Is your customer service shaped around delivering happiness?

What type of Question is that? - well Zappos.com has focused on delivering happiness to customers, suppliers and employees alike to grow from $ 0 to over $ 1 Billion dollars plus in sales - in a period of less than 10 years !

zappo.scom delivering happiness book, written by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh , charts the journey of Zappos and it's adoption of "actionable and emotional based core values".

Deploying emotional intelligence within a business context by engineering and weaving "Wow-ness" into every customer, employee and supplier touch point. With this approach zappos.com have been able to create such phenomenal growth. They have charted new waters and navigated through these, over the years, thanks to their core emotional values that energize and enthuse their tribe of stakeholders. This has allowed Zappos to continue to further develop and improve every aspect of their business that guarantees the delivery of further happiness, and an ever increasing phenomenal impact on the bottom line too.


The core themes that I took away from this book:
1. Construct, capture & share actionable key core values that build WOW!
2. Recruit people who are passionate about what you do
3. Build mechanisms to test if new recruits are in for the money
4. Improve processes that benefit stakeholders in line with wow factors
5. Build mechanisms of work development & progression giving employee choices
6. Care for your employees! work environment and outside activities, investment?
7. Remember you are building a "movement" - how different will you make yourself?
8. ID your emotional, functional, transactional value add, do you know it?
9. keep your employees biz thinking sharp: zappos has library of popular books
10 Your stakeholders count too - build a win-win for all concerned.

"going the extra-mile to build a smile" - with everyone your organisation comes in contact with appears to be the bottom line of this book.

The scientific evidence behind the happiness strategy!
Rewards, Happiness, Motivation and Company Culture? You have to get down to the conscious and sub-conscious. Luckily there is a whole field of scientific discovery through psychology focused specifically on the area of happiness. Check out the video below. Enjoy ;-)




Book Bonus Bits...

website for book...
http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/

book resources...
http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com/resources/happiness-studies-and-articles/

Insights on zappos culture...
http://www.zapposinsights.com/main/

Zappos culture book (free)...
http://www.zapposinsights.com/main/culture-book/


Other Related books I have read tha corroborates what this book says and enhances the field and approach to delivering and building happiness into what you do.

Happy Company - everyone beneifts

Is there such a thing as: "A Happy Company" ?

According to Dan Baker,Cathy Greenberg and Collins Hemingway, authors of, "what happy companies know", not only are there companies out there that are happy, but also that part of this happiness creation process involves the development of positive work environments. These in turn create a compounded benefit that translates into greater levels of productivity which directly hits the bottom line.

What is very useful and actionable about this book is that it maps out the framework under which any organisation can develop a happy environment of their own. The framework is people directed and therefore focuses on the process of aligning teams (and leadership) through:

1. Values Analysis: understanding of leadership values and how these underscore success
2. Congruence Analysis: Degree to which the values of the team align with the leader and with each other
3. Energy Assessment: Understanding of the stress points and anticipated trouble spots for transitions
4. Culture Assessment: Leadership profiling and feedback of cultural awareness
5. Check-in Sessions: Validation of operating principles and shared definition of the team's future
6. Leadership Development: Creation of programs to improve capabilities of the leadership team, in conjunction with the recruitment of talent as needed.

According to the three authors, the 1st three sets of tools relate to the individual, whilst the last three looks at how the individual sits, collaborates, engages and co-creates within a team context (pp. 247).

What I didn't like about this book:

1. Sketchy/Executive overview: It feels like they want you to seek consultancy to fill up the gaps.
2. Insufficient quantitative references: Slim on the ground no follow up recommendations
3. No reading list: No clear link up to other references or books

The positives:

1. Case studies/examples: usual suspect selection of supporting case studies & examples
2. Framework to work on: lovely framework on pp. 247 - which is developed throughout book
3. Detail (framework): sufficient detail with the provided action framework, specially if you have done further reading in this area.
   

There are books out there to make up for failings...
Fortunately we can get further help to make this process work with more robust evidence with books such as: Firms of endearment, the levity effect (why it pays to lighten up), delivering happiness (a path to profits, passion and purpose) - zappos.com,and nowhere - which cleverly examines the journey of the individual to fulfill their passion, purpose and impact on organisation profits.There is also the flip-side: aligned organisational values based development that has resonance with employees may create the very envirnoment and opportunities to cement congruence, thus creating a common platform of shared vision, values, passion and purpose.


The books are as per the amazon carousel below:




For us on the coal face of delivery...
It is encouraging to read such books especially when as workers, facilitators and leaders within companies and projects are instinctively adopting this approach. It is a lonely road, but lovely when you link up with like minded individuals. Contrast in life is essential and therefore it is necessary to get to experience the light side (see the levity effect) and the dark side (toxic work environments).

Thanks to experiences you end up counting your blessings and I guess, as is in my case I have ended up neutralising toxic people and environments for the benefit of all.

Finishing project work at Campaign for Learning, and Community Learning Partnership was a very positive and rewarding experience. What a fantastic bunch of human beings, and I am continuing to work on a pet project with the Community Learning partnership and their wonderful CLP - Angels, a.k.a community learning champions (CLCs). CLP continues to reach out to their learners and involve them in positive social action to extend the trans-formative power of learning in fun and joyful environments.

I hope that you get further evidence from reading this book about a positive way to working. I shall be reviewing other inspirational books along the way. I tweet at times, so if you want to catch me on the twitter stream - see my widget. Enjoy and Merry Xmas. ;-)


Useful & Related articles...

How Room Designs Affect Your Work and Mood
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=building-around-the-mind

How Humor Makes You Friendlier, Sexier
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=laughing-matters


Generosity Might Keep Us Healthy (podcast)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=generosity-might-keep-us-healthy-10-10-26


Adversity Is Linked to Life Satisfaction
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=adversity-is-linked-to-life-satista-10-10-16

How to Protect Your Health Against Toxic Behavior (types of people & groups)
http://drbenkim.com/toxic-people-behavior.html


Stay Away From These Four Types of Toxic People: Choose the Company You Keep
http://stason.org/articles/life/self-growth/Stay-Away-From-These-Four-Types-of-Toxic-People.html

Website demos can be a doddle with twiddla

Live real time web demo & collab with twiddla - doodles and chat too....

Yes, live website demos, doodling & chattin is a doddle with twiddla, oh and did I mention it was free?





Yes, yes, my wonderful charity chums and little charity chums helpers and buddies! - I bring you another fab free online collaboration review! - have no fear, - Twiddla is here!!!!

kiss good bye to thumb twiddling when asked to support charities, colleagues or invidiuals with web platfomrs/technologies! - this is a tool that is very, very useful and easy to use! If you know how to use drawing tools in microsoft word or powerpoint and can use a browser - then you re 90% of the way there with twiddla! - it's that easy! - really!

Shapes, text bubbles, free style pencil drawing, adding images - it is all possible with twiddla. You can even chat with colleagues, or if you have skype you can talk to them explaining verbally what you are doing. It's that simple.

So check out the video I have prepared below - and get familiarised with the possiblities.

What is even better is that after contacting the twiddla team as a charity, they told me that anyone with a '.org' or '.edu' email can be upgraded for free. What's the difference? - Well, when you demo a site for people you can do so under the privacy of a "private" - "password protected space".

You can email the unique and customisable password and URL to your audience, so no clown can come in and start grafftiying your work and loading other sites. If you want to get your free upgrade then, send an email to info[at]twiddla.com, put into the subject free 'charity' or 'education upgrade' - and in the body tell them that william doust sent you. So now turn the lights down, get your popcorn and get ready to watch the twiddla show.

Ressource(s)

twiddla website & sandbox
http://www.twiddla.com

twiddla free upgrade email contact & details
email: info[at]twiddla.com
subj: free 'charity' or 'education upgrade'
body: william doust told me & sent me
terms & conditions: must have a '.org' or '.edu' for free upgrade
(to password protect your sessions)

skype
http://www.skype.com

Charity Chums - social bookmarks sharing group for charities & non-profits
(share annotated web resources with our little group on diigo)
http://cli.gs/rJ4y91

Convert PDFs to Word - Share application forms

PDF is good for the distributor - not the form filler, here's a work-around

Why go prehistoric with printing PDFs when you can convert PDF forms to MS word online and for free?
Save your valuable time and just make scribbling away, passing paper around, and then retyping history!!!!

Try out the free online PDF2word Converter! - It's free. No subscriptions, no emails - nothing. Ah, but after you're done you can take it back to word for free!...
All you have to do is go to the same site and select the Word2PDF tab/option - it does not require email submission either.

Print What You Like from webpage - visually

No more horror webpage printing this halloween - or let alone the rest of the year

Yes, you can excorcise your printer from the ghouls of the horried browser printer setup with "printwhatyoulike.com".



It's so easy and what is even better it's free. Check it out!







What's more you will be kind to your wallet, printer and the environment. use the deliciously easy visual way of selecting what you want to print.



Resource(s)

www.printwhatyoulike.com - free

Portable (USB ) Open Source Applications...

Let your non-profit save on valuable resources & document your achievements on the go
I've been using open source portable applicatons for a while now. They are great, trustworthy and overall free. ;-)

This is good news for a non-profit, specially given the buget constraints. An additional benefit, is that you can slim down your PC footprint by not having to install applications. There are lots, and lots of applications you can download and install.

Just make sure that you first install the portableapps platform and after just install via the anything else you install options ->install new app. Check out the screen shot below.



My multimedia Warrior Apps Setup for Portable Apps
This enables an individual to document any project and facilitates editing of photos, audio, video, write reports, encrypt all the files on the drive, shred information, and even preview videos that have been edited. Check out the screen shot below.




U
Useful links
Platform for Portable apps & applications (most of them)
http://www.portableapps.com

Word Processor (MS word compatible)
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/abiword_portable

Yellow Sticky Notes (set events, alarms and reminders)
http://portableapps.com/apps/office/pnotes_portable

sync, backup and secure, all in one place
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/toucan

camstudio 2.0 portable - video capture of screen areas - vidTutorials
http://portableapps.com/node/11985

updater-check updates for apps on portableapps platform
http://portableapps.com/node/12722

wink portable - static screen shots with text bubbles animated tutorials
(output as flash, PDF or HTML)
http://moourl.com/winkportable

VirtualDub Portable Edition (Video Editing)
http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/virtualdub_portable

CD/DVD burning on the go
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/infrarecorder_portable

Document shredder (recycle bin)
http://portableapps.com/apps/utilities/eraser_portable

inkscape portable - Vector Graphics
http://www.winpenpack.com/main/download.php?view.40

Audacity Portable - Audio Editing
http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/audacity_portable

Gimp Portable Edition - Pixel/Image editing
http://portableapps.com/apps/graphics_pictures/gimp_portable