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Work Made Fun Gets Done!
Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale, and Results
Bob Nelson (Author) | Felix Mario Tamayo (Author)
Publication date: 05/11/2021
According to the employees that work for firms listed in Fortune's “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” the most defining characteristic of these organizations is they are all “fun” places to work.
Fun is the secret sauce every business needs to better engage and motivate its employees today. Work Made Fun Gets Done! gives readers simple, practical ideas for instantly bringing fun into their work and workplace. Based on examples from scores of companies like Zoom, Pinterest, Bank of America, Zappos, Honda, Microsoft, and many more, this book provides clear examples of exactly what managers and employees alike can do to lighten the tone in the work environment and allow employees to have more fun at work.
From AAA's “Dump a Dog” program where workers can pass their least-wanted project on to their manager and Houzz's complimentary office slippers to CARFAX's themed-wardrobe Zoom meetings and Google's company-approved Nerf-gun battles and paper airplane contests, you'll find dozens of ideas you can immediately adapt and implement in your own workplace.
Work and fun have typically been considered polar opposites, but this book proves they can be integrated in ways that produce more motivated workers—and exceptional results.
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According to the employees that work for firms listed in Fortune's “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” the most defining characteristic of these organizations is they are all “fun” places to work.
Fun is the secret sauce every business needs to better engage and motivate its employees today. Work Made Fun Gets Done! gives readers simple, practical ideas for instantly bringing fun into their work and workplace. Based on examples from scores of companies like Zoom, Pinterest, Bank of America, Zappos, Honda, Microsoft, and many more, this book provides clear examples of exactly what managers and employees alike can do to lighten the tone in the work environment and allow employees to have more fun at work.
From AAA's “Dump a Dog” program where workers can pass their least-wanted project on to their manager and Houzz's complimentary office slippers to CARFAX's themed-wardrobe Zoom meetings and Google's company-approved Nerf-gun battles and paper airplane contests, you'll find dozens of ideas you can immediately adapt and implement in your own workplace.
Work and fun have typically been considered polar opposites, but this book proves they can be integrated in ways that produce more motivated workers—and exceptional results.
CHAPTER 1
Making Your Own Work Fun
I just go to the office to enjoy myself; work automatically happens.
—JITENDRA ATTRA
Work made fun starts in every job with every individual worker. According to recent research reported by Business News Daily, while fun could be considered a distraction, it actually has the ability to improve employee resilience and optimism, which leads to better attention to tasks. When we make a task fun, we tend to be more eager to dig in and complete it, as opposed to having it be a dreaded activity that we put off doing—maybe even multiple times.
When Bob has a work task or project that for some reason he is dreading, he likes to talk it through with someone—a colleague, a friend, or his wife—to warm up to the task. Often this helps him understand exactly what he’s dreading about the task, and the fear of the unknown evaporates as the task or project is examined. If the work is something he hasn’t done before, talking about it leads to various options that can then be weighed against one another, prioritized, and—suddenly—he’s into the work activity and gets into a flow. If it’s a mundane task, like organizing his desk or balancing his checkbook, he does the activity as a break from a larger project he’s working on. In either large or small tasks, Bob has fun making progress on things he’s trying to achieve. And when someone shares something fun with him—a funny text message, internet meme, funny story, or joke—he makes a point to share that with at least three other people, reliving the humor each time he shares it with someone else.
When Mario is faced with a boring work task to do, he likes to think of the big “why and win” in doing the task. If it’s a big task, he’ll break it up to make it more manageable. Plus he finds ways to reward himself for progress he makes—perhaps taking a break or having a candy bar. If the task takes some discipline, he’ll get up early and focus on “knocking it out.” He also has kept a gratitude log for years, which helps to keep him constantly focused on the positives in his life.
These are just a few of the approaches that we, Bob and Mario, use to make our work more fun. In this chapter we will explore techniques and strategies that have worked for many others and could likely work for you as well. In fact, we were surprised at the extensive range of approaches that people use to make their work fun! It almost seemed that no two people had the same approach to the topic, and it’s encouraging to know there’s no limit to the ways to bring joy to your work.
The more you expand your own strategies for making work fun, the more fun will become a standard approach for getting your work done and the more fun you’ll have. This is important because until you embrace having fun yourself at whatever tasks or job you are doing, you’ll never develop a broader appreciation for the topic.
LEARN TO EMBRACE FUN
A former professor and CEO of several companies, Brad Zehner, Ph.D., located near Austin, Texas, shares his philosophy on fun at work: “Once I earned an MBA, my promise to myself was straightforward, ‘I will never do a job unless it is fun at least 70 percent of the time.’ As the eldest of 14 children, I did every manual labor job there is to earn money to pay for university. Consequently, I was one of the strange individuals who loved the creative challenges of solving management problems of all types. I was never bored.”
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Ramon Grijalva, Ph.D., vice chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), based in Hollywood, California, says, “So much of life is playing a game with oneself! When I worked with Long Beach [California] government they had forms for everything and it was boring and painful to have to complete those, so I would mentally ‘suit up’ and go into ‘mechanical mode’ to talk myself into the right frame of mind. I’d work around the periphery to set up the work (getting organized, creating an invoice, etc.) and then dig in to the dreaded task to complete it as quickly as possible.”
________
“You must have discipline to have fun.”
—JULIA CHILD
“I think the biggest overarching approach that keeps me engaged and having fun at work is choosing to have a mission-driven career and life,” says Jessica Sims, MD, an emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles, California. “My career mission is to do the things I am able to drive healthcare towards a more reliable, equitable and sustainable industry. My life ‘mission’ is to leave every person and place I interact with happier and better.
“On a day-to-day basis and also during more profound career moments I try to measure my big and small choices against these missions. Even when I find the task at hand falls outside my standard duties or well ‘beneath’ my abilities and qualifications, if it satisfies these missions I still find satisfaction in that work. For example, sometimes I may find myself doing secretarial or nurse work to help a patient. I’m not okay with ignoring the need because ‘that’s not my job,’ although it might also be frustrating to do someone else’s work especially with my own duties, two advanced degrees and 25 years of professional experience.
Fun Things to Do on a 5- to 10-Minute Break
1.Praise someone for something specific.
2.Do something nice for someone else.
3.Look at a favorite app.
4.Tell someone a joke.
5.Meditate.
6.Listen to a favorite song or two.
7.Stretch your large muscle groups.
8.Go for a quick walk outside.
9.Walk up a flight of stairs.
10.Donate to a favorite charity.
“When I realize that these small tasks make a difference and also shows the staff that those things matter, I find it more meaningful than the tasks themselves might be. I also think about a couple of Martin Luther King quotes: ‘It’s never the wrong time to do the right thing’ and ‘If I can’t do great things I’ll do small things in a great way.’”
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Charlie Chase, president of Genetic Synergy in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, says: “What is fun varies widely from person to person, for example, one person might like to sing or hear music, someone else might get excited about efficiency, while another person is happiest being left alone to work on a project.”
What’s fun for him? Sitting down at the computer and devising an investment strategy: “When you’re happy, you’re more creative and it spills over into all aspects of your life.”
Charlie recommends using ColorCode.com (a 20- minute color code test on the internet) to determine your innate motivation, which involves four colors:
Reds: Need to look good technically, be right, and be respected. They are strong leaders and love challenges.
Blues: Need to have integrity and be appreciated. They are focused on quality and creating strong relationships.
Whites: Need to be accepted and treated with kindness. They are logical, objective, and tolerant of others.
Yellows: Need to be noticed and have fun. They love life, social connections, and being positive and spontaneous.
“You’ve achieved success in your field when you don’t know whether what you’re doing is work or play.”
—WARREN BEATTY
“You can diagnose others via their words, energy, and timeframe: (1) if they’re more introverted or extroverted, and (2) if they’re more logical or emotional. How you communicate with others is essential: each color preference communicates differently, but everyone can learn to speak everyone else’s preferred language.”
IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS
Feeling overwhelmed? Katie Sheehan, the marketing manager of Oakland, California—based Berrett-Koehler Publishers, changed her mental outlook when she changed the title of her to-do list to a “fun list.”
________
Sue Burch, senior learning specialist at Insight Enterprises in Sugar Grove, Illinois, says: “Technology is great; however, crumpling paper is more satisfying than deleting. So I often put challenging work on Post-it notes so that I can then destroy the note and throw it in the trash when tasks are complete. If you have a white board, this is a great place for the notes to live.”
________
“The secret to my having more fun at work is to have those precious little ear buds in and some good jazz music playing. It’s common now for managers to allow (even encourage) such activity. They quickly reap the rewards as employees are grateful, engaged and more likely to stick around for a while longer!” says Sharon Jordan-Evans, president, Jordan Evans Group, and co-author of multiple books, including Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay.
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Paola Arango, who works for a consulting firm in Colombia, South America, says, “I wear my hair and dress happily. I use an image consultant to guide me in the colors and aspects that make me look and feel better: They connect me with my style, essence and joy. Dressing up and putting on makeup for work is most days my harbinger that it will be a day with lots of potential. I can wear a different ring, a perfume, an eye shadow, a lipstick or my fun shoes. I also try to imagine that the company I work for is my company and that is why I do my best.”
________
Donna Fremed, human resources consultant business partner for DLF Global in San Diego, California, says she makes work, personal tasks, or projects fun by “choosing the pen, colored marker or pencil I use before starting to work. Some of the pens have memories of where I got them from. For example, I have a Coca-Cola pen from a business trip to Atlanta. Also, I have a new ‘fineline’ set of markers that I will use to draw and write. I can’t wait to start drawing with them!”
________
“As usual, the serious me is working hard, but the real me is having fun.”
—JOHN REED
“I use colorful markers and a notepad to take notes, draw pictures for notes, etc. especially when on conference calls,” says Christine Gilmore, vice president of training for Bell Partners in Greensboro, North Carolina. “One of my office mates has a box of funny things on her desk, so she will hold up a funny cut-out monster on the video phone, you look away and look back and there he is; she will walk into a brainstorming meeting with a purple mohawk wig, just anything from the box to catch you off guard whether you are in person, on Zoom or a conference call. We leave little plastic ninja characters on people’s desks with a note that says I caught you doing something awesome. We will break out in a glow stick dance party on a team Zoom or in a team meeting. (One must always have glow sticks in their desk!) We start each team meeting with an icebreaker, we rotate who is responsible for coming up with it and leading it each week. Right now with everyone working from home, every once in a while I send care packages to my team with some of their favorite things.”
________
At the Administrative Office of the Courts in Wilmington, Delaware, trainer/educator Allison Gallo lightens her and her colleagues’ days by making faces at them through their open office doors while walking down the halls. She also keeps toys in her office— stress balls, Slinkys, a rubber chicken, light-up toys, a pair of doll hands. “They’re in a spot where we all can easily reach them.” And she isn’t afraid to use fun in ways to help get her work done. Allison once had an extraordinarily hard time getting a report she needed from a colleague. She had a creative idea. She asked a team member to take a photo of her holding a stuffed bunny rabbit by the ears with one hand while holding a hair dryer to its head with the other. She printed the picture and pasted letters cut from magazines around it to spell out the message “Send me the ‘X’ report, or the bunny gets it!” Says Gallo: “My novel approach to problem-solving made everyone laugh.”
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“Laugh as much as possible, always laugh. It’s the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one’s fellow human beings.”
—MAYA ANGELOU
Donna R. Monroe, assistant to the chief at the Pocatello Police Department in Pocatello, Idaho, also brings in the little toys from bubble gum machines, McDonald’s, The Dollar Store, and little Nerf toys like basketball hoops, 3D glasses, Pez candies and shooters, and so on to work. She has a small collection in a box and pulls them out occasionally for playtime! It allows her and others around her to be kids again. It’s fun. She also gives nicknames to nearly everyone she works with. She uses whatever comes to mind (that’s appropriate, and nice, of course) and calls people by those names. They reciprocate, so she has quite a few nicknames herself as a result. That’s also fun.
________
“We all know what it feels like to be running on empty or at least running on fumes and pushing to the max just to get it done,” says author and leadership coach Patty Vogan. “Our cars have warning lights and sounds that tell us low fuel, low tire pressure, open door, or electrical problem. You don’t miss those, do you?”
Vogan, who also chairs CEO peer groups for Vistage International, offers two main strategies to unlock your energy and increase your fun so you can “refuel” before you are running on fumes. Or worse, running on empty:
Fun Things to Do on a 30- to 90-Minute Break
1.Go outside and get some fresh air.
2.Walk in the park.
3.Listen to a TED talk.
4.Read/listen to a book on tape.
5.Use the company fitness facilities.
6.Ride a bike to/from work.
7.Learn a new skill.
8.Play a team game.
9.Visit a local museum.
10.Go shopping.
Strategy #1: Drink Water. “Your brain is between 65 percent and 85 percent water; in fact, so are your kidneys and liver,” says Vogan. “Do you feel your brain, kidneys and liver working? No. When do you feel them? When they stop working. A multiple of symptoms occur with dehydration. The magical pill for more energy under the physical category is to drink water. A rule of thumb to start with: Take half of your body weight and turn it into ounces and that is the amount for you to drink daily. If you want to prevent a heart attack or stroke, according to the Mayo Clinic, drink one glass of water before bed and before taking a bath. Also, staying hydrated during the day helps to stave off night-time leg cramps. Drink the right amount of water daily for your body. The bonus is your skin will look better too.”
Strategy #2: Be Spiritual. “When it comes to spirituality our job is simple, but we make it difficult,” says Vogan. “It’s three simple words. Love one another. Our job is to show, demonstrate and act out love to one another. I was not put on this planet to be self-centered, take up space and then die. I do not believe you were either.”
Vogan says we all have gifts and talents that are to be shared. Take your talents and make them useful by serving others. “Slow your pace to win the race by serving others.
“Whenever you talk with people that have just come from doing something in the philanthropic, charitable or serving realm, you will hear them say, ‘Wow, I got more out of serving than those we served,’” says Vogan. “The key to filling your spiritual energy tank is to serve others.
“In summary, if you want more energy, drink and measure your water intake to refuel your physical energy tank. Plus love one another through service to fill your spiritual energy tank,” concludes Vogan.
Five Steps to Start Serving Others:
1.Hold the door open for someone.
2.Give an honest compliment.
3.Take inventory of your talents; offer them anywhere.
4.Listen: Being fully listened to feels so much like being loved people can’t tell the difference.
5.Show up and be kind.
—PATTY VOGAN
BREAK IT DOWN
Jeff Toister, an author and instructor for Toister Performance Solutions Inc. in San Diego, California, says: “Here’s a simple trick I use, which I adapted from the Pomodoro Technique to get work done and make it fun.”
1. Choose a specific project to focus on.
2. Turn off all distractions, including phone, email, and other notifications.
3. Set a timer for 20 minutes.
4. Give yourself permission to focus on that task until the timer goes off.
“I often find this gets me into a flow state of deep concentration and enjoyment. The work comes more naturally, and I get more done. Almost inevitably, I’m disappointed when the timer goes off!”
________
Want a fun way to learn a new software program (or improve your skills on one you already think you know)? Michael Laughlin, curriculum designer, Corporate Contact Center (CCC) for Centene Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri, has a suggestion: “Have a small reward ready (cup of favorite beverage, 15-minute well-deserved break, chat with coworker to show the new skill, trick, tip) and set a timer for 30 minutes. Before you start the timer, go to the software manufacturer’s website to look at features you did not know existed (or how to start the program if you are beginning) and then go to YouTube to search for that feature in a short video. Open your software, turn on the timer and start the YouTube video. As the tip progresses, do each step by pausing the video and work it out on your own computer/device. Do each step until the task is complete. Now, turn off the video and do it for yourself. Turn off the timer and . . . Celebrate!”
CASE STUDY
MAKING A DULL JOB MORE FUN
Anyone can make their job a little more fun just by trying. Debi Foster, who works for Communications & Government Affairs at the Mission Support and Test Services in North Las Vegas, Nevada, describes how she made a dull job much more fun:
We have a company store that sells company logo items, discount tickets, and gift cards. Employees can purchase items or we have an award program that they get a $25 or $50 certificate to spend in the store.
I work the store for one hour a day and sometimes it is busy and sometimes it is a chore to sit in there, knowing that I have plenty of other things I should be working on at my desk. So to make it more enjoyable to me I try to engage the employees that come to the window with questions or suggestions on the items they are purchasing instead of just taking their money or certificate and moving them on.
When they are redeeming an award I ask them what they did to earn it, some will give a quick answer, some go into detail, and some even say they aren’t sure why; but whatever the answer I think they appreciate my interest. This helps me as I also administer the award program and when the employee tells me they don’t know why they received it, I can go back to the managers and remind them to be more specific when presenting the awards.
When employees purchase movie tickets, I ask what they plan to see. Or if they purchase tickets to Legoland California, I point out that they should definitely check out the Miniland USA display where they have the Las Vegas strip built out of Legos (and other cities too). Even when they choose a gift card, I encourage them to use it for themselves (since they earned the award) instead of giving it to their spouse or kids. There are some employees that don’t engage, just take their stuff and hurry back to work; some that are surprised I am interested; and others that get so engaged they have made me late closing the store!
Freelance writer Carol Patton of Las Vegas, Nevada, says, “When tackling a task I dislike, I break it down into stages and reward myself along the way. For example, if I complete this portion of the task, I can take a walk, call a friend, or eat that Fudgsicle I’ve been eyeing in the freezer. Other times, I may work Saturday mornings to make the workweek less challenging or hectic. It takes the edge off Monday mornings. I rarely cram all of my tasks into a Monday–Friday, 8–5, routine.”
________
“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
—ALBERT EINSTEIN
Laurie Donnelly, learning and development specialist for Retooling the Workforce based in Los Angeles, California, offers up the following strategies for making work fun:
Starting with the deadline, I number the tasks and set a duration for completion for each. Goals are set for when each set of tasks needs to be completed by in order to meet the deadline as though they are sales quotas. As I reach a milestone, I give myself a reward. Mani/pedi anyone?
Yo-Yo Ma played Johann Sebastian Bach’s six unaccompanied cello suites in their entirety at a single performance in 2015. He played for nearly three hours by memory with one short intermission. It is inspiring to listen to and watch him perform gracefully despite this daunting task and in front of an audience of 8,000. It seems as though a cosmic force is moving his hands as the majestic sounds reverberate from his cello throughout the hall. As I listen and work, I imagine that, similarly, my hands are influenced by that same force to accentuate the e-learning content that I’m designing. (See Yo-Yo Ma—Bach Six Cello Suites—BBC Proms 2015 on the Internet.)
When I have a mental block, I “telecommute.” Technically, it’s called somatic therapy. I like to imagine I’m at Coachella 2019 dancing in the audience to Fisher’s “Losing It.” Another favorite is to travel back in time to experience Eminem’s “Till I Collapse” live in concert. It helps that the music video is from the movie Real Steel with Hugh Jackman. Crank it up!
A silver lining of the pandemic is that I can take a 15-minute break and do yoga stretches (also considered a somatic treatment), paint with watercolors or have a hot, lavender-scented bath all of which rejuvenate my creativity.
When I’m at the office, I walk over to MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles) and envision ways to complete my instructional design work as though it will be a work of art hanging in a museum.
Likewise, I’ll walk to the public library and read a classic text for 10 minutes. Reading the printed page improves comprehension and, for me, inspiration. (See https://hechingerreport.org/evidence-increases-for-reading-on-paper-instead-of-screens/.) If there isn’t time, printing out the project and sitting outside to review it will work in a snap.
________
“The best advice I ever received came from my mother: ‘Do at least one fun thing every day.’”
—CLIFFORD COHE
Dominique Fruchtman, a programs director for Professionals in Human Resources Association (PIHRA) in Los Angeles and owner of an escape game in Palm Springs, California, reports that when she was a child, her mother once gave her 35 boxes and said she needed to wrap them all in two hours during the holidays. Instead of complaining or panicking, she created a method: She organized the boxes by size, cut all the paper first, lined up pieces of tape on a yardstick, etc. Many years later she does the same steps when wrapping gifts today. Her strategies for having fun and getting more done model that approach, including:
Determine a strategy/new approach—which doesn’t have to be perfect. Set a timer—have complete focus. See how much you can do—try to best yourself! Like a form of hypnosis—game to better your own technique and speed.
Break the task down into its logical steps, perhaps in a way it has never been done before. For example, in doing housekeeping, she starts with a bio break, gets a bottle of water, turns the phone off, tells others not to disturb her, then digs in.
Make a game out of it and work always goes faster. For example, if she has to proofread something, she acts like she’s in the proofreading Olympics and shoots for the best time ever.
Make a list, then cross off “make a list” to show progress.
Call a friend for motivation.
“Have fun, even if it’s not the same kind of fun everyone else is having.”
—C. S. LEWIS
VARY YOUR APPROACH
“When I was a little girl, one of the things my brother and I enjoyed doing was ‘spearminting’ in the kitchen mixing up concoctions like peanut butter mixed with chocolate,” says Veronica S. Harvey, Ph.D., founder and principal of Schmidt Harvey Consulting LLC in Phoenix, Arizona. “As adults experimenting can be fun too! Being curious, trying out new things and taking time to create new and better ways to do things can make work a joyful experience. Finding ways to learn is what continues to make work fun for me. As an expert in the area of learning agility I’m passionate about the importance of learning agility to long-term success, but we often overlook how much joy learning can bring. It is fun to put together past experiences with new insights to develop a fresh new approach. In the midst of the pandemic, I was completing a book that I was coediting; because I was learning so much from the writings of the other contributors, it felt (most of the time) more like a hobby than a chore. It was inspiring and fun to ‘connect the dots.’ What made it even more rewarding was to know that the development of learning agility was a topic that could be empowering to many and result in others finding more joy and fun in their own work.”
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Albert Frazia, chief human resources officer for DeBragga & Spiller Inc. in Jersey City, New Jersey, shares an approach he has applied to boost his morale, energy, productivity, and fun in his projects and deliverables: “If I am working on a particularly challenging task or project, I will sometimes go ‘offsite’ to work or think it through. A favorite location for me was Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan (when I worked in Manhattan). In the spring and summer, chairs and tables are set out on the lawn for use by visitors. Bryant Park offers a balance of the relaxation of a natural park surrounded by the excitement of Manhattan. I found this temporary re-location restorative and quite an enhancement to my productivity.”
________
Hoodsa Ghazvinian, management consultant/leadership development advisor at the Industrial Management Institute in Iran, uses two personal habits to remove pressure from work and make it fun:
Habit 1: I watch 1–2 best concerts of my favorite singers. Singers are great screen players and they share fun and energy with audiences. I tune myself with that energy and I think I am entertaining others while being my best version. And then everything becomes like a screenplay; I’m full of courage, energy and happiness.
“Laughter is an instant vacation.”
—MILTON BERLE
Habit 2: I paint any idea I have first. When the idea is expressed on paper in a colorful way, I find it easier to make the idea happen in reality.
________
Steve Donahue, best-selling author of Shifting Sands, located in Victoria, British Columbia, says, “Here’s something fun that I do when I deliver a speech: I often tell a story about my journey across the Sahara Desert during my keynote presentations. The story is woven throughout the speech and the audience soon becomes familiar with this unique storytelling technique I employ where I play an African drum as the automated slide show advances through the photos. To mix things up I give my clicker to a random person in the audience and he or she must decide when to go to the next slide based solely on the story I’m narrating. Of course they never get it right. They’re too fast or too slow, which forces me to adjust and adlib much to the delight of the rest of the audience. It’s fun for me as well because, let’s face it, I know how the story is going to end. I’ve told that story a thousand times. This brings excitement into something that is a familiar, even routine, part of my work.”
“The trouble with life in the fast lane is you get to the other end in an awful hurry.”
—JOHN JENSEN
