How to Have Fun at Work While Staying Productive
How to Have Fun at Work While Staying Productive
3 Practical Strategies for Mixing Things Up
The billionaire Richard Branson once said, “If it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.” In fact, he wrote a book, The Virgin Way, on this very premise. I don’t know if I completely agree with the statement as I’m not sure that applies to all circumstances. But I do think it’s natural to want to enjoy what you do for a living. At the very least, it’s a noble effort to avoid drudgery at work.
In this chapter, we’re going to unpack how to have fun at work while still being productive. To do that, I’m going to share three really practical strategies that you can immediately steal and adapt to use with your team.
1. Crowdsource Your Fun
What you think is fun may not be fun for everybody else. To make work more enjoyable and more productive, incorporate what other people think is fun.
One team member might love playing the guitar. Another might really enjoy bowling. Someone else might prefer quietly reading. Don’t just guess at what would be fun for your team. Crowdsource ideas. Ask.
At your next meeting, ask everybody to jot down three things they’d like to do, putting each idea on a different sticky note. In three rounds, have team members hold up their ideas to their cameras. Take screenshots of their answers in Zoom gallery view or something similar on the platform you’re using. Think about how you can weave those ideas into virtual meetings.
If somebody loves reading, you might suggest that as an alternative to a PowerPoint presentation. The team member can prepare something for people to read quietly and then discuss afterward. If somebody loves guitar, maybe they’d enjoy playing a riff for everyone as the unofficial start to a meeting.
A remote work friend and peer, Laïla von Alvensleben, took this concept to the next level. She is the Head of Culture and Collaboration at MURAL—a dynamite online collaboration and whiteboard space. When organizing a global team retreat, she actually helped to facilitate the creation of an entire remote, employee-only band to perform for the company during the big event. Like most of the ideas shared in this book, you can take them to the moon—or just borrow a quick thought to mix up a few minutes of your virtual meeting routine.
Ask team members how they might incorporate other ideas for fun as well. Could you bring the guitar into the next virtual meeting? Think about the purpose of your meeting, and how you can bring in that element of fun to help team members connect.
When you’re thinking about ways to have fun at work, consider how different people approach this. Two FUNN acronyms apply here:
- Functional Understanding Not Necessary
- Functional Understanding Needed and Necessary
For some people, the idea of frivolous fun is not actually fun at all. They might be thinking, “I’m at work for a reason, let’s get down to business.” That’s why you will still want to keep in mind the purpose of what you’re doing. That said, if you’re doing something fun that those team members love, they’ll lead the charge. And they’re going to be much more likely to actually enjoy the experience. When our peers are leading something, we’re generally much more likely to be engaged audience members too!
As human beings, we love to share what we love. If your team has many interests, hobbies and passions, invite people to share those at their own discretion. This helps people feel seen and understood.
2. Mix and Match Your Format
Maybe you meet on Zoom every single day or every week. Perhaps you always go to the same conference room to virtually connect with your team. The structure and format of your meetings never change.
This is eventually going to get very boring for your team. Even if you think that bowling is really fun, if you bowled every morning, afternoon and night, at some point it would probably lose its appeal. Too much of the same thing becomes really monotonous. So mix up the format.
Google does this with its conference bikes. These are expensive, seven-person bikes that people sit around almost like a moving conference table. They’re comparing notes during meetings while pedaling. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend getting a conference bike. But mixing up the format is a great way to make meetings more interesting. Novelty sparks creativity.
A simpler way to break out of your standard format is to go on a walk. A great way to have fun and engage people is to get out of your context. Move out of your home office. Invite people to get off Zoom. Leave the conference room. Maybe grab a pair of headphones, and ask team members to do the same. Go on a walk and talk. You could even invite people to listen to a podcast. Then come back together an hour later to discuss it.
Prepare in advance for the change of scenery. If you’re hoping to help your group connect, you might send people a series of three to four questions over email. Then invite people to go on a walk. Get away from the screen, and discuss their answers by phone. There is a great, free list of questions at www.weand.me/free.
Tired of the same old backgrounds? Invite people to show the team their home workspace if they’re comfortable doing that.
Inviting people into your space and getting out of your context allows for unstructured connection. We learn about each other this way. An even simpler invite would be to nudge group members to join a meeting from a location they generally never use.
This kind of informal connection can spur creative ideas. People invent things over dinner and long lunches, or form collaborations and partnerships after work on the walk to the train station.
Don’t wait for it to just happen, though. Create unstructured time.
There’s a startup in Europe that attached chains to employees’ desks. At 4 o’clock, the desks literally rise into the air, preventing people from working anymore.
Minus the chains, a company I work with tried to do something similar. Every day at 4 p.m., employees have to take a break no matter what they are doing. Team members head over to a brightly colored room where there’s a Ping-Pong table, food and other ways to engage in an unstructured way.
Now that doesn’t work for everybody. Sometimes adding structure is really useful. But the point is, you want to make sure you’re building in unstructured time for your team.
3. Script in some joy
Look at your workweek. Think about what you need to get done. Now, script in some joy. Do this regularly.
I do administrative work Monday through Thursday. But I block out Fridays to record YouTube videos. These are tutorials designed for leaders and educators to make connection and engagement easy. Through my consulting work, I get to learn from some amazing organizations, and people who are doing brilliant things. I believe information should be free, and it brings me joy to share what I learn.
Do I take a meeting on Friday if I need to once in a while? Sure. But my priority is to set aside that time to record YouTube videos. I script that joy into my week. Even when recording is more difficult, if I can push through to get into my creative zone, it brings me joy.
Find out what brings your team members joy, and script that into the schedule. Decide as a team how you’re going to make time for these activities. Don’t dictate as a leader how team members should do this. That misses the point, and it won’t work.
Lean on strategy No. 1, and crowdsource ideas for fun. Then invite people to script that fun into the daily schedule.
We’re really good at keeping a schedule, right? We go to our calendars, and if a meeting is scheduled, we show up. The same goes for scripting joy—if it’s on the calendar, you’ll follow through.
That fun could be connected to work, or you could be taking a break from work. Your brain benefits from not working all the time. One of my favorite, goofy psychology concepts is the idea of “cognitive loafing.” Really, that phrase is used in academic, peer-reviewed research. When we take a break from going, going, going, it can help fuel creative, innovative thinking. It’s really useful every once in a while to just take time to have the Functional Understanding Not Necessary type of fun.
Don’t be afraid to script in some joy, and leave the structure for another time.