Our Happiness Dilemma

This month I enter my 12 year in the Human Capital Management space. Trends have come and gone but our function remains in the positive part of Human Resources. Continually, we seek to serve the function of bringing people together, our extended goal is progress through encouragement. The paths out of the forest continue to shift but we are all ultimately just trying to find a clearing the in the distance.
... a place to feel welcome
... a feeling that everything will be OK
... reassurance that the expenditure of our waking hours might make a difference in this sad and beautiful world.

The basis of Human Capital Management is:
1. Technology
2. Rewards
3. Course of Action

The technology provides the rainbow, rewards the pot of gold, and then there is a whole lotta bravado! (Bravado: good name for a recognition program).

Fulfillment houses hire motivational speakers and technology companies bring in yoga instructors...

At some point, the idea of Happiness in the workplace became the ultimate interpretation of rewarding progress.

Life is too short to hedge happiness on your professional existence and the through-line of "work" being a vanguard to "happiness" is about as reliable as the ROI of Employee Recognition.

We'd prefer not to be stressed out, we'd also like it if our boss was cool. It would be great if our work made a difference. But, as Kevin's Dad said a long time ago, "work is work".

Fortunately, I belong to a group of extraordinary individuals who actually want to discover customer problems and wrap a solution around them. This takes a consultative approach rooted in heavy research and design thinking; concepts the trunk salesmen of class rings who created recognition 1.0 couldn't begin to understand.

Happiness?

Achievement creates fulfillment which breeds a sense of pride; this may also be disguised as happiness.

Stress builds and then dissipates when you challenge yourself and extend beyond your perceived capabilities.

When bias is debunked change happens.

As people stop working in silos, collaboration bests competition.

If we compete with our enemies in a fair format, contempt turns into respect.

We want to challenge ourselves. We want to help ourselves remember our potential. We want to evolve by doing more than we ever thought possible.

Smiles are reassuring. Fist pumps are empowering.

Don't Forget to Remember!

Dave