What makes work fun for you?
The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.~ Elbert Hubbard, American author
Last month, I gave you a few tips for re-entry when you are headed back to a truly toxic workplace. (Toxic work environments and 5 strategies for repairing them). This month, I want to look at the other side of the equation, by asking “What energizes you at work?” For me, it is having colleagues to share the joys and woes of dealing with challenging clients, and help with research and writing.
As a solopreneur, I most often meet with colleagues “virtually” on conference calls. We often find ourselves emailing cartoons back and forth that better express our current frustrations to bring humor to our stuck places. As members of a “helping profession” that truly want to save the world one client at a time, sometimes letting go of the ego is a pretty tall order. It often boils down to “take the work seriously, but hold yourself lightly.” Laughing at ourselves, especially when we get too pretentious, is a fantastic release.
You might remember the New York Times bestseller Fish!? (2006 Ed.). Subtitled “A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results,” there is now a whole series of books and services based on the “Fish Philosophy,” including staff development for schools, by authors Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen. Fish! is a fictional parable about managing in a toxic work environment, based on the transformation of a real place, the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, WA.
At Pike Place today, fishmongers literally throw their products around as they serve customers and entertain themselves. Someone shouts, “six crabs flying to Montana,” and then there are literally crabs flying through the air from one stand to another to package up for a customer. The place fairly hums with positive energy. Recognizing that there are boring but necessary components to anyone’s work, the authors identified four simple practices to bring new energy and commitment to work:
- Attitude
- Play
- Make their day
- Being present
What’s the first thing these authors recommend to counteract a group with the blahs or truly suffering from toxicity? Hold a meeting. Yikes, I hear you exclaim. That’s the last thing we want to do. Meetings have a pretty bad rap, and there are good reasons for it. Here are some sobering statistics about meetings in the United States (and these date back to a 1998 study commissioned by MCI in the early days of video teleconferencing, so you know it must be “worse” now):
Approximately 11 million meetings occur in the U.S. each and every day. Most professionals attend a total of 61.8 meetings per month and research indicates that over 50 percent of this meeting time is wasted. Assuming each of these meetings is one hour long, professionals lose 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings, or approximately four full work days. Professionals who meet on a regular basis admit to daydreaming (91%), missing meetings (96%) or missing parts of meetings (95%). A large percentage (73%) admit to bringing other work to mandatory meetings and fully (39%) say they have dozed during meetings.
Here’s the problem: How do most organizations get anything done? They hold meetings! So, let’s return to the list enumerated by Luden, Paul and Christensen to transform a toxic environment. They suggest you call a special meeting to address the issue of morale, and recommend that leaders speak from their heart about the challenges being faced. “There is always a choice about how you choose to work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself,” says one of the characters in Fish!
Attitude
The very first thing to discuss in your morale meeting is “choosing the attitude” you bring with you to work. You can enjoy it, as you will likely spend 75% of your life working, or you can mope around hating everything and everyone. Which attitude do you choose? We know that emotions are infectious, so bringing your positive attitude will actually help everyone else.
Play
Next comes “play.” This is not about “not working,” but bringing a child’s sense of play to the work. Neuroscience has shown us that play helps shape our brains in a way to keep them flexible, leading to both adaptive behavior and innovation. There are a lot of ways to play at work, including at meetings. Have a silly hat day, give out candy kisses to the person with a good idea, wear your favorite dance shoes and have disco breaks, post pictures of family and friends in the hallways, build a charity box pose stuffed animals around it holding a meeting, stick cartoons on your door. There are plenty of ways to lighten up.
Make Their Day
The third item is “Make their day.” This is about celebrating each other’s accomplishments. Did someone publish a book? Tell everyone else. Did someone get a $1.5m grant for a workshop? Put it in a newsletter or ezine. Did someone do something especially kind for you during a stressful day? Mention it at your meeting. This builds engagement in the workplace, and it turns out that engaged employees are happier, more creative, more productive and more profitable.
Being Present
Finally, the Fish! folk recommend “being present.” This not only means being present to others around you, and attending to their needs, but being present for yourself. Stop yourself from being so busy. Give your brain a chance to drain. Living in the moment is the only way anyone can ever affect the future. Allow yourself to feel the pleasure of a job well done, and then give it a rest. Your brain and your colleagues will be glad you took the time to slow down.
Practice these four simple steps, and you can move yourself and your organization to a better way to work.
