Boston Red Sox Phone Home (with Tin Cans and String)

Recently, Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was ejected from a game and demonstrated his displeasure by battering (pun intended) the clubhouse phone that connects to the bullpen. Bad David, bad!

The next day he and others returned to the park to discover that instead of the destroyed telephone there were 2 tin cans with strings in the dugout and 2 more in the bullpen. Sweet.

For me this was immediate nostalgia because as a child that was how we imagined making telephone calls, i.e., via tin can and long string.

And to this day my dad explains that he doesn't use a cell phone because he prefers tin can and string.

So this whole incident might not be funny and warm to anyone but me, but I loved it and it is such a cool way of defusing a tough situation through a little fun in the workplace!

Bring a Wading Pool to Work :)

I found this lovely comic in my local paper and decided to share it for the spirit if not for the practicality of the advice it offers.

http://www.gocomics.com/roseisrose/2013/07/30

The truth is, however, that a little break during the day refreshes the body and reinvigorates the mind. I was thinking of this recently when I reflected on elementary school. We had a morning recess; lunch; and an afternoon recess. And all of those represented breaks from the active learning process and left us to go off to other places - real or not - rechannel our energy, and then return with a clearer mind and better focus.

This already happens. People in our organizations and on our teams find these moments on their own or with friends and colleagues. So why not make it an intentional part of your culture?

As for me, I'm thinking about investing in wading pool!

National Hot Dog Day is July 23

Summer evokes many images for me but a Chicago hot dog, on a steamed sesame bun, with mustard, onions, sweet peppers, relish and a crunchy dill pickle is right near top. Happily there is a place not too far where I live that serves a pretty good dog and that's where I'll go tomorrow to celebrate National Hot Dog Day. So whether you prefer brats to hot dogs or polish to Andouille, put aside your culinary difference tomorrow and treat your to one or the other or as many as you can. For the non-meat eaters, veggie and tofu dogs can be obtained.

Thanks again to my cousin David for teaching me about this important date!

Cheers :)

Leadership: Fun is part of a leader's job!

I want to thank my friend Mark Hines for turning me on to this.

The Six Deadly Sins of Leadership (per Jack and Suzy Welch)

6. Skipping the Fun Part
What is it about celebrating that makes managers so nervous? Maybe throwing a party doesn’t seem professional, or it makes people worry that they won’t look serious to the powers that be, or that, if things get too happy in the office, people will stop working their tails off.

Whatever the reason, too many leaders don’t celebrate enough. To be clear here, we do not define celebrating as conducting one of those stilted little company-orchestrated events that everyone hates, in which the whole team is marched out to a local restaurant for an evening of forced merriment when they’d rather be home. We’re talking about sending a team to Disney World with their families, or giving each team member tickets to a show or a movie, or handing each member of the team a new iPod.

What a lost opportunity. Celebrating makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Imagine a team winning the World Series without champagne spraying everywhere. You can’t! And yet companies win all the time and let it go without so much as a high-five.

Work is too much a part of life not to recognize the moments of achievement. Grab as many as you can. Make a big deal out of them.

That’s part of a leader’s job too – the fun part.

This content was originally presented as a lecture at the Jack Welch Management Institute

National D(oh!)nut Day

The first Friday in June is designated National Donut Day and for good reasons. See http://donutdayusa.com/ for more information. This year National Donut Day occurs on June 7

But why not make it a special day and celebrate Donuts and D'ohs! Yes, combine Homer Simpson's favorite expression with one of his favorite foods ((http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/?id=bst&media=WAVS&type=TV_Shows&movie=Simpsons&quote=mdonuts.txt&file=mdonuts.wav
) . After each D'oh moment shared, have a bite of a donut; or have a bite of donut and then share a D'oh moment. It's easy, it's fun and it's good for you. There are no calories on National Donut Day; that's my story and I am sticking to it (as donuts stick to my waistline!). Got to go. There's a cruller with my name on it in the kitchen!

What did Delaware? Where has Oregon?

I drove to Oregon this week to see some plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Nothing unusual there, except that about half way up I memed myself with a 1950's novelty song called What did Delaware? which has in it the lyric, Where has Oregon? I couldn't get this out of my head and when I got back home had to search for the lyrics to confirm what I suspected.

What did Delaware? She wore a brand New Jersey.
Where has Oregon? She went to pay her Texas.

There are more of these that you can drive yourself crazy with at http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/perry+como/delaware_20106950.html; in my case, this is a short drive.

Blog at 100: Some shallow observations and analysis

I have just made my 100^th (and 101^st) posts on this Blog and it seems to me appropriate to reflect a bit on whether the reality of this blog has anything to do with what I had hoped (dreamed, fantasized, hallucinated).

Here is the purpose as I thought it: A forum for colleagues to share their stories about humorous and fun activities they have had at their place of work, what has worked and what hasn't, and how they have gone about fully integrating such activities into the organizational culture.

Observations.

1.      There really hasn’t been a lot of sharing, discussion or conversation. Instead the Blog has mostly been me nattering on about ways I think of to have fun paired with the occasional citation from the literature about fun in the work place being a good thing. In that sense, the Blog has not accomplished what I thought it would

2.       I was also hoping to hear back from places where I did my little workshop to see if anyone had actually incorporated ideas that they had come up with. Here, too, not so much by way of response. But I do want to acknowledge and cheer the University of San Francisco Library for their bias to action in implementing a couple of their ideas. Three cheers! So, pretty much no success here either.

3.       That said, on the basis of the workshops I have done and the conversations I have had, hardly anyone disagrees with the proposition that fun in the workplace is a good thing.

4.      The question I keep coming back to, then, is why isn’t there greater attention paid to including fun in the workplace as part of an organization’s wellness plan. In other words, making this intentional. It could be that fun or the appearance of fun runs against the idea that work is serious and the two are not congruent; or, it could be that the organization doesn’t have anyone to encourage fun activities; or it could be that no one has really thought about the cost-benefit advantages of having a less stressed work environment; or it could any number of something elses. I’d love to hear more on this.

What’s Next?

1.        I will continue posting to the Blog as I have, with observations, game ideas, etc. This gives me satisfaction and, yes, it is FUN!

2.       I remind one and all that I am available to do 2 hour workshops on fun in the workplace. As someone remarked, these are silly, but make the point. I think that 2 hours of silly is a good investment for any organization or team!

3.       And, if you ever have a job opening for King of Comedy, Court Jester, Clown Prince, Head Cheerleader, etc., well, sign me up. If not, consider identifying someone in your organization who can serve those roles. That person is probably already there. It’s just a matter of identifying him/her and encouraging their behavior!

Thanks for listening. And come back often, or at least occasionally, so that I can make my parents proud by telling them that this is NOT solely a vanity Blog!