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A Journal classic about the power and spirit play can bring into the workplace. Learn how to take advantage of fun.
People do not quit playing because they grow old. They grow old because they quit playing.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes
Your chances of success are directly proportional to the degree of pleasure you derive from what you do.
-Michael Korda
I never did a day's work in my life; it was all fun.
-Thomas Edison
Few organizations today are noted for their playfulness; in fact many organizations have become prisons for the human spirit and anchors for depression.
Too many of us work in monotone environments of terminal seriousness, where humor, touch, music and unpurposeful movement are considered unprofessional. A high percentage of people in organizations are unhappy and fearful and are losing hope that things will ever be better-feeling increasingly like they are trying to rollerblade on ice.
The roots of workplace numbness
A number of forces contribute to these joyless, despiriting environments, including:
* The increasingly competitive global marketplace.
* Fear of sexual harassment litigation (a friend of mine described an experience in which her airline pilot husband, when asked by a flight attendant if he wanted to hear a joke, refused, fearing some sort of sexual harassment entrapment procedure on the part of management).
* Growing pressure to engage in politically correct behavior.
* A pervasive, artificial separation between work and play.
We see play as the opposite of work, and take people seriously only when they at least maintain the appearance of working toward some result.
Some companies are discovering, however, that there is no correlation between being busy and getting results, especially those results required by unpredictable, tumultuous times. Futurist Charles Handy describes work and play as the "necessary lubricants" of the virtual workplaces we are moving toward.
What is expected of us?
Here are just a few of the results demanded of us today:
* Long-term customer loyalty
* Employees who are continually expanding their abilities to create desired results
* Energetic commitment to company goals
* Creativity and innovation
* Exceptional teamwork
Success and anachronistic acronyms..
Nearly always the quick fixes (summed up as three-letter acronyms: MBO, CQI, SPC, QFD, TQM, QOS, BPR) have failed to achieve...