Play Hard, Win Harder

Welcome to today’s show, everybody. You’re listening to Faithful on the Clock, the podcast with the big dream of getting your faith and work aligned, and I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux. Today’s episode is gonna be super fun, because I’m talking for just a few minutes about how to use play in your office to get spectacular results. If you’re ready to lighten it up, let’s see what it’s all about.

Now, I don’t know about you, I might be dating myself a little bit, you know I’m *cough cough* years old. And I remember, it wasn’t all that long ago when leaders were incredibly tight-tied about what happened in their businesses. Everything was super serious, basically because everybody had this idea that you had to be serious to really get to any sort of competitive endpoint. And there was this mentality like, if you let up a little, you’d somehow be wasting people’s time and disrespecting them and the business somehow. And yeah, you’ve still got some traditionalists who still subscribe to that way of thinking.

But what’s really interesting to see happen is that, as leaders are emphasizing these more open ways of working, they’re also letting go of this approach where every minute has to be straight-faced. They’re doing things like encouraging team members to go ahead and share funny stories, they’re organizing events like potlucks or sports games, I’ve heard of companies doing things like attaching their webinars to raffles, I know one company I worked with even did an after-hours wine tasting online, where they sent everybody bottles of wine ahead of time.

So why is this happening? I mean, you can be more transparent and have amazing integrity and still keep everything really formal. Well, I think it’s finally clicked for business leaders that results--you know, that’s the thing everybody wants, that’s the prize--results only come as a result of good relationships. And that’s where play comes in handy, because it really kills a couple of birds with one stone. It firstly gives people a platform to see who people really are on a deeper level. You know, somebody’s gonna behave way differently on a basketball court than they do when they’re in some marketing meeting or whatever. And you need to see all of that to really understand how you best can tap each other and communicate. And secondly, it’s really an outlet for all of the stress people have so they can have better interactions. We know stress is an incredible problem rightnow, burnout is really high, and so leaders are supporting play in the office because they know that, and because they want to use every tool they have to keep people performing. And third, if you think about motivating people, all of those fun things, they give people something to look forward to so they actually want to work and be around each other. So it’s about building those relationships and having a high-quality social experience, but it’s also a very practical and intentional financial and competitive strategy.

Now, if you look at scripture, we know that God’s followers--you know, maybe they didn’t go out and do livestream reveals or any of that, but they did have fun. Nehemiah 12:27, for example, says that they celebrated joyfully. They had a bunch of music, brought in the Levites to party for the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem. And Isaiah 65:18, too, that says, “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be delight and its people a joy.” So there we can take not just this command to be happy in what God does for us, but we also can take it as a model for what to do in our own innovation, too. And then the final verse I want you to keep in mind is Hebrews 13:17. It talks about submitting to authority and having confidence in your leadership, but it specifically says to do that because it’s not going to benefit you if the people who oversee you aren’t joyful in their work. And all of these verses can help you see that you do need a balance between your hard effort and the chance to just take stock and reconnect and relax, that we all can influence the joy others have, and that work is really not meant to just suck the life out of us.

The question is just, how can you have fun. And as I mentioned before, you’ve got a ton of options. Some companies do humor or bucket list bulletin boards, they let workers decorate for events, you can bring in fidget toys, put in video games or funny movies in the break room...you know, whatever you want. But by far the best thing to do there is to just talk to your people. Get some feedback, get out on the floor and see what people are actually into. You want to make sure that you’re not just assuming what they enjoy or it’s really going to be awkward and fall flat.

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Once you have some idea of what’s gonna make the team perk up, you wanna step up your communications. Everybody needs to know about the new programs, you’ve gotta make it really easy for people to sign up for things, and they need to know what the point of all the silliness is, especially if it’s kind of a new thing for the team. But that’s a great opportunity for you to say, yeah, you know, we’re doing these things because we want to keep our doors open, sure, but we also really want to be clear that your mental and physical health means something. It all ties back to your values. And that connects to your reputation, too, because everybody knows, it’s your employees who really are the best brand advocates you’ll ever have.

And another communication thing is, you’ve gotta make a real effort to include everybody. So for example, especially right now, you have to find creative ways to get your remote workers to play along, because they’re not going to be in person and they might not have access to what your in-person people do. And within that, you have to think about everybody’s different realities and be courteous and empathetic. For example, your remote people, they might not be too excited about a video game tournament, because they’re forced to be in front of a screen for more hours anyway.

And last but not least, clarify what the boundaries are. You know, Romans 14:17 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So you need to state exactly what your expectations are and what kinds of attitudes and behaviors you’re going to tolerate. Don’t let people start assuming that you’re going to just let them start totally goofing off and letting go of their responsibilities, because that’s not what the play is about, and you don’t want people to keep going with the wrong impression.

So, as you put this all together, you can go as small or big as you want. That’s really up to what your team prefers and what you can afford to do. If you go big, you can have people in your HR department whose entire job it is to come up with fun stuff. I know, as an example, one tech security company I’ve worked with, they have that, they actually call it their shenanigans team. So you absolutely can take a formal approach to it. You even can use metrics to look at performance or attitudes before and after your events, and then you can take those metrics to your board or shareholders and say, hey, take a look, it really is improving the business, we can prove it.

But I think I’ve gabbed enough, so I’ll go ahead and pray so you can be on your way with your day.

God, your relationship with us grants mercy and power, but the third leg in that relationship is joy. It is a core of your nature to have fun, to celebrate, to laugh, and you sent your Son so that we never would be cut off from that. So as we work, make sure we don’t forget that you want us to be happy, and help us use that understanding even when responsibilities are high and there’s a lot on the line. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

That wraps it up for today, so looking ahead, in the next episode I’m gonna be talking about networking. How do you build a web that really works in the age of social media? Tune in for that next week, remember not to take yourself too seriously, and be blessed.