How Happy Money Stories made my year 2022 … happy!
Or should I say: extraordinary?
Walking the talk
For about three months I have been part of Greaterthan (or short GT) — a co-owned and self-managed collective of coaches, facilitators, consultants who are dedicated to transforming organizations towards structures that support distributed power and leadership. GT is supporting businesses and networks in realizing truly collaborative work, challenging old paradigms and power-over structures, and implementing new ways of distributing money within a group. All while — most importantly — practicing and growing all these aspects within the organization itself.
This thick fabric of trust and connection is the foundation for many of our experiments and practices.
Trust and connection as the foundation of our collective practices
A huge part of what makes Greaterthan such a satisfying and alive workplace for me is the quality of relationships — the deep sense of trust between members, the felt permission to actually bring my full self to work, the appreciation of the different qualities and strengths each one of us brings to the table. This thick fabric of trust and connection is the foundation for many of our experiments and practices, in particular something called “The Happy Money Story” — a practice that has absolutely revolutionized the way I think about and relate to money.
The Happy Money Story
The Happy Money Story or HMS is the way we distribute funds and budgets in GT. Nobody in the org gets a regular salary. Instead the team that works on a project decides at the end, after all the work is done, how to split the money available — be this the income from a client project or the budget allocated for an internal project. Initially, the Happy Money Story had been introduced to us by Charley Davis and has since been adapted to our context: Francesca Pick, my colleague and co-founder of Greaterthan, did a case study on the HMS that you can find here if you are keen to know how exactly we run them, step by step.
We are inviting our embodied and intuitive sense of what the right distribution of the money is.
Underlying Mechanics of the HMS
The core premise of the Happy Money Story is that in the end “everyone should be happy with the distribution”. While there is a protocol of how to run an HMS, this is pretty much the only “rule” to it. Here are some observations that I’ve drawn from my experience with this practice:
Firstly, the core premise of “everyone should be happy with the distribution” activates our sense of collaboration. An HMS is not just about me “getting the most out of it” or “making sure I don’t get ripped off”. Instead, I am primed to look for a solution that doesn’t only work for everyone but induces a feeling of happiness.
But what about fairness, you might ask. I observed that the setup of the Happy Money Story actually circumvents the discussion being based on the concept of “fairness” — a highly subjective assessment that is so often disguised as an objective measurement. Instead, by basing the outcome on the happiness of everyone, we are inviting our embodied and intuitive sense of what the right distribution is.
The Happy Money Story gives the opportunity to rethink what we value and how that is reflected in the ways we distribute money.
The HMS is a tool that allows us to decide ourselves what we want to value and how, be that someone’s performance, their personal growth or the warmth and care they brought to team calls. A distribution might end up not being “fair” if viewed through the traditional lens of measuring “output” — but still make us very happy. I have a sense this has to do with the focus on generosity, collaborative distribution and the acknowledgement of someone for their unique contribution and allocating money according to those measurements.
Beside focusing on the final distribution of money — a HMS also allows us to feel acknowledged and seen for what we did and in who we are. A crucial element of the practice is that each person gets to tell their story of what happened throughout a work engagement or project. I believe it’s one of the main reasons the HMS works so well: these stories are often the first source of joy and happiness way before we get to distributing the money. At times, this recognition by my colleagues is what matters much more than the eventual distribution of the money.
The HMS gives the opportunity to rethink what we value and how that is reflected in the ways we distribute money. It can also invite us into even more radical approaches: distributing money based on actual needs. To work towards a flow of money where those who need more receive more and those who need less receive less, no matter their contributions. You might find this idea outrageous or simply unjust. But I invite you to at least question these inner voices, understand where they are coming from and what they want. And to ask yourself: why shouldn’t those who need more should also get more — under the core premise that there is a way that everyone will have enough and be happy with it in the end?
Of course there are also more gradual approaches: Needs in terms of livelihood are shared with the group and the final distribution considers them alongside other factors such as contribution. That in itself is kind of radical, ain’t it? Who has ever even had a salary negotiation where they were asked how much money they would need? And what could our world look like if we were having more such conversations?
Practicing the HMS brought me closer to my colleagues. It also taught me a lot about how important it is to feel seen and acknowledged.
My personal experience with HMS and why I will continue to use it
I was part of five Happy Money Stories, all in different constellations and teams. All of them were deeply moving. I was confronted with some of my firmly rooted patterns around money as well as my dear friend, the fear of “doing it wrong” — deciding about money so openly and explicitly with others is vulnerable. But my experience taught me that there really wasn’t any “wrong” at all. Telling my own money stories as well as listening to the other’s filled me with gratitude, excitement, joy. It was an opportunity to speak things out loud that otherwise would have not been shared. The HMS setting allowed me to receive reflections and acknowledgement for what I contributed to a project. It left me behind feeling powerful, agentic and aligned. It also taught me a lot about how important it is to feel seen and acknowledged. And that this can manifest in many ways, not only through receiving payment. Practicing the HMS brought me closer to my colleagues. I’ve found the HMS taking many different shapes but all of them led to more happiness, connection, trust and authentic relating.
You’re curious?
The Happy Money Story is part of the curriculum of “Thriving Networks”, a course I am co-facilitating for the GT Academy. It is an 8-week immersion into network building with the focus on money and value flow. We inquire together what we value and how this is reflected in our relationship with money, both individually and collectively.
More and more people are waking up to the realization that we need a profound shift in our relationship to money, both individually and collectively. Come join us in this venture!
For more information and registration look here
The next cohort starts on March 2nd.
Participation in person and async possible.
