Managing for Happiness

© 2012 Jurgen Appelo

I feel very strongly that change is good because it stirs up the system.

Ann Richards,American politician (1933–2006)

I have collected ideas from many sources and offered them as concrete practices. But copying games and exercises is not enough to change organizations. You must adapt practices to your needs and keep in mind the principles of engaging people, improving the system, and delighting all clients.

© 2009 Anssi Koskinen, Creative Commons 2.0http://www.flickr.com/photos/ansik/3218139011

We've reached the end of the book, and this makes me feel both happy and sad. I feel happy because you wouldn't believe the amount of work it takes to produce a book like this. It's not just the effort of jamming a hundred thousand words into a text editor. The main challenge is putting them in a sensible order! And then there's the research (fun!), the illustrations (I make them all myself), the formatting (delegated with pleasure), the marketing (never delegate this!), and the reviewing, rereading, rewriting, restyling, redrawing, redacting, referring, recycling, and (thank heavens!) also some reclining and rejoicing. And the e-mails. My God, the e-mails! ...