Happy Ltd

Being person-centred with staff makes us happy

Henry Stewart — Mon, 13 May 2013 14:48:10 +0000

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:

“Imagine a workplace where people are energised and motivated by being in control of the work they do. Imagine they are trusted and given freedom, within clear guidelines, to decide how to achieve their results. Wouldn’t you want to work there?”

I love this quote from ‘The Happy Manifesto’ by Henry Stewart and, yes, I’d love to work in an organisation like that. I believe these are principles all managers should aspire to. But, more than this, I believe that only a happy, motivated team can provide a superior level of customer service. What it boils down to at Spiral Health is that we can’t be truly patient-centred unless we are person-centred with our staff.

When it comes to being person-centred with staff, the buck stops with the senior management team – me included. Our philosophy is to be visible and approachable. We regularly walk the wards, talking to patients and visitors and we are extremely open and accessible to staff. As an aside, Happy Manifesto rule 4 is to be open and transparent – I hope our staff would say that we do this well.

That’s not enough, though. Staff need a voice. They need to feel that their views are listened to and valued. Unusually for a healthcare setting, two staff members sit on the board of Spiral Health as non-executive directors. Normally, non-executive directors would be chosen from outside an organisation, but because we are mutually owned, we felt it was imperative for our staff to have this board-level representation.

We also have three very active working groups – an operations group, a business development group and a workforce group. Each group is facilitated by a staff member and attended by a complete mix of staff, representing all aspects of our operation, from nurses to administrators. Our working groups inform all our important decisions and although group membership is voluntary, the majority of staff do attend and engage with the process positively.

It’s fair to say that when we first set up the working groups, some staff felt the meetings were negative and those who were less confident in a group setting often felt unable to contribute. We invested in specialised training (we learned how to run Positive and Productive Meetings) and now the meetings buzz with energy and even the quieter staff are very vocal.

Our business development group works hard on our strategic vision at Spiral Health. It considers how we should grow as a social enterprise. For example, it considers whether we should tender for London-based projects or stay local.

Our operations group is very focused on our Bispham unit. This group considers big issues, such as our Care Quality Commission reports, but also handles the smaller things that are key to making our unit thrive. Thanks to this group we have Easter eggs at Easter, celebrations at Christmas and – following a brainwave from one group member – special non-slip slippers available for patients to buy.

The workforce group focuses on the nitty-gritty of our operations. It is in these group meetings that we use ‘The Happy Manifesto’ as a source of ideas and inspiration. Henry Stewart’s management philosophy has influenced everything from our corporate vision and core values to our recruitment processes and performance reviews.

Another important way we are person-centred with staff is by involving them in our continuous change process, Working Together for Change. During this process patient feedback is scrutinised by a team of stakeholders representing the entire organisation – and the action points agreed truly reflect all viewpoints.

Our working group structure isn’t perfect yet. As with every aspect of our patient-centred work, this is a moving feast. One thing I can report, though, is that running an organisation that is actively person-centred with its staff makes me…. happy.

Tracey Bush

Happy Manifesto Conference, April 2013

Henry Stewart — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:00:14 +0000

Around 80 people, from a range of organisations came together at Google’s Victoria HQ on 24th April 2013 to share ideas and learn how to create happy workplaces.

For videos check out Annotag and the Happy Manifesto site.

Henry Stewart, author of Happy Manifesto

Henry opened the conference by asking people how their organisation would be different if the main focus on management was on making people feel good. All agreed it would be not just a better place to work, but more efficient and more productive.

This was backed up with research from Alex Edmans at Wharton Business School. He compared the results of investing each year (over 25 years) in the companies listed in the Best Workplace list with investing in the standard stock market. The best workplace investment would have earn 3.5% more per year. That means that if your pension had grown to £100,000 in the stock market, it would have reached £237,000 if invested only in the best workplaces.

Alex Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer

Alex is an international happiness guru, based in Denmark. His vision: “a world where happiness at work is the rule and not the exception”. He generated a lot of energy, encouraging people to engage with their colleagues, give high fives to celebrate success and take time to get to know people at work. “What really makes us happy is when we can make a difference for somebody else”

Danish toy maker Lego has set itself the target of being one of the top 3 workplaces in Europe by 2015. All meetings there now begin with Item 0, celebrating what is going well – to start in a positive mood.

The first step to making your people happy? “Stop doing the things that make them unhappy.”

Clive Hutchinson, Chief Executive, Cougar Software

Clive explained how “play to your strengths” (Manifesto principle 10) had transformed his software company. He gave the example of a poorly performing Project Manager. After working out what he was best at, he went back to being a programmer. He was happier and more productive and Cougar found somebody to manage projects for whom that was a strength.

“Don’t change people to fit the job. Change the jobs to fit the people

Marion Janner, Director, Star Wards

Marion has built a movement to transform mental health inpatient care in England and Wales. Despite her only experience being as a service user, over 80% of wards have signed up. Marion used her support dog Buddy in place of PowerPoint and we witnessed Buddy going through a series of rapid costume changes to emphasise her points. A unique presentation.

Her key learning point from the manifesto: Don’t try to impose change from above. Instead give people the ideas and support and trust them to do the right thing. Check out the fabulous Wardipedia site.

Nigel Paine, Learning & Development Expert

Nigel gave a rapid fire summary of how to implement the ten points of the Manifesto. Key again is working to strengths: “Don’t focus on being better at what you’re not good at. Instead get better at what you are good at”

One key is not to wait for perfection. If you play darts you don’t give up if you don’t score 180. You have only to be good enough

“The difference between an ok organisation and an exceptional one is ‘discretionary effort’ (the extra that people do). You can only get that by really motivating your people.”

Mark Williamson, Director, Action for Happiness

Action for Happiness has almost 30,000 supporters across 142 countries, who have all pledged to try to increase the happiness of those around them. He opened with the intriguing fact that happy nuns live longer. A research study found that 80% were alive at 85 against 34% of unhappy nuns”.

Mark showed a very entertaining clip of comedian Bill Bailey. The point? Research found that, after watching a Bill Bailey clip, people become 12% more productive. “Making people happy works!”

The unhappiest time of the day, according to research, is the time people spend with their managers.

Vanessa King, Positive Psychologist, Action for Happiness

Vanessa explained how negative emotions were needed to survive danger. But positive emotions enable personal development. She quoted Matthew Ricard: “happiness is a skill that can be learnt”

“Our best ideas come in the spaces”. Great ideas don’t come when we are working hard but in the breaks, so you have to make sure you get good breaks.

Emma Rapoport, Google

Emma treated us as new Google managers and gave us the manager induction. This is based around Project Oxygen, which identified the 8 behaviours of great managers. What is the single most important behaviour of great managers? Click here to find out. Or the full list of the 8.

The other emphasis was on thinking big: “At Google we are always encouraged to go for the moon shot, but supported if we fall. We celebrate mistakes. Have stretch targets.” If you achieve 100% of your targets, they weren’t tough enough. 70% is seen as great.

Stretch people and trust them to get there: “My manager gives me big stretch goals and, even though they’ve done it before, they let me work it out”

Key philosophy at Google: “Don’t ask for permission. Ask for forgiveness later.”

Lunchtime Workshops

Other lunchtime workshops:

Laughter Yoga: Sandar Saint & Simon Richardson, Golden Tree
Randomly Joyful: Surprising & Delighting at Work, Cheryl Joy Adamson, Make Me Joyful @makemejoyful
Create a harmonious passion for your job, Susanna Halonen, Happyologist

Dom Monkhouse, Chief Executive, Peer 1 Hosting

Dom has built two £30 million companies on the basis of creating great workplaces. “To create a profitable business, you don’t start there. You start with creating a happy workplace. Its simple. Happy staff lead to happy customers, which leads to more profit.”

“Get rid of stupid rules”. Dom regularly offers £10 for each stupid rule people can fine, so they can get rid of them. “You have to trust people. Nobody has a rule that says don’t come to work naked and yet nobody does.”

The core values at Peer 1: “Sense of fun and purpose”, “Anything is possible”, “Enable others to succeed”

Key to Dom’s philosophy is serving the customers. He asked “We celebrate employee anniversaries all the time. Do you celebrate a client’s 10th anniversary?”

Yvonne Agyei, Vice President (Benefits), Google

What makes a great workplace? “Its not about the free food and funkiness. The key is results and relationships”

The key is 1) Hire great people – are they googly? 2) Give them autonomy

Key tests of googlyness: Do you have passion? Do you have wide interests? Do your travel? Help in community?

As the filing statement for Google shares stated: “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one”

Key elements: “Think/act like owners. Have a healthy disregard for the impossible. Great is not good enough”

“Within Google we seek to create a sense of community, we want them to see Google as a family. The free food is to build community. People talk over food. We want people to sit down and talk together.”

“It starts at the top. You need to get your most senior people to act out the culture you want.”

Building a Movement for Happy Workplaces

The conference closed with discussions about how to build a movement for happy workplaces. A range of commitments were made and all those present wanted to help build the movement.

Stay in touch. Check out the Facebook page, join the LinkedIn group, come to the next happy workplace Meetup and visit and contribute to the Happy Manifesto web site.

Feedback

The feedback at the end of the day was uniformly positive. For example:

“A truly inspirational day, with real life people doing amazing things to implement happy change/movement. Hopefully I will be one of them now, too!” Emma MacKenzie, Leeds University

“My sales and profit have all increased since acting on the happy manifesto”, Simon Perriton, Just IT

“This idea is such common sense, it can’t help but be a success!” Sarah Metcalfe, Sureflap

“Brilliant interactive sessions, very uplifting!”, Gaye Andrews, Peer 1 Hosting

Overall verdict: Net Promoter Score: 76% (76% giving 9 or 10, 24% giving 7 or 8, no detractors) – or average of 9.1 out of 10.

Venue: Net Promoter Score: 92% (92% giving 9 or 10, 8% giving 8, no detractors) – or average of 9.2 out of 10.

Visual Minutes

Check out the artists’ view.

Excel Hints & Tips – Slicers

Ian Balboa — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:06:29 +0000

Slicers

In his blog on Pivot Perfection, Darren showed us how to easily produce a series of Pivot Tables for each category we want to filter on. Slicers make it easy to have one Pivot Table that can switch between different categories.

Let’s start with the same data that Darren used:

The next step is to add a Slicer:

Go to the Options tab of the PivotTable Tools on the ribbon
Click on Insert Slicer

3. Choose the field you want to filter on, in this case Department

4. Click OK

5. A Slicer box will appear on your worksheet:

6. Click on the category you are interested in, for example, the Design department

7. The Pivot Table will update to show the values for that category:

8. To change to a different category, just click on the appropriate value in the slicer box

9. To select multiple values, do a normal click on the first value, then control-click on the other values:

10. To clear the filter, click on the icon in the top-right corner of the Slicer box

11. You can move and re-size the Slicer box by clicking and dragging on the border of the box

This blog was written by Happy Trainer, Ian Balboa.

If you have any Excel questions or hints and tips you would like shared get in touch, use this link!

If you would like any further information on the Excel course we train, go to our dedicated Excel page on our website. If you are unsure of your Excel level, take our handy Excel survey.

Remember – If you’ve been on a Happy Computers course you get 2 years free helpline access. Call the helpline on 020 7375 7373.

Happy Computers Case Study – Pfizer

Michaela — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:56:58 +0000

Pfizer

Founded in 1849, Pfizer is the world’s largest research based pharmaceutical company. Pfizer discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets leading prescription medicines and vaccines. Pfizer employs 1000’s of staff globally.

Pfizer chose Happy Computers to develop and deliver training to support the roll-out of a Siebel-based CRM system to 13,000 salespeople across 22 countries. The core of the approach was to understand the needs of the sales staff and focusing the training on improving the way they worked.

What we did

We did not start with the software. Instead two of our trainers went on the road with Pfizer salespeople, spending a day visiting doctors and hospitals in London and Copenhagen. All the learners would be salespeople and this ensured we understood their job, their need and their point of view.

The project was effectively about culture change (switching from informal record keeping to formal records, accessible to all). Understanding the needs of the employees was crucial for this.

Our training developers co-ordinated a large scale project to create and deliver comprehensive materials for 16 different systems in 13 languages. Happy continue to work with Pfizer across a range of projects.

Client comments

“Your training service has been extraordinarily good. Everything you have promised has been delivered. I couldn’t be happier.” Tim Johnson, Project Director Pfizer

“Based on understanding the business processes, the approach was miles ahead of the rest.” Nick Allcock, Training Manager Pfizer

About Happy Computer Software Roll-outs

Whether in upgrades or conversions, SAP, Siebel, Peoplesoft, Oracle or your own bespoke software, Happy Computers provides a full service to create the course and deliver the training for your people. Our focus is on understanding the learner’s needs and fitting the course to those needs. We create courses that help them in their job, rather than simply training how the software works.

For more information on our major software roll-out offerings, please visit our roll-out page here.

If you would like to know more about Happy Computers or the courses and events we facilitate please contact us either through this website or by emailing happy@happy.co.uk or call the office on 0207 375 7300.

Revealed: The Most Important Management Behaviour

Henry Stewart — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:27:47 +0000

At our happy workplace conference last week we got to experience a Google manager induction, from Emma Rapaport. She explained that some years ago Google had discovered, from its exit interviews, that some people left the company at least partly because of their manager. Their response was to work out what made a great manager, in what became known as Project Oxygen.

They started with the data on performance across thousands of managers, analysed what their most effective and least effective managers did, and came up with a set of eight common behaviors across the most effective managers. These 8 are now used in every new manager induction at Google, their courses are tagged according to which behaviour they help and the managers attend training in any in which they need development.

What The Data Tells Us

Wow. For me this is an example of what sets Google apart. First, most companies would have little idea of trends in Exit interviews. Second many companies would accept as inevitable that some people leave because of their managers. I’ve seen research suggesting that across all companies 1 in 2 people leave their job to get away from their manager. The analysis was pure Google – no value judgement, just find out what the data says. And finally they made sure what they had discovered was used across all manager development in the company.

Now a quick Google for Project Oxygen will reveal what those 8 attributes are. But what Emma revealed is that the 8 are ranked, so they know which are most important. Last night I tried an exercise with a group of senior managers at Cass Business School. I gave them the list of 8 characteristics and asked them to rank the top 2. Nobody identified what Google found to be the most important characteristic: Be a Good Coach.

Be a Good Coach

Even after it was revealed, most of those managers looked puzzled. So I asked how many had a coach. Most did. I asked what that coach did well:

“They make me believe in myself”

“They guide without telling”

“They ask questions to help me solve my problems”

Isn’t that what you would want of your manager? The penny started to drop. Or check out the graph below, suggesting a very strong and close link between the effectiveness of a manager as a coach and the satisfaction and commitment of employees. I don’t know the Canadian Clemmer Group, that this comes from, but the claim is that it is based on 250,000 feedback surveys:

Put This Into Action

Google is clear that all of the 8 attributes are important. But I focus on Be a Good Coach because they see it as the most important one and because so few managers see this as their key role.

How would you manage differently if your emphasis was on being a coach to your people? What do you need to do to develop your skills in this area?

Happy People Case Study – Positive East

Michaela — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:50:19 +0000

Positive East is a community based HIV charity with over 20 years experience in providing practical and emotional support for people living with and affected by HIV in East London.

Training goals

Positive East were looking to enable and empower all of their staff to successfully deliver a significant proportion of their services through their volunteers. Additionally we took the opportunity to help them review and reflect on what in their culture was working and what needed to change in order for them to become a truly great place to work.

What we did

Happy’s approach was threefold. Firstly we created a bespoke online survey to benchmark the organisation at the start of the process. We then held a series of half day workshops for all staff. The sessions we facilitated covered Building trust, Creating a great place to work, Active listening, Effective coaching skills, Giving positive constructive feedback & Management by objectives. The bespoke sessions we created were facilitated by Cathy Busani, MD at Happy and Lead Happy People Facilitator.

The benefits – as measured by the client

The 6 week schedule of workshops which was our programme was fantastic as we were able to mix and match with colleagues who we don’t usually work with and it gave a new insight into the work that they do and their passions. This combined with the unique facilitation skill of Cathy has meant that we have returned to the office with new vigor and increased resolve to succeed. Alastair Thomson, Finance Director

Feedback comments from Positive East delegates

Today has really made me reflective about my practice, more solutions focused and feeling less stuck about some issues – Carmel Young

A great session that helped me to improve relationships with others in the work place … Brave and positive approach to dealing with difficulties and politics with an organisation … Excellent course and well facilitated. Thank you so much Cathy - Matthew Walters

The world would be a better place if there were more Cathy’s and Happy’s in … Training at Happy is an inspirational experience - Alastair Thomson

Overall, very revelatory and very relevant … This course has been something I want to tell everyone to do. It’s been enjoyable, constructive, useful and I hope effective. Brilliant trainer. Thanks Cathy - Lynn Johnson

I think Cathy is an excellent facilitator and brings such a fantastic energy to the work she does – an inspiration. – Stewart Turnbull

Excellent facilitation, thank you and well done – Rebecca Byekwaso

About Happy People

Happy People are the Soft Skills, Leadership and Organisational Development division of Happy Computers. We facilitate events and courses here at Happy HQ in London, at your chosen venue and even in the virtual classroom as a Live On-line Learning session.

Working with organisations across all sectors, Happy People create bespoke events tailored to an organisations specific requirements. We also facilitate a full programme of scheduled public events including the very popular ‘Course of the Month’, featuring a different topic every month at a very special price. Join the mailing list here.

Happy People also offer Executive Coaching, Belbin team profiling and Cultural Surveys. Read about our values and how we facilitate here.

If you would like to know more about Happy People or the courses and events we facilitate please contact us either through this website or by emailing happy@happy.co.uk or call the office on 0207 375 7300.

Boost Your Productivity in 2 Minutes a Day

Henry Stewart — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:09:05 +0000

Would you like to learn a new tip every day in Microsoft Office, to steadily boost your productivity? Now you can with a subscription to Happy Productivity Boosters, set to launch on 1st June 2013.

Subscribe and you will receive a 2 minute video every morning, designed to show you an aspect of Excel, Word, PowerPoint or Outlook that you can use straight away. Try out our sample videos below:

Excel: Quickly Subtotal Your Data

PowerPoint: Save Your Favourite Designs

Excel: Use Conditional Formatting to Quickly Highlight Key Data

Like to know more? Please fill in the form below.

Subscriptions are just £3 a month for individuals and can be cheaper for organisations buying in bulk.

Happy People – Executive Coaching Testimonial

Michaela — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:07:55 +0000

Are you new to leadership role? Have you have been an executive, leader or manager for a long time?

Your own development and behaviour is crucial to your role and your organisation. To be the best at work all the time and be the leader you want to be, sometimes you have to stop , take stock and perhaps work on some areas. Taking coaching from an expert outside of your organisation means you have the time, space and confidentiality to address any issues, build on your strengths and confidently take the steps you need to be the leader you want to be. To find out more about our Executive Coaching please contact cathy@happy.co.uk.

Executive Coaching Testimonial from one of our clients

Cathy Busani from Happy coached me when I took my first Chief Executive role. Cathy was incredibly helpful at helping me to work out what sort of Chief Executive I wanted to be, how to have the courage of my convictions and how to deliver what I was best at to my charity. At no time did Cathy tell me what I should be doing, she very nicely forced me to work that out for myself, which is a much more effective way of learning.

As a new Chief Executive it can be lonely, and Cathy provided me with someone I could moan to when things were challenging, but she always helped me to turn around and tackle those challenges and deal with them in a way that helped me to build the sort of organisation that I wanted my charity to be.

I would thoroughly recommend Cathy as a coach to anyone in a new role at senior level; she certainly enabled me to become a more effective and determined Chief Executive and both I and my charity benefited as a result of her coaching work.

About Happy People

Happy People also offer Belbin team profiling and Cultural Surveys. Read about our values and how we facilitate here.

If you would like to know more about Happy People or the courses and events we facilitate please contact us either through this website or by emailinghappy@happy.co.uk or call the office on 0207 375 7300.

Let Your People Choose Their Manager – Because it Works

Henry Stewart — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:47:41 +0000

Of all the proposals in the Happy Manifesto, there is one that tends to get the strongest reaction. Most people agree that its a great idea and then explain why they couldn’t possibly do it in their organisation. Indeed some have advised me to leave it out, as it might scare people off from the easier steps to creating a happy workplace.

I’ve written about it before. It is the simple suggestion that you should let people choose their managers. And the great thing is that when people do have the courage to try it, I almost always get positive feedback.

Here is the feedback from Stuart Jones (right), of Modern Housing Solutions (a division of one of the UK’s biggest companies):

“Selecting your manager’ is working out really well. We opened the option to all of our Helpdesk staff (circa 45 people) and everyone provided feedback. Only 4 people actually took up the option, and all for positive reasons relating to their own development.

“The most positive thing about the process was all of the positive comments we received from staff saying why they didn’t want to change managers, because of the relationship they had, the support they receive, the team spirit, etc. It was a really affirming experience for all of our Team Managers!”

Consider trying it in your organisation. I’d love to hear from you with any questions or any worries about what could get in the way.

henry@happy.co.uk

Find out more about this and other steps to a happy workplace at the Happy Manifesto conference at Google UK, London, on April 24th.

Do You Make it Easy for Your Customers to Give Compliments?

Henry Stewart — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:17:38 +0000

Sitting in the reception of Central & Cecil Housing Association, one of our clients, I flicked through the information leaflets. Alongside the pamphlet on how to make a complaint was a more unusual one – a Compliments Guide. Yes, Central & Cecil had taken the trouble to create a guide to how let their people know when they’d done well.

I thought this was a fabulous idea. That night happened to be the Governing Body of the school I chair. And, as we discussed how to clarify the Complaints Policy for parents, I passed on the suggestion. Let’s make it easy for parents to tell the school when people have done well too. Our hard-working teachers and staff deserve that positive feedback.

I was reminded of this when I saw a tweet just now from Shawn Achor on people who phone up to give compliments for New York City taxi drivers.

So think about it. How easy is it for your customers to let you know when you’ve done well. What can you do to ensure your people get the praise they deserve?

Praise at Happy

As a training business, we get daily feedback. And we are careful to phrase the questions so we hear what we’ve done well as well as what we need to change. Here’s some of my favourites from recent weeks (all of which go directly to the trainer):

‘Who knew Excel training could actually be enjoyable!?’
Iona Bergius, NSPCC, Excel 2007/10 – Core Level 2

‘Wonderful experience, the time flew by as the Powerpoint course by Ed was so interesting… Thank you!’
Maureen Nichols, The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, IT Apprenticeship: Powerpoint 2007

‘The course was great and when Meera realised I was competent in Visio she offered me tips on the rest of the Microsoft office programs! Excellent’
Sheri Skinner, Catch 22, MS Visio 2010 Essentials

‘The best catering i have ever had on a course!’
Caroline Knapp, London Deanery, Excel 2003 – Core Level 2

‘The best course I’ve been on in 20 years!’
Lisa Waterman, Haig Homes, Excel 2003 – Core Level 1

‘My computer skills have improved dramatically since i started this course. Brilliant training centre.’
Frances Ditroia, Childcare Business Consultancy Services, IT Apprenticeship: Word 2007

‘Your approach to learning is the most innovative I have come across, the structure of their course kept my attention all day and the teaching was fantastic.’
Ellie Kent-Plummer, London Deanery, Excel 2003 – Core Level 3