#59: Finding Hygge In Our Work

Thanks for sharing this new word with me, Rob. I've started writing in my gratitude journal more, where I write about the things in my day I was grateful for. I can now add events/activities to it where I've felt a bit of hygge. When I interned at a nature-based education center for young children, sometimes during lunch we would sit in the grass and meditate, focusing on our breathing and all the little sounds of the environment around us. During those periods of time, I felt some huge hygge ;) And I love looking back on it. Thanks again Rob! What a fun new insight for a Monday morning.  

- Amanda

Robert Rose:            Robert@contentadvisory.net

Finding Hygge In Our Work

I’ve just returned from a week and a half in Denmark. There, I learned about, and experienced, a Danish concept called “hygge.” Most pronunciation guides simplify the sound to hoo-ga. But it’s NOT like Chatta-NOOGA. I’d spell it phonetically as heueu-gae – where you breathe out the H, make more of an “ew” than an “oo” sound, and finish with a “gae” sound like the “ae” sound in “Michael.” In short, pronounce it like you’re pretending to be on an episode of The Californians.

Now, the definition of this word defies any simple English translation. The easiest is that cozy feeling you have when you’re curled up next to a fire on a snowy day, with a good book, your favorite beverage, and your loved ones nearby. It’s not just the aesthetic. It’s the feeling, the emotion, that comes at just that precise moment for you. That’s hygge.

It’s become quite the phenomenon, even making the short-list for Word Of The Year from Oxford Dictionaries in 2016. And now there are books, calendars, recipes, and even entire websites devoted to this concept.

But what about our work? 

Back in April, Polly wrote about “affectionate anarchy”. She wrote that affection is "the caring and compassion, the connection, the alignment that grows out of shared purpose. Anarchy is the propulsive force—the energy, creativity, audacity that pours out of unfettered humans.” 

I loved that.  It feels a bit like hygge.

In business it’s easy for us to fall into a pattern of continuous, breathless challenge, disruption, discomfort, fear, or doubt. After all, in most of our jobs, we’re looking to influence some kind of reaction from an audience. These are tried and true emotions that inspire action. And, if we’re successful with a project, we feel like we have to pop open the kettle, boil over and release the pressure.

Occasionally, even just as an experiment, I wonder if we shouldn’t also just work on a strategy that makes us feel a little hygge at the end of a project. This is the feeling I get when I read Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley, watched Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, or listened to a Vangelis record. Today, it’s the feeling I get whenever I watch Bob Ross paint his happy little trees. 

I wonder. In today’s world, is there a hunger for differentiated, hygge-inspired strategies out there?  Gosh I hope so.

Recently, in New York, I was invited to join the team that was managing the closing day of a huge business event. They cut loose. They started in a noisy bar, went to a boisterous dinner place, and finished off burning off some energy at a dance club. That’s wonderful, for sure. But last week, as I finished a long day lecturing at a similarly big event in Denmark, I was also invited to relax with the team.  I found myself in a cozy little wine bar in the center of Copenhagen. There were ten of us, sequestered away in a little library nook on three big couches with big fluffy pillows. The fire was going on a slightly chilly, but not overly cold evening.

As I sipped my absinthe-infused scotch (which was amazing by the way), I said to the group, “This feeling, right here, is what I’d really love to be able to provide at the end of a business event.” The two Danes in the group smiled and said simply, “Yes, that’s hygge.”

Rob's first-person bio:

I teach marketers to be storytellers. My job is as chief strategy officer for The Content Advisory, a company focused on helping businesses transform their marketing departments into media companies. My biggest joy is to witness people realizing their creative potential.