On the previous post Cubicle 3B23, I got a comment that i really want to give more visibility on the front-page.
Here it goes:
Cubicle 3B21 is just across the corridor from 3B23; when both doors are open, we could see each other and talk (a bit loudly and to the annoyance of our colleagues) without getting off our chairs. 3B21 is also visited by people. Usually different people. For different reasons. They come for a joke and a laugh – look at the latest silly toy or Dilbert cartoon, or some obscure droodle on the wall – for 3B21 has a bit the kindergarten look (playful, nearly silly, messy, surprising). They come as well to talk – not to get advice but to be listen to, searching for empathy, acceptance, and a sympathetic ear.
3B21 is the office of the Happiness officer (a self-adopted title which would be well-suited to Atlas carrying the whole world on his shoulders :-)). It is also the office of Joe.
3B21 and 3B23 are connected – the yin and yang of the same thing. While one is frequented by people looking for solution, advice, inspiration the other is the place for people searching for warmth, comfort and simple human connection. Often the same people. And the subject of impact is also the center of the universe in 3B21 – but impact one person at a time in a small but personally significant (to them) way.
When I considered first writing this, I kept thinking about the ripple vs the wave that Peter mentioned: what causes one and what the other, and how are they different; do I want to make a wave or a ripple?
And they are basically the same thing – many individual molecules moving in a synchronized way. It’s quite a small imperceptible movements but because they are many it accumulates (excuse the science vulgarization – the goal is not accuracy but a visual metaphor)…
What’s different is the scale (a wave has tons more of these guys pulling all in the same direction) and the independence – how long the movement can last once the force that caused it is taken away. And as I was reading about waves and how they work, I found out that what we really want to make is a rogue wave (also know as a freak wave) – a very rare phenomenon, which happens when the energy of all the water molecules gets amplified, to an unbelievable level – a kind of resonance that creates a monster of a wave, that sucks all energy around it and piles it into a powerful wall of water. And what this is caused by is 2 factors: a force above and a force below – a strong wind and a deep current working together. That’s what cubicles 3B23 and 3B21 are about – a wind and a current stirring the murky waters of a sea and letting go, so the power of it can emerge.
And if that’s not full contact, what is?
Wonderful !
Looks like we’re building a tribe here 😉
Who joins the wave ? We need you to lead us. Send a comment. Let yourself know. Come to Cubicle 3B23 or 3B21.
Petervan Studios 
You are a CHO; now what?
Yesterday I was asked what was my title, and got a puzzled pair of raised eyebrows when I responded that my unofficial self-adopted title and vocation in life is Chief Happiness officer… It got me thinking – what exactly is a CHO?
(And no, I’m not the corporate clown that everyone likes to pick on or that is famous for telling the best jokes – even though occasionally I find myself at the receiving end of a joke… 🙂 )
Happiness officer is a very serious and heavy responsibility – a temperature meter, detecting the health of an organization, noticing the first signs of trouble and trying to heal them. It is like the shaman of a tribe, the healer or the local witch.
A healthy organization is one that not just functions and produces but is energized, gives a feeling of belonging and meaning to all the people that make it. A happy organization is made of happy balanced people – happy not in the sense of joking around all the time, but in the sense of having a deep feeling of satisfaction.
It is like a healthy bee swarm. Even though the swarm is nearly a creature in its own right, with mind and memory of its own, it is made of little individual parts who influence greatly its health. The swarm is very resilient, but only if its bees are healthy. When they are not, the swarm falls apart. When all the workers leave the hive in despair, it doesn’t matter if the queen is still there and healthy. A queen alone does not make a swarm – it stars it, but does is not equal to it.
Bee doctors watch the behavior of the individual worker bees to know the health of the hive. It is the same with the Happiness officer… He watches for small tell-tale signs:
– more and more people who have the nagging thought that even though rationally speaking they should feel perfectly satisfied with their position in life, they are somehow not;
more and more people with the uncomfortable feeling that there is something missing, a feeling which gradually grows into discomfort and distress.
And distress is a powerful force – a force that pushes you to change.
This is what the happiness officer watches for and helps – by encouragement, nudge, energy boost – helping people one by one find what makes them tick and nurturing their belief that it is worth going for.
It is a fine balance between wild optimism and integrity…
The ultimate success for a CHO? A company that does not need him; a company where everyone is their own CHO…
Joe – the CHO in Cubicle 3B21