If you could have anything you wanted during this holiday season, what would it be? You don't have to answer, but I realize this is a much harder question than appears. For example, should one be global and ask for world peace? If not careful with the words, we could have world peace 'break out' now, only to have wars return in a week. How about an end to poverty, unemployment, illness, racism, sexism, etc? Better education? Better airlines? Warmer weather? Cooler weather? More fun at work? It becomes pretty obvious that what we might wish for has a lot to do with how we view things -- and sometimes that view is influenced by what is going on at the moment.
More fun at work? This thought has consumed me for the past few weeks. If I could have anything work-related, during this holiday season, it would be for more fun at work. Why? Because for me, the times that I view work as fun are the times when I truly feel I am clicking on all cylinders, making great progress, appropriately connecting with co-workers and getting things done! When those attributes are a part of my day, work does not feel like work, but like fun. It then does not matter how many evening meetings are part of the work day or how many times I have to reschedule a hair appointment to complete an assignment -- because it seems like fun. It is when those attributes are missing that work seems like, well work. And, even worse, it is when work feels like a chore.
Some have heard me say that I believe work needs to be enjoyable most of the time because it is where we spend the majority of our waking hours. When work is not enjoyable, other parts of your life can suffer. Have you ever had a really bad day at work impact the really great concert you had been looking forward to attending for months? While I am somewhat pollyanic, I do realize that not every working day can be sunshine and lollipops -- then it wouldn't be called work. But I do believe that the really good days have to outweigh the really bad days in order to ensure we are all working at the right place at the right time.
So, my work-related holiday wish, is that we can find the fun in work. Sometimes that fun is formal (like our recent scavenger hunt). However, for the fun to be sustainable and to be of benefit to our co-workers (and yes, they can tell when work is not fun for us) and our organization (so that we are doing our best work), that fun needs to be more ingrained in our regular work days. Rather than just wish, I would love to have suggestions/recommendations on how this can be accomplished in the part of the organization that I lead. I encourage you to share those suggestions either in this forum or by e-mailing me directly. Can't wait to hear from you.
J
6 comments:
June,
I imagine for a lot of people fun translates into creativity. And, I think BJC provides a lot of creativity in its services as it relates to job function. However, if we are looking at additional ways to add fun to the workplace, we would achieve this by adding more creativity to how we perform in our roles and how we achieve our mission.
I know, for myself, there are days when I have really interesting ideas that could spread across the organization. But, sometimes those ideas aren’t directly related to my role at BJC, and so I don’t pursue them. It’s easy to excuse the idea by saying, “surely someone in XYZ hospital or department will think of this eventually.” And, then it is lost. It can also be easy to get stuck in a standardized routine, to perform the duties well without the added value of taking the job to the next level. If something works really well, going the extra mile to declare it would help every department and hospital can be simply overwhelming and is seldom done by any employee.
Further, if we look at some really creative organizations such as Google, Facebook, SAS, Whole Foods, Target, Southwest Airlines, IBM, etc., we find that leadership and staff within those organizations consistently operate on the line between chaos and order. That line is argued by some in psychology as the place where creativity happens.
So, how can we increase the level of creativity at BJC without negatively impacting our operations? To start, increase encouragement of a culture of bottom-up ideas. I could be mistaken, but my perception is that most of our projects are invented at and initiated from the top. Second, institute a substantive program offering incentive for bringing forward doable ideas. Create a $1,000 to $5,000 award for ideas that are implemented across BJC. This incentive will give permission to employees to act on and move forward ideas they have that may or may not be directly related to their everyday duties. I think in the current culture some creative shifts are viewed as stepping outside the boundaries of the job. An award structure may help act against those invisible forces by adding credibility to the initiative.
We already have the infrastructure to allow this to happen. With the BLI, we’ve created a space where learning and innovation come together. Now, we just have to push the culture to the next phase – to bring innovation and creativity to the surface and root in our health care management operations and projects.
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I believe the new health care legislation provides the incentive for our organization to increase creativity in all we do. Essentially, the government is saying, “We are not going to continue to allow the health care industry to operate in status quo. They need to become more creative, more willing to take risks to improve how things are done.” This calls for us to step up our performance and find better, faster, more reliable ways of getting things done, making decisions and providing services to our hospitals, and ultimately our patients. It needs to be engrained in our culture at not only the breadth (articles, commercials, buildings), but also the depth (meeting topics, approval processes, risk, priorities).
Makemedicinebetter.org is a great platform for patients and non-employees to provide their input to us. However, it can’t also function as an internal communication platform without exposing proprietary or strategic information. Google brings innovation to the internal face of their organization with these tools we could mimic: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-03-12-n39.html. Yammer is a good start and I think we can make even more progress by incorporating it within our internal structure.
Lastly, I realize this discussion might be completely dull and un-fun to some, and that for me thinking about things like this and working hard on worthwhile activities provides the most fun in my job. I typically am not one to get extremely excited about traditional “fun” activities, but do appreciate the value they provide to others.
Thank you!
Much to consider here, Jason and so much of it really, really good. Thanks for your very thoughtful and thought-provoking response.
J
My response won't be as "thought-provoking" as Jason's, but I do agree that my idea of bringing "fun" into the workplace is not in the traditional sense either. To me, fun would be simple, unexpected rewards and breaks from the mundane. Maybe a lunch brought in on a cold day, leaving early on a Friday afternoon, a casual week, a trip to Ted Drewes during the summer, a visit to the latest exhibit at the Art Museum for inspiration ... lots of possibilities to bring some little joys into the office.
Thanks, Emily. All ideas are very much welcomed.
And yet another calendar day upon which to take notice. 1-11-11. I hereby invite everyone to 'save the date' of 11-11-11. Lunch will be on me at a time (maybe starting at 1:11 p.m.) and place (maybe 1111Mississippi) to be determined!
J
I love it! I'm thinking you better book early - Eleven Eleven will be hopping that day!
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