadmap out of this sad human dilemma

The coronavirus is making us rethink what the workplace means in dramatically different ways. It opened the door to reinventing workspace because, being forced to stay away, we’ll all be looking at work differently. Dramatic events, like this pandemic, permit changes that we’ve talked about for a long time to now be implemented. Inertia, which might have slowed the pace of change, is thrown out the window. People, more than ever want their workplaces to be nurturing and contribute to their overall happiness, not diminish it.

No-one wakes up in the morning with the plan to go to work to make someone’s life misera-ble. Nonetheless there are countless people who accomplish that feat daily, sadly probably several times a day. If you were to ask a fictitious Harry in company XYZ if he is having a nega-tive impact on some people, he’s probably not even be aware of it or might justify what he does as ‘calling someone on the carpet’ for their poor performance. Emotional Intelligence points to an underlying reason for his action but Happiness by Design provides a way out of this dilemma.

It’s patently clear that the desire to be happy is a universal quest and a worthy one at that. The problem is we are highly influenced by the society we live in and the media that portray poor examples - from products that are advertised to give us new and improved, quick / instant benefits with a money-backed guarantee. You see, they aren’t lying - the short term benefit of the sizzling steak, that luxury cruise, that new car ALL wear off.

The person who tears a strip off someone will feel good in the very short term. They got their frustration off their chest - they told them off and got their truth out.

The problem is we don’t just live in the moment - we live with the consequences of our actions in the long term. And don’t get me started on the examples of political leaders.

The gap of those described above is a ‘Lack of self-Awareness’ which Emotional Intelligence surveys can bring to their attention. However, these ‘Harry’s of the world’ might justify their actions by their self-perceived good intentions; these people don’t recognize that their inten-tions are not likely to come across because they are measured by the impact they are having on that individual.

This is equally true of corporate decisions; if senior leaders try to run the organization by short-term thinking and policies and procedures, they will likely build a work environment that focus-es on efficiencies that don’t necessarily meet human needs: they will make a lot of decisions that might drive short-term profits but turn people off and burn them out - these organizations could inadvertently lose some of their top talent - or worse be left with those who do the min-imum to not get fired.

Happiness by Design was developed by combining the best fo the Science of Happiness with the Science of Design. The Happiness Ecosystem and its Pulse Survey act as a mirror to the or-ganization. So how might it help the individual that Oscar Wilde was referring to in his infa-mous quote? I’ll illustrate how the Happiness Ecosystem is a a tool to bring challenging situa-tions to light and provides a roadmap forward.

It focuses on People, Pathways and Places - i.e. it measures how people affect and are affected by the work environment adding to everyone’s happiness or retracting from it. It measures whether there are mechanisms i.e. pathways in place to help people to take advantage of the opportunities that the facilities and programs were designed to deliver. And it measures whether the Places foster productive human interactions. We provide recommendations in all 3 areas as they’re interrelated and contribute to overall happiness and productivity. Our focus is not on the individual, if Harry is the exception, and overall people feel happy at work, Harry’s abhorrent behaviour needs to addressed in individual coaching. However, if Harry’s behaviour is more typical, then the overall scores on some of the following questions would raise a red flag. We also provide the scores by department so if they were low in a specific department, that would jump off the page.

P ractically speaking, here are 4 sample questions that could provide a red flag to managers if the scores were low across the board or in specific work areas:

1. Do leaders lead by example and model company values?
2. My company is committed to mentoring employees
3. I feel excited and look forward to come to work every day
4. My workplace is designed in a way that inspires me

So the question for leaders to ask themselves is do they want to know the truth

'The truth only hurts when you want to believe a lie’ or as Fredrich Nietzsche said: 'Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions de-stroyed’

Happiness by Design has 5 Truths:

• Meaning
• Delight
• Freedom
• Engagement
• Vitality

Behind them are the secrets to uncovering a roadmap to a happier and more productive work-force, where even the Harry’s get an opportunity to grow and change. Changes in both the hu-man and physical environments can then shift to improve overall happiness and experiences at work. Especially in a post-COVID-19 world, people deserve that.