Early and accurate diagnosis of breast cancer, particularly in younger individuals, is important not just in the workplace but to any individual in any team or community and this is at the heart of CoppaFeel's mission: to promote early diagnosis to 18-24 year-olds, which can lead to treatments being more effective and less invasive whilst working towards higher survival rates. CoppaFeel is a breast cancer awareness charity taking a happy and positive approach to serious business.

In this episode, CEO, Natalie Heskall, shares details of the organisation's training programs that enhance communication and teamwork, and the implementation of an approach that puts people first to empower projects and employees. She also shares Copperfield's adoption of a nine-day fortnight work schedule and the importance of playing to individual strengths.

Natalie's tips for a happy workplace:

1. Understand your purpose
2. Foster by belonging to and building community
3. Provide autonomy for people to be themselves

Links:

CoppaFeel

Embracing neurodiversity in the workplace not only benefits neurodiverse individuals, but creates a more inclusive, flexible, and productive environment for everyone. By understanding and acknowledging different strengths and needs, we can reshape jobs and work cultures to foster a sense of belonging and joy, leading to more effective organisations.

Ludmila Praslova is an organisational psychologist at Vanguard University in Southern California. Her work focuses on embracing neurodiversity in the workplace and promoting a more inclusive, flexible, and productive environment for everyone. She champions the idea of understanding and acknowledging different strengths and needs to foster a sense of belonging and joy in workplace settings.

1. Create flexible social environments that allow people to connect in ways that work for them.
2. Adapt work schedules, information sharing, and learning opportunities to suit individual cognitive strengths.
3. Encourage a non-judgmental environment where people feel comfortable expressing their feelings without fear of criticism or misunderstanding.
4. Cater to individual physical and sensory needs, like temperature preferences, noise levels, and work locations.

• Connect with Ludmila via LinkedIn
• The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work – Ludmila’s book
• Liberating Structures Immersion Workshop

Going from startup to scale-up takes strategic planning and insight, along with a real understanding of employee happiness. Plus, crafting great job descriptions and letting people make their own decisions once they’re in a role are key to developing a team of A players.

Dominic Monkhouse has a distinguished career in scaling up businesses, especially within the IT sector. He successfully built two web hosting businesses from 0 to £30,000,000 within 5 years, and is an author of two books that demonstrate his insight and experience in business growth and people management.

1. Hire great people
2. Show them the destination
3. Get out of the way so they can do their best work

• The Melting Pot – Dominic’s podcast
• Connect with Dominic via LinkedIn
• Mind Your F**King Business: The No-Nonsense Guide to Making Your Good Business Great – Dominic’s book
• The Founder's Survival Guide: Lead your business from start-up to scale-up to grown-up, by Rachel Turner
• The Jolt Effect: How High Performers Overcome Customer Indecision, by Matthew Dixon
• Hiring for Attitude: A Revolutionary Approach to Recruiting and Selecting People with Both Tremendous Skills and Superb Attitude, by Mark Murphy
• Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down, by Vineet Nayar

Employee happiness makes a big contribution to a company's success, as can self-management. But how do you know what’s really working, driving the business forwards, and helping it meet its targets?

This week's guest is Pieter Jelle de Brue, founder of digital agency Statik, a company that values employee happiness and has adopted a self-managing structure with multiple autonomous teams. They’re continuing to grow and evolve, and one of the metrics they’re currently conducting an experiment to find out if what people say about employee happiness really does have a measurable impact on a company’s bottom line.

• Trust people to organise themselves when the purpose and goals are clear
• Run small experiments to continuously evolve and improve
• Value employee happiness as a measure of success

• 2024 Happy Workplaces Conference
• Connect with Pieter via LinkedIn
• Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness, by Frederic Laloux

A four-day work week doesn’t simply lead to longer weekends. When implemented right, organisations can maintain the same level of productivity, and give their employees significant – and measurable – increases in happiness.

The four-day week challenges traditional concepts of work and productivity and encourages companies to measure output rather than time spent working. This shift in approach has led to reduced stress, fewer sick days, and enhanced team cohesion.

Andrew Barnes is the originator of the four-day work week idea, which has now become a global movement and has been implemented in multinationals, governments, and NGOs worldwide. Andrew has written a book on the four-day week and has been involved in numerous implementation pilots in countries and companies of various sizes.

1. Introduce the four-day working week
2. Look after your building
3. Put great art up on the walls

• Connect with Andrew via LinkedIn
• The 4 Day Week: How the Flexible Work Revolution Can Increase Productivity, Profitability and Well-being, and Create a Sustainable Future – Andrew’s book
• The Four-Day Working Week at Happy
• Happy’s apprenticeships and long-term development programmes
• Happy’s Level 5 Global Majority Empowerment Apprenticeship programme

Before chasing the latest technologies or trends, organisations need to focus on building a strong foundation and core capabilities. They need a culture that encourages learning, collaboration, and transparency, and to have leadership that prioritises long-term success over short-term gains.

In this episode, Henry is joined by Howard Yu, a renowned strategist and innovation expert, a Thinkers 50 strategy award winner, and the Lego Professor of Innovation and Management at the IMD business school in Switzerland. With extensive experience studying and analysing companies' longevity and their ability to sustain new growth, Howard is now the author of Leap, a book exploring how successful companies have been able to transform themselves and adapt to new challenges.

1. Document and share as much as possible, providing access for all employees so they can understand the decisions the company is making.
2. Create a data-rich work environment where openly discussing and documenting failed experiments is encouraged. Capture realtime decision-making processes so everyone can learn from their mistakes.
3. Allow independent teams to operate as micro-enterprises, or adopt Jeff Bezos’ “two pizza” rule.

• Connect with Howard via LinkedIn
• Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Copied – Howard’s book
• Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, by Tony Fadell
• The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, by Clayton Christensen
• Amazon’s Two Pizza Rule: one simple rule for maximising meeting effectiveness

Creating democratic workplaces lead to accelerated growth and a culture that people love. By giving power to employees and treating them with dignity and fairness, companies can tap into the full potential of their workforce.

Transitioning to a democratic workplace takes a specific mindset, democratic leadership skills, and the implementation of systems and processes that value transparency and accountability. But not only does it increase employee satisfaction and engagement, it can also result in significant revenue growth.

Traci Fenton is the author of Freedom at Work and the CEO of WorldBlu, an organisation focused on democratic workplaces. Traci has been working for decades to help build freedom-centred democratic workplaces and has collaborated with hundreds of companies around the world.

Traci believes in giving power to people and creating environments that value transparency, accountability, and the inherent worth of every individual. In her discussion with Henry and Maureen, she emphasises the transformative impact of democratic principles on organisational success, and highlights the accelerated growth and positive culture that democratic workplaces can create.

1. Adopt a mindset of valuing every individual's worth and giving power to the people. Treat employees with dignity and respect.
2. Develop democratic leadership skills, including meaningful conversations, active listening, fairness, and transparency.
3. Implement systems and processes that support freedom-centred principles, like transparency, accountability, and choice.

• Connect with Traci via LinkedIn
• Freedom at Work: The Leadership Strategy for Transforming Your Life, Your Organization, and Our World – Traci’s book
• Join Happy’s Liberating Structures Immersive Workshop
• WorldBlu’s Freedom at Work scorecard

A culture of trust, empowerment and respect towards employees leads to a successful and sustainable business model, higher levels of customer satisfaction, and a happy workplace. That ethos has been key to Handelsbanken’s operation for over 40 years, and has led them to top ratings in UK customer satisfaction for 15 years.

It also makes financial sense. The banking group has been the most profitable within its peer group for nearly 50 years.

Bernard Charles is Chief HR Officer at the UK division of Handelsbanken, a decentralised banking environment that prioritises individual and corporate banking customer relationships. The group’s unique approach to banking includes a lack of individual sales targets and a bonus structure that is equally distributed among all employees, regardless of their position in the company.

1. Cultivate a culture of trust within your organisation. Believe in your employees' capabilities and trust them to make the right decisions.
2. Provide your employees with the right conditions to make decisions in their areas of expertise. This not only creates engagement but also fosters a sense of ownership and shared purpose.
3. Respect each employee as an individual in their own right. This includes creating an environment where everyone feels like they can bring their whole selves to work and where everyone has the opportunity to be included and heard.

• Connect with Bernard via LinkedIn