Weekend Viewing: Tony Hsieh

Ah, the first weekend back after a long trip! Today I found an excellent speech that Tony Hsieh (pronounced "Shay") gave at Google headquarters. As I said in my previous post, Tony gave one of my favorite presentations at the Global Happiness Summit. This Google Talk is a longer version of that presentation.

Tony mostly talks about corporate culture and how to increase employee happiness. He emphasizes core values and bottom-up communication. The video is in widescreen format, which screws up the blog formatting a little bit, so I downsized it. Just use the fullscreen button if you want a bigger size, or click here if you want it directly on YouTube. I'll quiet down now so you can watch!

SPECIAL REPORT: Global Happiness Summit Part 2

The first annual Global Happiness Summit was an interesting experience with a lot of room for improvement. Setting it on the U.S.S. Hornet was, in theory, an inspired choice, as it symbolized the repurposing of a harmful machine for more hopeful goals. In reality, however, the location may have contributed to the somewhat-low turnout. As you can see from the photos below, it also had a lot of empty space, which became somewhat oppressive over the conference's two days.

Don't get me wrong, though:  even with only around 40 attendees, I and the rest of the team enjoyed meeting each of them. The speakers also gave some fantastic presentations, and our screening of Happy was a resounding success. Even with rough sound work and a few stock images, the audience laughed, cried, and gave a standing ovation. I wish I had pictures of it, but unfortunately my camera had run out of juice, so I only have pictures of the second day.

So without further ado, here are some of my photos (wish I could post larger pics, but it screws up the formatting!):

Robert Biswas-Diener helping the team carry our stuff.

Walking through the entrance to the carrier.

A view of the conference floor.

A view of the stage area.

Aymee Coget

Roko, Omid, and Robert at our booth.

Macaiah Tillman

Roko and Omid looking positively rapturous at our booth.

A view of the flight deck upstairs.

Robert Biswas-Diener talking with Kevin and me.

Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.

Tony gave one of my favorite talks, even with a slightly annoying intro. He and his co-workers started by playing one of those new-fangled viral videos, with kids hip-rappin' and rap-boppin' about a bus or something. The song has a catchy chorus line, but it seemed to go on and on and on. After that was over, though, Tony gave an excellent presentation about how corporations should be run to maximize happiness (and therefore profits).

Laura Delizonna

A view from our surrogate house in Tiburon.

(Fans of Genghis Blues will be interested to know that we stayed at Ralph Leighton's beautiful house for the entire five-day trip.)

Kevin and Roko apparently reenacting The Sorcerer's Apprentice on a mountain.

Everyone in Muir Woods, the redwood forest.

This trip as a whole was fantastic, even with a few now-infamous events involving a flat tire on the way up and me falling off a ledge, skinning my knee and elbow. (Roko had the brilliant idea of hiking up a foggy mountain at night with no handrails or lights of any kind.)

I have a lot more photos and possible things to talk about, but this post is already really long, so just ask if you have any questions!

SPECIAL REPORT: Global Happiness Summit Part 1

Hey, remember me? I've been off the grid for almost a week, attending the first annual Global Happiness Summit in Alameda, CA. It was held on the U.S.S. Hornet, a decommissioned aircraft carrier that is now a museum. A very interesting place for a happiness conference! Only around 40 people attended, but I had a good time.

I'll post more about the summit on Friday, including photos and details, but for now, here are some pictures of the journey up there and San Francisco.

Australian School Teaching Positive Psychology to Alleviate Test Anxiety

From The Sydney Morning Herald.

More Australian news for you today:  The Sydney Morning Herald reports that schools are teaching students life coaching and positive psychology skills because of greatly increased stress levels. Over the past five years, students appealing their test scores for psychological reasons have increased 30 percent--greater than the increase in the student population. So either students are getting craftier in how they improve their grades or they really are more stressed out.

Dr. Anthony Grant of the University of Sydney's psychology department says, "The children of today, particularly those in selective schools, are under more pressure than they have ever been before." Dr. Grant studied 56 high school students and found that life coaching decreases levels of depression while increasing hope and resilience. He became interested in the subject because two or three principals called him per week asking for positive psychology classes. Another study from the University of Sydney found that high-stakes testing harms motivation.

I don't have much more to say about this story, but I do have a SPECIAL MESSAGE for those who read this blog every day (hopefully you exist):  I might not be able to update this blog until next Tuesday because I'm attending the Global Happiness Summit near San Francisco! I'll try to take pictures and tell you how it goes, but I don't know if I'll have the time or the Internet connection to update while I'm there. It'll be a change of pace for this blog, but that's okay because variety is actually a big component of happiness!