I once worked with a team who had been victimized by a re-org. They were left without a manager, a crime in this organization, and they didn’t know how they fit into the ‘new world’.
I worked with this team and helped them figure out their own vision. After a few months they were starting to get into a groove.
Then one day, they were assigned a new manager who recently attended Agile Management 3.0. The first thing this manager did was to create a Happiness Index wall.
Over time, happiness increased!
Now that’s not to say putting up this artifact was the reason, but it was the trigger for change. This big visible chart provoked conversations in the team retrospectives where they discovered events that were affecting their happiness.
Sometimes “happiness” is a touchy subject. To some it sounds hokey, although there is plenty of research that shows happy employees are more productive. Zappos has been a pioneer in the world of study the effects of happiness in the workplace through their method Delivering Happiness.
What’s interesting about their approach is their survey scores your happiness on multiple dimensions:
- Happiness at home
- Happiness at work
- Happiness with your job – this is your happiness level with the type of work you do.
- Happiness with your job AT your current job – this is your happiness level with the type of work you do IN the organization you work in
Can it really be that simple to build an engaged, and Agile organization? It could be.
Want to learn more? Join us on June 16-17 in Toronto for Agile Management 3.0 and learn more about this technique and many others that will help you build an Agile and engaged organization.