2 great questions
Here’s a 1 minute video featuring Jack Thompson. He has been asked the simple question, “What is your happiest moment?”. I really enjoyed his response – HT to Katie at Get Shouty for this
“The future I might aspire to – the past I remember with pleasure … life’s crowning glory is the here and now”
In this longer video, Chip Conley shares his story … when the dotcom bubble burst, Chip went in search of a business model based on happiness. In an old friendship with an employee and in the wisdom of a Buddhist king, he learned that success comes from what you count.
Second great question … “What do we count?”
Chris’ story and question, links back to a conference I was involved in running with Swinburne Uni, Sustainability Victoria and The Slips. At Show Me The Change, we even used an Einstein quote that Chris uses in his presentation. We used it in our ‘invitation’ to the field to describe our conference whose theme was ‘Evaluation of Behaviour Change’. Check out slide #4 …
What do I count? Here’s 3 things that I think are important to notice, value and count …
- The joy that comes from moments when I truly ‘connect’ with others – when playing Lego with my son Lachie on the weekend, we were laughing at something we created and and our eye contact, for just a few moment, was like we were looking into each other’s heart and soul … what counts is our true connection and being present with each other.
- The adventure and relationships that build when we say “Yes”. It is too easy to block other’s point of view and ideas and it’s a constant struggle to do otherwise. When we do let go of control and open up to possibility, saying ‘yes’ more often to more people and in more situations is another thing that really counts in my life!
- Solitude. Leo over at Zen Habits wrote about this recently here. He described Solitude as being the #1 habit of highly creative people.
“Creativity flourishes in solitude. With quiet, you can hear your thoughts, you can reach deep within yourself, you can focus.” Zen Habits.
Why is solitude important to measure? Well, maybe we don’t measure it in numbers, but we should learn to value these moments more. We hear business and government catch-cries of “being creative and innovative” but rarely do the leaders create the space for creativity and innovation to flourish. That involves releasing control and measuring staff time and activities in vastly different ways.
Imagine an organisation that allowed all staff to spend 20% of their time on anything that contributes to the business? They don’t need to report on KPI’s and justify their time … they are encouraged to work on ideas and things for which they have a real passion for. IDEO and Gore are just 2 of many companies that do it – I suggest you read Group Genius by Keith Sawyer to find out more.
Cheers, Geoff