The Billion Euro House
In January 2012, at the height of the economic crisis in Ireland and the rest of Europe, artist Frank Buckley was faced with the possibility of his home being repossessed. In a remarkable twist of fate, Frank set out to build himself a new home using shredded Euro banknotes and aptly named it "The Billion Euro House." Through The Billion Euro House, Frank seems to ask us "What is the true value of... posted on Aug 26 2012, 4,316 reads

Managing Emotions in the Workplace
You know the type: coworkers who never have anything positive to say, whether at the weekly staff meeting or in the cafeteria line. They can suck the energy from a brainstorming session with a few choice comments. Their bad mood frequently puts others in one, too. Their negativity can contaminate even good news. "We engage in emotional contagion," says Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor... posted on Aug 25 2012, 37,618 reads

Can We Design Cities for Happiness?
Happiness itself is a commons to which everyone should have equal access. That's the view of Enrique Penalosa , who is not a starry-eyed idealist given to abstract theorizing. He's actually a politician, who served as mayor of Bogota, Colombia, for three years, and now travels the world spreading a message about how to improve quality-of-life for everyone living in today's cities. Penalosa's ideas... posted on Aug 24 2012, 20,900 reads

Two Quick Judo-Joy-Chops
"I was on my way to the post office. I hadn't found a parking place on my first pass up the street and was now making a left turn into a small parking lot in order to loop back towards the post office. It's a tight space and there's a mail box set up right inside the lot so people can pull in, roll down their window and reach out to stick a letter into the box without getting out of their cars." W... posted on Aug 20 2012, 4,269 reads

Love is the Answer
Filmmaker Ian Watt had an epiphany: today's creatively-oriented young generation could make great things happen by linking artistic talent with change-making movements. This film tells the story of the organization he started to help youth serve the world with art. But it also shows Ian's first experiment in change-making, as he used his filmmaking skills to help bring attention to K.I. Nepal, an ... posted on Aug 19 2012, 5,268 reads

Dakota 38: One Filmmaker's Ride of a Lifetime
"I remember Silas telling us about meeting a Native American elder who talked about a dream he'd had, an important dream, one that he'd tried to ignore. But finally he understood that the dream had to be re-enacted. There would be a ride of Native Americans on horseback, over 300 miles across the Dakotas in the dead of winter, a healing ride to the place where 38 Native Americans had been hung dur... posted on Aug 09 2012, 4,449 reads

A Conspiracy of Love: Stanford Graduation Speech
In these video excerpts, charismatic Newark Mayor, Cory Booker, reminds Stanford graduates that their success is the product of a vast "conspiracy of love," and challenges all of us to engage in the conspiratorial caring that makes our society safe, strong, and ennobling. A clear and compelling message, and one of the most articulate and inspired commencement speeches of recent times.... posted on Aug 04 2012, 5,494 reads

Servant Leadership: Helping People Come Alive
"It's a powerful perspective on work -- holding within it a value for collaboration, agency, creativity, and meaning. What if we all could see what we do in that way? What if our organizations supported us in holding that perspective, and to go one step further, how can we create institutions that release these core values? In his seminal 1970 essay 'The Servant as Leader,' Robert Greenleaf coined... posted on Jul 31 2012, 21,426 reads

Meeting Michael: A Kindness Story
"I was sitting at my desk today, looking out the window. I saw an old homeless man crossing the street, carrying a suitcase. I remembered the many times I had looked on from afar, feeling sorry for the homeless but doing nothing... Sometimes we think about compassion but we push it into the deep corners of our heart because we're too busy with life, too shy, or too afraid of strangers. But all it ... posted on Jul 27 2012, 7,441 reads

Happiness: Getting Our Priorities Straight
There is a vitally important shift underway in how we think about progress. Growing numbers of economists, political leaders and expert commentators are calling for better measures of how well society is doing; measures that track not just our economic standard of living, but our overall quality of life. We too can benefit from a shift in priorities and a recognition that real happiness is less ab... posted on Jul 25 2012, 15,849 reads