I have just returned from a fabulous conference:  the PMI Netherlands Summit 2014 in beautiful Zeist, NL.

It was an honor and great pleasure to open the conference with my own keynote on „Leadership, Happiness and Project Success„.  In my presentation I explained why and how leadership and happiness are the key ingredients to project success.

A lot has been said and written about leadership and how it affects project success.  But ‚happiness‘?!  Well, not so much.  This is sad I think for ‚happiness‘ brings in the human factor into the equation.  It’s ok to satisfy the customer.  But is it sufficient?  I don’t think so.  If you and your team aim for a happy team and a happy customer it can take your project to a higher level.

Scientific research has shown that our brains work better when they are ‚happy‘.  And when our brains are at ‚happy‘ that positivity will ripple out to others and can raise productivity.  Hence, whenever you aim to promote happiness in your project you can likely improve performance and productivity.  Not bad, isn’t it?!

So, what is ‚happiness‘?  How do you define it?  

Well, not so fast.  I am not sure if you can or actually want to come up with a formal definition of ‚happiness‘.  It is personal, subjective in nature.  And yet, (most) people will agree that ‚happiness‘ is great and worthwhile striving for.  The 3 P’s – pleasure, purpose, passion – give us a hint what ‚happiness‘ entails.  In the context of a project I think that the purpose and passion characteristics of happiness a central.  In other words, you and your team have to have a common understanding of the motivation and vision of the project.  They need to know, support and share it.  Not by force but because they want to – on the project, individual and team levels.

Have a look at my presentation to learn more about it.

Happiness is a choice

At the conclusion of my keynote I invited the audience to take action to create a happier life.  For this purpose I handed out GREAT DREAM postcards.  It lists 10 key to happier living based on a review of the latest scientific research relating to happiness.

Everyone’s path to happiness is different, but the research suggests these Ten Keys consistently tend to have a positive impact on people’s overall happiness and well-being. The first five (GREAT) relate to how we interact with the outside world in our daily activities. The second five (DREAM) come more from inside us and depend on our attitude to life.

GREAT DREAMS postcard image

I want to thank the Action for Happiness movement for providing these postcards at no charge.

Take the Action for Happiness pledge

Giving a keynote on ‚happiness‘ is a great experience. It gave me the chance not only to talk about happiness to a large audience but actually make people happy.  What a wonderful and fulfilling opportunity!

Learning more about happiness and how it can help us grow successful projects is one thing.  Applying the principles in our daily lives is another and more powerful thing.  Hence, I am asking you, the reader, to visit the Action for Happiness website, take the Action for Happiness pledge and start living a happier life.

[content_box style=“cool-blue“ title=“Action for Happiness Pledge“] „I will try to create more happiness and less unhappiness in the world around me“ [/content_box]