Nothing Frivolous About Fun

If you look up the word “fun” in the dictionary, and then contrast it with stories of fun, they are not the same thing. 

Fun is defined as something almost frivolous; it’s lighthearted enjoyment or pleasure. But, as revealed in a scientific study at SXSW, true ‘fun’ taps into what makes us human. There’s something profoundly important about people having fun that the definition doesn’t cover. So then, what is fun?

We are commonly marketed ‘fun’ as a happy hour after work, a video game, or the act of taking a vacation, but that’s not actually the case. True fun is a feeling - not an activity. Try thinking about it scientifically, as Katherine Price, Science Journalist and author of Power of Fun does, “Through my research, I found that ‘fun’ exists at the intersection of playfulness, connections, and flow. When all three states act together people experience true fun.” What I found most interesting is that Katherine’s findings of fun almost always included another person - whether the person experiencing said fun was an introvert or extrovert. An in-person connection was key to achieving fun. This could easily be interpreted as broad or obvious, but it’s still an important conclusion as we continue to test remote working. 

Beyond corporations wanting their offices to be a fun and positive environment, fun significantly boosts productivity. It gives us energy and makes us more resilient. If you encourage pockets of fun at work, your employees will be more resilient to challenges and faster to address them. Katherine Price points out that, “Fun affects us physically, down to the way our genes are expressed. Loneliness and isolation are fertilizer for other diseases. Smoking 15 cigarettes a day is comparably as detrimental to our mental health as severe isolation. And without connection, fun is rarely possible.”

It's an abstract concept, so here are some more tangible suggestions:

·     Create an environment where flow is possible: There are proven benefits in minimizing distractions to get into the flow. Try to have in-person meetings without computers or cell phones. 30-minute ‘flow’ meetings can be invaluable. Anything that distracts you is going to pull you out of flow and prevent fun, which intern, prevents productivity. 

·     Spark Delight: What is 1 thing that employees might be into? Reflect on ‘fun magnets’ on the team and moments that felt fun. Ask yourself: Where were you, what were you doing, who were you with? Begin to prioritize those things in small bursts.

·      Scan the environment for positive things: We as human beings are wired to scan for threatening, negative things, that cause anxiety. At the end of the day, you must scan for moments in the day where a team member did something that sparked joy, a moment of playful connection, a brief that was interesting, etc. It’s very self-perpetuating when you focus on the positive so it’s important to embrace scanning the day for fun. 

·       Facilitate In-Person Meetings: Try to have 1x day a week for in-person connection.

Lastly, it would be remiss not to mention social media in this topic. Social media is meant to be fun and connect people, but it has the complete opposite effect. It’s not playful, it’s not flow, and it certainly doesn’t involve the in-person connections discussed by Katherine. Social media is passive consumption, slowly lowering energy and making it almost impossible for true fun to occur. 

_{Ann Kelsey, Producer, Content+, Mindshare}