Joy and Play at Work

There is ample evidence that a joy-filled workplace improves financial performance. The workplace should be fun and fulfilling. Fun means rewarding, exciting, and creative. Sports and games help us understand what brings joy to the workplace. In this kind of working environment, our talents are fully exerted. We felt a lot of fun to use our talents and experiences accumulated through years of hard work. Joy at work gives people the freedom to use their talents and skills for the benefits of society, without being crushed or controlled by autocratic supervisors. People want to have a chance to make the most of their abilities to meet the needs of their families while doing something useful for society.

In many companies the employee’s talents are rarely used and often go unnoticed. Many companies have made the workplace a frustrating and joyless place where people do what they’re told and have few ways to participate in decisions or fully use their talents.

People become passive under the control of the bosses. In many companies we could easily see that when supervisors were in plant, the technician tended to wait for them to manage the situation. Often staff technicians were more engaged and reacted more quickly to problems without bosses looking over their shoulders.

Paternalism keeps people in a state of childlike independence. It prevents workers from taking control of their work and lives. They are never in a position to take risks or make decisions, and so never develop to their full potential. In the end, paternalism kills any chance of joy at work. When bosses make all the decisions, we are apt to feel frustrated and powerless, like overgrown children being told what to do by our parents. Treating employees like children is not in their best interest, nor does it serve the goal of an organization.

Ordinary workers need independence and a feeling of control if they are going to take on responsibility, show initiative, and be willing to risk failure. Putting one’s talents on the line is essential to creating a healthy and fun workplace. Most people will flourish in a liberated workplace. A liberated workplace brings much happiness, independence, and sense of being an adult. In this kind of workplace people are assumed to be thoughtful, creative, trustworthy, and capable of making decisions.

The assumption that people all over the world are unique, creative thinkers, fallible, capable of learning, trustworthy, capable of making decisions and willing to be held accountable really made sense to me. People accomplish through empowerment, freedom to act, decision-making, not having to be told what to do, but being trusted to make good decisions. Freedom and responsibilities help people learn rapidly and feel like owners.

A modern business can no longer run by a few people who think and many people who do what they are told - the traditional military command-and-control model. Today, decisions cannot be made in the old authoritarian manner. They need interaction, intuitive reflection, and the fostering of collaborative mental models. They need play. They need creativity. They need learning. This massage goes against the traditional way in which most people look at their career position. They do not think their job in terms of learning. They feel that their leadership depends on their “knowing” - their ability to project self-assured confidence in their own information. The corollary notion, that “the best way to learn is through play,” makes the message even less palatable.

We need to design organizations that encourage people to look beyond job security and seek the rewards that come with a creative, enterprising approach to work. Many of the world’s large organizations are filled with people trapped in the dead-end goal of seeking security. It is the enemy of joy at work. We need to ask, where is the love for creativity and accomplishment? Where are the other unique traits and gifts and frailties that make us human? Security is hollow substitute for a rewarding, stimulating workplace.

Rigid job definitions are not compatible with joyous workplace. Managers should treat people like adults, trusting their honesty, judgment, maturity, and professionalism rather than relying on detailed procedures, manuals, and minute supervisory oversight. Managers should increase the chances of creating a rewarding, exciting, vibrant, successful, and fun workplace.

Fun workplace is one that allows people to work in an environment that is most consistent with human nature. In many of my interactions with people in the workplace, I asked the questions, “What is the most important factors that makes a workplace rewarding, satisfying, exciting, and fun? The typical answers I get:

· “Good friends”
· “Good environment”
· “It’s challenging”
· “I get to do what I am good at”
· “Fair pay”
· “I learn alot”
· “Doing something worthwhile”
· “I’m needed”
· “I’m thought as a person”
· “Winning”
· “Part of the team”
· “Significant responsibility”

People make pay an overly important factor when they choose a job. Most people find out later that their happiness in the workplace has very little to do with the level of financial compensation they receive.

A special workplace has many ingredients. The feeling that you are part of a team, a sense of community, the knowledge that what you do has real purpose – all these things help make work fun. But by far most important factor is whether you are able to use your talents and skills to do something useful, significant, and worthwhile. The biggest joy is the opportunity to use our abilities when it really counts. From this perspective the key to a great workplace is feeling wanted and important.

Fun at work start with individual initiative and individual control. Individuals, not bureaucracy, make the decisions and hold themselves accountable. This process involves creativity, careful analysis, planning, and disciplined execution. The goal should be to design a workplace where the maximum numbers of individuals have an opportunity to make important decisions, undertake actions, and assume responsibility for the results. People given responsibility for decisions do not want to fail. A working environment should be based on principles of trust, freedom, and individuals acting for the good of the larger group. The power to decide must be given to as many people as possible if their individual talents are to be fully utilized.

Research shows that when employees feel like tightly controlled robots, with no opportunity to make decisions or take action on their own, productivity and performance decline.
Ideally, the decision maker is the person whose area is most affected, or one who initiated an idea, discovered a problem, or saw an opportunity. The decision maker then seeks advice from leaders and from peers. If it is unclear who the decision maker should be, the leader selects an individual to gather advice and make the final decision. Before any decision can be made on any company matter, the decision maker must seek advice. The bigger the issue or problem, the wider the net that is thrown to gather pertinent information from people inside and outside the company.

Important things happen when the advice process is used by an individual before making a decision or taking action:

§ It draws people whose advice is sought into the question at hand. They learn about the issue and become knowledgeable adviser. The sharing of information reinforces the feeling of community. Each person whose advice is sought feels honored and needed.

§ Asking an advice is an act of humility, which is one of the most important characteristics of a fun workplace. The act alone says, “I need you.” The decision maker and the adviser are pushed into a closer relationship.

§ Making decision is on-the-job education. Advice comes from people who have an understanding of the situation and care about the outcome. No other form of education or training can match this real time experience.

§ Chances of reaching the best decisions are greater in team approach than under conventional top-down approaches. The amount of fun in an organization is largely a function of the number of individuals allowed to make decisions. The advice process stimulates initiative and creativity, which is enhanced by wisdom/experience from knowledgeable people elsewhere in the organization. The opportunity to make important decisions after participating in an intensive advice process helped people learn in an accelerated way. But freedom at workplace requires people who can reason, make decisions, and take responsibility for their actions.

I could easily see for myself that problem solving (and decision making) was a learning process. It was, in fact, hardly individual at all. It was primarily a social process, simple, unheroic, and unscientific.

Suppose that you and I are part of a team, holding meetings to make a decision. Look closely at what happens during such a meeting. We talk. Ideally, we talk freely and openly. If we have any hope of reaching a decision, we know the meeting can’t be dominated by one person - certainly not by the boss. We know that nobody in the room has any solution at hand. We will have to struggle together to find an answer to a situation that concerns us all. If the meeting is to be effective, therefore, none of us can lose patience with the thought processes of our colleagues.

Groups that perform a variety of functions are an essential part of a successful and fun workplace. When teams handle a variety of tasks, individuals are able to make full use of their skills, and work becomes more challenging and enjoyable. In team, individuals play roles and maintain their identities. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Building good team depends on hiring the right kind of people.

Education is a matter of performing tasks in an environment that encourages feedback and constructive criticism. In other words, we learn best when we discuss our work with other, make decisions that matter, and find out from others whether what we did was right or wrong. The people consulted along the way are apt to learn even more.

Working and taking responsibility for a turbine is the best way to learn about the turbine; maintaining water-treatment equipment is the best way to learn about maintaining the equipment; and being a supervisor is the best way to learn how to be an effective leader. This explains why apprenticeship programs have been so effective over the ages. Group projects and performance reviews are also important learning setting for everyone – certainly more important than classroom lectures or formal training programs. All these learning experiences are made more valuable when leaders act as mentors and advisors.

Most senior executives seem to believe that God or the board created them to make all the important decisions. But every decision made at headquarter takes away responsibilities from the people elsewhere in the organization and reduces the number of people who feel they are making an effective contribution to the organization. Joy comes from freedom. When senior executives assume the power of command-and-control model, the people who are operating units don’t get as much excitement and fulfillment from their work. It is a shame that most managers give little thought to how their decisions affect the working environment for their employees.

Controllers are not only joy-killers, but they also inhibit a company’s creativity, and in this process, dampen its long-term chances for success. The more you try to control people, the less responsible and accountable they become. Giving up control requires trust. This approach requires leaders to trust those responsible to them – because it is the subordinate’s actions and decisions that decide the success of the leaders.

Most people want to know how well they performed. The goal should be to have everyone in the company feel like a volunteer. Volunteers are typically enthusiastic, energetic, and effective. Growth, responsibility, adulthood, and fun come from making decisions and being held accountable for the results.

Moral leaders serve an organization rather than control it. Their goal is to create a community that encourages individuals to take initiative, practice self-discipline, make decisions, and assume responsibility for their actions. The form of servant leadership is often misunderstood as being hands off, even passive. It is just the opposite. The true servant leaders are engaged in every aspect of organization’s life, from suggesting radical new ideas and strategies to teaching the organization’s principles and values. This kind of leader is never passive or far from the center of the organization’s important plans, processes, and actions.

Employees in operating units are usually wiser than executive think, and if they make the wrong decision, they derive enormous satisfaction and grow tremendously from the very act of making it. Failure and mistakes are also part of what makes games and work fun. Failure is inevitable in any endeavor. It is also an essential element of learning and eventual success. Failures, in turn, teach us humility, and because experience is often painful, we learn indelible lessons. While winning and losing do influence how we feel about work, they are not the key to fun. Indeed, failure is nearly as important as success in creating a great workplace. The system guru Edward Deming said that a leader’s job is to drive fear out of the organization so that employees will feel comfortable making decisions on their own.

A leader character is more important than his or her skills. Good leadership starts with a person’s character. I am not sure whether character necessarily boosts profits and share price, but I am convinced that it is essential to creating a fun workplace. The most important character traits of a leader are courage and integrity; humility and the willingness to give up power; love and passion for the people who work for them.

A person’s character speaks far more lauder and with more lasting effect than any speech or letter to employees. Our character is transparent to those around us. Leaders must realize this. The people around us are not fooled even if we try to cover up our flaws. We are an open book.

Most employees make corporate decisions on the basis of what they believe their leaders’ value. How do they determine what their leaders think is important? They pay attention to criteria used for determining compensation. They read company presentations to shareholders and banks. They consider what factors their bosses use in making decisions. They track how leaders steward corporate resources. They watch how leaders live their lives.

The question is not whether we have values, but which values and principles really guide our behavior. Values and principles mean something only when they affect everything we do, every day of the week. It doesn’t mean we consistently meet the standards we set for ourselves. They were our aspirations and were felt deeply, but we are fallible like anyone else.

It is not essential to be a great visionary. A leader must communicate a vision, but that vision can come from a colleague or someone outside the organization. Nor does a leader have to be an accomplished strategist or analyst. Again, strategy and analysis can be undertaken by others inside or outside the organization. A leader doesn’t even have to be an effective communicator.

Finally, a leader doesn’t even have to be inspirational. People usually posses the motivation, discipline, and inner strength to act in a way that is true to themselves. The role of leader is to create an environment that allows these qualities to flourish.

Humility is at the core of a leader’s heart. Humility is understanding who you really are, regardless of your title or education, your wealth or status. Humility underlies the impulse to make others do better.

Schoolteachers seemed to adapt to this concept of leadership more quickly. The best teachers are rewarded by performance of their students and the success of former students. Leaders who want to increase joy and success in the workplace must learn to take most of their personal satisfaction from the achievements of the people they lead, not from the power they exercise.

In “Good to Great,” Jim Collins wrote the results of his ten year research that companies that seem to do better in the long run were run by understated leaders. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy - these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln than Caesar.

The Coach was not the best shooter or the best defender. He did not make decisions for his teammates. But he was their leader. He served his teammates and made them better. The most important aspect of this leadership style is letting others make important decisions. When that happens, leaders dignify and honor their subordinates. At the moment power is shared, everyone is in a position of equality. People feel needed and valued because they are needed and valued.

Not having the chance to make decisions within the organization in which one works is a great tragedy, leading to hopelessness and despair. Picture this. I am your supervisor, and I walk over to you with pencil in hand and tell you to take it. You reach for the pencil, but I won’t let it go. So I say, “What is wrong with you? Why can’t I delegate the pencil to you?”

Courage is also required when senior executives are asked to surrender a large portion of their authority to others. When executives give power away, they often feel insecure, as if they are not doing their jobs when they delegate decisions to subordinates. Not only are decisions being made by the people who are most familiar with the facts, but also the act of making them gives more people a real stake in the organization’s performance. To attain this goal we should allow every working person to be free to take actions and make decisions. This will make us more passionate about our work and ensure that organizations have the best chance to succeed economically.

I believe that leaders exercise tight control only on issues that affect the shared values of an organization. These share beliefs are the bedrock of an organization’s sense of community. They are glue that holds everything together. All other decisions, including those with major financial implications, should be delegated to the team members who are closest to the matter under consideration - to a lower level employee with firsthand knowledge.

It is important for leaders to distinguish an organization’s unchanging principles from its constantly changing strategy. The former is a function of moral precepts that have been tested and proved over millennia. The latter is tied to market conditions and the strength and skills of an organization.

Max De Pree says in - “Leading Without Power” -, “We are working primarily for love. Love prompts us to visit our employees around the world. Love makes us want to work extra time. Love pushes us to do whatever it takes to help others succeed. And love forgives mistakes.

Leaders who create dynamic, rewarding, enjoyable workplace love people. Love is an act of humility that says, “I need you.” Love affirms that the other person is worthy and important. Most of us know what love demands. If I love the people who work in my organization, I will allocate time to be with them, to know them. Leaders can’t serve the people without spending time with them.

The traits of good leaders – courage, integrity, humility, love and passion for people who work with them – are essential to the roles they play in the workplace. I believe that leaders have three main roles. They are responsible for interpreting the organization’s shared values and principles. They are advisors to people in the organization. And they are collective conscience, pushing the organization to reach its goal and live up to its ideals.

This is part of what Max De Pree refers to when he suggested that leaders need to “define reality.” Where we stand relative to our goals? How are we doing relative to our competitors?
Who is most responsible for our success or our failure? What are the consequences of our performance? It would be wonderful if each of us routinely answered these questions and adjusted our work habits accordingly. Leaders must find ways to stimulate self-discipline, self-assessment, and individual and team accountability.

Goal and mission tend to shape the behavior of organizations and the people in them, therefore corporate must have a broader and more meaningful purpose than simply making money. Profit is like breathing. Breathing is not the goal of life, but it is pretty good evidence of whether or not you are alive. Superior performance in today’s world must have both a moral and a financial dimension.

The most important questions in business are often never asked:
What is our motive? What is our purpose? Are they worthwhile?
Motive and purpose guide our behavior, color our decisions, and add or subtract joy from work. We need to keep asking this questions, and use the answers to measure our success.

While capitalism offered spectacular improvements in the standard of living and undreamed –of opportunities for the ambitious and adventuresome, it did not offer relief from self-responsibility. It counted on it. It was a system geared to individuals who trusted themselves – trusted their minds and judgment – and who believed that the pursuit of achievement and happiness was their birthright. It was a system geared to self-esteem. In this sense work became a vehicle for character development and economic sustainability.