ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?
Are you a supervisor or manager looking for a way to boost productivity in your department? Management consultant Matt Weinstein, author of the book Managing lo Have Fun, would suggest you find ways to inject a big dose of fun into your work environment. Weinstein, founder of Playfair Inc. in Berkeley, California, contends that introducing more fun Into a work setting can benefit the bottom line by boosting employee morale, loyalty, and productivity.</br></br>ÛÏWhat keeps people motivated, in large part, is a nurturing environment," says Weinstein. ÛÏBefore we ask employees to deliver service with a smile, we first have to ask ourselves, 'Are we giving them something to smile about?1"</br></br>Weinstein contends that employees who have more fun at work convey their enthusiasm to customers, creating better service and customer relationships, and more sales as a result. Û÷People like to do business with people who like to do business," he asserts.</br></br>Karen Donnalley, inside sales executive/general business for IBM's North America Sales Center in Atlanta, agrees. Donnalley, who has injected fun into her sales environment with such activities as Crazy Sock Day, Crazy Hat Day, and a recent 'Ocho de Mayo' Celebration, says, ÛÏI believe happy employees to The Washington Post project their job satisfaction on the telephone to customers. I see a direct correlation between the fun activities we do and the production and revenues that are subsequently produced."</br></br>The telecommunications company Sprint has firsthand experience with the bottom line benefits of fun too. On February 27th of this year, the 3,000 employees of Sprint's Business Division, including those based in Vienna, Va., participated in ÛÏNational Fun at Work Day,Û an event sponsored by Weinstein's Playfair Inc. For the event, Sprint employees formed 12-25 person teams, each of which was given a disposable camera. Each team then had to pick 10-15 cliches from a list of 20, and create photographic representations of those phrases in just 90 minutes.