Our culture and acquired mental models predispose many of us to unhappiness, but things don't have to be that way. That's according to Professor Srikumar Rao, our feature guest at the January 28, 2010 Interesting Café, Clickable's innovators and culture event series.

Following a successful career in corporations and then academia, Professor Srikumar Rao eventually pursued a different path: studying the world's great thinkers and applying their knowledge to help people become more engaged in their work and find deeper meaning in it.  He conceived the popular course "Creativity and Personal Mastery," and has taught it repeatedly at top business schools including Columbia, Haas (Berkeley) and London Business School. It is the only business school course that has its own alumni association. Not surprisingly, Professor Rao attracted a packed house at Interesting Café. (Bonus: during his talk, Professor Rao cited his award-winning research on attributes required of today's leaders; the paper is available here.) 

After his group talk, I sat down with Professor Rao for an exclusive interview to probe his perspectives on happiness and how to achieve it. See the video below.

You can learn more about Professor Rao at his Web site: www.areyoureadytosucceed.com. If you'd like to sign up for his course, contact Laura Garnett (garnettlaura at gmail dot com). Note: his next course begins February 10, 2010. 

Interesting Cafe is hosted by the culture team at Clickable. It's a periodic gathering for our colleagues and community to share ideas and meet interesting people. If you'd like to join a future Interesting Café, send me an email (mkalehoff at clickable dot com) with "Interesting Café" in the subject and I'll add you to our event notification list.   

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