By Anna Lamb
Harvard Staff Writer
Harvard professor aims to ignite mass movement through podcasts, books, new lab at Kennedy School for research, leadership training
Arthur C. Brooks launched a course four years ago to teach his students not only how to increase their happiness, but how to make those around them happier as well. Now, he’s looking to spread the word to everyone, everywhere.
“I’m trying to make a happiness movement in the public,” said Brooks, the William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School and professor of management practice at Harvard Business School.
So what is his secret recipe for happiness?
It’s complicated, Brooks says, but the basis of your happiness can be split into three parts.
“Half of your happiness is genetic, and a quarter is circumstantial — more or less,” he said. “But your habits are king because your habits give you 25 percent [of your happiness] directly. They can also change your circumstances. And they can actually help you manage your genetics.”
Brooks aims to ensure the lab hits the ground running. In the works is a happiness and leadership co-curricular for a select group of Kennedy School students who will be conducting preliminary research from February to April. The lab is also organizing a trip to India in March to meet the Dalai Lama — a relationship Brooks has fostered through his years of happiness work. Also queued up is a conference hosted by the HKS Center for Public Leadership and the happiness lab in June.