HAPPYWORK

Chris Reimer is a communications strategist who started his business life thinking he might like to be an accountant (CPA). Chris is a pragmatist with a sensitive side. His book, HAPPYWORK, is a business parable launched earlier this year (2015).

Reimer’s book is written in the spirit of The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann (2008). Burg and Mann use their parable to suggest that shifting our business focus from getting to giving might be a better path to success. Like Burg and Mann, Reimer shows us how much better things can be if we can agree to behave differently.  

I met Chris about the same time I met John Morgan, the author of Brand Against the Machine. Morgan, in his book, John wanted his readers to know that the model of marketing by bombarding a mass audience is flawed. At a conference in St. Louis hosted by the American Marketing Association – St. Louis Chapter, he reminded us that too often “messages are unwelcome and unwanted.”

Chris is familiar with and credits Seth Godin who says in his book. Purple Cow, (2009) you are either remarkable or invisible in business. Chris Reimer also credits Chris Brogan, who co-authored with Julien Smith Trust Agents (2010). Brogan is huge in new media. On the speaker circuit he often encourages people to face their fears and counter the status quo.

So, in this crowd of non-conformists you will find Reimer. His parable is very readable and thought provoking. His story introduces us to a turn-around specialist who is desperately trying to understand Vunorri Inc. and get the bank off their case. In the process we listen in and witness despicable behavior in and around his protagonist, Sam Maslow. (I’m thinking it is an inside joke to call him Maslow. That is, if you are at all familiar with the management science theories of what motivates people -- A Maslow’s hierarchy of needs which dates back to published research in 1943 and widely read book in 1954).

Read the book and you might want to compose a HAPPYWORK agreement for your company. You will laugh as you meet people behaving badly. At the same time you might come to the realization that the world can be a better place. Little things are big things. Make the coffee in the morning. Say thank you. Smile. Have a nice day.