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Newsletter
Lead Article
Have Fun…
Humor is a spontaneous, wonderful bit of an outburst that just comes.
It's unbridled, it's unplanned, and it's full of surprises.
Erma Bombeck
Research shows that people who have fun at work are more enthusiastic workers. Enthusiasm leads to increased productivity, a positive attitude about their jobs and higher odds that they will stay at the place. In order words, a fun environment will lead to increased retention of volunteers. A serious, even boring workplace is what too many volunteers have experienced at those places where they earn their living. Most workplaces are serious and dull. Too many bosses think fun equals productive but much research, some of it conducted in the Silicon valley of Northern California is showing us the opposite. Those dull places lead to people searching for places that know how to lighten up.
Just remember that what is fun to one person is not fun to another. You will find that some volunteers would feel very uncomfortable in a fun environment while others would literally come alive. This speaks to the culture of the organization. That's why we conduct interviews and walk-a rounds with new volunteers to see if their personality fits the organization. We cannot be all things to all people. If we have a light fun, relaxed atmosphere, some will think we are not business enough, while others eat it up. Don't worry about this; just create an atmosphere that fits most volunteers. And don't assume anything, try it out. You will be shocked at how seniors will enjoy the fun setting even more than those twenty types that started the fun flowing. Fun can involve painting and designing the room as much as sending cards that have an irreverent theme. Sometimes sending Groundhog Day cards to your volunteers will show that you have a silly side and they will enjoy it. Slapstick silliness will not fit in your setting but a little fun will fit even in the most buttoned-up setting. Many people think of inappropriate humor or loud behavior as having fun, but this is not what we are talking about. Being people down so that someone else feels good is not funny. WE are talking about the ability to simply have a belly laugh in the workplace and it's really okay.
Simply showing up for a meeting with a birthday cake or a plate of muffins can lighten up the event. It does not require money to make a lighter setting. Decorating the bosses office just uses creativity. Trips after a tough volunteer assignment to a pizza place for pizza and beer doesn't mean the agency must pay for it. Getting silly after working on an all-nighter can simply give the team a coming together and build team spirit. Stopping during a particularly difficult period of serious work to play a game of volleyball can do wonders for the volunteer spirit. Stuff and money can help and we will talk later about getting your local vendors to help, but the reality is that everyone can have fun without having stuff.
We have loads of outstanding corporate models to follow from Apple Computer, and Microsoft, to Southwest Airlines, Ben & Jerry's, and Starbucks. These companies exhibit what Dave Hemsath and Leslie Yerkes say in 301 Ways To Have fun At Work, is that "fun at work may be the single most important trait of a highly effective and successful organization." They say that they have seen a direct link between fun at work and employee creativity, productivity, morale, satisfaction, and retention, as well as customer service and many other factors that determine business success.
Fun builds a team spirit as people enjoy having a relaxed and sometimes crazy moment with each other. David Thielen is discussing life at Microsoft says, "A cold sterile, humorless workplace can never develop espirit de corps." He tells a story about a day at Microsoft when one team member went on vacation and that same afternoon everyone else received their first copy of a new software program. To Microsoft members that is the same as going to Mecca. This poor person on vacation did not get his so the other team members all put their empty boxes from the software package in his office. His office was filled almost to the ceiling with empty boxes. The authors tell us he was pleased to no end!
Watching a nerf ball wall in the Microsoft halls might seem quite childlike and a waste of company time. But when it's okay to have a blast at work it shows employees that the organization is supportive of them enjoying themselves in the workplace. Southwest Airlines is that kind of place, a fun place, both for customers and for employees. It really all starts at the top, with CEO Herb Kelleher. Kelleher says that anybody who likes to be called a 'professional' probably shouldn't be around Southwest Airlines. He explains that they want people who can do things well with laughter and grace. Herb explains that the professionals that you find at Southwest are people who believe that the business of business is to make a profit by serving people and making life more fun. There are hundreds of Southwest stories, even management guru Tom Peters liked to bring clients to observe Southwest because it was just a fun place to learn how to have fun. Tom Peters, writing the Foreword for Kevin and Jackie Freiberg's book, Nuts! asks how has Southwest done all this? "It's not rocket science:being crazy enough to follow an unorthodox vision, being courageous enough to allow people to have fun and be 'real' people at work, and being smart enough to recognize that their most valuable assets are the people and culture they create. Southwest never forgets it is in the people business-the company just happens to operate an airline."
Anne Bruce and James Pepitone in their book Motivating Employees gives an example of the level of fun that Southwest employees inflict upon those paying passengers. Here's a rendition of the Southwest flight attendant safety message. " As the song goes, there might be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only six ways to leave this aircraft." Followed by "In the event of a water evacuation, your bottom-your seat bottom, that is-can be used as a flotation device." Then " Although we never anticipate a chance in cabin pressure, should one occur...stop screaming, deposit a quarter, and unlike President Clinton, inhale!" By the time this short message is delivered, the entire plane is laughing and starts to talk with other. Every passenger aboard has enjoyed a normal boring safety message that nobody listens to.
Having fun at work is all about taking life less seriously. Volunteers function in organizations where serious activity is an every moment event. We have volunteers in spousal abuse centers, working phones on the crisis hot line, in a hospice, in a hospital. Stress goes with the territory, as does tension. Laughter that comes from the belly helps to break that stress and tension as well as build confidence and make life a little easier overall. Norman Cousins, author of Anatomy of an Illness referred to laughter as one of the healing powers of nature. We are told that laughter, fun, and play are unadult, unintelligent, and nonprofessional. Nothing could be further from the truth. One of the first indicators of the onset of most mental illness is a loss of the sense of joy in being alive.
Many volunteers will move on when their volunteering stops being fun. Remember that before your volunteers will lighten up, you need to lighten up yourself. The attitude of the manager sets the stage for the work environment. Lee Iacoca said, "the speed of the boss is the speed of the team", maybe we should also say that the laughter of the boss is the laughter of the team. Fun should just happen, it should be spontaneous. The manager does not need to plan fun activities; they just need to allow them to occur. While it's true we need a professional setting to work in, holding in our laughter is not the best guide. Sometimes having a party or picnic for no reason at all is good therapy for a stressful day. Schedule a volunteer meeting in a more fun place, maybe the local pizza place. Herb Kelleher, the CEO of Southwest Airlines gives it to us straight, "There's no reason that work has to be suffused with seriousness... Professionalism can be worn lightly. Fun is a stimulant to people. They enjoy their work more and work more productively.
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