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In the traditional, profit-driven model of business, money does, by definition, equal happiness. But as the focus for many organizations expands beyond profits to include a host of other factors (e.g., their environmental and social impacts), a satisfied workforce becomes a more reliable indicator of organizational well-being, and an important means to achieving true triple-bottom-line success. Employee happiness surveys have grown in popularity since the rise of such assessments on a larger scale; countries including Bhutan, France and the UK have adopted a “happiness index” as an alternative prosperity measure to GDP, using the findings to help inform future policy. Applying this methodology to business, more and more organizations - including companies such as Zappos and Nestlé Purina - are correlating employee well-being levels to productivity, which in turn informs profitability.

In a quest for reliable indicators of individual and organizational well-being, the last few years have seen a surge in research on happiness - its drivers, its relations to material possessions and money, and its impacts on health and work. An increasingly influential global group of economists, psychologists, marketers, designers and government officials are busy refining existing formulas for measuring and predicting happiness. Some leading countries and businesses already publish national happiness statistics in parallel to economic figures for a more complete assessment of prosperity.

Understanding the link between communication and change In this webpaper Chrys Horn observes that communication goals are usually seen as being the achievement of some change – getting people to change something that they do or don’t do, like recycle, exercise more, lose weight, accept possum control, provide better services, consult more effectively etc. However, as she points out, if we are to learn to communicate more effectively, however, it is critical to find frameworks to help us think through communication planning. This paper provides one such framework, another provides tips for effective communication. In other papers Chrys looks at lessons learnt through the Landcare Research collaborative learning group in communicating science and evaluating science communication activities. More writing from Chrys can be found on her blog: Learning, science and environment.