Chief Happiness Officer reveals the secret sauce to making workplace happy again

Interview with the CEO and Co-Founder of the world’s leading happy culture coach-sulting company Delivering Happiness.Jenn Lim is the Chief Happiness Officer, CEO and Co- Founder of Delivering Happiness; the world’s leading company specializing in making work a happy place again.They delivers end to end solutions that build a culture of happiness in the workplace, and its all based on some of the key factors that caused of Zappoz.com to be such a success it was acquired by Amazon for 1.2 Billion Dollars in less than a decade from its setup, and yes that is BILLION and not million.So if you want to know the secret sauce to build such a happy culture in your company and also maybe the byproduct is you get acquired for such an amount then go ahead watch the interview and then share it and spread the love.Live PassionatelyMoustafa HamwiMoustafa Hamwi: Hello everyone and welcome back to Passion Sundays. The best way to end the week and start another. Our guest today is very, very, very special when it comes to making work a happy place. She is the CEO and Chief Happiness Officer of Delivering Happiness, the world’s leading company that makes a work place amazingly happy. Jenn thank you very much it’s a pleasure to have you here.Jenn Lim: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.Moustafa Hamwi: I love the work that you guys are doing. You are probably one of the first and probably the only one that counts when it comes to making work a happy place again. You have mastered this game for years starting from the success story of Zappos and how you model that out, and rolling it out to the world. And I think I am gonna use the words Passion & Happiness interchangeably. Jenn Lim: OkayMoustafa Hamwi: So, how important is passion for companies?Jen Lim: Well, it’s funny because the subtitle of the book is Profits, Passion & Purpose. So, for us, it’s enhanced within, well number 1 is the idea of scientific happiness, how you sustain happiness and how basically how you sustain businesses. So it’s very analogous to us, that science based psychology and that which makes a work place profitable, successful and sustainable over times. So, we are speaking the same language. It definitely needs to be embedded. It’s our believe.Moustafa Hamwi: So, we see it definitely needs to be embedded. But, the question is actually, that how to, is where you guys have made a difference. Because so many people theorize about what should be, what could be.Jenn Lim: Right.Moustafa Hamwi: But the reality is you manage to take that from theory into application and have a success story. So what is the magic behind it?Jenn Lim: That’s a great point that you bring up about how. Because, for us, I mean it’s been such an amazing journey from the Zappos’s days, and see that it goes from a startup, to the company it is today acquired by Amazon, etc. but what we did not yet realize at that time, was that, is there a secret source to what Zappos did that can be actually applied to other companies. And so we, with all the lessons learnt, with ups and downs of Zappos, it was just sort of serendipitous in some ways as psychology in the science of happiness kept on developing and these two trains met in a way that unleashes the other side of being able to understand Wow! You can actually make this universal. Happiness is universal for a reason and so these frameworks should be universal as well. So, by taking the extractions of what we have learnt in Zappos and learning from all other innovative companies around the world we are able to put together these universal frameworks that whether it’s regardless of industry or company size or governments and hospitals now are equally applicable because at the end of the day I guess the leverage of happiness are the same. Passion could be one of them but other levels are senses of control, senses of progress, senses of connectedness between co-workers and ultimately that sense of purpose and of course passion is embedded in that. That’s what our happiness framework is based on.Moustafa Hamwi: So, I loved that you talked about a framework, not just a single element. And that’s what building a culture is about. It’s not a one size fits all or It’s not one thing you do in a company. You tighten one screw and everything fits into place.Jenn Lim: That’s correctMoustafa Hamwi: You have just outlined the aspects and cornerstones of building that culture. But it takes time to culture for culture to flourish also. What’s their usual range when a company starts investing in a process like this before they see impact?Jenn Lim: Well! I am gonna give the typical consulting answer. It all depends ha-ha. But it really does because, I think one of the biggest factors that go into the time duration, is the level of commitment. So if that’s high then we can actually see changes happening within a month or two months time. If that’s low, and there is no alignment across the company, it could never happen. So, it ranges, I mean for example, small startups - 35 employees within a few months after instilling culture, core values, a sense of purpose, they already noticed a 39% increase in sales and 92% decrease in monthly absences. Just because people wanted to show up to work all of a sudden, they wanted to be around their friends, they wanted to be engaged in a higher purpose.Moustafa Hamwi: Amazing and let’s talk about the challenges. Because obviously it all sounds good and you know, we have smiley faces on the business cards. But I’m sure, getting to that smile would have taken a lot of workJenn Lim: YeahMoustafa Hamwi: So, how do you actually find your happiness and your passion, when the things are getting tough. Whether in the business process or in the execution. Because as you said, you might get into a company where the commitment level is low, and it takes you a lot more work to make it happen. And that becomes draining for the people who are doing the work.Jenn Lim: Yes, sure.Moustafa Hamwi: So how do you overcome that?Jenn Lim: Me personally or with our clients?Moustafa Hamwi: Both.Jenn Lim: Personally for me and it’s, I think it’s kind of an idea. I call it an expectation management. Knowing there will be highs and knowing there will be lows, so when the lows actually happen, it’s not a surprise, it’s just like yeah I expected to be here. And so for me, coming out of that, is aligning myself again with my values and my purpose. No matter what situation it is, if I can answer that question, why I am doing what I am doing, then there is a reason to climb out of that hole. For clients, it’s a little different but I think it’s along the same lines and premise of look, why are you doing what you are doing, go back to that sense of purpose, that vision and if they can answer that question, which, you know, not everyone has the answer readily but actually try to formulate that, and know that there is something else bigger than just this immediate problem at hand. Then that gives the boost of getting out of that hole towards something bigger than themselves.Moustafa Hamwi: I love it. This is amazing. That’s the best way for us to conclude, as actually telling people to go and find out why to be happy and I think that’s a good pursuit. Go, find why you want to be happy. So, thank you very much. It’s been amazing. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much.Jenn Lim: Thank you.Together: Passion!Moustafa Hamwi: What do you think? I would really love to hear your opinion. If you would like to stay engaged, subscribe to our social media channels and if you want even more valuable interviews and tips and tricks on how to live passionately, then go to moustafahamwi.com and subscribe to our Passion Sundays newsletter. Until the nest episode, live passionately!