On fun...

In my #Agile #Leadership course, I spend half a day to talk about how we can uncover culture i.e. make it visible and how culture can be moved/shaped. I do not believe we can set culture per say as it is not something we can control, but something we can influence. But this is a story for another time ;-)

Usually, I talk about Amazon's culture as it is well documented e.g. in Working Backwards by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr and I have deeper insights due to friends who work there.

In order to have workshop participants get a sense of Amazon's culture, I ask them to read a shareholder letter from Jeff Bezos (the one from 2015) and use the Culture Map from Strategyzer to share their interpretation.

This week however, I decided to not only look at Amazon, but also include Tesla.

Tesla is not as well documented as Amazon is. There are several documents that have been shared, among them The Secret Masterplan and Part Deux written by Elon Musk himself. These two documents give us an understanding of the vision that Tesla sets out to achieve and their approach to get there. They don't particularly give us a hint on the culture.

But there is also another document, which gives more insights into the aspired culture of Tesla: The Anti-handbook Handbook.

Personally, I love this handbook. It is short, it is easy to read, and most importantly it sets clear expectations. Without creating thousands of policies they state what is expected from employees.

Some people might not like it, but those people shouldn't probably work at Tesla. Those who like it, will probably be a good fit for Tesla... and that does not even have to be forever.

Jeff Bezos states in his 2015 letter: "We never claim that our approach is the right one – just that it’s ours – and over the last two decades, we’ve collected a large group of like-minded people. Folks who find our approach energizing and meaningful."

This is the thing... we do not have to expect one corporate culture fitting everyone and everyone fitting into a specific corporate culture.

When I had just graduated, I had no problem working 60-80 hour weeks and traveling for 4 days a week. I enjoyed learning... learning about new industries, new strategies, new challenges, new cities, and new people. This is why I loved working at Bain.

At the age of 40, I do not want that life-style as I want to maximize my impact with a few clients and more importantly spend time with my family.

So the same culture can be great for one person at a certain point in their life and not great for that same person 15 years later.

This brings me back to today's headline: Fun.

Tesla has a dedicated section on fun... it states: "Make sure you're having fun at work - meet new friends, push yourself in new ways, try new things. If you aren't having fun at some level, you'll be unhappy. We don't want that. We want you to work hard, love what you do, and have fun."

Now I am sure, there will be people who say "this is all crap" and "why is that section listed on the last page... it probably reflects that it is not important".

I have no insight, but believe they intentionally put it at the very end because this is what sticks with people. When I deliver a training, I know people will remember the end of each session and the end of the training the most. That is why I summarize and that is why I keep the most important message/insight for the very end.

With regards to fun, I believe it is essential... probably even more important than many other things we currently look at when aiming to build great work places.

Many organizations are looking at creating purpose i.e. why do we exist, others are looking to be a great place to work e.g. designing fancy offices, and others provide foosball tables.

All of that might be helpful - especially the piece on purpose - but I believe having fun at work - for whatever reason - is probably the most powerful. It certainly is powerful for me.

I have fun, when a colleague shares a great joke or meme - thank you Philip Rogowski for all the stuff you put out on our Slack channel.

I have fun, when we win a new account - thank you to all of our clients.

I have fun, when I record new videos in our studio - thank you Selda S. for laughing with (and at) me.

I have fun, when I get creative in creating new learning experiences with some of our partners - thank you Holger Nils Pohl , Rudolf Gysi , and Karen Kemerling PhD .

I have fun, when I run a training session and we all share stories and laugh with each other - thank you to all my class participants.

I have fun, when I get to interview some of the people that have inspired me the most - thank you to Christina Wodtke , Kim Scott , Colin Bryar , Michele Zanini , Alexander Osterwalder , Marty Cagan , and my dear mentor Roger Martin ... just to name a few.

I have fun, when my team and I meet for our monthly breakfast at our favorite coffee place - thank you to Janet Blume , ángel Casta?eda Crespo , Tom Reinert , Christian Bieneck , and Zakir K. .

I have fun, when I have my coaching sessions with the one and only Shani Ospina .

And I can't believe I will write this... sometimes I even have fun doing admin work and talking to my tax advisor.

Having fun makes me feel that I am not working, that I am not grinding, that I am not losing energy... having fun makes me feel that I get energy from the work that I have the privilege of doing.

And I believe this is the part that is important. How do we look at work... is it a chore that others expect us to do? Or is it something we decide to do every day? Do we show up with positive energy and try to have some fun and get things done?

I choose to have fun... I know this is not possible for every person in the world e.g. the ones working just to get by. But for most knowledge workers this should be possible.

By the way, this is also the only advice I give to my boy who - like so many other boys - wants to become a professional football player: Just go on that pitch and have fun.

Have a great weekend and think about how you can increase the level of fun at your work... it might start with a simple meme. If you need advice reach out to my colleague Philip Rogowski ;-)

#FromNothingComesNothing