Success Secrets and Stories
To share management leadership concepts that actually work.
You are responsible for your development as a leader. Don't expect the boss to invest the training budget in your career. Consider this podcast as an investment of time in your career, with a bit of management humor added at the same time.
Success Secrets and Stories
How Fun Drives Team Success and Retention
Can fun at work really be the secret ingredient to boosting productivity and job satisfaction? Join us on "Success Secrets and Stories" as we unpack groundbreaking Forbes.com research by William Arruda that challenges traditional workplace norms. Discover how creating a joyful and engaging work environment isn't just a nice-to-have perk but a necessity that enhances learning, creativity, and memory retention. We explore the science behind fun and reveal how it leads to higher employee morale, stronger team dynamics, increased profitability, and improved retention rates.
Building leadership skills doesn't have to be a dry, tedious task. Tune in as we share practical, fun-filled icebreaker activities designed to make your team meetings and leadership training sessions both effective and enjoyable. Imagine breaking the ice with questions about personal preferences or crafting a coat of arms that reflects your leadership values—these light-hearted exercises foster team building, effective communication, and problem-solving skills. We also delve into the role of humor in making leadership training memorable and encourage you to share your feedback to help us make future episodes even better. Don't miss this vibrant discussion on transforming the workplace through the power of fun!
Presented by John Wandolowski and Greg Powell
Hello and welcome to Success Secrets and Stories. Well, hello and welcome to Success Secrets and Stories. I'm your host, john Winoloski, and I'm here with my friend and co-host, greg Powell, greg.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, yeah. So when I was researching this podcast, I wanted to talk about the leadership's role in a workplace environment that pertains to productive organizational enhancements. Sound formal enough? No, really. I wanted to do a podcast about fun. It has nothing to do with what I just said.
Speaker 2:When I think about work and fun at the same time, I had this visual image of the Lost in Space, the old series from the 60s, where they had the robot saying Danger, will Robinson, danger, you don't have fun at work. Well, newsflash 70 to 80% of your adult life that's your working life you're spending it at work and your health-related reasons for illnesses and high blood pressure that's work stress. Reasons for illnesses and high blood pressure that's work stress. And just the negative work environment has created turnover and the volatility of what we see. As far as changing jobs. All these things are relevant, but I was reading about this subject of having fun at work and just the concept of having fun, and I came across this article by William Arroda and he's a senior contributor. If you look at forbescom forward slash sites, forward slash William Arroda you'll pull up his website and he's a senior contributor personal branding, leadership careers. He does a ton of stuff and it's a very interesting website. But today we're just going to talk about his article that he had in Forbes, and there's a number of subjects, so I'm going to try to roll through the subjects and summarize them at some level so that you can understand where he is coming from and trying to take that concept of bringing fun to the workplace. He starts off.
Speaker 2:Today's workplace is complex. It is marked by constant change rapid infusion of technology, multi-generational workforces, the hybrid and virtual work environments. These factors have collectively impacted the employee's engagement and productivity. Yet there is one ingredient that helps address all of these challenges Fun and the idea of at work. It might be frivolous or counterproductive, but research clearly shows that incorporating fun into the workplace is not just a boost of employee morale. It positively impacts productivity, creativity and overall job satisfaction. The science behind this suggests that fun can be a powerful tool to improve the employee's performance and well-being. You'll see this theme running through his article and here's why at work, it is not just a perk but a necessity. The proof is in the science.
Speaker 2:The human brain is wired to respond positively to fun. When we experience enjoyment, our brains release dopamines and the feel-good neurotransmitters associated with pleasure, motivation and learning. Dopamines. Dopamines is also the element whenever you talk about people who are runners and they have the effect of liking to run. That's a dopamine effect. Dopamine is critical to the brain's reward system, enhancing behaviors that are fun and encouraging us to repeat them. This biochemical process not only makes us feel good, but also enhances our ability to learn, to solve problems, to be creative. Dopamine is directly linked to improving memory retention and the learning. According to the National Library of Medicine, when people are having fun at work, they're able to retain knowledge and their ability to do daily tasks.
Speaker 2:His next subject he brings up is increasing productivity and profitability. Trying to show the connection, a survey by Bright HR found that 79% of the employees believe that fun at work leads to higher productivity. Employees who have reported having fun at work are more engaged, resulting in 21% more profitability for the company, according to Gallup research. It isn't just about increasing positivity. It spurs creativity. It enhances the ability to solve problems and develop innovative solutions. When companies promote a work environment that is fun, they create a space where people can be the most innovative.
Speaker 2:No-transcript. When employees feel joy at work, they are more willing to take calculated risks and lead to greater innovations. The next subject he brings up is amping up the morale and the engagement. Again, he repeats that 12% of happy employees are more productive than their counterparts, and this was a study by the University of Warwick. University of Warwick. This kind of production boost comes from improved mental state, for the individuals who experience joy and fulfillment at work. But when people know that they're going to have fun at work, they're more open and more engaged. But when he brings up the next one, it's building stronger teams. Greg, why don't you describe the visual for me? Because you did a much better job than I did.
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. So remember the movie Anchorman and the character was Ron Burgundy by Will Ferrell. So what he's doing? He's blowing into a seashell and essentially saying Dream Team, assemble.
Speaker 2:Which I have to admit. The film is hilarious. I love how they try to use the teamwork concepts and that was a team and it was fun. It was a funny movie. If you haven't seen it you need to take a little bit of time because it's worth the watch. But the article goes on saying, goes on saying.
Speaker 2:Fun usually involves a group of people to foster human connection, cultivate a culture of positivity and cohesion. Workplace fun enhancement in terms of team building and communication and trust are all the things that are gained by going through that activity. And at the time when human interaction at work is waning, fun activities actually help reduce that human deficit. The psychological impact of positive emotions that are triggered by fun fosters the sense of belonging and commitment to the team members. So, if you haven't figured it out, a lot of success secrets and stories is based on a concept of psychology and how it works in our regular daily lives, and this is what they're trying to bring out as the point of this article. It's the psychology that's associated with helping people to be receptive and I love this. How to build a stronger team concept. The other elements of that kind of environment are his next point it increases employee attraction, satisfaction and retention, creating an environment where it is fun and enjoyable in terms of long-term benefits for the organization. A research firm that is pretty popular with things that I have used in the past called Glassdoor firm that is pretty popular with things that I have used in the past called Glassdoor and they show that employees who perceive the workplace as fun and rewarding are more than likely to stay with the current employer. Fun at work not only helps retain employees, but also helps attract new talent Looking for a positive and engaging work environment, talent looking for a positive and engaging work environment. By creating those opportunities to have fun at work. You're now kind of into his article, rewiring a mindset.
Speaker 2:Many leaders and professionals believe that work should well, it should feel like work. It's not supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a place of business. After all, fun is not what you have, it's silliness. Well, science disagrees. Science proves that it is the fun factor that will actually counter the negative impact in your workplace. It's a mindset change. The next point, which I think is very valid, is make it fun, have some joy and make that a core value of the organization. Companies like Best Buy and JetBlue have incorporated into core values and it's harder for naysayers to say that fun isn't something we do here, because it's embedded in the company's vision and mission and values. There are elements where I think it's very key that these organizations reward fun and recognize those who have spirit and that brought fun into the organization. If you recognize those things, obviously people feel that they would like to participate and it engages people, which is really the key of having fun.
Speaker 2:Some of the most fun that I've had is really in a work environment was like one organization. It was the place where Greg and I both worked. We worked at Avon and they did all kinds of things. They had meals at the end, they had group functions. We had what? We had picnics. Picnics what was the search? We were looking for Scavenger hunts. Thank you, scavenger hunt. The word scavenger was missing. Scavenger hunts, so gamifying the job and having fun.
Speaker 2:And I had to pull up a little visual for Greg and I to have a little bit of a laugh. Do you remember the Del Secchi's commercial that they had about the world's most interesting man? And they have this wonderful little meme. I don't always ask and employ how they are, but when I do, I walk away before they answer. I just love that.
Speaker 2:Have fun at work, have some fun and throw in an element of it where, whether it's silly or not, as long as it's not infringing or damaging, you've got to find fun at work fringing or damaging. Or or he got to find fun at work and it and that was really probably the next thing that he was trying to talk about is you can have a little bit of silliness as long as it isn't harmful. I can tell you from my own personal experience jokes don't work. No, just don't do the jokes there there are. There are kind of fun things that you can do with posters and there's kind of fun things that you can do with games at work.
Speaker 2:But you have to be careful and you have to find that balance. So do it as a team, make sure that you know where your boundaries are. But you can do it during the work environment because it can be fun. But you can do it during the work environment because it can be fun. They showed an example of somebody walking through an office with a jet on the back of their on their back or a rocket on their back. Just walking through the office, you know somebody's going to bring up what's going on and that visual and having some fun in a work environment to break up the day can be a really nice fun distraction, and that's what we're really talking about.
Speaker 2:No-transcript to that end. I came across this article that I wanted to share, but I wanted Greg to share it because there were 21 leadership activities and I did not give Greg the 21 examples. I trimmed it down and I kind of giggled because I know that I'd be sitting in HR if I applied half of what was on that list. You have to be so careful in terms of how you're applying it to make sure that people enjoyed the activity rather than threatened by the activity, and there's a mindset that you need to be aware of, greg, why don't you take it from there?
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. Let's talk a little bit more about those 21 fun leadership activities for work. With the list trimmed down. It came from Grace he back, december 9th 2023. Leadership activities are training, challenges and games great for employee development and building team spirit. Examples include leadership races, marshmallow challenges and drawing communication. Let me go back on that. Examples include leadership races sounds pretty good. Marshmallow challenges.
Speaker 2:We'll need to run that through the HR gate first. And drawing communication.
Speaker 1:These activities aim to develop participants' leadership skills like communication skills, creativity and creative thinking. These exercises are in-person versions of virtual leadership activities and examples of professional development ideas virtual leadership activities and examples of professional development ideas and they really just lead to employees becoming good leaders, learning how to do leadership training and learning new leadership skills. So the list includes situational leadership activities and scenarios, leadership team building activities, leadership training activities, leadership development activities, team building for leaders and leadership exercises. So let's get to it. There's a leadership book club and this was a book by David Jacobson called Highly Humorous Leadership. He calls it a fun, effective approach to management and supervision. So an idea of effective leadership development activities.
Speaker 1:You can organize a leadership-themed book club for your team. So you remember book clubs. You can make them fun and connect them to work. So you plan a meeting, you determine how long the activity will last. The book club can be a one-time event or, if it goes over really well, you can do it from time to time after that. Next, you should decide the books to read and make sure that they're books that people will be interested in and ensure all members have a copy. Some of the books that fund on leadership include the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell. Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goldman Wooden on leadership and yes, that's John Wooden from UCLA basketball coaching First Break All the Rules by Jim Harder. And how to Win Friends and Influence People by the ever-famous Dale Carnegie. In addition, make sure you give the readers enough time to study the books, pick a convenient time, date, location, et cetera that's comfortable, and then make sure that you ask questions around their opinions about the books and what the book is really showing.
Speaker 1:As far as approach to leadership, leadership pizza and I'm going to start off with this, john and I were kidding before. When I think about work environment today, a couple of things are still very popular Pizza and T-shirts. Leadership pizza is a little different variation of that. It's a popular activity where participants represent their perspectives on leadership qualities, ask participants to individually take a list of what they believe to be the essential traits of leaderships. They have the partakers draw the leadership traits as far as slices of pizza on the full pizza, as far as slices of pizza on the full pizza. So another topic, and it's close to my heart because being in human resources so long, as well as being specifically in learning and development.
Speaker 1:Icebreakers yeah Right For meetings, icebreakers for off-site meetings, icebreakers for staff meetings, whatever. Icebreakers are famous for almost any kind of event and it's a great idea for fun leadership team-building activities. First ask your team to pile up a bunch of icebreaker questions. They may sound something like this what's your favorite color? Which leader is your role model and why? What's your favorite food? What do you think is the most important quality of a leader? In the last 10 years, the one I've seen a lot is what would be your superpower and why. Of course, the team members will take turns, answer the questions and talk about their answers briefly, and you guys can let some time pass and then you start the meeting, getting folks engaged. I think you get the drift, break the ice. That's what we're talking about here. That's fun.
Speaker 1:Another opportunity is leadership code of arms. I hadn't thought about this one and when John shared it with me I was very fascinated. So one of the ways to show and recognize different leadership values is to ask participants in leadership training to draw their own coat of arms. They get to create their own coat of arms. These coats of arms will include symbols, designs and mottos that best represent the artist's concept of leadership, concept of leadership. So your coat of arms might reflect topics of interest like courage. The team wants to be a role model. They want the team members to be able to solve problems and caring for people. So you can imagine something almost like medieval, but it's definitely not medieval in the sense that we're doing it now and you get a chance to be creative and it's something that works for you, john.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of like the idea that to be created and it's something that works for you, John. Yeah, I kind of like the idea that it's giving an image of what you want the organization to see and you're giving like four visuals that you want not only the words but the image to reinforce it. So it's a fun team building and also to see what other people in other departments think that's important. So I think it's an interesting icebreaker.
Speaker 1:Thanks, john. And so let me give you a couple of points and some thoughts from a conclusion of fun at work. So leadership activities are great right. Equip teams with essential skills to help them become better leaders, right. Some of the benefits of these activities include building teams, ensuring effective communication and improving problem solving right Things that are very important in the workplace. Besides, leadership activities not only help participants be productive at work. The activities can also improve other aspects of their life, their personal life, decision-making, et cetera all kinds of challenging situations. So what are the comments we have here? Sanamim, one day you'll look back at the team building day, laugh nervously and change the subject so interesting.
Speaker 2:We still do that. I still think of the team building stuff we had at the company we worked for and it's just like we really did that. Yeah, we did. How about that? We did John Change that subject? Yes, did. Well. How about that? We did John Change that subject?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, things sometimes worth forgetting, but overall it was probably a good learning activity for us at the time and maybe helped us in the future, who knows? But another thought, another comment is the mandatory team building staff meetings will continue until morale improves until morale improves. So we're saying it's somewhat tongue in cheek, but the team building staff meeting activities are very good for employees, good for the environment, good for all the things John talked about. I mean, pass it back over to John.
Speaker 2:So a common theme of a lot of the podcasts that you've heard is communication, and having fun is the essence of actually doing a better job of communicating. It resides longer, it has a longer shelf life. We still giggle about some of the stuff that we did in our team building exercises, and that was decades ago, which I have to admit, and that's the key here. If you're communicating and you're doing a better job of getting to your audience because you're using a sense of humor, be careful. You can step over that edge where humor again, jokes are bad, but humor is good. Have fun and you'll find that there's a ton of benefits that are associated with it and your communication becomes a little bit more to the point and people retain it, and that really is the idea of leadership.
Speaker 2:So, if you like what you've heard, my book and my e-book are available on Amazoncom and Barnes Noble websites. The podcast is available on what you're listening to, thank you. It's also available on Apple, google and Spotify, another popular format. My book was based on Patrick Durst and his concepts of MBR, and his books and information can be found at wwwsuccessgrowthacademycom. If you want to contact us, my email address is wando75.jw at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:And Greg, I can be reached at gpowell374 at gmailcom.
Speaker 2:Awesome and the music is brought to you by my grandson. So we want to hear from you and when you get an opportunity, we appreciate you dropping a line. We learn from you and we've applied it in a lot of our podcasts. So, greg, thanks.
Speaker 1:Thanks, John as always Next time.