There seems to be a bit of a "happiness" industry underway now with academics and institutes trying to understand what makes us happy. For an excellent overview of the issues see this extract from Paul Dolan's new book in this "The money, job, marriage myth: are you happy yet?" in The Guardian.
He mentions there a 2012 study from the UK by the City & Guilds found that Florists and Gardeners reported that they were the happiest workers (at 87%); Lawyers were about half-way down the list (at 64%) with Bankers (44%) at the very bottom.
What made Florists and Gardeners happy? They felt their work was worthwhile and useful (89%), they got to use their skills every day (82%), and they felt appreciated (80%).
Aside from caring about the well-being of others, why would this difference matter to General Counsels and Managing Partners (or anyone else responsible for an organization)?
They should care because in the stormy volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world we live in we need "all brains on deck." We need them to be fully engaged in figuring out what is going on, how to be continually more more efficient and effective, and to contribute to building innovative solutions to the constantly evolving challenges facing the legal department or law firm.
There are other things we need as well - such a "open" communication platforms for working together (email just can't handle the volume and complexity) and new decision-making processes (our typically silo-based, top-down, game-of-thrones approach isn't up to the task); but the starting point is happier lawyers feeling their work is useful, where they use their skills every day, and feel appreciate.
