Hi!
Finally
we have warmer weather.
And
finally, those
whom have decided to leave our companies this year have largely
left. Perhaps it's time to make the remaining people, as
well as the ones whom have just joined work a little harder AND
happier.
Wouldn't it
be nice that we can all have fun at work, and STILL get better
results?
Hence, this month's topics:
-
How to Have Fun @
Work and STILL Get Better Results; and
-
How to Make Your Own
Movie, and Win an "Oscar" in 24 Hours
This issue's main article is on "How to Have Fun @ Work and STILL Get Better Results", and we'll
explore how we can make our people work harder, be happier and
have lots of fun.
In brief:
-
"The only advantage you can have is in the human stuff"
-
Making ‘work fun’ is important, for you and your team may spend up to 2,000 hours a year at work. That’s 23% of the year.;
-
The process of identifying and executing more fun into the company culture can be the foundation for moving your organizational culture to a more enterprising culture. Research shows that companies with high enterprising cultures have higher engaged employees. Read on... ...
To read the rest of this newsletter, pls.
click here (http://www.psycheselling.com/page4.html.
Want to know how motivated your team is? Get your team to
log on to http://directions.wufoo.com/forms/z7x3x5/
and get them spend just 3 minutes to complete our "Motivation Level
Diagnosis". This survey is totally confidential, so do
send an e-mail to
alice@directions-consulting.com
if you'd want a report once we completed the survey.
E-mail us if you'd like to customise a survey like this for your
company.
Also, you can now train up to 35 of your colleagues on 40
modules of
Leadership IQ's 100% Leader Series
eLearning programme for as low as US$206 per trainee.
Or train 35 of your colleagues in 1 module for as low as
US$20.57 per trainee. All licenses are valid
for one whole year, and your trainees can have unlimited access
to the online training materials for an entire 365 days.
Pls. contact
keyla@directions-consulting.com
to find out more. (All fees include invoice taxes and TT charges.)
How to Have Fun @ Work and STILL Get Better Results
by Jerel Bonner
知行合一
In today’s frenzied world of technical communication, the human
element is being lost. The pervasive presence of Social Media
available through our smart phones is taking our attention away
from creating deep relations with the people in our lives and
people are not as happy being connected without emotion. A
recent engagement study by
Leadership IQ shows only 6% of the
companies in China have a highly engaged company culture.
In Thomas Friedman’s recent book “That Used To Be Us”, Joel
Cawley, VP of strategy for IBM is quoted "Two things will
differentiate companies, one is analytics and the other is the
old fashion stuff”.
He also predicts
-
"All the
old-fashion stuff will start to matter even more!"
-
"The only
advantage you can have is in the human stuff",
-
"These
will be the real differentiators, and the technology
everyone will have."
One type of old fashion
stuff is having fun, which leads to being happier. This article
shares the philosophy of “FISH”, which will help you as a
manager create a work climate that includes fun; it leads to
having happier and more engaged employees. The article concludes
with suggestions for ways to create fun in the workplace that
will lead to higher levels of engagement.
This book, published in 2000, is now seen as providing one
of the most interesting and sought after “change management”
concepts. It has four core principles for making the work
environment fun. These principles are:
-
Choosing Your
Attitude
-
Make Work ‘Fun’
-
Be Present
-
Make Their Day
Feel Special
1) Choosing
Your Attitude
This principle follows’ Stephen Covey’s
Habit 1 “Be
Proactive”, from the book, “Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People”. Everyone must be more aware that they are
responsible for their decisions and need to have the courage
to make the right choices that will lead to their happiness. So give your team more opportunities to make the choice of
how to have more fun at work. Remind them that if they are
not considering their choices, then they are choosing to let
other factors impact their lives and their job satisfaction.
2) Make Work ‘Fun’
Making ‘work fun’ is important, for you and your team may spend up to 2,000 hours a year at work. That’s 23% of the year. If we exclude the 9 hours a day that we are sleeping and eating that number is 33%.
As a manager that realizes that one third of our life is at work, encouraging your employees to create more fun means a more positive work climate and happier staff.
Secondly, for managers there is limited fiscal risk in trying to have fun at work. If the working environment is already boring or uninteresting, changing the situations has only upside potential to retain and attract new talent.
In today’s business world, managers are looking for ways to
get their departments to stretch their abilities. So by being a manager that nurtures a philosophy of having more fun at work, you are developing more creativity. Once again, practicing creativity and looking for ways to have fun at work has low risk. This can lead to employees forming new skills for solving other problems as well, leading your team to change faster than others.
3) Be Present
The focus of this principle is that we have to remember to concentrate on what we are doing and how it impacts others, especially when they are with us. We have the choice to care about others feelings, concerns, and emotions so that we can interact with them in a fun and productive way. It is not easy to be 100% focused on others, their moods, and their concerns.
According to research conducted by Leadership IQ,
"Being Present" means implementing the following
Engagement Drivers:
-
Managers hold employees accountable for their
performance.
-
Employees agree with their manager's evaluation of their performance.
When new changes are implemented, people embrace
changes and push towards creating a new level of
success.
-
Managers provide meaningful positive feedback to
their employees.
-
When mistakes happen or people miss deadlines,
people do not offer excuses (such as "I couldn't get it
done because...”).
4) Make Their Day Feel Special
The last behavior is one of the hardest to achieve.
How does one make others feel special? This too is
another opportunity for you and your direct reports to
practice innovation. When we think about making
people feel special, we learn to be present and aware of
our customer’s needs and emotions. When we make
others feel special your staff will enjoy working for
you, they will create more ideas, and like the positive
energy that you add to their life.
As Tony
Hsieh, CEO of
Zappo’s and author of Delivering Happiness
says, “People always remember how we make them feel”.
It may sound old fashioned, though in tomorrow’s economy
it will be an advantage that satisfies clients and
attracts top talent to your organization.
Before I share some ways to make your work environment fun, I do not suggest playing pranks or games in a factory. Safety must never be compromised for fun. Now, on to some fun ideas that can keep you alert and present when you are around:
-
Joke Day. Select one or two days a month per quarter where
employees come to work with a joke that they can share. Give out
small awards for who tells the best joke and who tells their
joke to the most people. Create a team of employees to be
judges to prepare and present the awards. Remember to advise
your staff to use good taste when selecting their jokes; -
Bad
Hair Day. What would the office be like if everyone wore a
wig to make themselves look like someone else. The wigs
can be taken off when meeting clients and vendors. How
about wearing crazy ties or scarves to the office. I have
a nice green and white tie that I wear to work on St. Patty’s
day. People loved it and it really matches the spirit of
the holiday. How about changing casual Friday into custom Friday
once a quarter?; -
I
Spy. Each month select one person to go around the office
snapping pictures. Most people love to see themselves in a
photograph. Buy a digital display frame and have the
photos shown at the main receptionist. Every quarter let
the employees download their favorite pictures from a central
location on the company network. It may be wise here to
set some ground rules, and agree that employees cannot use
others pictures without approval from those in the picture;
-
SMILE. Getting people to smile is
one of the simplest things you can do to make others feel good.
Smile when someone looks at you, and you’ll notice that most of
the time they will smile back at you. This simple
old-fashioned behavior is easy to measure as well. Imagine
what your office would be like if you smiled to everyone and
they smiled back at you.
The
Engagement Connection
The process of identifying and executing more fun into the company
culture can be the foundation for moving your organizational culture
to a more enterprising culture. Research shows
that companies with high enterprising cultures have
higher engaged employees.
The exercise of creating a more fun work climate is
highly enterprising and
innovative. When you allow your staff to
drive these activities it will stimulate creativity and a sense of
adventure that leads to constant change, which is the kind of
climate where top talent thrives. You also enable your people
to be more willing to
embrace change, so that you can be
more competitive.
As these changes become the norm, better business results are achieved through:
-
Higher staff retention
-
Attracting and recruiting top talent becomes easier
-
Employees become higher productivity
-
Employees are more adaptable to market challenges.
Success and Fun in One
The future for all companies is clear. Employees want exciting adventures at work. The market challenges will increase, and those companies that truly create a work culture built on the spirit of
enterprise and fun will be the winners. Be the type of manager that ‘Lets the games begin!’
Need help in getting your team to
have fun while producing great results? Simply e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or
call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype:
cydj001 and arrange to buy me a mocha. All information
shall be kept in confidence.
Power Breakfast Hour: 22 May 201 2
How to Have Fun @ Work and STILL Get Better Results
+
How to Make Your Own Movie, and Win an "Oscar" in 24 Hours
-
What can be done to make your people have fun, be more
productive, embrace changes, AND beat the stay competitive;
How to make your people stretch
their abilities and give 100% at work; and
Developing
creative teambuilding ideas so that your team have fun AND
improve the ways they work together!
VENUE: Crowne Plaza Shanghai • 400 Panyu Road (near Fahuazhen
Road) • 上海银星皇冠酒店 • 番禺路 400 号 (靠法华镇路)
DATE: Tuesday, 22 May 2012
TIME: 08:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
PRICE: RMB 200 ONLY!
To make this a more conducive discussion, we are expecting a small
group of about 15 people only. The room can only take in 18, so
please register early to avoid disappointments. Please e-mail your
registrations to ;sales@directions-consulting.com
Pls. check out our web sites
www.directions-consulting.com and
www.psycheselling.com/page4.html for more inspiration.
Upcoming Events
In case you'd like to know what other public events we have, here's
a snapshot of what's coming:
-
Simple and Practical Ways to Hire Highly
Engaged Employees with Great Attitude (Chinese)
《成功招聘高绩效、高敬业员工的简单技巧》 15 May 2012 (Shanghai)
-
How to Lead and Motivate Your Gen Y Employees
to Exceptional Performance (Chinese)
《如何激励、领导80、90后员工发挥潜能,大幅度提高新生代敬业度》 25 May 2012 (Shanghai)
-
How to Hire
High-Performance and Highly-Engaged Sales People
(Chinese)
《如何招聘高绩效、高敬业的销售员工》 8 Jun 2012 (Shanghai)
-
How to Make Your Own Movie to Develop Highly
Productive Corporate Cultures (Chinese)
《如何通过微电影打造高绩效企业文化》
22 Jun 2012 (Shanghai)
-
Become the Leader that Everyone Wants to
Follow (Chinese)
《如何成为每个人都想跟随的领导》
13 July 2012 (Shanghai)
-
Inspire and Influence Your
Employees to Exceptional Performance
《用启发的方式引导团队,创造骄人绩效》
27
July 2012 (Shanghai)
Simply e-mail your enquiries to
to
info@directions-consulting.com
or call +86-21-6219 0021 for enquiries. Sample video and audio
recordings available upon requests.
Teambuilding
Tips for Managers:
How to Make Your
Own Movie and Win an "Oscar" in 24 Hours
By c.j. Ng
In case you are planning for a teambuilding event for your team, you
might be caught in a dilemma between 2 criteria:
-
The teambuilding must be fun, so everybody enjoy
themselves and feel energised; and
-
The teambuilding tasks and games must create enough stress so that your team's potential will be fully
unleashed, i.e. they achieve high levels of performance that they never knew they could
Most teambuilding events are "fun" oriented. They are
a way of getting team members out of their work, so as to
communicate and bond in a fun-filled manner. Fun
teambuilding programmes are sometimes held in resorts or
scenic locations, so that team members can do their
sight-seeing after their teambuilding.
However, there
usually is a lot less learning in these fun-filled
teambuilding events. Team members either forget what
was learnt fairly quickly, or the teambuilding event wasn't
even conducted to let team members learn anything (apart
from having a great time).
To improve learning
through experiential teambuilding, some teambuilding
programmes are created to make team members "suffer".
This can be done either by having the teambuilding conducted
in places where there are few or no amenities such as (tap
water or electricity or telephones), or having the team
members going through a military-style boot camp to enforce
team discipline. There will also be activities that
will test team members levels of endurance, perseverance and
determination.
While team members are likely to take
away long lasting memories and learning experiences of such
teambuilding events, team members are so exhausted that they
would rather not attend another of such teambuilding ever
again. If not conducted properly, there are also
associated high-risks (e.g. usage of high-element props, bad
weather etc.) which sometimes can cause severe injuries or
even deaths if accidents were to happen.
Hence, if
there is a teambuilding event that cause enough stress so
that team members unleash their full potential, and is
fun-filled at the same time, this could be a panacea to all
teambuilding event organisers.
Introducing a teambuilding workshop called "How to Make Your
Own Movie and Win an 'Oscar' in 24 Hours". This is how
it works:
-
Participants split into groups, where each group is given a
theme (which could be based on corporate values, mission
statements or new corporate initiatives);
-
Each group will then have to write a 5-7 minute movie script,
which group members will then have to act, film then edit to
make their own movie, ALL within 24 hours;
There will be technical specialists to help groups in the filming
and editing, but groups will have to give specific instructions on
what to film, and which areas to edit;
-
At the end of 24 hours, teams will then present their movies to a
panel of judges, who will then give an "Oscar" to the group with the
best movie.
-
Depending on how in-depth the teambuilding is going to be conducted,
sometimes a facilitator can be assigned to each team to take notes
of the group's behaviour in making the movie. The facilitator
will then feedback to the panel of judges the group's behaviour,
which can then be used as judging criteria, but more importantly, as
key learning points for debriefing.
Hence, there are a few key advantages in conducting such
kinds of teambuilding:
-
Team members are going to have fun making their own
movie, while at the same time, experience stress due to
the tight deadline and the competition between groups;
-
Such activities can be conducted just about anywhere, be
it indoors or outdoors, in summer or winter, in an
office building or a 5-star resort;
-
Behaviours that drive innovative culture such as
empowerment, honesty, leadership etc. can be spotted and
used as debriefing learning points; and most of all
-
The movies can be brought back to the workplace so that
the learning experiences can be reviewed repeatedly.
If you would like to generate more creative ideas for your teambuilding
event, you can
e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or
call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype:
cydj001
About
Directions Management Consulting
Directions Management Consulting is the partner of
LeadershipIQ in China and Asia.
LeadershipIQ helps more than 125,000 leaders every year through the facts drawn from one of the largest ongoing leadership studies ever conducted is used to help companies apply resources where the best possible results be achieved.
In addition, Directions Management Consulting is a leading provider of sales performance, innovation and experiential learning solutions in China and many parts of Asia.
Psycheselling.com
is the sales performance arm of Directions
Management Consulting specialising in conducting training, research
and consulting services for sales managers and their team.
Raybattle is the strategic partner of Directions
Management Consulting specialising in experiential learning events
and management retreats.
Currently, Directions Management Consulting has served
clients such as InterContinental Hotels Group, Unilever, Bristol-Myers Squibb,
Roche, Philips Lighting, Carrier, Ingersoll Rand, Freudenberg etc.
Through collaboration with consultancies such as
Forum
Corporation,
MTI,
de Bono
China,
ProWay etc., the consultants in
Directions Management Consulting have served clients such as PwC,
Air Products, Evonik, Wacker, Epson amongst others.
Directions Management Consulting will increase its efforts
to conduct leadership studies in China and other parts of Asia, so that more companies apply resources where the best possible results be achieved
in this part of the world.
Enquiries and suggestions, pls. e-mail
info@directions-consulting.com or visit
www.directions-consulting.com
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