I’ve long been a proponent of fun in the workplace.  While many people associate fun with “goofing off” or “slacking,” I learned the opposite to be true at an early age during an experience working a 30-day catering concession contract for my dad when I was in high school called the Parade of Homes.  By infusing fun into our daily routines, our uniforms, the layout of the stand and how we interacted with one another, I saw that fun and productivity could go hand-in-hand.  That when people are having fun, they actually have potential to be more productive.   

A big thank you to Colbért Callen, my friend and teammate at Footers for inspiring today’s post and for sharing the following with me.  Almost 10 years ago, Volkswagen ran a campaign to see if creating fun, would lead to people doing the “right thing” more often.  Their goal was to encourage more people to drive eco-friendly cars, but they also wanted to apply their “fun theory” to other walks of life.  From picking up trash and recycling, to taking the stairs and rewarding people for not speeding, they created experiments and filmed them to test their theory.  Their theory was correct, and the results were impressive.  My favorite is when they turned stairs into a piano and found that 66% more people took the stairs after the installation.  You can watch the full video here.

Fun is not only one of our core values, it’s part of our philosophy at Footers and is ingrained in our culture.  "Love what you do” is the first line of our mission statement and we believe that when people love their jobs and have fun at work, they provide a higher level of service.  I’ve never received great service from someone and thought, “they must really hate their job.”  I also believe that people are overall happier and get more enjoyment out of life when they are having fun.  I continue to be inspired by our team as they infuse fun into their work. I love to see how they create games that expedite clean-up at events, or engage in mini competitions to see who can come up with the most innovative solutions to challenges we are facing, or how they organize various activities at lunch that bring our team closer together.  I truly believe that our focus on culture and emphasis on fun, has led to much of the success we have had as a company at Footers.

What if we all strived to create more fun in our workplaces?  Not with distractions that diminish productivity, but with innovative ideas that inspire people to do a great job.  What if we got rid of the red tape that demoralizes our team and blocks their creativity?  And instead opened the door and cleared a path for people to contribute in meaningful ways?  I think we all have a spirit inside us that wants fun in our lives and as we grow into adults, that spirit gets quieted by responsibility and the need to conform.  Today, I encourage you to think about where you can have more fun in your life.  If we all have more fun doing what we love to do, then we can reach higher levels of potential by bringing more joy and fulfillment into our lives and the workplace.

SEE THE FUN IN ACTION:

• We still have some spots available for the MIBE Workshop: August 5-6th, 2024

• Registration will open August 1st for the MIBE Summit: January 26-28th, 2025

• We are almost SOLD OUT so act fast if you are interested in MIBE Retreats: November 16-20th, 2024