Amsterdam, 17 February 2026. Today marks the publication of The Happiness Code: the four contexts in which you can crack the code for happiness (without having to fix yourself), the new book by Astrid Groenewegen, co-founder of SUE Behavioural Design. The book offers a radically different take on happiness: not something you find inside yourself, but something you can design in the world around you.
Designing happiness in four contexts
The Happiness Code breaks with the dominant idea that happiness is an individual, internal project. Astrid Groenewegen shows that happiness emerges from the interaction between people and their environment, and that you can shape that environment. The book covers four contexts in which happiness can be designed:
- Personal happiness – How to redesign the choices and habits in your daily life so they contribute to greater wellbeing, without having to fix yourself.
- Happy relationships and teams – How the dynamics between people determine happiness at work and in personal relationships, and how you can influence those dynamics positively.
- Happy organisations – How organisations can design employee happiness by applying behavioural insights to culture, processes and leadership.
- Happy cities – How public spaces, policy and urban design can increase the collective wellbeing of residents.
Happiness is not a property of a person. It is a property of a situation. And situations can be designed.
With this approach, Astrid makes behavioural science practically applicable for anyone who wants to increase happiness, from individuals to HR directors, from team leaders to policymakers. Central to this is the theme of employee happiness, where SUE helps organisations design this structurally.
New programme: designing employee happiness
Alongside the publication of The Happiness Code, SUE Behavioural Design is launching a full programme around designing employee happiness. The programme translates the insights from the book into concrete tools and methods for organisations that want to structurally improve the wellbeing and engagement of their people.
The programme includes:
- Employee happiness deep dive – An in-company team training in which organisations learn how to use behavioural design to improve the work experience of employees. Part of the SUE training portfolio.
- Webinars for alumni – A series of exclusive sessions for alumni of the SUE Academy, in which Astrid shares the core insights from The Happiness Code and translates them into the specific context of participants.
- Keynotes and lectures – Astrid Groenewegen is available as a keynote speaker for congresses, conferences, company events and team days. Her keynotes combine scientific depth with practical applicability, and are always inspiring and interactive.
Astrid Groenewegen as a keynote speaker
With The Happiness Code, Astrid adds a new theme to her keynote repertoire. Alongside her existing talks on Behavioural Design and the art of behaviour change, she now also offers keynotes on happiness and wellbeing. Topics Astrid speaks on:
- The Happiness Code: why happiness is a design challenge
- Designing employee happiness: from individual wellbeing to organisational culture
- The behavioural science of happy teams
- Behavioural Design: how to influence behaviour for good
Astrid speaks in both Dutch and English, for groups of 50 to 5,000 people. She has previously spoken at events including Emerce eDay, NIMA, the University of Amsterdam and dozens of corporate events.
Webinars and community
For alumni of the SUE Behavioural Design Academy, SUE is organising a series of webinars around The Happiness Code in the coming months. During these sessions, Astrid translates the core insights from the book into the specific context of participants, whether that is HR, communication, leadership or policy.
Dates and registrations for the webinars will be announced shortly via the online academy and the weekly newsletter.
Further reading
Want to apply the ideas from The Happiness Code right away? Read our in-depth articles:
- Employee happiness: what it is and how to design it – the four happiness contexts and three happiness leaks
- Three misconceptions about employee happiness – why willpower, individual focus and quick fixes do not work
- Flow at work: how to design it – the three biggest flow killers and what to do about them
About the book
The Happiness Code: the four contexts in which you can crack the code for happiness (without having to fix yourself) is written by Astrid Groenewegen and published by Boom. The Dutch-language book is available at all bookshops and online via Managementboek.nl and Bol.com.
About SUE Behavioural Design
SUE Behavioural Design is Europe's leading Behavioural Design agency and training institute. From Amsterdam, SUE helps organisations and professionals understand and change human behaviour. With more than 10,000 trained professionals in 45+ countries, an average rating of 9.7/10, and a client portfolio that includes Rabobank, KPN, Heineken and the Dutch national government, SUE is the authority in Behavioural Design.
Press note
For press enquiries, review copies or to book Astrid as a keynote speaker:
- Contact: academy@sueamsterdam.com
- Phone: (+31) 20 223 46 26
- Website: suebehaviouraldesign.com
