Why the “f” word is important if you want motivated employees and strong teams

Posted by shonagarner on Monday, March 14, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Why the “f” word is important if you want motivated employees and strong teams

Let me ask you a question. When you were at school, were there some subjects you were naturally drawn towards; seemed to pick up easily and thoroughly enjoyed? Did you find them interesting? Did you concentrate more? Did you work harder in those subjects?

I bet you did!

I also bet there were some teachers you had who managed to make even the seemingly un-interesting stuff bearable, often by injecting some humour or fun group activity into the learning process!

The world’s best managers seem to instinctively remember there’s a direct correlation between “fun” and motivation! Fun, is the “f” word which seems to make a huge, positive difference to the way people perform!

Take a look at these great video clips – only a few minutes long – but FUN!

“Fun” can give you a more productive team!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJMOI5_FKwg&feature=player_embedded

Rather than hindering productivity at work, fun seems to increase people’s sense of satisfaction, and positively effect real hard line measures such as productivity, creative ideas, staff retention and, of course, profit. More than that, there are numerous studies showing having fun at work helps reduce stress, conflict, boredom and fatigue. It appears to unite people, improve communication and creates an atmosphere which feels full of positive energy.

The bottom line is people are infinitely more productive when they are enjoying themselves!

So, how much fun do you think exists in your team? What do you do to help create an element of fun into everyday work activities for you and everyone on your team?

3 simple steps to injecting more fun into your workplace:

• Show your team these two videos in a team meeting and ask them to identify any tasks they have to do routinely which they find repetitive or boring.

• If you’ve a big enough team, split them into groups of 3 or 4, and give them 10 minutes to come up with as many ways as they can of making any of the boring tasks more “fun”.

• Agree as a group to implement at least 1 idea – and to review progress at next team meeting.

I promise you, even the simple activity above will lighten mood, involve your team, generate a few laughs and make people feel better! (And if you include a few fancy buns and nibbles whilst they brainstorm, even better!)

And I’ve added these videos to my blog – if you implement, please do let us know what you did!

For more information on ways you can improve team meetings, and employee motivation do take a look at our online management resources which are specifically designed to help you get answers to common people management problems – fast!

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For more information to help you with the people side of management,
including how to improve employee motivation and get the best out of your team, take a look at these great resources: