Return to Office Blues? Cue Workplace Playfulness!
Whether your team is back in the office or juggling a hybrid schedule, creating a lively work culture is essential for keeping everyone engaged and productive. One of the best ways to achieve a fun workplace? Add a sprinkle of playfulness to your everyday activities! With a few fun touches, you can transform your work environment into a space where creativity and collaboration flourish.
The importance and impact of fun in the workplace
Can play really enhance the quality of work? Researchers Samuel West, Eva Hoff, and Ingegerd Carlsson explored this question in their study of how play cues influence meeting playfulness, productivity, and the creativity climate.
The setup
The study divided participants into two groups: one in a conference room with a gift-style box of chocolates and fruits (the control group) and another in a room filled with playful cues like childish candies, plastic blocks, sticky mustaches, nerf guns, and instructions for a silly meeting game. Participants weren’t required to use the cues; the researchers simply left them there.
The theory
It’s believed play is associated with creativity because it likely leads to mental flexibility and more non-judgment of our own and other’s ideas. Some research has even found play can increase team performance through laughter and communication. But while we know the benefits of play, ways to create play in the workplace are more challenging to uncover.
Studies on workplace play often view it as a trait, with the belief that some individuals or teams are naturally more playful. However, research suggests playfulness can be cultivated as a state – meaning individuals can increase their creativity by reframing tasks and situations as playful.
The takeaway
West, Hoff, and Carlsson’s study found play cues positively impact meeting creativity, playfulness, and productivity. The mere presence of playful items gave people the opportunity to engage in spontaneous play, which likely led to authentic laughter exchanges and improved team performance.
Ready to intentionally incorporate playfulness into your workplace culture? This blog offers some office engagement ideas and strategies to consider beyond self-adhesive mustaches (though you should get some of those, too!).
First, link it up
Adding playfulness to the workplace intentionally helps it feel like a strategic move rather than a stand-alone initiative. Start by doing what we call a Link UpTM in our Strategic Thinking workshop. This means you want to link opportunities for play up to the big picture (your mission, values, goals, etc.) to ensure your efforts are focused and impactful.
Consider these guiding questions:
What’s your why? Why is having fun important at your org?
What opportunities or events are coming up where you can add in some fun? (Think all-hands, demos, performance reviews, 1-1s).
What skills do you want to build as an organization, a team, or as individuals?
What’s your budget for playtime?
Are your leaders buying into the importance of play?
Let your answers guide your efforts!
Ways to foster workplace playfulness
We’ve gathered a few ideas to get you started in bringing a bit of play to your workplace – many will work for hybrid setups, too!
Company celebrations: Host a birthday party for your organization’s anniversary.
Office mascots: Introduce a rotating office mascot that can accompany team adventures. Our mascot, Ollie the Owl, was crocheted by our CEO and is passed around when a new Labmate comes on board!
Mini missions: Provide small, fun tasks team members can do individually or in pairs and then share their outcomes.
Themed gallery wall: Create a space (physical or virtual) for rotating employee artwork or themed photos – babies and pets are favorites!
Office competitions: Organize fun challenges inspired by popular shows, like a summer-long version of the reality show “Big Brother.”
Awards & rewards: Celebrate employees with fun, quirky awards. A couple of ideas:
Give out an Employee of the Month award where the winner gets a rubber chicken to proudly display on their desk for the entire month.
Give out superhero action figures, such as Iron Man and Elasti-girl, as a reward for demonstrating resilience and adaptability. Recipients can then pass the figurines to a colleague when they witness similar behavior.
Word challenges: Task someone with finding a way to insert a random word (like “unicorn”) into a meeting or other in-house communication – celebrate when it happens! Or, have team members try to get each other to say specific words or phrases during a meeting. If someone says the word, they’re out of the game!
Ice-breakers: Start meetings with quick, engaging icebreaker questions. (An oldie, but goodie!)
Snack tastings: Get a variety of the same snack – all the Doritos or Oreos flavors, or all the M&M types, etc. – and have your team vote on the best. Surprising emotional investments emerge, sparking funny debates over the best M&M flavor! Alternatively, try blind snack tasting (Coke vs. Pepsi, various potato chips, etc.)
Delight fund: Establish a dedicated budget for employees to surprise and delight their colleagues. Each manager or employee receives a set allocation to spend on thoughtful gestures for others.
Optional self-care calendar blocks: Schedule a weekly 30-minute self-care block for the team. Make it optional but encouraged, with a rotating member choosing activities ranging from walks to board games. Initiate spontaneous “sun breaks” on sunny days to enjoy the outdoors together.
Make-your-own events: Host “Make Your Own ___” team-building activities in the break room or synchronously on a Zoom call. Examples include a make-your-own-pizza lunch to share virtually, on-site waffle-making, or even paint-your-own-rock sessions.
Potlucks with a twist: Organize themed or seasonal potlucks. We’ve done a “Spring Chicken” event with KFC provided by the office and sides brought in by employees, and an “Arbor Eat’um” for Arbor Day with everyone bringing their favorite little tree’t.
Puzzle table: Set up a communal jigsaw puzzle for team members to work on collaboratively.
Dress-up days: Introduce a monthly or quarterly themed dress-up day with guidelines and maybe even a prize for the best costume.
Thank you card station: Provide a table with thank you cards or cardstock, encouraging employees to take breaks and write notes of appreciation to their colleagues.
Office lending library: Create a mini-library where employees can donate and borrow books. Consider a sign-up system for tracking.
Random wall sits: Organize spontaneous “wall sit” breaks, calling everyone to join in for a minute of fitness together.
Props corner: Add a few fun props to your office supply corner with items like silly pens, arts and crafts, puzzles, fortune cookies, and colorful wigs for a quick employee morale boost.
Covert co-worker exchange: Organize a Secret Santa exchange (even in the middle of summer!) with a spending cap – encourage creative, personalized gifts.
Four corners activity: Use an active learning strategy in meetings by presenting a hot take – like ‘dogs are superior to cats’ – with four corners labeled for responses: agree, strongly agree, disagree, strongly disagree. Participants physically move to their chosen corner and share their reasoning.
Young photos sharing: During all-hands meetings, ask leaders to rotate sharing mildly embarrassing childhood photos and talking about “mistakes I made in my youth” or something that starts the play vulnerability loop at the top of the organization.
The Power of Workplace Play
Incorporating these playful elements into your workplace routines enhances productivity and fosters a positive workplace culture. The key is to create play opportunities that feel intentional and integrated into the organization rather than separate initiatives. By embracing play, your teams can increase their creativity, build stronger relationships, and enhance their overall performance.
