The Happy Manifesto

Going from startup to scale-up takes strategic planning and insight, along with a real understanding of employee happiness. Plus, crafting great job descriptions and letting people make their own decisions once they’re in a role are key to developing a team of A players.

Dominic Monkhouse has a distinguished career in scaling up businesses, especially within the IT sector. He successfully built two web hosting businesses from 0 to £30,000,000 within 5 years, and is an author of two books that demonstrate his insight and experience in business growth and people management.

Dominic’s tips for a happy workplace

1. Hire great people
2. Show them the destination
3. Get out of the way so they can do their best work

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Employee happiness makes a big contribution to a company's success, as can self-management. But how do you know what’s really working, driving the business forwards, and helping it meet its targets?

This week's guest is Pieter Jelle de Brue, founder of digital agency Statik, a company that values employee happiness and has adopted a self-managing structure with multiple autonomous teams. They’re continuing to grow and evolve, and one of the metrics they’re currently conducting an experiment to find out if what people say about employee happiness really does have a measurable impact on a company’s bottom line.

Pieter’s tips for a happy workplace

• Trust people to organise themselves when the purpose and goals are clear
• Run small experiments to continuously evolve and improve
• Value employee happiness as a measure of success

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A four-day work week doesn’t simply lead to longer weekends. When implemented right, organisations can maintain the same level of productivity, and give their employees significant – and measurable – increases in happiness.

The four-day week challenges traditional concepts of work and productivity and encourages companies to measure output rather than time spent working. This shift in approach has led to reduced stress, fewer sick days, and enhanced team cohesion.

Andrew Barnes is the originator of the four-day work week idea, which has now become a global movement and has been implemented in multinationals, governments, and NGOs worldwide. Andrew has written a book on the four-day week and has been involved in numerous implementation pilots in countries and companies of various sizes.

Andrew’s tips for a happy workplace

1. Introduce the four-day working week
2. Look after your building
3. Put great art up on the walls

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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.

Howard’s three tips for a happy workplace

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.

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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.

Traci’s tips for a happier workplace

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.

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