Free the fun!

One of the things that having young kids does, is they force you to play. And who doesn’t love to have fun? However, if you ask an adult, “What do you want to do today?” it’s unlikely that you’ll hear: “Let’s play!”? 

Fun is the fuel of creativity, and right now it seems the tank is running low. Recently we asked over 2,000 startups how Covid-19 had impacted their business. The resounding message we heard was that while productivity had taken-off, creativity had nosed-dived. 

Productivity without creativity is like a roadtrip with half a tank of gas; you can rocket along, but you’ll probably finish in Milton Keynes. Going the distance requires a constant injection of fun and creativity, without it we’re destined to hit the wall.  

A recent study by the University of Auckland found that fun at work played a critical role in reducing stress, energising the team, building engagement and fuelling creativity. It has a multiplier effect, fosters a ‘success mindset’ and encourages healthy risk taking. 

For startups, fun is a critical element to our long-term success, but in the world of remote working, if we don’t intentionally inject fun back into work, then we could quickly come to realise that we’ve just spent our lives alone in a room with a laptop.

As Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “We don’t quit playing because we grow older; we grow older because we quit playing.” In the workplace, play is a tool smart founders use to bring out the best in their team and to build cohesion between colleagues. 

At Co:cubed, we’re really passionate about not only injecting fun into our work, but making it easy to inject fun into everyone’s work, and to that end we’re working on an exciting new business called TribeShake. More on that in a couple of weeks time, but for now, I’d love to know what you’re doing to bring joy back into your team? What’s working? What’s not? You’ve survived that weird season of quiz nights we all went through, but what’s carried you over the last 9 months since then? Drop your ideas and experiences in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you. 

On Friday 29th January we celebrate Fun at Work Day….I know, who knew it was a thing!? But this year, more than ever, it comes as a timely reminder to inject a bit of joy back into our 9-5, not just for one day, but every day. 

It’s pretty simple: fun at work, makes work fun; and when we spend 90,000 hours of our life working, shouldn’t it be a little more fun?