12 Ways to Build Happiness AND Productivity
Happiness and productivity - in vibrant organisational cultures - go hand-in-hand. You don’t sacrifice or separate the former to get the latter. They co-exist and are visible throughout the organisation.
They show themselves in the following ways:
Kindness between staff - putting time, talent or resources into helping others
Diversity of thinking and action - removing the risk of groupthink by considering everyone’s opinions and ideas
Celebrating small wins - taking a moment to collectively acknowledge achievement
Social integration, not separation - recognising that human connection is built and maintained in social situations
Performance management - using empathy to help others achieve their potential or to stop people from holding others back
Achievement of goals - setting achievable targets and working together to reach them
Regular, actionable feedback - building a culture of continual learning
An understanding of how work connects to vision - helping people to find their purpose through the commitment to their work
Making a contribution to the culture - because it belongs to everyone
Continually seeking smarter ways to do things - recognising that what got you here won’t always get you there
Making time for creativity - to keep individuals, products and the organisation fresh and relevant
Doing good in the world - being a good human and a positive role model for others.
One person who believed this was Tony Hsieh, former CEO of Zappos who tragically died too soon. I got to meet him in 2019 and he’d been a ‘culture hero’ of mine for some time, since I’d read his book Delivering Happiness: Profits, Passion and Purpose.
He was a man of few words, yet everything he said was considered. He was always visible, sought to empower others and was a role model to those that followed him. He believed that most organisations never achieve a vibrant culture because they focus solely on performance and productivity and not on the happiness of their people.
His dedication to building and evolving great workplace culture was evident to me when I was lucky enough to spend time at the Zappos HQ, hanging out with incredible team members and leaders. Tony’s legacy will no doubt live on in a company that is dedicated to ‘delivering happiness’ not only for customers but for every employee.
Happiness and productivity are not mutually exclusive, indeed it is only ever through the former that you consistently get the latter. Tony Hsieh went to great lengths to reinforce this and we should never forget it.
