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Happiness@Work Podcast

Happiness@Work Podcast

By Michal Šrajer

Interviews with inspiring leaders about building truly human workplaces. Real-life examples as well as ideas and tools for increasing happiness at work.
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Happy Hawaii (with Heather Patterson)

Happiness@Work PodcastAug 09, 2017

00:00
23:52
Management 3.0 (with Ralph van Roosmalen)

Management 3.0 (with Ralph van Roosmalen)

For the next interview, I invited Ralph van Roosmalen - CEO of Management 3.0. Management 3.0 is an international movement started in 2010 by Jurgen Appelo. Their mission is very similar to ours - to change the world of work (and to make the management everyone's job). And as we discussed with Ralph, it is about a mindset change supported by a collection of tools, practices, and games they provide...

Jun 03, 202135:30
Basecamp and remote work (with Jason Fried)

Basecamp and remote work (with Jason Fried)

A new season and a new episode of Happiness@Work Podcast!

This episode was recorded as an interview during our annual international Happiness@Work conference at the end of 2020. It was my great pleasure to talk to Jason Fried, co-founder, and CEO of the world-famous company Basecamp.

Besides products used by millions of people worldwide and bestselling books like "It doesn't have to be crazy at work", Jason and his team are also known for the great company culture they have. In this episode, you will find out how to build a "calm company" where people can thrive while working fully remotely. And you will be surprised how differently Basecamp works compared to what most of us know about remote work from the past year...

May 17, 202138:09
Menlo Innovations (with Rich Sheridan)

Menlo Innovations (with Rich Sheridan)

I recorded this episode of the podcast during the International Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen, where both me and Rich led a workshop. Rich Sheridan is the author of a famous book Joy Inc and also founder of Menlo Innovations - company which has the mission to "end human suffering in the world as it relates to technology.".

The unique thing about Menlo Innovations and also the main topic of our interview was pairing. It's the way of work, where two people cooperate on one task. They sit together behind one computer, with one keyboard (or even one pen & paper) and discuss and share their ideas. In the first view, a very unusual idea. But one that brings many advantages to company culture.

We discussed how pairing helps to build feedback culture or how it improves learning within the organization. At Menlo Innovations, pairing is, of course, also an integral part of the interview process and it greatly helps to test for culture fit before looking at the technical topics.

If you'd like to dive deeper into happiness at work, don't miss our international conference coming to Prague (Czech Republic) on October 10th, 2019. For more details about the event, visit happinessatwork.cz.

Aug 25, 201923:33
Journalism And Positive Psychology 2.0 (with Mikael Kamber)

Journalism And Positive Psychology 2.0 (with Mikael Kamber)

Mikael Kamber is a journalist and a news anchor on the biggest Danish TV Channel, he has been CEO of Denmark's biggest regional newspaper and much more. And he is also very focused on positive psychology which he studied in the USA. He wrote two books on the topic - "The Yes Culture" (published 2015 and available in English) and "Stronger" (which will be available in English at the beginning of 2019), he is involved in the International Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen, and he has even managed to introduce "the positive segment" on prime time news on Danish TV.
May 15, 201835:42
TINYpulse (with David Niu)

TINYpulse (with David Niu)

TINYpulse is on-line tool for pulse surveys. It helps you get almost real-time data about the mood in your team. I've been using it for a long time and I'm very happy we could connect with David Niu, it's founder and CEO.

But we didn't talk only about the app. Few years ago, David took his "careercation" and travelled the world while interviewing entrepreneurs and CEOs in various countries and cultures. We have much more in common than I expected :)
Mar 14, 201839:37
Lykki (with Calvin Johnson)

Lykki (with Calvin Johnson)

Our last stop during the trip around the world was Canada. And I was very lucky to meet Calvin there. His company Lykki is in business for 27 and you can see they are doing happiness at work right at the moment you enter the office. We've talked about their values and how they actually live them, about their flat structure and hiring for culture fit but also about their charity projects in Nicaragua. Very inspiring company!
Sep 21, 201729:26
Happy Hawaii (with Heather Patterson)

Happy Hawaii (with Heather Patterson)

Everyone knows Hawaii as one of the happiest places on Earth. The place where you go for a dream vacation. But many people also live and work there, dealing with similar issues we have anywhere else. Heather is Chief Happiness Officer living in Hawaii. It was a great pleasure to talk with her about her story, Hawaii and also local happy companies...
Aug 09, 201723:52
Strava (with Tracy Lorenz)

Strava (with Tracy Lorenz)

Strava is not only my favorite mobile app, but also a great company. With Tracy Lorenz who takes care of company culture we discussed many things that define Strava as a company. We went through company core values, talked about regular hackathons (called Strava Jams) and also discussed their focus on diversity and openness.
Jul 13, 201719:12
Zappos (with Jon Wolske)

Zappos (with Jon Wolske)

Zappos is probably world's most famous company when speaking about company values and culture. And it was a great pleasure for me to visit their Las Vegas headquarter for a short tour and a great chat with Jon. What did they go through in past few years? How do they live their values? And what about experiments with holocracy? Check it out!
Jun 07, 201732:32
Atlassian (with Dom Price)

Atlassian (with Dom Price)

While visiting Australia I couldn't miss it's most famous happy company - Atlassian, based in Sydney. With Head of R&D and Work Futurist Dom Price we've discussed their culture, values and many interesting tools and practices they use. http://www.happinesspodcast.net/
Mar 13, 201724:59
Happiness at work in Italy (with Giovanni Battista Pozza)

Happiness at work in Italy (with Giovanni Battista Pozza)

The last stop during our tour around the Europe was Italy. In Milan I met with Giovanni Battista Pozza, founder of happiness think tank FullGlass. The biggest topic of our discussion was the current state of "happiness at work" in Italy.
Dec 20, 201632:43
Vygon (with Florent Amion)

Vygon (with Florent Amion)

To record the sixth episode of Happiness at Work Podcast I visited Spanish headquarters of Vygon in Valencia. I was welcome there by their CEO, Florent Amion.

Enjoy our discussion about changes towards humanistic management model they implemented in past few years.
Dec 08, 201626:56
Incentro (with John de Koning)

Incentro (with John de Koning)

Incentro is one of the happiest companies in the Netherlands. They are operating for more than 20 years, have 260+ employees and do many inspiring things with their employees. I talked about Incentro with John de Koning, managing director. You will learn about their cell structure, letting employees set their own salaries and much more...
Nov 15, 201638:30
Jump Movement (with Ineke Hurkmans)

Jump Movement (with Ineke Hurkmans)

For the fourth episode of Happiness at Work Podcast I invited Ineke Hurkmans, founder of the Jump Movement. A simple method which can help you start a conversation in your team about anything you'd finally like to change. It consists of only 7 simple steps which actually work - tens of thousands people already "jumped" in Netherlands.
Oct 24, 201629:11
Happy Netherlands (with Gea Peper and Fennande van der Meulen)

Happy Netherlands (with Gea Peper and Fennande van der Meulen)

There are many happy companies in the Netherlands. Similar to some other countries, IT industry is a little bit ahead, but you can find companies experimenting with happiness also for example in healthcare. We've talked about them with Gea and Fennande, Dutch happiness consultants. We've discussed their practices and tools as well as their paths towards happiness at work and their CHOs.
Oct 09, 201633:32
Happiness at SEB Pension (with Søren Lockwood, CEO)

Happiness at SEB Pension (with Søren Lockwood, CEO)

SEB Pension is Danish insurance company which was struggling with many issues couple years ago. Together with their 300 employees, they started a journey of changes which led to significant improvements in all aspects of their business. I discussed details of their story with Søren Lockwood, CEO of the company.
Sep 14, 201630:14
Introduction to happiness at work with Alexander Kjerulf

Introduction to happiness at work with Alexander Kjerulf

I couldn’t start my journey anywhere else in the world than Denmark - according to many charts the happiest country in the world. And the best person to talk about happiness at work in Denmark is Alexander Kjerulf - author of Happy hour is 9 to 5 (http://amzn.to/2bgc92v) and founder of Woohoo Inc. which is teaching happiness at work in companies like IKEA, LEGO, Shell or TATA.

We’ve talked with Alex about the basics of happiness at work: What does it mean, why is it important in today’s world but also what can each of us do to be happier at work...
Aug 23, 201635:56