"This is fun. This is not, not fun."
Well shucks. How did she know I was going to take this so seriously?
Theresa did not read my mind, apparently- I'm just in really predictable company.
As part of the Novelty Experiment, my friends had taken me to make my own perfume scent at a local company called Bright Black. Theresa was the employee helping us, giving us full instructions on how to find our scents, test, experiment, and (most importantly) enjoy the process getting there.
Theresa herself, instructing us to have fun!
She explained that the key to the process was to just have fun. The mixing and experimenting should be exploratory, unexpected, and free of pressure. That's when she said it: "This is fun. This is not, not fun."
It was such a delightful thing to say, and it immediately seared itself into my brain.
How often do we do something and end up making it not fun?
It could be the added pressure of perfection. It could be anxiety about the unknown, or the discomfort of something new. It could be the slow overwhelm of not finding anything you like and not wanting to seem like "too much." Or simply the effort of having to start all over.
As leaders, we should be creating environments where our teams see learning, testing, and creating as not, not fun. It should be fun.
Too many leaders take the wrong parts of leading seriously. We (myself included) get focused on tasks, goals, or our own output. That's understandable, since so few of us (only about 15%) receive any formalized training for the job called "manager." Add to that the leader/doer roles now abundant in a business culture that constantly asks us to do "more with less," and fun becomes the first casualty.
Because it’s easy to get the fun lost in the daily grind, here are my top three tips for leaders to keep the fun in work:
Assign one project to each of your reports that they genuinely enjoy, while still mapping to OKRs and goals. Fun and making money can co-exist. As the assigner of tasks though, I'd recommend skipping the assumptions and simply asking. In my experience, no one has ever struggled to tell me how they like to have fun at work.
Establish well-defined expectations. This might not seem directly related, but if you want to encourage alternative work styles, big ideas, or unusual projects, exceedingly clear expectations around other deliverables create a safety net— one that defines how far and how long the team can explore.
Build a team that wants to test and explore. This is the biggest factor of all. Being responsible for the environment of fun, not just the process of it, or the people that make it up, matters enormously. Science backs this up: a supported testing environment creates psychological safety, which is the number one indicator of team success.
However, whether you're leading a team or just leading yourself through a project there’s much fun to be found in work. That’s just some of what I get to do with my clients- create fun while we all do the normal business of things: tackle problems, clear hurdles, build team trust, and achieve big company goals.
Do you want to encourage more team fun? I’ve launched a workshop that asks “What’s Your AI Personality?” and if I do say so myself, it is a good time. We explore each individual’s personalities as it relates to their ideas about AI, and then compare them to how they work together. This workshop gives leaders a clear picture of how their team is wired for AI, and leaves with a plan for how to optimize the role everyone is best suited to play for success in adoption.
Shoot me a note and I’ll add you to the waitlist.
Talk soon,
Rachel
Leadership trainer, novelty junkie, and human being
P.s. here’s my very fun perfume creation
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Have you seen this quick read?
12 Hours of Happiness (what free actually costs you)
Preview: There’s a pink glow to the sky, as the sun sets and the residents start to appear for their evening stroll.
There’s more people out than normal, since the construction has peaked curious minds into exploring what’s been changed.
Thanks for joining me on my search for novelty and one human-centric leaders's journey towards a more balanced life.
