They say that the best work happens when you’re enjoying yourself, but how many of us work in an office where you genuinely have fun? When Karl was young fun was not seen as relevant – he remembers being told, they call it work for a reason, it's not suppose to be fun! However, the traditional values of respect and equality in the workplace are no longer enough; instead many companies are now turning to quirky and innovative values to round out their corporate culture. Creating an environment where work isn’t just work, but a place where lifestyle and interests align is where the attention is starting to be placed.
As an intern at Forum for the Future – an independent non-profit that works with global business and governments developing practical solutions for a sustainable future – Kyla's attention wasn't caught by their pension plan or family leave provisions, but rather the fifth value listed on the colourful bookmark she was handed when she started. The values read, from top to bottom: Commitment, Respect, Cooperation & Learning, Openness, and Fun. To find ‘Fun’ deliberately included and promoted in a company’s culture felt to her like finding the Holy Grail.
Forum’s culture epitomizes the new age of work. In addition to promoting fun through various activities, such as company away-days, once a month Forum encourages its employees to take an afternoon off to pursue personal development through what they call ‘Inspiration Space’ which could range from attending an art exhibit to a poetry slam (Karl is not entirely what a poetry slam is but given that poetry is involved it can be too dangerous).
The company is not alone, however, in this new approach to leadership. In an interview with the New York Times, Jeff Weiner, chief executive of LinkedIn explained that a unique company value system “helps with motivating. It helps with inspiring. It helps with productivity.” LinkedIn’s culture contains five dimensions; that of transformation, integrity, collaboration, results, and most originally, humour. Karl recently did an interview with University of Colorado’s Peter McGraw about how the place of humour at work, you can watch here:
While not all companies have yet to explicitly enshrine these new trendy values into their culture, they are indirectly being fostered in day-to-day work environments. With work dominating our lives in so many ways and with the constant expectations to produce a quantity of quality results, it only makes sense that we should be having fun along the way. We like to believe Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group, would agree with us, as he has said "People ask me, 'Why don't you have some fun now?' but they were missing the point. As far as I was concerned, this was fun. Fun is at the core of the way I like to do business, and it has been key to everything I've done from the outset."
At LVMH, for example, it is up to individual managers to nurture the spirit of fun. In the UK one way this is done is through an annual group Rounders tournament, arranged by Britain’s LVMH HR team, allowing the different brands to have some good-natured competition over something other than profit margins.
More fundamentally, fun and games allow for the barriers between departments to be broken down. This creates a more open and communicative atmosphere, and consequently a more creative and productive workplace. If colleagues are able to freely share and exchange ideas, like friends over a cup of coffee, rather than remaining isolated individuals, companies can shine.
Undoubtedly there is a fine line where fun becomes unprofessional and unproductive, but tapping into the right balance is where you can find the golden nugget. Not only can companies generate an inspirational work environment through personalizing their value system but this will also help attract dedicated and compatible future employees.
For the next generation entering the workforce, this trend of peculiar yet meaningful values inspires hope that no longer should fun and professionalism be at odds; taking care of your employees will go beyond just issuing a regular paycheck.
This was written with Kyla Mandel, who is a recent McGill University grad working on a masters in journalism the London College of Communication.
