Where did all the fun go?

Let's get real for a minute, everyone wants to have fun at work, and everyone wants a cool office. If you are a client you do not want to step into dull boredom when you walk into a building, you want to appreciate life, colour, and have a great time. If you include anything in your business culture make sure that you include fun and honesty. You have a culture by default. Every action, interaction, smile or frown adds to the customer's view of who you are. There is no escaping that fact. Everything you do reflects on your core culture. Think of the opposite of these traits - boring and dishonest. No one wants to be friends with someone who's boring or dishonest let alone do business with them. You remember Jim from the cocktail party, the guy who with the monotone who bored you to tears for half an hour while he described the inner workings of his ant farm, imagine doing business with him, sitting for hours in a boardroom while he drones on about an unimportant technical issue. No one likes boring.

 

These two important aspects of a personal outlook on life work hand in hand.

Separating them would be like taking the fizz out of Coke. Ever been talking to someone and realize they are being dishonest? Even though there might be burst of laughter, lots of free drinks and some extra caviar it destroys trust and the dishonest component destroys the "fun" leaving you with flat Coke. Switch it up. An honest person that never has fun is like going to the moon with a soapstone statue. They weigh you down and when you get there there's no one to share champagne with. There's no enthusiasm in the accomplishment. It's terrible. Add fun and honesty to your corporate culture.

 

Let's talk about the bit fun for now. How to add fun: find the sore and mundane practices and make sure they're no longer mundane.

 

Start with your business card. I have a cool party trick for boring business cards I don't want to keep, I throw them away with a flick of the wrist. If you get it right you can send that card soaring about twenty feet into the dustbin. Business cards can be boring. So mix it up a little, create a job-title for yourself that incorporates humour. Instead of 'Personal Trainer' try 'Torture Specialist', instead of 'Accountant' try 'Number Cruncher'. Get people to have a double take when they glance at it. Use that as the springboard for building a relationship.

 

Think of the process that your clients have to go through. Now liven it up a bit. Take the 'transaction' aspect out of the procedure and get it done with a bit of relationship. Think good quality coffee on entering the building so they have something to drink while they queue, chocolates on leaving. Out of the ordinary quotes like Nando's did with their napkins. Think takeaway coffee cups with smiley faces drawn on them. In fact let us break this down to a simple mundane task of going to the bank to get a withdrawal. It has all the potential for boredom; clinical self-grandiosing décor, queueing for an indeterminate time, bureaucracy, oh yes going to the bank ranks highly on my boredom scale.

 

Imagine going to the bank like this. You enter the bank and the first thing that strikes you is the décor. Yes there are security features tucked away here and there, but for a start the bank is not advertising itself. There are massive wallscapes mounted around the hall for you to admire. As you look closely you realise that they are cartoon comic strips. A fellow client sees you noticing and points out that they change them every fortnight. A smiling barista hands you a fresh cup of coffee. The cup is not plain but has a designer quote on it. You fill in the required form and head over to the teller, there is a quote on the slip to remind you that life is not just about transactions but relationships. Someone got the design right, there are enough tellers on duty to ensure your wait time is minimal. The teller is dressed in collar shirt and jeans, formal yet relaxed. She smiles. Your cash is handed to you in an envelope that says 'Most banks give you cold hard cash. But we are a different bank. And so we are giving you warm, caring cash! Use it wisely!' How different is that. Now I wish I could claim originality for that system but Missouri Bank beat me to it (except the comic strip bit, that was me).

 

I can see some people shaking their heads in disbelief; all that effort, all that extra expense, why should we even bother? Here is why. Competition is real. People will remember you more for the fun service they had than the actual product they got from you. They will keep coming back and they will tell their friends. 'But Zach its hardly professional, people want us to be professional'. I never said it was not. Do not mistake fun for unprofessional. Crude would be unprofessional. But when did being professional become synonymous with boredom?

 

Next excuse please? 'Oh but that was an American example.' We live in a global market, get over it. If you want fun, local, and professional then go have a look at Printworks in Mount Pleasant where the coffee shop is right next to the area you place your order. Or get local company CMedia to do a presentation for you. Local companies, right here that are changing it up.

 

It's to easy to slip into a monotonous, transactional business system where laughter had left the building, and smiles have turned upside down. It is easy to settle for cold, grey, and clinical and be happy with it.

 

It's also easy to slip in a few dishonest comments in today's society. It doesn't last. Broken trust is hardly recoverable. The honesty bit in your culture, do what you say you will. Deliver on time. Keep your word. Fun and honesty promotes trust and gives everyone you interact with positive memory. When becomes your culture you no longer even have to try.