I’m reading this book as part of a local book club and thought I’d use this venue to take some notes and share some of the poignant parts of the book, heck maybe some of them will be funny!

Chapter 7 focuses on shared and light-hearted experiences which brought teams closer and subsequently contributed to successful completion. I am glad to be exposed to these for it’s been some time, if ever, that I’m shown how important it is for 1) folks to not take themselves so seriously and 2) the workplace to allow a work bonding relationship between colleagues. This bonding enables exceptional work relationships and improved performance. Below are a couple examples that jumped out at me.

How to become, “Mr or Mrs Motivator” (p. 61). When dealing with a geographically dispersed team they set up a weekly email during which each team member sent a link to one of their favorite songs. It helped, “break down some of the cultural barriers…had the effect of making people feel included and a way to express themselves.”

Due to senior leadership’s “wooden” behavior, a team held a “tree day for the whole project team (around 50 people) without the knowledge of the senior leaders. Points were awarded for any mention of a tree, or wood related products that we could get into a meeting, minutes, or other documentation. To this day, the business requirements documentation is scattered with numerous woody references” (p. 68). I love this example of an insider joke-type activity that isn’t nefarious but maybe a little mischievous. I’ve participated in a similar event during briefing sessions when each staff member provides the commander with an update. I During one week of training one of our themes was “Song Names.” So whoever could use the most song names in their briefing won. Another fun part of this game was awaiting the Commander’s reaction-no one knew whether or not he would get a chuckle or be annoyed and tell us all to knock it off. Doing this while deployed to a combat zone was a bit riskier as stress and stakes were higher. Fortunately, I never had a commander be overly bothered by the shenanigan; I think the worst reaction we got was an eye roll and glare which led to a time-out in the game if I remember correctly.

One leader had success in motivating his dispersed team by sending each team a unique colored hat. “Red for developers, green for graphic artists, blue for instructional designers and so on…This got them so psyched and excited…Productivity increased.” Holy cow!! This is not unbelievable but so surprising to me! Just creating a lighter atmosphere drove productivity. The author shared a related thought from Einstein: “creativity = intelligent people + laughter” (p. 42). I seriously need to take heed to this as it’s not my norm to apply this principle.