Fun is important

Do you remember those terrible moments when you were in High School and you had boring teachers who bored you to death with the way they delivered the lessons? Every moment was torture. And the real tragedy is not that you were bored to death but the fact that you left the class without remembering the lessons.

Now, do you remember when you had great teachers who made learning fun? Not only did they make the lessons interesting they made you interested? You feel like you are entertained but the fact is you left the room remembering the lessons and thus, not only were you entertained, you were actually educated.

This is the reason why education today has to be entertaining and entertainment today has to be educational. National Geographic and Discovery Channel are both educational programs but they are so entertaining. Reality game shows are supposed to be entertaining but as you watch it you get educated too.

Thus the word Edu-tainment.

My partners and I run an edu-tainment company from Canada called Mad Science. Every time we do the fun science shows, children birthday parties, corporate events or classroom workshops not only do the kids have fun but they actually remembered the lessons. And the cool thing here is that they want more.

Never before has the concept of fun been more important than it is today.

Even the work place has to be a fun place. Every company needs a fun strategy.

In the book entitled: The Levity Effect, by Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher, the authors argue for lightening things up with such earnestness that it would pass for a spoof by the writers of The Office, a wonderful sitcom that revolves around a boss’s excruciatingly awkward attempts at jocular banter with the staff.

The book’s contains advice such as “start each day smiling in the mirror”, “smile at your family”, “go easy on the kids”, etc…

The authors point out; all this is justified because “fun is a serious business”.

There is a “connection between the punch line and the bottom line.” Lighten things up at work and you will be “laughing all the way to the bank”. The book claims.

A remarkable amount of evidence supports the argument that levity pays:

“Fun at work,” Messrs Gostick and Christopher explain, “can provide a competitive advantage, help attract and retain employees, and provide the spark to jumpstart creativity.” A fun workplace improves communication and morale, raises the level of employee trust, lowers employee turnover and increases profits.

With today’s younger people joining the work place, one observation I have training them is that a fun work place rank as high as the compensation or benefits they are receiving that motivates them to stay with the company. Working and enjoying the people they work with is equally important to them. 

An organization called the Great Place to Work Institute has consistently found that companies that are classified as  “great” score unusually high marks from employees on the question “Are you working in a fun environment?” Great companies scored 81 percent on this, compared to 62 percent for companies ranked “good”. Employees who rate their managers’ sense of humor as “above average” rate the likelihood they will still be on the job in a year’s time at almost 90 percent. Those who rate their managers’ humor as “average” or “below average” rate their chances of staying at only 77.5 percent.

Fun firms use a wide range of humor strategies. But the challenge of course as many HR practitioners would warn is how to have fun in a respectable and decent manner. In other words, propriety is the name of the game.

The best bet may be to hire people with a sense of humor.

That was the philosophy of Herb Kelleher, the legendary boss of Southwest Airlines, an airline that is actually a pleasure to fly and has remained profitable over the years. And may I hasten to say that to create a fun environment is always a leadership issue and a leadership skill.

Lighten up but do not forget it’s still business.

I love fun. I make my talks and trainings a fun experience so that people would remember the lessons. But it’s fun not foolishness. It’s humor not folly.

Laughter is good medicine as the Bible would say but don’t just try to have fun for fun’s sake alone. There should be a productive purpose behind the effort.

Or else you might hear something like this: When you wake up in the morning smile. When you go to work smile. Smile at your wife, smile at your kids. Smile at your bosses and smile at your cubicle friends. This message is brought to you by The National Mental Hospital.

(Francis Kong will be the lead trainer for the Dr. John Maxwell’s “Developing the Leader Within You” leadership program this May 13-14 at EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. For further inquiries contact Inspire Leadership Consultancy Inc. 632-8129125).