Joy Inc. summary

Unless you’re the grumpy Scrooge of Dickensian fame, joy is an emotion you crave and enjoy.

Being happy and full of life is better than being miserable and gloomy, isn’t it? So why don’t we incorporate more positive feelings – such as joy – into our workplaces?

Joy drives people to seek a higher purpose and leave a lasting impact on the world. And joy can be a valuable motivator in the business world, where it manifests as a desire to work on something larger than yourself and belong to a supportive community.

You’ll find that joyful people work longer and harder than ever before to achieve such goals.

Consider the difference between the Wright brothers and Samuel Pierpont Langley. While both Langley and the Wrights were striving to create the first-ever airplane, their motivations for doing so diverged. Langley wanted fame and fortune; the Wright brothers wanted to experience the joy of flight.

And it was the pursuit of joy that inspired the Wright brothers not only to win but to soar!

Another benefit of bringing joy to the business world is that joy serves as a base for your company’s culture, which helps unite and shape your team of employees.

When the author invites clients to his software company, Menlo Innovations, he asks: If half of his employees express joy for their work and the other half doesn’t, which employees would the client prefer to work with? Of course, the answer is always, the joyful ones.

As it turns out, Menlo’s clients implicitly understand that joyful employees are more productive and engaged in their work, which leads to better results.

So we’ve learned that joy is a way to reach new, higher goals and that joyful employees create a joy-driven culture. But what does a joyful company actually look like? Keep reading to find out.