Ah-ha! You really can create a fun workplace

by Ann Fry

Imagine a world where people get up in the morning, feeling relaxed after a good night's sleep, get in their cars, drive calmly to work and are ready to face the day.

Imagine further that they go through their day, with pleasure, loving their work environment, and staying calm, stress-free and happy all day long. They love being there. They cheerfully talk to co-workers, they never have to be asked to do something more than once, and they're totally reliable.

Then they leave at the end of the day — returning home to enjoy peaceful, quality family time.

By the way, as I write this description, I'm not smoking any of those funny cigarettes or taking any hallucinogens.

Does this sound like you? Do you fall into that group that seems to let things "roll off their backs" like a duck? Do you go through your day in a peaceful and happy way? Or do you tend to thrive on stress and adrenalin? In fact, are you an adrenalin junkie?

How easy it is for us to forget that we really get to say how it goes. What do I mean by that? Well, we really choose how each minute of our life unfolds and how we react to it. Remember, as we've said many times before, stress is only a reaction, not a thing. Well, if it's only a reaction, then react another way.

What's it like at your workplace? As we enter the new century and millennium, you might want to evaluate how things are where you work. It doesn't matter whether you're the CEO, a manager or a front-line worker — you all spend your day in that place, so what's it like?

When you walk down the hall, what do you see? Do you see a bunch of sourpusses looking back at you? How about some folks with glassy eyes who never made it home to sleep last night because they were working on an important project? Or do you see smiling faces and hear a few laughs along the way?

How are they dressed — casual, suits, stuffy, friendly? What image do they project? Would you bring your mother there?

What's the attitude like in your workplace? Are people approachable? Helpful? Trustworthy? Can you depend on each other like teammates? Or is it an "each man for himself" kind of place? How does all that effect the overall productivity? Do things get done and do people feel good about it?

I was watching a morning news show the other day, and it gave a preview of a piece coming up that evening. The story was about a workplace that makes many of its employees wear tracking devices. With these devices, the employees can be tracked wherever they go. The trackers can see how much time is wasted and whether the company is being ripped off.

What a delightful thought. Is that what some places are turning into? We certainly hope not.

Because we're in the business of working with companies to energize and lighten up their environment, we'd like to offer a few tips on how to make sure your company has a positive image, cares about its employees and, most importantly, trusts them.

Here's what we suggest — the Five Keys to Revitalizing Your Company, designed to fit the acronym HAHAA:

• H – Hop to the occasion; always be in the moment with people. Be spontaneous; hop to whatever happens, but in a positive way. In fact, if you want, you can even do the bunny hop down the hall and pick up everyone along the way.
  
• A – Attract what you want. If you want a happy, fun workplace, then set out to attract employees who fit that model. Design a fun entrance exam. Ask each person to perform a poem, sing a song or tell a joke and to share one idea he or she has about lightening up the workplace. If the person passes the entrance exam, then hire him or her.
  
• H – Have a sense of humor. If you don't have a sense of humor, then things never will be funny and the workplace will be boring and unpleasant. Humor is all around you — just look for it.
  
• A – Act in fun ways. If you don't know fun ways, just have all the children of your employees come in for a day. They'll teach you lots of fun things to do. The distinction here is the difference between acting "childlike" and acting "childish."
  
  Childlike behavior can lead to more creative thoughts and actions. Childish behavior can interfere with the productivity of the workplace. Unfortunately, when people think there is a right way to behave at work, they cut out both childlike and childish behavior.
  
• A – Add value to all that you do. This one's a bit more serious. If you approach your work each day by doing just a bit more than you're asked to do, you'll be adding value all day long.

So, if you follow the HAHAA philosophy, you'll create that environment we asked you to imagine at the beginning of this column: You get up in the morning, drive to work in a calm manner and have a consistently great day. Someone actually will approach you at 5 o'clock and say, "It's time to go home!" And you'll say, "Oh, no, do I have to?"

One final challenge: We're committed to creating nothing but fun workplaces by 2005. Will you meet the challenge?

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Humor University specializes in helping workplaces like yours to assess the level of contentment that employees have for their jobs, assesses the "humor quotient" or "laughitude" of your work environment, and then trains and coaches you to excellence in the "Humor in the Workplace" arena.

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