I've been toying with the fun/work connection - the fun of the job well-done - the fun of work. Here are some thoughts. I hope you find them toyworthy.

Of Fun and Work

Part one: Experiencing Your Competence

A couple Sundays ago, there was a King of the Hill episode called 24 Hour Propane People, showing what happens "When Strickland ...refocuses on making Strickland Propane a 'fun' place to work' and makes his employees dress in costumes, have sleepovers in the office and use catch phrases." This very show aired about two or three days after Kevin Eikenberry and I met to talk about what we might do about this very thing - how we might help people make the "real" fun/work connection.

Of all the many connections we discussed, Kevin found himself especially drawn to my description of the kind of work-related fun that takes place when you are "experiencing your competence."

I first thought about the competence/fun connection after I read Csikszentmihalyi's story, documenting the existence of a factory worker who actually enjoyed his work (see Knowing How to Play). Since then, I have become even more firm in my belief that in the secret recesses of the heart of work, a lot of fun is being had. You can find a collection of my work-and-fun-focused reflections in my Fun & Work reflections collection.

Part two: Freedom

In response to my having made the fun-work-competence connection, I received the following, by email, from fellow facilitator and brother-in-fun Bill Harris:

I think many people likely don't think work can be fun. Some of those might benefit from seeing Richard Feynman's video interview and the way a focus on fun helped him do great work (beginning with the segment on his turning down an opportunity to join Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, at 20:14).

Others might benefit from changing jobs -- or at least changing their attitude towards their current job. (I think I've seen people who think that work shouldn't be fun; you weren't being earnest if you were having fun.)

One of the big deals for me, though, is freedom. If you "make" me do something I don't want to do, you run a risk of me reacting inappropriately, and that could include suing later (see this). You also might find that I discover the thing you're suggesting really is fun, but that's a gamble. For example, I think I'd find a ropes course very un-fun, and I've been at a fun evening event with a comedian in a workplace that turned out to be painful more than funny. On the other hand, I recall Halloween costumes at work, juggling fruit at work or watching people bowl with oranges down the hall -- and the pleasure / fun from seeing a group make great progress or finally catching on to the answer to a tough problem.

The challenge is that people in many (most?) organizations don't feel able to speak up clearly, openly, and honestly, so it's hard to tell whether you're forcing someone to do something, I guess. That's one of the things I focus on, but it's not always easy; in fact, it can demand quite a bit of courage and personal insight on people's parts, even if management says they favor
it.

Yeah. So somehow, the fun of work, the inherent fun, has to do with the experience of freedom. Oh, yeah and again yeah!

So here's my take on the fun-freedom connection.

What's yours? What is it like for you when work is fun. How important to that kind of work, the fun kind, is your personal experience of freedom and competence? What else is important? I'm collecting stories. Wanna tell me yours?