Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things
As the days lengthen and we welcome spring, March brings World Happiness Day (March 20) and a global conversation about everyday wellbeing. This month, our theme is “The Rise of Ordinary Joy”: the idea that real happiness often hides in small moments, simple pleasures, and meaningful connections at work.
In this newsletter, we explore why embracing ordinary joy, those micro-moments of contentment and progress, matters for individuals and teams. We’ll share inspiring quotes, surprising research, and practical tips to help you cultivate a culture of joy and sustainable emotional health in your organization.
Finding Joy in the Everyday
“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions,”
– the Dalai Lama reminds us.
In the workplace, those actions may be deceptively simple:
- A leader who listens fully.
- A colleague who acknowledges effort.
- A moment of clarity after a complex discussion.
- The satisfaction of meaningful progress.
Writer Rhee Kun Hoo expresses this beautifully:
“Ordinary joy is easy to find, and an accumulation of little joys can eventually become great happiness.”
Grand achievements are important. But so are the micro-moments – the shared laugh in a busy week, the thoughtful message of appreciation, the sense of moving forward.
Oscar Wilde once wrote: “I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”
In increasingly complex organisations, simplicity becomes powerful. And simplicity often begins with paying attention.
Did You Know?
Only about a third of employees globally say they are truly “thriving” in their lives overall. That gap highlights the importance of everyday positivity, not just big milestones, in shaping how people feel at work.
The Science of Happiness at Work
One of the strongest predictors of workplace joy is not reward, but progress.
Happy employees are more productive, creative, and resilient. Research consistently shows that engaged teams drive stronger business outcomes, while disengagement carries a heavy economic cost worldwide.
Mental health challenges also have a direct impact on work. Anxiety and depression account for billions of lost working days each year, translating into enormous productivity losses. This makes one thing clear: workplace happiness is not a soft topic, it’s a strategic one.
On the brighter side, the data also shows what helps:
- Flexible work arrangements are strongly linked to higher happiness and better work-life balance.
- People who feel valued, included, and connected report significantly higher life satisfaction.
- A sense of belonging at work correlates with higher performance and lower turnover risk.
Small Wins, Big Impact
Learning and development have a powerful relationship with everyday joy.
When people experience small wins, mastering a new skill, completing a milestone, or gaining fresh insight, they build confidence, momentum, and motivation. Psychologists describe this as the progress principle: daily progress in meaningful work fuels joy, engagement, and creativity.
- This is why learning doesn’t have to be grand or transformational every time. Growth that happens in small, steady steps often has the deepest impact.
Did You Know?
Employees who feel they are learning, growing, and being recognised report significantly stronger mental wellbeing than those who don’t. Simply put, progress feels good, and being noticed for it feels even better.
Quick Tips for Cultivating Joy at Work
Here are some simple ways leaders and teams can intentionally create more ordinary joy:
- Celebrate small wins – Make space to acknowledge progress, not just outcomes. A quick check-in or shout-out can shift the emotional tone of an entire team.
- Practice genuine recognition – Thank people often and specifically. Recognition doesn’t need to be formal, sincerity matters more than scale.
- Foster connection – Create small social rituals: shared meals, informal catch-ups, or personal check-ins at the start of meetings. Connection is a powerful contributor to happiness.
- Encourage flexibility and autonomy – Where possible, give people control over how and when they work. Trust and autonomy are closely tied to satisfaction and wellbeing.
- Build learning into the everyday – Encourage reflection, peer learning, and development moments that happen alongside work, not separate from it.
- Lead with empathy – Leaders set the tone. Showing understanding, listening actively, and normalising human moments at work go a long way in creating a supportive environment.
Keep Joy Growing
This World Happiness Day, remember: ordinary joy is anything but ordinary.
It lives in small moments, shared successes, meaningful conversations, steady progress, and feeling seen.
By paying attention to these everyday experiences and designing environments that support them, organisations build resilience, motivation, and trust.
As Marcel Proust once said:“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
Here’s to cultivating more ordinary joy, at work, in learning, and in life.
“FOR LEADERS” FEATURE BOX
Designing Ordinary Joy: A Leadership Micro-Playbook
This month, experiment with some of the following practices:
- Begin meetings with one recognition round.
- Send one specific thank-you note per day.
- Replace one directive question with a curious one.
- End each week by asking: What moved us forward?
- Make visible the small milestones often overlooked.
