playfulness – Investigations of a Dog

People learn and solve problems when they are having fun, stress is low, and the environment encourages discovery. A core part of psychological safety.

I’ve talked before about bringing playfulness to work, about exuberance and excitement. These personal approaches can be turned to the wider organization.

Quality as a profession – not so known for fun. So we need to look for opportunities for fun, whether in our training programs, through initiatives like Quality Days, or any other place we can find it.

Here are some ideas for organizing fun to drive a quality message.

Activity Name	Description	Cost required	Effort required	Impact/ Learning Opportunity	Learning Outcome
Video Competitions	Contest of team videos with stories about how they transfer quality or outline continuous improvement projects. Teams may also record a best practice to be shared with the organization.	Medium	High	High	-Video and poster viewership helps transfer quality behaviors and values to others. -Employee-created messages are more credible, giving them a stronger impact on transferring the culture of quality throughout the organization.
Poster Signing	Teams can sign a poster to make a commitment to quality. They can hold a contest for designing the best Quality Day poster.	Low	Low	Medium
Employee Idea Demonstrations	Make peer idea generation (quality ideas) visible to all employees through the use of regularly refreshed public “progress boards” and idea showcases where projects are publicly evaluated.	Low	Medium	High	-Shows employees that quality focus is something that peers around them prioritize and benefit from. -Provides employees a benchmark for what behaviors are expected from them and encourages the ones whose ideas are recognized.
Quality Awards and Recognition	Publicly recognize individuals and teams with a trophy/certificate for consistently embodying quality in their work. Awarding behaviors, not just outcomes, increases employee engagement.	High	Medium	High	-Helps engage employees in quality improvement efforts by demonstrating that despite other objectives and priorities, quality remains important to leaders.
Client/ Customer Visit	Invite your clients/customers to visit and talk about their experience with the product/service and the importance of quality.	High	High	High	-Helps employees understand how a high-quality mindset avoids customer-facing mistakes and leads to greater customer satisfaction.
Games	Word-Play Games: A group of employees can play games like Scrabble and Bingo with quality terminology.	Low	Low	Medium	-Quick games help employees become aware of quality terms, tests, standards in a fun way.
Games	Trivia Games: Employees can play games such as “Jeopardy” and beer pong with quality standards, tests, tools to educate themselves.	Low	Low	Medium
Articles on Quality	Share blogs and articles on quality.	Low	Medium	Medium	-Increases quality’s visibility across the organization and promotes awareness.
Quality Quiz Competition	Employees can take quizzes on quality-related concepts.	Low	Medium	High	-Tests employees’ awareness and creates a healthy competition to know more.
Quality Merchandise (swag)	Distribute T-shirts, mugs, badges with quality quotes to employees. Reward contest winners with goodies such as chocolates with quality phrases written on them.	High	High	Medium	-Provides more visibility to quality and imparts a sense of pride in employees.

Leveraging fun is a good way to help build a culture of quality.

Building moments of planned fun is work, and should be part of the overall Quality Plan, with activities and milestones clearly marked and executed towards.

Playfulness can soften difficult decisions, conversations and actions that require courage. Having the ability to bring a level of lightheartedness to even the most difficult situations can take the edge of circumstances that might otherwise scare you. Playfulness has the incredible power to disarm even the darkest of circumstances.

It invites courage to play.

Play is a fundamental part of the human experience. We should never forget to bring it to our work. A playful attitude keeps your mind curious. It makes us better problem-solvers.

Play involves an enthusiastic and in-the-moment attitude. When we play, we detach from outside stressors and become completely absorbed in the activity. Play is the ultimate mindfulness.

Do not let play be the first thing that gets lost when stress overrides our lives.

Playfulness is a subtle art. It is bordered by silliness on one side and rudeness on the other side. Be careful to ensure you never are in either of those territories. Men, this is especially critical to us as our culture lets too many sexist, racist and homophobic attitudes slide as humor. Always remember that playfulness is not the same as being funny. I’m not a very funny person, I try to avoid making people laugh. what I strive to do is make people feel included in my curiosity and exploration.

Good playfulness should always connect, never divide.

Take your play seriously! But don’t take yourself too seriously. Point out your own flaws and imperfections in a humorous, confident way. Sincere self-deprecation can be powerful.

People will strive for your success when you show up with playful energy. Make the other person genuinely feel special and watch the magic happen. Playfulness is a gentle invitation for others to follow you if they want to.

Playfulness will reflect in your body language. This is very inviting, and a whole lot of what folks mean as charisma stems from this spark.

By practicing playfulness you will develop an attitude of irreverence where you are in touch with yourself and avoid negativity and drama.

So reflect and ask yourself these questions:

How can you approach life with more playfulness? What would happen if you were more playful in your daily life?
Where are you lacking playfulness?
Who is someone playful you admire? What makes them playful?
If you approached life in a more playful way, what brave decisions would you make?
How would you show up differently if you were to embrace playfulness?
How can you invite more play into your life?

Tag: playfulness

Pump up the Fun!

Bring Playfulness to Your Work