Workplace Fun

Workplace fun: The Steiner Sports Harlem Shake video.

People in business love to talk about the question “What’s keeping you up at night?” Is it your sales, some new project, relationships with coworkers, your five-year plan, etc.? But I think a question that’s just as important is “What’s getting you up in the morning?”

Translation: “Is your workplace fun?”

Obviously the work itself should be rewarding. But as a CEO, you can’t be so naïve as to think your employees are going jump out of bed every morning just for work.

So you gotta make sure that employees don’t feel like every day at the office is just the same old, same old -  boring and stale. You gotta mix things up.

You have to insert an element of SURPRISE.

When Pat Riley coached his NBA teams, he’d make the team bus take different routes to the stadium on road trips, to help keep his players on their toes. And one time, when he coached the Lakers, the team showed up for practice only to be put on a bus bound for Las Vegas. They let off a little steam.

When I managed a restaurant at the Baltimore Hyatt, one day I had my staff take a photo on the roof, with all of us stuffed into the empty pool there. It had nothing to do with our bottom line, but it was a lot of fun, and it helped make everyone glad to be working on the same team.

At Steiner Sports, to keep things interesting, we regularly bring in guest speakers. We have pizza days, and bowling excursions and happy hours. Ice cream parties.

We do things like the Harlem Shake video above.

Again, none of it is about the bottom line. It’s about the spirit of the company.

Anyway - as that collective spirit rises, the bottom line rises with it. When it’s low, the bottom line will suffer.

Happy company = productive company.

What do you do in your office to mix things up? What does workplace fun mean to you?