Your New Job Title
"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."
- Dale Carnegie.
I'm on a mission to bring more fun and playfulness into our working lives. We all know the value of play as children, but then something happens to us when we reach adulthood and we tend to leave our playing to the week-ends or just with our children or maybe forget about playing altogether.
As adults, particularly in the corporate world, play can be dismissed as unproductive and just goofing around. We are serious people doing serious work! Well, yes our work might be very serious but I still believe there is time to play and have fun.
So why is play so important? Play:
Stimulates your mind and your imagination, increasing creativity.
Promotes problem solving and being able to adapt to situations.
Is a great stress reliever and boosts your happiness.
Increases your productivity.
Gives you permission to try new things and to experiment and gives you space to fail safely.
Builds deep connections with others. It boosts camaraderie and builds corporate empathy.
So my question for you is, do you make time to play every day? And what does your play look like? How we play is unique to all of us. For some people, it might be reading a book or painting or throwing a football or dancing or singing. There are so many ways to have fun and play in your life.
Psychiatrist Stuart Brown, who is the founder of the American National Institute for Play, says that, "What all play has in common is that it offers a sense of engagement and pleasure, takes the player out of a sense of time and place, and the experience of doing it is more important than the outcome." Brown says that although some people may appear more playful than others, we are all wired by evolution to play.
Sir Richard Branson is well-known for his playfulness in business. He said “Try and keep bureaucracy to a minimum and remind your team that business as well as life, should be fun.” As leaders it is our job to encourage play in the workplace and become what I like to call ‘Facilitator of Fun!” It’s time to put some play and humour back into our stressful days in the office. A survey done by Robert Half International showed 91% of executives found humour imperative for career advancement and 84% found people with a sense of humour do better work.
I’ve been lucky enough in my career to be part of a learning and development team that liked to play and that understood it’s value. Throughout our learning experiences, we always incorporated play; such as archery, morning walks, we ran scavenger hunts, there was belly dancing, singing and even confetti cannons. All of these activities were about engagement, pleasure and experiencing something different. It was about sometimes getting people out of their comfort zone and being a little bit silly, letting the walls down and being vulnerable. As a leader, it is vital that you model this behaviour and be the first one to have fun and encourage playfulness in our team members.
So what can you do to bring play into your life?
The first thing you can do is to think about the play you enjoyed as child and try to recreate it. Was it something creative like painting or Play-Doh? Or was it the dress-up box? Lego and building blocks? Outdoor play? How can you incorporate this into your day?
The second thing you can do is to be around playful and fun people at work. Surround yourself with people who will encourage your playful side.
Next, try a new activity at work or a new way of doing something. Encourage new and crazy ideas. Think of ways to make the work task more playful.
Finally, one of the great ways to stimulate play is to hang around some little people because they know the value of play. Look at what they do. Join in and see the benefits of play and fun in your life.
Here’s to more fun and play in business and in life!
Midja x