Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I’m currently reading Get Back in the Box : Innovation from the Inside Out (which I highly recommend to everyone who works for a living - from CEOs to corporate employess to sole proprietors).

The author, Douglas Rushkoff, covers a lot of ground, with one of his points being we should put play back in work - and work should be play. That doesn’t mean, however, as he notes, that’s it’s not serious. If we’re having fun at a task (rather it’s computer design or downhill skiing), we’re fully engaged, thinking full speed ahead to solve (and even prevent) problems. All of which makes our lives and our companies better.

One source he quotes, Mihaly Czikszentmihaly’s book on the psychology of optimal experience, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, found that “deep satisfaction with work had less to do with the job at hand than the way in which the job is approached.” Flow is defined as, “the way people describe their state of mind when consciousness is harmoniously ordered and they want to pursue whatever they are doing for its own sake.” Rushkoff gives a welder and a sanitation worker as two examples of people finding ways to enjoy what many would consider menial, soul-deadening jobs.

Of course, all this sounds terribly “new agey” and huggy-wuggy but as Rushkoff points out, putting the fun back into work (and the fulfillment) is a lot more than a foosball table in the break room, a trite refrigerator magnet or life coach happy talk.

It comes down to - in my mind - commitment and accountability by both employer and worker. Life and work is often what we make of it, using what’s at hand to get (and keep) in the flow. It’s not easy but it can be done. I even managed to have fun in some of my worst jobs back in Corporate America. Also, I achieved much more with my staff when we laughed together. The more leeway I gave them to “play” (think on their own) the better we all felt and produced.

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Tag: business development