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Lighten up!
by Marsha Lindquist
Fun and work are not mutually exclusive! At many companies, workers are encouraged to relieve stress in creative ways and are welcomed to lighten up their day. Enlightened firms understand employees are far more likely to shine when they are allowed to break from some of the traditional and expected corporate norm - those companies reap the benefits. Stress busters can be anything from silly mottos to lunchtime play or theme workdays to unusual dress codes. If you want to build a long lasting high performance company as well as inspire, spark and energize your company, incorporating play into your workplace is one answer.
Be Serious About Humor
Be responsible for the joy in your life. Do you have a laugh life like you have a work life, home life and love life? If the answer is no or maybe, then you need to get serious about humor. Life is loaded with humor, if you consciously seek it out. Sometimes it’s just a matter of re-tuning your mind. When you spill the salt, you can be annoyed with yourself or you can see yourself as starring in a slapstick comedy. Find funny people. Watch reruns of hilarious shows on television or get videos of humorous entertainers you enjoy. I consider play one of the most important icebreakers, tension releasers, and mind energizers I have.
One of my friends says it took his friends a quarter of century to find his funny bone. It took him almost half a century to realize he had a sense of humor. Don’t wait. Find yours sooner.
Remember childhood? You didn’t spend a long time doing any one thing and your energy levels were astounding. Play was a way you approached your life. You used fantasy to make chores lighter and you sought out the company of friends to play with. Your curiosity was tremendous and you expressed yourself freely to your friends.
But for some of us, growing up takes its toll. Whether caused by inherited traits and social constraints, even personal tragedy, we grow out of humor and shut down the lighter side of our lives. But you can reclaim that lighter touch. Read on, dear Reader.
Bad Things Can Happen to Serious People
These are the negative things that may happen when you are too serious at work.
- You get sick because your immune system can’t combat what’s going on around you.
- You’re less productive since your mind and body are preoccupied with other issues that keep you from the objective at hand.
- The surrounding atmosphere is a hostile one and people are less likely to communicate and cooperate.
- Risk taking is low and therefore opportunity for innovation or creativity is constrained or virtually nonexistent.
- You stay stuck in your negative thoughts and habits.
- You’re not fun to be around and people avoid you.
- You lose perspective, even when objectivity is most critical.
Negativity can be contagious. Others around you are likely to pick up the habit. Your children certainly will. Don’t be a carrier!
What Is This Thing Called Play?
Play is integrating living, working and creating into your everyday life. Spontaneous moments of energy and that whimsical, sometimes mischievous and overwhelming need to openly express yourself, is what play is all about. Play at work can be the shared laugh that lightens your mood or the pleasure you have tossing ideas about and creating new products. You don’t have to wait for your break to enjoy a moment. Play, when embraced with abandon, allows us to simply be ourselves.
What’s So Funny?
We do not have to go far from recent events to realize that we may not be here tomorrow. Remember that some say to - eat dessert first since life is short.. Well, life is short, play first. Why not be known for your sense of humor? After all, people are attracted to you for it. Play and humor make for a longer life. Most importantly, who wouldn’t rather laugh and have fun than be serious all of the time?
Uptights
Dealing with uptight people and the environments they foster is difficult. But part of the problem can be your own internalization of sober and serious attitudes. You can, however, create your own microcosm and surround yourself with a circle of powerful, playful and creative people. And guess what. They’re probably already around you, waiting for you to break the ice with a little more humor.
Uptight Quotient Test
There are 10 kinds of uptights in the world, and I’ve worked for all of them at one time or another. In fact, a few years ago I would have gotten a high score on the Uptight Quotient Test below. Take the test yourself. Find out if you may be creating barriers in your group. Perhaps you are living in an organization with some of these characters. Perhaps you can do this during your lunch break with some colleagues. On a simple 1-2-3 scale, using 3 as the highest degree of uptightedness, answer each with the degree of uptightedness that you have or of someone you know. Have fun with it.
Uptight Quotient Test
Nail Yourself to Your Desk
Requires everyone to perform all work from their desk and never leave so that whenever they want to get in touch with you, they know where you are. Alternately, requires your pager or cell phone to be on at all times. Your score:
Military Precision
Insists everyone arrives precisely on time or else. All things are accomplished military style. Conversations are clipped. Invented dress codes.Your score:
Chattanooga Chew Chew
Chews on everything eternally. Getting approval or feedback from this leader is a nightmare. Will take your report to think about it for a while. And then another while and another and so on.Your score:
The Great Protector
Has been in the organization forever and sees self as the great protector of all good and defender against all evil. Often snitches on others behind their backs.Your score:
My Way or the Highway
Has an ego as big as all outdoors. Believes that unless you do it their way, it is not acceptable. If it ain’t in the book, it doesn’t exist.Your score:
Know-Nothing Microchip
Fancies self as knowledgeable about all things. Tends to hire less than qualified people. Given their built-in insecurities, will micromanage everyone.Your score:
Super Ego
Reality is what they decide it is. Tell them something they don’t agree with or believe in and they will disregard your message or pooh-pooh it.Your score:
On Rails
Humorless and has no time for anything but work. Can only focus on one thing at a time and is uncompromising.
Casper Milquetoast
Only wants to meet one-on-one because in a meeting they might get overruled. Lots of hidden agendas. You never receive negative feedback, you just get fired.Your score:
The Private Eye
Dictates desk placement to enable surveillance. Requires that all desks be cleared of all files or work papers each evening. Assumes cursory observation reveals if a person is not working. Your score:
If your total score is more than 15 you may want to take a hard look in the mirror or get a new boss or perhaps you already have. If your total score is between 8 and 15, perhaps you’re on your way to finding humor and playing at work - keep reading. If your score is 7 or fewer, just skim the rest of this article. Be honest, now.
Play Elements
Savvy leaders know that if they allow their employees to combine fun and work, they are more likely to excel. In order to play at work there are three essential elements that must be present - trust and safety, appropriate time and place, and courageous leadership.
An environment where there is trust and safety includes the following fundamentals:
- Your ideas are heard without judgment.
- Co-workers have the opportunity to know each other.
- Risk taking is encouraged without repercussion.
- Leaders impact the organization positively and vice versa.
- People act in a responsible way about achieving the organization’s objectives.
When your gut is telling you that it’s the wrong time or place for play, it probably is. But when the time and place are right, let it out. When your awareness dial is set too high, you’ll be open to ideas that come flooding your way. Encourage those around you to feel good about being lighthearted. Humor allows you to get to know people as people, humor has no armor, and it speeds up chemistry building.
During the dark days of winter, the employees at our company bask in the artificial sunshine of their conference room. The company brings in ultraviolet lamps and the employees dress in summer attire, turn up the heat, bring beach balls and summer toys in to play with, and have a hamburger and hot dog barbecue.
At a company I worked for several years ago, all employees were asked to wear their slippers to work for a day. After lunch, everyone gathered in the conference room and modeled their slippers and enjoyed videos and popcorn. Prizes were given for the funniest and most worn out footwear.
Some companies located near the Pacific Ocean allow employees to go surfing occasionally. Other companies encourage their employees to bring their pets to work and take play breaks. Various firms, whose product development is serious business, encourage their workers to visit the corporate headquarters “recreation room” to play with the toys to foster their creative juices.
Unearthing Fun Occasions
So now that we know the adverse affects of taking work so seriously, let’s look at the fun things that you can do to lighten up.
- Carry something in your pocket that gives you a smile.
- Use props like funny noses, glasses or other gag items.
- Develop a repertoire of funny voices or zany invented accents.
- Don’t wait for a “significant” birthday to get that someone you love a gag gift.
- Collect jokes, joke books, limerick books, and funny pictures.
- Take pictures of funny things whenever the situation pops up.
- Keep a library of funny movies, old comedy TV shows and laughter tapes.
- Stock your office with a couple of good toys or games and plan a time each week to play.
- Take a humorous lunch break once a week.
- Pay someone’s parking meter anonymously and then watch their reaction.
Hilarious Practices & Habits
You can give your habits some humorous names to relieve the tension and get you to lighten up. Make a game of it and pretend they aren’t around or have fun laughing at their peculiarities. We use names like Virginia Doolittle who responds to any catastrophe in the office by doing as little as possible. Another favorite is Carl Cow who reacts to tense situations by eating everything in sight. My friend Sarah likes to refer to the “board members” as all of the disapproving voices in her head that are trying to tell her what to do and her favorite, Elliott Exact who is persistent that everything be accomplished perfectly. She might say, “The proposal looks fabulous but Elliott Exact would have us spend hours making it perfect. Let’s just send it.”
Play At Home
Engage your family in play activities either that you’ve never done or that you might have forgotten. Some of these might be sports-oriented like family touch football or soccer at halftime. Other family play might include bowling, building a sandcastle at the beach, making costumes for Halloween, or floating down the river in inner tubes. Whatever it is, get wacky!
Playing Alone Is A Shameless Activity
Playing alone is so satisfying because you get to do what you want, when you want and for however long you want. You are allowed to make a complete fool of yourself and not a soul knows that you have. No one passes judgment on you. You smile to yourself. Maybe it’s a deliberate amusement activity or perhaps you just fall into it. Solo play is sometimes hard to imagine. So visit a toy store, the zoo, a local farmer’s market or a carnival. Toy store shopping is a great activity either alone or with one you love. Make it a special trip or one you do regularly.
Hobby Horses
High-energy people tend to have many different interests and hobbies other than their work. If your work is logical and methodical, then your leisure time activities could focus on artistic endeavors, and vice versa. Whether your hobbies are gardening, woodworking, painting, sculpting, coin collecting, ceramics, knitting, bird watching, stargazing, model building, train collecting or any number of other pursuits, they will provide relaxation and energize your soul. There are no typical female or male hobbies, and they are different activities than exercise or sports. There are a couple of keys to choosing a hobby.
Success Is In The Ride
When you’re engaged in a hobby, there is no success or failure, doing it is the point. So what if you don’t finish that painting? Who is going to know other than you? So what if it’s not museum quality? It might give pleasure to you or a friend. So what if you find that painting just is not your cup of tea? Give yourself credit for just doing it and try something else.
Another of my friends says failure is just a zero - like a placeholder in numbers. The 0 in 10 doesn’t take anything away from the number. Only successes count. Failure is just neutral. We’re taught to fear failure, yet it’s the natural way we learn. Like a baby learning to walk. Try and fail, try and fail perhaps a thousand times. Then try and wobble, then try and walk, with a few stumbles. Eventually the toddler runs. Do we count his “failures”? Of course not.
Here are some other tips on hobbies:
- Start small, keep it simple and keep it cheap. If you like it, you can spend more later.
- Visit hobby houses, arts and crafts festivals or other idea places.
- Pick a hobby that uses a different part of your brain than your work does.
- Some left brain hobbies are furniture building and model building
- Some right brain hobbies are painting and ceramics
Be A Child For An Afternoon
Go back, in your memory, to the happy parts of your childhood. Browse the games and activities listed below. What did you enjoy playing? I invite you to dream about your own list and add to it as you take your dreams to action. So, when are you going to try out some of your favorites again?
Joke and Play Benefits
When you joke and play, you’re exercising the right side of your brain. That gives the side that’s been working so hard time to rest. It allows your subconscious a chance to work on any unsolved problems. In our company, when we cannot seem to solve the problem at hand, we “put it in the toaster” and then we move on. Sometime later something will pop up!
By knowing what motivates your organization to being effective, happy and productive you will increase your profits - it is about the bottom line. When you engage in fun at work, you will look forward to getting up in the morning and enjoy your work. The added plus is that you will inspire others around you and be an exciting character to be with both at work and at home.
About the Author
Marsha Lindquist, a business strategist for over 15 years, draws on her proven “down in the trenches” experience, creativity, and participative manner to provide real solutions to businesses to assist them in building and growing their businesses. She is an energetic presenter and is also the Chief Executive Officer of The Management Link, Inc. As well as being the author of Why Are You Still Working Your A** Off, she has written and published several professional journal articles on business strategy and negotiations. She can be reached by e-mail at Marsha@MarshaLindquist.com or through her website at www.StraightBusinessTalk.com.
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