Choose Healthier And Happier.
Many companies are sick, shadows of the impact they could have, the value they could create.
You’ve seen them. Staffed by employees, many of whom are drifting, clock watching away their days - which is neither good for them or the company. Huge pools of creative ingenuity sit idle, untapped. Humans have an innate ingenuity and wisdom, honed over millions of years. We rise to the size of the challenge before us and many companies simply don’t aim high enough.
Huge change is coming; whether technological and environmental. Change now or be changed.
Healthier and Happier is a business and operational model which will be more profitable over the long term, more resilient and make your company more attractive to work for.
HEALTHIER AND HAPPIER : A MANIFESTO
- Finish something before starting something new. Disband a team, say goodbye to a client, finish a project - whatever. We’re not good at goodbye’s. The sell by date is there for a reason. Hold on too long and it’s mouldy. The same is true for projects, clients, relationships.
- Know that the organisation is fallible. It has strengths, it has weaknesses. Strengths might be a reaction to weaknesses. Don’t ignore them, they might be a portal to somewhere good. Like the matrix (was that even good? Well, it sounds it).
- Mindset is a super power. It moves mountains, lifts cars. It’s true for you, me, and it’s true for our organisations too. We work on our minds, individually, collectively. Little progress, often.
- Invest in the financial, emotional, commercial health of partners, suppliers, employees, clients. You are only as strong as your network. Cheap now costs long term. Everyone knows it.
- We constantly learn and improve and have systems to track it.
- We work in partnership with clients and customers and remunerate accordingly.
- Work for the long term, not the short.
- Achieve impact commercially, socially, emotionally and environmentally.
- Ancient wisdom matters. Old ideas, tested over centuries come road tested.
- Healthier and Happier companies are artisanal by nature; small teams collaborating to produce outcomes, where the fruits of labour are publicly celebrated and rewards shared. I want to own my successes. As do you.
- More - people, hours, projects, sweat - is not better. Better is better; better understanding of how people work, why people when, when people work.
We measure, we monitor, we progress. Little and often, all of the time and in so doing make organisations and businesses which are more resilient, more productive, more enduring and kinder. We make more fun places to hang out.
And this is, after all, what most people who work with you are doing; looking for somewhere to hang out, somewhere to connect, to contribute, to feel valued, heard and rewarded.