The Serious Business of fun

[Doug Shaw]

I'm learning at a ferocious rate, it's just so exciting. It's great fun. Among the many great people I've met these past few days is Chris Boardman, the gold medal winning time triallist. He talked with me about some essential ingredients for high performing teams.

Value diversity
Clear Definition of Roles
Parked Egos
Share Praise
Trust
Listening
Fun

The fun one is rattling round in my head. It needs to get out and be heard. There. I've done it. I'd love to hear about what the serious business of fun means to you?

Have a great day!

[David Zinger]

I love invited fun but not forced fun. Humor and Playfulness are my number 1 signature strengths. I need them to thrive. If you want to read the poem on forced fun you can click here.

[Doug Shaw]

Oh yes, love it, invite it, don't force it. Wonderful poem. I'm liking your signature strengths too. Reference playfulness...I'm curious David, how can you have two number one signature strengths? Is that like a double A side single (cripes how old....?)

[David Zinger]

I am almost 55. This is the way that the VIA Signature Strength Survey categorizes. I guess they see a very strong link (as do I) between humor and play. As you well know, humor can be strong stuff.

[Doug Shaw]

Hi David. How rude of me not to finish my sentence. I meant how old I felt that I could recall a double a side record. I will look into the VIA reference, sounds interesting not heard of that before today. Many thanks as always.

[Doug Shaw]

I raised this serious fun business on another forum and received a reply so wonderful I wanted to share it with you all.

Isn't it interesting how easy it is to muddle words up and think one means the same as another? I mean for example, how we think 'important' and 'serious' mean the same thing, so I see lots of people with long faces saying "This is serious and we have to serious about it", when they may find it much more helpful to feel, "This is important and we can be caring about it." Similar confusions occur between 'fun' and 'trivial', between 'complicated' and 'complex', between 'hard' and 'soft' as in 'hard', technical skills and 'soft' emotional, interpersonal skills, which many people find very hard to learn.

Yet another example is confusing 'simple' with 'easy'. It is a feature of much great artistry that it looks very simple and easy, but it takes great talent, inisght and practice to achive that apparent ease and perfect rightness that makes the viewer think, "I can do that".
By the time he was twelve years old, Picasso could paint as well as Goya and Velazquez (you can see his paintings to judge for youself). He said he then spent the rest of life learning to paint like a child' That was his 'fun'.

In 1992 Mihaly Cziksmentmihalyi wrote "Flow" about that rare state people sometime achieve when doing something totally absorbing. I think Flow is a very high state of fun.
He listed the characteristics of Flow:
1. We have a chance to complete what we begin
2. We can concentrate
3. The task has clear goals
4. We get immediate feedback
5. We act with deep,effortless involvement that removes the worrries of everyday life
6. We have sense of control over our actions
7. Our concern for, even conscious awareness of, ourselves disappears, yet our sense of self emerges stronger after the flow experience is over.
8. Our sense of time is altered, hours seem like minutes and seconds can seemingly extend forever.

I wish you a fun and flowful day and life!

[Frode Heimen]

Fun at the office is essential. As a manager or leader you must dare to be different, and dare to allow acts of crazykindness around the office. I once felt that the mood was down at my department, I changed into a batman costume and ran around the office for 30 minutes just being crazy. That sparkeled the mood at once and everybody was having a great day. I have dressed up as santa and gave out gifts at christmas and I have dressed up as a Chef and made crazy food that almost nobody dared to taste.

This is fun at work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFyW5s_7ZWc

When you hire, value diversity is a must. A room full of similar people must be so boooooooring. I refuesed to hire more "geeks" last time and hired some nice looking ladies with an great attitude, hoping they will fuzz up the work enviroment. My departement had 23 employees and 2 of them girls, so just being a boy left you out in the cold at my last round of interviews. I have experienced that diversity is an important factor in creating a great atmosphere.

:)
Cheers
Frode H.
http://www.nevermindthemanager.com

[Doug Shaw]

Something else that Chris Boardman spoke about, and encouraged, was thinking...differently. He posed a question, "How many 'f's are there in the following sentence?"

Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years

I hope the answer surprises you as much as it did me and will encourage you to think differently too. Have a lovely weekend!

[Jason Thomson]

A funny thing about the word "fun." I work extensively in the development of a marketing program for a recognition program at a leading financial institution. During interviews with branch and business unit managers, I hear the word "fun" a whole lot. The challenge comes in how we communicate that to others across the organization. As soon as we place the word "fun" in materials we've developed, we find that we compromise credibility. In response, we demonstrate the fun and business impact of it in ways that draw the reader into our marketing. The word fun rarely appears.

[Doug Shaw]

Thanks Jason. I like that, a lot. I agree the word itself causes weird happenings, the action, the demonstration as you suggest, causes great......fun (dammit!!). Appreciate you getting in touch.

D

[Derik Mocke]

Great thread Doug. It interesting that in years gone by people thought of fun as something you do at a conference or a Friday afternoon. Today people realize that fun is something that should happen WHILE you are working…not something separate!

I think we, as humans, are wired to be more productive and creative when we are having fun. Just look at toddlers. They learn by having fun. No wonder they say we learn the most in the first 5 years of our lives.

D

[Doug Shaw]

Thanks Derik, like your thinking. S'funny but the global telco I've just left didn't get/have/do/talk about fun. Well maybe they talked a bit but they didn't get/have/do, or encourage/nurture. I often talked and demonstrated how much fun work is...could be. It's an odd tide to swim against. Your toddler point is fab and if I may, I'll use it next time the demonstrattion of fun is met with confused/quizzical.

Cheers - Doug

[Derik Mocke]

Thanks for the reply Doug. You're right it can and should be fun...and it CAN become part of a culture. I always believed that a great place to start is with meeting ice breakers...although it shouldn't end there. Here is a link to some meeting ice breakers on my site

Keep well

D