16 Ways to Bring Fun to Your Workplace
By Kevin Ryan
1. Dress for fun Wear something frivolous – every day if appropriate. It doesn’t have to be visible: ‘naughty’ underwear, silly socks, etc. The fact that you have this on will remind you not to take yourself so seriously.
Make this philosophy visible by having a ‘Dress for Fun Friday’ – just like a Casual Friday, except staff have to add something specifically for fun – silly earrings, bad ties, fun hats, etc.
2 Fun Decor Encourage staff to introduce fun into their own work-space. Toys, stickers, photos, whatever will lighten up their day. Don’t let ‘office neatness’ rules get in the way – anything less that a safety hazard should be allowed. The boss sets the example with a hat rack full of silly hats and a Goofy soft toy sitting atop the computer screen. Follow the same rule in areas where clients go. Who wants to deal with people who don’t have a sense of humour?
3 Visit the toy store Introduce fun into the workplace with childish things. Look around your local toy store for anything that could introduce fun to your meetings, staff interactions (like lunch time) or just to make people smile.
4 Make meetings fun…at the start Make humour a KPI of your meetings. Boring meetings are the enemy of effective, creative communication – ban them! Put ‘Opening humour’ down as the first agenda item. Appoint a different person each meeting to start with a joke, funny story, game – whatever they can to lighten the mood. Give them a time limit, but that’s all! They need the permission of management to be as creative, silly and irreverent as possible.
5 Make meetings fun…during proceedings Make fun part of the proceedings. Hand out noisemakers (hooters, whistles, clickers, etc) to all present with the rule that you have to use your noisemaker before you speak. Take votes with: "All those in favour, make your noise." Have something silly that participants need to hold or place in front of them before they make their contribution. (This is also a great way to ensure that only one person speaks at a time.)
6 Make meetings fun…at the end Appoint a person to end the meeting with some humour. One way is to have them nominate certain meeting members for frivolous ‘awards’ based on what happened during the meeting. Some examples: Silliest Statement, Wittiest Comment, Best Excuse, Most Imaginative Statement, Best/Worst Jargon. Finish your meetings with a touch of humour and this is what people remember as they leave – so they’ll be more willing to attend the next meeting.
7 Have a fun library Have a section next to the reference books full of joke books, cartoon books (Dilbert, Calvin & Hobbes, etc) and any other fun literature. Encourage staff to borrow them for lunchtime reading, etc (Don’t let them leave the office – or you’ll never see them again. Regularly add to it. The discount tables at bookstores have loads of cheap material.
8 Have fun with logos and signs Have a contest to design a fun logo for each department; and, if appropriate, put it up. Enlarge relevant cartoons and place them next to the instructional and safety signs – and have people notice signs that, in the past, they ignored.
9 Reward funny staff The best co-worker is one who doesn’t take themselves too seriously and is prepared to laugh at (and learn from) their mistakes. Instigate a monthly award for the silliest mistake made by staff – with a cash prize. The rules: staff can only nominate themselves and have to stand up and tell other staff what they did and how they will spend the money. The prize is awarded to the staff member who
(a) made the biggest mistake
(b) is most honest about their mistake or
(c) nominates the most creative way they will spend the money to help them avoid the same mistake again or compensate any aggrieved party.
Examples: A salesperson makes an impossible promise about delivery dates to a leading client and will spend the prize money to ‘shout’ the despatch department; a staff member forgets his 1st wedding anniversary and will use the money to take his wife to dinner.
10 Let staff get to know each other Have a regular (monthly) function where staff get to know each other as people, not just in their work roles. When you understand more about a person, there are more opportunities for humour in your interactions with that person. Simply giving the staff off-work time together will create these opportunities; although you could introduce some fun ‘contests’ like those described below. It could be a Friday after-work barbecue, or just a few drinks. Do not be tempted to use the occasion for business announcements – this will defeat the purpose.
11 Fun Contests
As part of these regular functions, or, as a stand-alone event there are a lot of non-threatening fun contests that can build rapport, camaraderie and teamwork. They will provide material for staff-generated humour for a long time after the contest. The prize for the winner does not have to be significant – a $20 trophy will do the job.
12 ‘Musical’ Fun Hold a karaoke contest. Entrants could be individuals or groups. If karaoke is too expensive or difficult to organise, make it a mime or air guitar contest. All you’ll need is a portable CD player and, perhaps, some pretend microphones.
13 Flying Fun Hold a paper plane contest, the winner being the person to have their plane fly the furthest.
14 Encourage staff to show appreciation Have slips of paper (or a page in the intranet) entitled "Staff Appreciation Award – Nomination". Encourage staff to nominate other staff if they do something good: going out of their way for a customer or other staff member, etc. You could have a monthly award chosen from all the nominees; or simply give everyone nominated a small reward. For example, book a mobile masseur (one of the ones who does 15 minute backrubs at the desk) and give them all a massage.
15 Have a baby pictures contest Get a baby picture of a number of staff and award a prize for whoever can correctly name all of the babies. The contest could run over some time (two weeks) generating humour along the way.
16 Have a childhood secrets contest. Have staff write down one thing from their childhood that would not be known to others. Have a contest similar to the one above. Again, over the time of the contest, much humour will be generated as staff try to guess who was the one who painted the cat pink, or who won the religious studies prize in grade 6.
I tried some of the thing in my office and it really worked, such as 0rganising contest wittiest remark, best excuse, karoeke contest.
Hope it will work for all of you also.
Cheers!!
Archna
From India, Delhi
113By Kevin Ryan
1. Dress for fun Wear something frivolous – every day if appropriate. It doesn’t have to be visible: ‘naughty’ underwear, silly socks, etc. The fact that you have this on will remind you not to take yourself so seriously.
Make this philosophy visible by having a ‘Dress for Fun Friday’ – just like a Casual Friday, except staff have to add something specifically for fun – silly earrings, bad ties, fun hats, etc.
2 Fun Decor Encourage staff to introduce fun into their own work-space. Toys, stickers, photos, whatever will lighten up their day. Don’t let ‘office neatness’ rules get in the way – anything less that a safety hazard should be allowed. The boss sets the example with a hat rack full of silly hats and a Goofy soft toy sitting atop the computer screen. Follow the same rule in areas where clients go. Who wants to deal with people who don’t have a sense of humour?
3 Visit the toy store Introduce fun into the workplace with childish things. Look around your local toy store for anything that could introduce fun to your meetings, staff interactions (like lunch time) or just to make people smile.
4 Make meetings fun…at the start Make humour a KPI of your meetings. Boring meetings are the enemy of effective, creative communication – ban them! Put ‘Opening humour’ down as the first agenda item. Appoint a different person each meeting to start with a joke, funny story, game – whatever they can to lighten the mood. Give them a time limit, but that’s all! They need the permission of management to be as creative, silly and irreverent as possible.
5 Make meetings fun…during proceedings Make fun part of the proceedings. Hand out noisemakers (hooters, whistles, clickers, etc) to all present with the rule that you have to use your noisemaker before you speak. Take votes with: "All those in favour, make your noise." Have something silly that participants need to hold or place in front of them before they make their contribution. (This is also a great way to ensure that only one person speaks at a time.)
6 Make meetings fun…at the end Appoint a person to end the meeting with some humour. One way is to have them nominate certain meeting members for frivolous ‘awards’ based on what happened during the meeting. Some examples: Silliest Statement, Wittiest Comment, Best Excuse, Most Imaginative Statement, Best/Worst Jargon. Finish your meetings with a touch of humour and this is what people remember as they leave – so they’ll be more willing to attend the next meeting.
7 Have a fun library Have a section next to the reference books full of joke books, cartoon books (Dilbert, Calvin & Hobbes, etc) and any other fun literature. Encourage staff to borrow them for lunchtime reading, etc (Don’t let them leave the office – or you’ll never see them again. Regularly add to it. The discount tables at bookstores have loads of cheap material.
8 Have fun with logos and signs Have a contest to design a fun logo for each department; and, if appropriate, put it up. Enlarge relevant cartoons and place them next to the instructional and safety signs – and have people notice signs that, in the past, they ignored.
9 Reward funny staff The best co-worker is one who doesn’t take themselves too seriously and is prepared to laugh at (and learn from) their mistakes. Instigate a monthly award for the silliest mistake made by staff – with a cash prize. The rules: staff can only nominate themselves and have to stand up and tell other staff what they did and how they will spend the money. The prize is awarded to the staff member who
(a) made the biggest mistake
(b) is most honest about their mistake or
(c) nominates the most creative way they will spend the money to help them avoid the same mistake again or compensate any aggrieved party.
Examples: A salesperson makes an impossible promise about delivery dates to a leading client and will spend the prize money to ‘shout’ the despatch department; a staff member forgets his 1st wedding anniversary and will use the money to take his wife to dinner.
10 Let staff get to know each other Have a regular (monthly) function where staff get to know each other as people, not just in their work roles. When you understand more about a person, there are more opportunities for humour in your interactions with that person. Simply giving the staff off-work time together will create these opportunities; although you could introduce some fun ‘contests’ like those described below. It could be a Friday after-work barbecue, or just a few drinks. Do not be tempted to use the occasion for business announcements – this will defeat the purpose.
11 Fun Contests
As part of these regular functions, or, as a stand-alone event there are a lot of non-threatening fun contests that can build rapport, camaraderie and teamwork. They will provide material for staff-generated humour for a long time after the contest. The prize for the winner does not have to be significant – a $20 trophy will do the job.
12 ‘Musical’ Fun Hold a karaoke contest. Entrants could be individuals or groups. If karaoke is too expensive or difficult to organise, make it a mime or air guitar contest. All you’ll need is a portable CD player and, perhaps, some pretend microphones.
13 Flying Fun Hold a paper plane contest, the winner being the person to have their plane fly the furthest.
14 Encourage staff to show appreciation Have slips of paper (or a page in the intranet) entitled "Staff Appreciation Award – Nomination". Encourage staff to nominate other staff if they do something good: going out of their way for a customer or other staff member, etc. You could have a monthly award chosen from all the nominees; or simply give everyone nominated a small reward. For example, book a mobile masseur (one of the ones who does 15 minute backrubs at the desk) and give them all a massage.
15 Have a baby pictures contest Get a baby picture of a number of staff and award a prize for whoever can correctly name all of the babies. The contest could run over some time (two weeks) generating humour along the way.
16 Have a childhood secrets contest. Have staff write down one thing from their childhood that would not be known to others. Have a contest similar to the one above. Again, over the time of the contest, much humour will be generated as staff try to guess who was the one who painted the cat pink, or who won the religious studies prize in grade 6.
I tried some of the thing in my office and it really worked, such as 0rganising contest wittiest remark, best excuse, karoeke contest.
Hope it will work for all of you also.
Cheers!!
Archna
From India, Delhi
Hey Archna,
Some of these can be really adapted to make the work place a fun place. We do have “Dress Down Day” on and off just to relieve the stress of employees where employees are expected to where something really casual. This is done mostly on “uniformed” organizations.
But I really like to try on the “fun meetings”, it might really bring out positive results.
Thanks heaps for sharing!!
From Sri Lanka
Some of these can be really adapted to make the work place a fun place. We do have “Dress Down Day” on and off just to relieve the stress of employees where employees are expected to where something really casual. This is done mostly on “uniformed” organizations.
But I really like to try on the “fun meetings”, it might really bring out positive results.
Thanks heaps for sharing!!
From Sri Lanka
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