Redefining Workplace Cultures by Stressing the Importance of Friendships, Focus and Fun

I totally got a little click crazy when I saw Richard J. McNally’s Wallstreet Journal Article — “The Good Life’ Review: The Habit of Happiness.” In his article, McNally referenced Harvard’s 85+ year study — The Good Life: Lessons From the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, which led me to the discovery of Dr. Robert Waldinger’s Ted Talk where he expounds on a few of the study’s overarching findings, the most prevalent being — having and maintaining quality social connections is better for our overall health and happiness whereas solitude leads to faster decline.

So after reading the WSJ article and listening to Dr. Waldinger’s Ted Talk, I began to reflect on my priorities for my team going forward in 2023, and I was compelled to incorporate a few words not readily associated with “work”…

Friendship — “The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the ‘Harvard Happiness’ study, Dr. Waldinger underscores the importance of maintaining friendships well into later stages of life (with a shoutout to Octogenarians). Combine the aforementioned findings with Gallup’s 2019-2022 polling data— The Increasing Importance of a Best Friend at Work, and our leadership imperative becomes remarkably clear. In more concise terms, we have to intentionally set the conditions to allow organic connections to flourish.

Looking back on my 30+ years at Lockheed Martin, I have cultivated amazing friendships some of which have become more like extended family. And as a result of those support networks, I have had the courage to take more risks and to never stop pursuing growth opportunities. And last and the furthest from least, through my invaluable friendships, I’ve learned if you love what you do and the people around you, you will be energized, passionate and have a sense of gratitude for what you have.

Focus — ”When everything is a priority, nothing is a priority” — Karen Martin

As executives, we can quickly become inundated with noise. But in order to cut through it and be a signal, we have to deliberately communicate v. “over communicate.” In other words we have to prioritize clarity over quantity. Gallup published a workplace study in Q4 last year — Quiet Firing: What It Is and How to Stop Doing It, which provided a host of critical insights, one of the most salient being — “employees who have at least one meaningful conversation each week with their manager are nearly four times as likely to be engaged at work.” The keyword I took from that is meaningful conversations, not memorandum ad nauseum, flow down galore or the perfunctory action of forwarding emails.

In order to help my team focus, I am going to change the do it all paradigm and encourage embracing the necessity of tradeoffs. I.e. we are not machines! Perhaps we take it personally when we can’t achieve everything, but if you pursue everything can you really achieve excellence in anything?

So, in 2023 we’re going to continue to Lead, Innovate, Drive and Grow, with focused energy.

Fun— “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people” – Victor Borge

There is nothing that says productivity and fun are disparate, in fact recent studies have shown they’re inextricably linked. Author Bob Nelson, distills a few of these lessons from his book— “Work Made Fun Gets Done” (coauthored by Mario Tamayo) in a 2022 Harvard Business Review article entitled — Why Work Should Be Fun. In the HBR article, Nelson explains how fun has a positive impact on employee engagement, creativity, and ultimately retention. And, I couldn’t agree more.

When I look back at my career pathway, even the most difficult programs had an element of enjoyment. In fact, the people and customers with whom I worked are how I remember the journey. Sure, there were tense, heated, and challenging moments along the way, but the ability to release, not only lowered our stress, it strengthened creativity, comradery and overall team chemistry.

As we move forward from the challenges of the COVID19 pandemic, I feel we may have lost some of that habitual enjoyment we built together. Going forward I want to inspire my teams to find ways to weave enjoyment into the fabric of our culture and subcultures. Make no mistake, we do serious work and deliver critical capabilities that enable incredibly important missions, but the seriousness of our work should not be a de facto prohibition against enjoying what we do as well as the people around us. So in 2023, we will continue to perform with excellence while making sure we underscore the value of fun and relationships throughout our experiences.