The Yield of Happiness
Jay Cross,
Internet Time Blog,
Nov 16, 2012
"Productivity and hard work have long been integral pieces of a successful workplace. Now human emotion is joining them. Organisations have discovered that treating people like robots leads to hostility, dissatisfaction and resentment towards management." So writes Jay Cross (also here), and while I agree with him, I find myself wishing this understand were found in all organizations. "The benefits of a happy working environment and teaching how small changes can boost productivity, ultimately increasing an organisation's bottom line. One of Cross' wellbeing-enhancing projects is 'Blips', a new app for portable devices that measures aggregate happiness in the workplace and will debut at this year's Online Educa Berlin."
If I had that app, it would be happily beeping away right now, as I enjoy meeting with my colleagues in Colombia and sharing thoughts and ideas about online learning with them. Sadly, offering these talks isn't part of my job any more, so I'm not given time to give them (the conference organizers have always paid travel costs); throughout this year I've had to use vacation time. Soon I'll run out of vacation time and my blip meter will fall silent. And my productivity will fall, because for me, at least, innovation (and happiness) doesn't come from sitting in the office taking orders, it comes being creative, making things, and in part at least, from doing these presentations and being challenged and experiencing the reality of learning where it is happening.
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