Building Happiness

We have been summoned to build a Happiness Area. Sounds weird, doesn’t it? There were people from different teams supposed to create a new team to deliver -or to bring- happiness to the company. Up to then we ignored that such a project came from the dream of someone who had read “Delivering Happiness” (Zappo’s story). Someone who considered that this spirit had to be part of his routines and also of her company.

After some meetings a new challenge arouse: we were adding the suffix “co” to the project. We were to “co”-build the Happiness Area, and also the team! We wanted to construe the team and the area as a single unity. And we were very excited about it. Perhaps Patrick Lencioni is inside our heads, repeating his mantra: “the team is the greatest competitive advantage ever”.

Moreover, the team would shape the area, and we would escort the team until they adopted their own shape. Our first session was “Me, myself and I”. We gave it a lot of thought. And we understood that neither a high performance nor a happiness team can exist if people are not connected with themselves. This is not so obvious as it may seem. To be connected with ourselves is a challenge in this world in which we are living.

During that first day we lowered our guard. We were exposed to ourselves and to our neighbor. I am part of the “ourselves” because, even though we were enablers, we shared the space and the experience. We opened up on that day, we were vulnerable, and started to build trust and confidence. We were discovering ourselves, once again. We were getting acquainted (and double-clicking) with our adventure mates.

Each of us delivered his or her best version, told us about his or her happiest moment (inside or outside the company).They told us about their dreams for 2025: how they envisioned themselves, where they would like to be. They revised the motivation formula that Daniel Pink taught us: purpose + mastership + autonomy.

The end of the day was really touching. Our first connection with the team was purely about people. About individuals. About themselves. I feel today that this was a wise move.

Each one of them continued on their (re) connection trip. We met once again during a second workshop. This time we dealt with “We are family”: we left our self-centered activities in order to connect with others. The main questions were: Are we team players or not? Which values do we need for the team? Each one saw his reflection on the mirror and asked for feedback.

We used the Ideal Player Formula, by Patrick Lencioni. We played some games to foresee the values of the team and to assess the collaboration and experimentation in every day routines.

At the end of the day, everybody defined some practices which allowed them to perfect their basic virtues in order to “live the team”: empathy, modesty and proactivity. We left the room with a full toolkit, plenty of activities, to test. It had to do with sharing our failures, whatever it may cross your mind. We had everything available.

Time went by. Maybe too much time went by. We lost pace, and we were smashed by our agendas. I speak in plural because they lost their pace as a team, and we lost our pace as enablers. The third meeting was less energetic. So, before shaping the area, we allowed some catharsis to take place.

And let us review the key steps now: people who had started to connect with themselves, with other people of the area, people who had already let go of whatever they had to release in order to step into the creative phase.

We used several Inception methods this time. We were preparing Happiness 1.0: we shaped the purpose of the area, we built a couple of elevator pitchs and two cereal boxes. We also prepared the “Don’ts” list, and the neighbor’s community. I confess that I am trying hard, but I cannot stay out of the story, it’s always about “us”.

That morning, as we listened to Luis Miguel, we created the first prototypes of the area. We had a list of people to talk to, in order to test our hypothesis, and also to get feedback. And so Open Door was born.

Open Door is a session that can be well defined using the famous phrase "if Mohammed does not go to the mountain, the mountain will go to Mohammed".  Receiving feedback is not very frequent in companies. It is rare, indeed. Feedback itself does exist, but the culture of feedback is almost never present. Open Door is collective feedback: the team is prepared to listen and embraces several people who provide their point of view.

The open ears and open doors worked. The afternoon was a party. The team was very enthusiastic at the listening, no matter what the other members had to say. After harvesting this, we started to think about Happiness 2.0.

At the following meeting, we created employees types once again, and thought about their flow. The feedback obtained was framed into different categories. This information was crossed: actions per employee type, actions per phase (related to the employee), actions according to their implementation capacity. With these inputs, 2.0 design concluded with a series of actions allowing us to have quick wins, and also a couple of resources accountable for them (according to Pair Programming logics). We would have around 2 weeks for the testing and to check how these actions worked, following Lean start-up logic (something we love): “Life is too short to create something that nobody wants”.

The design of 2.0 was far beyond an idea. We translated the ideas into actions, and actions into “accountable pairs”. In other words, we managed to establish, or settle up, a team through actions, especially actions leading to quick results. This would raise the motivation.

During the last sessions we could already sense the magic. Goals were clear. Goals were guiding the team. And, day after day, we were letting the team go and walk by themselves, with an acquired sense of self regulation. Each person had a different role: graphic enablers, session invigorators.

And therefore, without even notice, more than three months elapsed and our last session arrived. Questions were still floating in the air, and we had to answer before leaving the room. The last session started with a wrap-up of our journey: we recalled upon our very first challenge and the different stops we made until reaching our final destination.

This recall turned into a retrospective. Our very first one! Or, at least, the formal retrospective. The team marked the pace, and decided on the topics to be debated. We were not trying to turn this into a “handbook”, we wanted this need to become evident. The retrospective was a “must do”. When you are part of an innovative, restless team, the only way to learn and improve is by staying a bit still: you must take your time to think about the outcome, to sense your feelings.

During the retrospective, each of the team members was able to talk about their actions, their findings, the results, and how they felt at this process. Something very important appeared at this moment: you must not surrender to frustration. You must try every solution available to succeed and to finally cross the obstacles. The team was extremely glad of sharing the adventures, and, above all, happy to ignite the machinery in just two weeks. The team was certain that it was just the start of a brand new journey. The flip chart with our learnings is the living testimony of those powerful two weeks.

And the energy at the last session would not fall. Not at all. We revised the actions remaining from the previous meetings. And - mixing the review, the improvements and some new ideas- we reached Happiness 3.0. By then they were all surprised of their ability of making things happen when a team is solid and working side by side. They were also making gestures every time they remembered that the next challenge would have to meet the expectations.

We were still thinking while someone at the room mentioned that the key to success had been the focus, the motivation and the quick results. So, and aligned with this concept, we created some charts which allowed us to decide where the focus would be and how we would advance further. The canvas at the wall reflected the actions and commitments for the coming weeks, but...

We knew something was missing. Those actions were great, but...what would happen afterwards?

Therefore, before leaving, we reviewed the basic steps for the Happiness Team. And here the Agile logics surged naturally. The loop would be: retro – idea 1.0 – feedback – idea 2.0 – test / experiment– retro. In other words, there was a new necessity arising. We needed to have the raw materials from the rest of the company (the feedback); the importance of testing (without taking anything for granted); the significance of learning (retrospectives), and, last but not least, to understand that the team would be a gauge also for other areas in the company. The team would be responsible for collecting and moving information, desire and frustration, in order to turn them into action.

Co- building Happiness 3.0 ended with a circle. Just like it started. We shared our feelings after these months of work. We are very happy to declare that we DO have happiness.

This post goes to the Philip Morris Happiness Team, especially to Marian and Mechi, who were fearless to start this adventure aimed to create the area, but especially devoted to believe in people. Thanks for letting us join you!