Money Can’t Buy You Happiness – Or Can it?

It is a known fact that happy people are more productive people. In fact, this is the basis of employee engagement, which, in turn, is a key element of overall innovation. Essentially, when businesses install innovation management software SaaS tools, they should also make sure that their employees are engaged and happy, because this will ensure they generate more and better ideas. But how do you make people happier overall?

One study conducted in partnership between the University of Columbia and Harvard looked at generating happiness. Two groups of people were created, in which everyone was given $20, which they had to spend on a certain date. The first group had to spend the money on something they wanted for them. The second group, however, had to spend the money on someone else. Interestingly, at the end of the day, those who spend money on someone else felt far happier overall than those who spent it on themselves. This showed that the concept of “treating yourself” is not, in actual fact, such a big treat at all.

Businesses can apply this in a variety of different ways, bringing together innovation, engagement, and happiness. For instance, at the next staff meeting, take one person aside and ask them if they would be willing to get some flowers for someone else who will be recognized for outstanding performance. Or even ask them if they would like to tell them that they have been recognized for this. The moment you encourage people to do something that helps someone else, they will start to feel happier. And when they feel happier, they will be more creative as well.

Chocolate Helps – Always

As if anyone needed another excuse to eat chocolate, one popped up anyway. One of those is that people who eat chocolate are less likely to fail at their diet. This seems counter-productive, because there isn’t a diet in the world that allows chocolate. Unsurprisingly, there is a caveat. The chocolate has to be dark chocolate, as this fills a lot more than milk chocolate. Additionally, it stops us from craving both salty and sweet foods. Plus, chocolate makes people happy. So another great idea would be to give everyone in your team a bar of nice dark chocolate, and ask them to give it to someone else.

Of course, when you install innovation software, your goal is for people to come up with ideas. You can help them along with this by making them happier through reciprocal gift giving and chocolate, but the most important thing is that they feel that their contributions are not just appreciated, but that they are meaningful and needed as well. This requires real leadership, in which you must behave by example. Your first innovative idea should be to create a culture of happiness in your workplace, one in which you encourage everybody to be as happy as possible, and as creative as possible. And always continue to remind people that the software is there to capture their ideas.