The Happy Manifesto – Details, episodes & analysis

Creating a culture of trust and collaboration and empowering frontline staff in the pressurised environment of Adult Social Care could be a challenge but it’s possible when leaders are given a clear blueprint, and the skills needed.

Helen Taylor, Head of Services in Adult Social Care at Hounslow Council took on that challenge when she joined our Level Seven Senior Leader Apprenticeship programme and joins us today to share her transformational journey of embedding coaching practices within her teams, successfully creating a positive workplace environment that values individual strengths and encourages open communication and innovation.

She discusses the small, yet impactful changes she made, encouraging autonomy and decision-making among team members, creating psychological safety and utilising liberating structures for effective team collaboration.

Helen’s tips for a happy workplace:

1. Creating a culture of freedom, responsibility and trust
2. Give staff respect and opportunity and not punishing mistakes
3. Play to people’s strengths and social styles

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

The Coaching Habit book by Michael Bungay-Stanier

Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme

Alex Kjerulf is the original chief happiness officer and in today's episode shares insights from his 25-year journey, emphasising that true workplace happiness stems from meaningful results and positive relationships; rather than superficial perks.

Alex reveals the growing global interest in workplace happiness, the benefits of remote working, four-day workweeks, and the pitfalls of relentless positive thinking.

Hear practical tips for fostering a happy work environment and to finding joy outside of work distinguishing it from mere job satisfaction.

Alex's tips for a happy workplace

1. Stop wasting money on the wrong things: focus on results and relationships
2. Start with the leaders in your workplace (if they don't get it, nobody will!)
3. Put somebody in charge of the happiness project (have a Chief Happiness Officer)

Links and resources mentioned in this episode

Alex's book Happy Hour Is 9 to 5

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer

Alex's video 6 Reasons Why Greece’s New 6-day Work Week Will BACKFIRE

Before chasing the latest technologies or trends, organisations need to focus on building a strong foundation and core capabilities. They need a culture that encourages learning, collaboration, and transparency, and to have leadership that prioritises long-term success over short-term gains.

In this episode, Henry is joined by Howard Yu, a renowned strategist and innovation expert, a Thinkers 50 strategy award winner, and the Lego Professor of Innovation and Management at the IMD business school in Switzerland. With extensive experience studying and analysing companies' longevity and their ability to sustain new growth, Howard is now the author of Leap, a book exploring how successful companies have been able to transform themselves and adapt to new challenges.

1. Document and share as much as possible, providing access for all employees so they can understand the decisions the company is making.
2. Create a data-rich work environment where openly discussing and documenting failed experiments is encouraged. Capture realtime decision-making processes so everyone can learn from their mistakes.
3. Allow independent teams to operate as micro-enterprises, or adopt Jeff Bezos’ “two pizza” rule.

• Connect with Howard via LinkedIn
• Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied – Howard’s book
• Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, by Tony Fadell
• The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton Christensen
• Amazon’s Two Pizza Rule: one simple rule for maximising meeting effectiveness

Creating democratic workplaces lead to accelerated growth and a culture that people love. By giving power to employees and treating them with dignity and fairness, companies can tap into the full potential of their workforce.

Transitioning to a democratic workplace takes a specific mindset, democratic leadership skills, and the implementation of systems and processes that value transparency and accountability. But not only does it increase employee satisfaction and engagement, it can also result in significant revenue growth.

Traci Fenton is the author of Freedom at Work and the CEO of WorldBlu, an organisation focused on democratic workplaces. Traci has been working for decades to help build freedom-centred democratic workplaces and has collaborated with hundreds of companies around the world.

Traci believes in giving power to people and creating environments that value transparency, accountability, and the inherent worth of every individual. In her discussion with Henry and Maureen, she emphasises the transformative impact of democratic principles on organisational success, and highlights the accelerated growth and positive culture that democratic workplaces can create.

1. Adopt a mindset of valuing every individual's worth and giving power to the people. Treat employees with dignity and respect.
2. Develop democratic leadership skills, including meaningful conversations, active listening, fairness, and transparency.
3. Implement systems and processes that support freedom-centred principles, like transparency, accountability, and choice.

• Connect with Traci via LinkedIn
• Freedom at Work: The Leadership Strategy for Transforming Your Life, Your Organization, and Our World – Traci’s book
• Join Happy’s Liberating Structures Immersive Workshop
• WorldBlu’s Freedom at Work scorecard

A culture of trust, empowerment and respect towards employees leads to a successful and sustainable business model, higher levels of customer satisfaction, and a happy workplace. That ethos has been key to Handelsbanken’s operation for over 40 years, and has led them to top ratings in UK customer satisfaction for 15 years.

It also makes financial sense. The banking group has been the most profitable within its peer group for nearly 50 years.

Bernard Charles is Chief HR Officer at the UK division of Handelsbanken, a decentralised banking environment that prioritises individual and corporate banking customer relationships. The group’s unique approach to banking includes a lack of individual sales targets and a bonus structure that is equally distributed among all employees, regardless of their position in the company.

1. Cultivate a culture of trust within your organisation. Believe in your employees' capabilities and trust them to make the right decisions.
2. Provide your employees with the right conditions to make decisions in their areas of expertise. This not only creates engagement but also fosters a sense of ownership and shared purpose.
3. Respect each employee as an individual in their own right. This includes creating an environment where everyone feels like they can bring their whole selves to work and where everyone has the opportunity to be included and heard.

• Connect with Bernard via LinkedIn

Creating a culture of psychological safety is crucial for organisations. By fostering an environment where people feel safe to speak up, share their ideas, and take intelligent risks, companies can promote learning, innovation, and growth. Celebrating failures – especially intelligent failures that result from thoughtful exploration – can encourage individuals to take risks and contribute to the collective knowledge of the organisation.

Amy Edmondson is largely credited as the founder of the Psychological Safety movement. She’s written five books, and her work focuses on the importance of psychological safety in organisations and how it contributes to innovation, learning, and success. She’s conducted extensive research on creating environments where individuals feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and take risks.

In this episode, Amy shares examples of organisations that have successfully created psychological safety, the concept of intelligent failures, the challenges of creating psychological safety in remote work environments and the importance of active listening and inviting participation.

• Create a culture where people feel safe to contribute their knowledge, questions, expertise, and concerns.
• Monitor your response and show genuine interest and appreciation for what others are saying.
• Use tools and technology to facilitate communication and collaboration.
• Encourage taking risks and trying new things, celebrating intelligent failures that result from thoughtful exploration.

• Connect with Amy via LinkedIn
• Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive – Amy’s latest book
• New Smart Working Code of Practice announced (PAS3000)
• Taking Risks, Making Mistakes: How Psychological Safety Drives Innovation

Ricardo Semler’s radical book Maverick is now 30 years old. Happy was an early adopter of some of its key principles, and when software company cofounder Zahid Malik was looking for implementation examples, Happy was just about the only one he found.

As Semler’s work suggests, implementing a culture of trust, freedom, and autonomy can have a transformative impact on a company. By allowing employees to make decisions, fostering open communication, and providing guidelines and frameworks, organisations can create a happy and productive workplace. But it’s important to strike a balance and ensure that the right people are in the organisation who can thrive in a Maverick environment.

Zahid is the founder of called Risr. They specialise in providing software for education and training organisations to help them manage and run their assessments, exams, and continuing professional development. While he’s faced challenges in implementing the principles of Maverick, he’s striven to create autonomous units within his organisation, allowing teams to make decisions and operate in ways that best serve their customers.

1. Having freedom and autonomy is crucial for a happy workplace. Allowing employees to make decisions and have control over their work contributes to their overall satisfaction.
2. But not everyone may thrive in an environment like this, so it's essential to ensure that employees align with the company's values and ways of working.
3. Providing employees with clear guidelines and boundaries within which they can exercise their freedom helps bring structure and prevents chaos in the workplace.

• Connect with Zahid via LinkedIn
• Risr – Zahid’s company
• Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workshop, by Ricardo Semler
• Creating joy at work – Episode 2 with Cathy Busani
• Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness, by Frederic Laloux
• Bullshit Jobs: The Rise of Pointless Work, and What We Can Do About it, by David Graeber

As an organisation expands and new people come on board – either remotely in or in satellite offices – it can be hard to ensure everyone’s aligned with the same values and goals. This can lead to a lack of cohesion and a sense of disconnection among team members.

So organisations need to find creative ways to maintain their culture as they grow. TLC, a relationship charity based in Greater Manchester, which invests in its employees’ wellbeing. They give staff the freedom to plan their own career paths and make decisions across the organisation rather than working in a purely hierarchical way.

This week, TLC’s Chief Executive uncovers how the charity creates a happy workplace by promoting a sense of community, and giving employees the opportunity to shape and lead the organisation.

• Be authentic and encourage others to do the same.
• Always listen and be open to ideas from anyone.
• Be willing to fail and commit to learning from it.

• Connect with Michelle via LinkedIn
• TLC – Talk, Listen, Change
• Happy’s Level 7 Senior Leadership apprenticeship programme – the “Happy MBA”

Creating a truly inclusive and happy workplace means understanding and addressing the unique needs and feelings of each individual. This involves actively listening to and communicating with employees, recognising and addressing implicit biases, and creating a culture of trust and fairness.

Creating connections between teammates and increasing knowledge and understanding of each other's backgrounds and strengths will help foster greater inclusion and happiness in the workplace.

Femi Otitoju is the co-founder of EW Group, an equality, diversity, and inclusion partnership. She’s been helping organisations become more inclusive since 1988. In her conversation with Henry and Maureen, she tackles unconscious bias and how it can be addressed through training and recognition.

• Assume good intent when people make contributions. Even if someone makes a mistake or uses terminology that might not be comfortable for everyone, start by assuming that they did not intend to offend anyone.
• Combat micro-aggressions with micro-affirmations. Consciously use small positive statements and gestures, like acknowledging people's presence, welcoming their contributions, and congratulating them on a job well done.
• When receiving feedback or criticism, assume good intent and respond with graciousness. Thank the person for their feedback and take the time to understand their perspective. Avoid getting defensive or dismissive, and recognise that feedback is a rare and precious gift that can help improve workplace happiness.

• Connect with Femi via LinkedIn

Psychologically safety isn’t just about creating a comfortable climate, but about embracing discomfort. That’s because discomfort helps us grow and address complex problems, which in turn leads to greater psychological safety.

This means shifting from a parent-child dynamic to an adult-to-adult relationship within teams. That involves relating to people's potential, treating them as competent professionals, and involving them in the decision-making process.

A psychologically “safe” environment without a level of discomfort can hinder people’s growth and professional development, which can affect innovation and creativity.

To create a more psychologically safe environment, this week’s guest, Lisa Gill, suggests staying curious for longer, asking good coaching questions, and being honest and open about our challenges as leaders.

1. Allow space for people to be something other than happy if that's what's real for them.
2. Create a climate of psychological safety by embracing discomfort as well as safety.
3. Practice adult-to-adult conversations by relating to people's potential and being curious and empathetic.

• Episode 10 – Beyond Budgeting, with Bjarte Bogsnes
• Connect with Lisa via LinkedIn
• Why Psychological Safety is Important for Productive Teamwork, by Shane Snow
• Jessica and Douglas Rauch from Aquadec on tradesmen and teal – from Lisa’s Leadermorphasis podcast
• The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier
• Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?, by Aaron Dignan
• Liberating Structures