Having Fun & Joy In The Hybrid Workplace

The "Great Reshuffle" made one thing clear. People want more than a job; they want Joie de Vivre. In a world suffering from over-seriousness disease, workplaces that operate like vending machines will lose talent to those that mix results with a good laugh. Work smart, play hard, and watch people stick around for the cure.

As we emerge from the pandemic nearly 2 years since it first turned our lives upside down, many companies are moving from a COVID-friendly Work From Home (WFH) arrangement to a hybrid one - which sees a mix of WFH and Work From Office (WFO) days in the workweek.

While this means employees will enjoy more face-to-face time with one another and hopefully make up for all the lost social interaction, it also poses an important challenge to employers. Hybrid work can be rewarding, but only if we figure out how to make it energizing, meaningful, fulfilling, and occasionally, even delightful and delighting.

Role Model Fun

In his book, “The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership,” the billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson wrote, “Fun is one of the most important, and underrated ingredients in any successful venture,” and “If you’re not having fun, then it’s probably time to call it quits and try something else.”

One of the main obstacles to having more fun at work is the fear that it will label you as not serious and is the opposite of results. This is why leadership role modeling of having fun gives permission for everyone to have fun. 

Take the Royal Bank of Canada. On their first day back in the office, senior employees embraced "Zoom" attire, formal tops, ties, and blazers, paired with shorts, flip-flops, and even bedroom slippers. This took minimal effort from leaders yet had a huge impact. It gave everyone permission to laugh, join in, and remember that work is better when it is human.

Commit to Having Fun. Add Fun to Your Core Values

When a workplace truly embraces genuine fun, employees enjoy their work more and deliver better results. Many great ideas and innovations have started in playful hackathons or during playful conversations, where creativity thrives. Fun strengthens relationships, improves communication, and sparks collaboration.

But for fun to make a real impact, it cannot just be a flashy slogan on a recruitment page. It has to be part of the culture and values lived and encouraged every day, just like DBS bank.

When Piyush Gupta took the wheel as CEO of DBS Bank in 2009, who would have guessed that in less than a decade, a bank once seen as a government-linked bureaucracy would be crowned the best bank in the world? (Euromoney, Awards for Excellence - 2021 World's Best Bank).

During its transformation, DBS gathered data, held endless sessions, and probably drank gallons of coffee to distill the values shaping its new culture. The result? A banking institution with a soul. And the fifth value? "E! We are Everything Fun!" Because even in finance, fun should not be a foreign currency.

In an interview, Piyush told me “You’ve got to have fun and you have to put your money where your mouth is to back it up with action. We are investing a lot in celebrating the contribution and success of our people and having fun together."

Let us Get Physical and Social

Jerusalema, (1) the global hit from South Africa with dance steps that gained popularity in Angola, swept across the world like an infectious groove. Among those who caught the rhythm were frontliners battling COVID-19, who danced their frustrations away, shook off stress, and energized each other with unstoppable rhythm. Sometimes, the best approach to fight exhaustion is to move your feet and create an endorphin splash of social connection. 

During the pandemic, my interactive keynote "Delivering Delight" went beyond words. In the part about the science of playfulness, I shared the well-being benefits of social dance and took theory straight to practice. Through Zoom, Teams, and WebEx, and later hybrid sessions with a live audience in the room and the rest at home, I had the joy of dancing with thousands across the world.

One client, a healthcare group with more than 80 hospitals across the Asia Pacific and the Middle East, got their teams moving. Doctors, nurses, and administrators all joined in, because nothing says team spirit like busting a move in a hospital corridor.

The secret to a great hybrid event? A sharp production team, solid equipment, multiple cameras for dynamic angles, and big screens to bring remote participants into the action. It is the difference between an engaging experience and a boring webinar.

Flash mobs are easier than they look (2). No choreography is needed. Pick four people who love to dance and place them in the four corners of the room. The first dancer starts moving, and everyone mirrors their steps. After twenty seconds, she/he points to the next dancer on their left, and the group shifts to follow new moves. Simple, spontaneous, and contagious.

Want to make it even better? Bring the leaders on stage. Watching big bosses loosen up and give everyone permission to play is a game-changer. Need proof? Check out the flash mob at MBS, where hundreds of trained leaders took over the lobby, delighting themselves, their employees, and some very surprised guests. (3)

In a hybrid setting, balance is key. Switch between engaging the people in the room and those on the screen. An easy way to spark mass dancing? Pair people up and have them mirror each other in turns.

Want a quick way to melt away shyness? By introducing mirror neurons and the art of mimicking, you create an instant connection and a deeper awareness of empathy. Two lessons, one fun experience. If you need my support, reach out, and I will show you how you can facilitate this in just five minutes.

With a small time investment, you can record teams dancing in different locations and at home, then edit it into a video that spreads joy across the organization and beyond. It is a simple way to lift spirits, energize employees, and even bring their families into the fun.

Still skeptical? Let me introduce you to my client, Rustan Superstores in the Philippines. Their employees and leaders turned offices and outlets into dance floors, proving that even a supermarket chain can groove.

Make meetings fun (and shorter)

One of the opposites of fun work is when work becomes a chore. Prolonged meetings without agenda, adequate preparations, with limited listening due to long monologues create resentment and a sense of waste of time. Doing the same old and slow, rigid and monotonous structure kills both joy, creativity, and productivity.

1. Stand-up meetings: In 1985 my great friend Noam started to work for a small startup. He told me about a radically different way to conduct meetings. Every morning the leaders stood up with their coffee and secretaries were sitting taking notes. The meeting was short and to the point. Each leader reported the latest and what will be the implications for others so they will align their departments accordingly. For example, if the raw materials from Asia will not come on time, there will be a delay in production and implications for the marketing and sales. Instead of long and boring meetings, the meetings were short and to the point. There was an additional hidden benefit. When someone would want to complain about another leader, the answer was "Don't tell me this, tell it tomorrow in his face in the meeting." It created a candid culture where gossip was unwelcome. That small company's name was Qualcomm which creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology and has today a market cap of more than 150 billion dollars.

(1) #Jerusalemachallenge or #Jerusalemadancechallenge is a song by Kgaogelo Moagi, known as DJ Master KG, featuring Nocembo Zikode, which was released in 2019. The dance challenge took off virally in February 2020, as Covid-19 caused lockdowns in African countries like in most parts of the world. The original dance video featured a group of young men holding plates of food who demonstrate the dance routine and became viral.

(2) My gratitude to the improv guru, Matt Weinstein who created easy ways for thousands of people to dance together and was generous to teach the community of improvisers how to share the joy and playfulness all over the world.

(3) The gentleman dancing on the deck is no other than the playful Pek Chin Siong, who was the Vice President of Hotel Operations at Marina Bay Sands.