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All Work and No Play
May 22
How’s that 80-hour workweek working for you? You know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. (Nope, I’m not going to bother with the PC version — it is what it is.)
Robyn McMaster has a very interesting post on her excellent Brain Based Biz site called Play to Recharge Your Brain. Robyn offers some very good suggestions to put a little play in your day. Plus, she links to a Psychology Today Burnout Test. Yikes. Read it and weep.
Do you have HR programs in place that promote play? Um, no, meetings are not play, I don’t care if each of them start out with a “teambuilding exercise.”
One HR executive I know used to have a daily game of P-I-G in her office with her team. They had a small basketball hoop and a Nerf basketball. The winner usually was the one who could bank a shot off the window, hit the ceiling, and get nothing but net. It was real play…and one of the highest work performance groups ever.
About the Author
Frank Roche
Frank started IFRACTAL over 7 years ago with Sarah Chambers. Together, they've created HR communications and HR software for some of the world's leading companies. Frank is also studying Flamenco guitar and origami.
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I like this and agree that Robyn’s blog is fab. This is especially important in the creative environment. There is a myth that creativity is freeform. As discussed in Made to Stick this is not the case and creativity tends to be at its best where there is a structure and fun should be part of this.
Scott, I agree, I think Robyn’s blog is really great stuff. And the Made to Stick reference…right on! Fun is as important as the grind.
Fun does also not have to be completely divorced from a typical day work style. My favorite consultant and I were in my office just yesterday laughing like 8 yrs talking about succession planning in our HR department. Crying because you are laughing so hard not only fills you with creativity stimulating endorphins but gives you a shot of O2 that has to help. If you are in any kind of creative business making sure that fun is part of your standard approach will make you better at your job.
Right on Bill. I mentioned some research quoted in the brilliant “Made to Stick” by the Heath brothers. The notion is that “Creativity starts with templates”. The research identified 6 principles – Pictorial Analogy, Extreme Consequence, Extreme Situations, Competition, Interactive Experiments and Dimensionality Alteration.
At one of my earlier work settings, a group of us enjoyed the lunch hour playing a card game, “Dutch Blitz.” One player would literally get down on the floor and have tantrums as she lifted her legs up and down in disgust when things didn’t go well in the game and we’d all laugh. It took me a whole year before I could play well enough to beat one player who won every single game for space of time. Everyone wanted to defeat her and it was a real contest to see who could. This card game really lifted laughter and fun to my work day. Hmmm…Frank, your thoughts inspire me to consider another post on play in the workplace.