My typical workday begins with chauffeuring kids to school, grabbing a quad almond milk latte and heading into the office to get to work. There are tasks, to-do lists, emails, check-ins, the list goes on. Unless you work at a comedy club, vacation destination, or preschool, there isn’t built-in time for fun.
But after attending the recent Women Lead NC | Power of Women partnership conference, which united professional women and their advocates, I am challenging myself to rethink the “fun” in my life.
Panelist, Precious Cloud said fun is defined as “anything that brings you joy on your terms; things in which you find pleasure. It’s the things that allow you to be and show up as your true and authentic self.”
And yes, that is lovely and all, we should definitely have fun in our lives, but why include space during your workday for “fun?”
Lauren Ansley answers with a quote by Victor Borge: “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” She interpreted this as a way to make connections and build relationships with your peers. When those relationships are authentic and strong, positive things happen. Sure, personal happiness increases, but companies also see spikes in productivity. In fact, one of the most impactful people in your career is your direct manager. Studies have shown, they have a greater impact on your mental health than your therapist. As a manager, this is a great lesson to hear and be thoughtful in how you manage your team. As a member of the team, this is important to find a career where you are supported, encouraged, and uplifted.
Rocio Gonzalez added the physical impacts of laughter are good for not only mental health, but also physical.
“It is a pain and stress reliever, lowers your blood pressure and oxygenates your blood.” Gonzalez said.
Ansley then threw a term at us: “Heliotropic Effect.” She asked anyone who knew what it meant to raise their hand. Crickets. Maybe they were scared or maybe because they didn’t know the answer, either way, it led me to googling it. It’s defined as “the tendency for all living systems to move towards light and away from darkness … or rather, towards that which is life-giving.”
Heliotropic Effect is the reason flowers move toward the sun as the day passes and humans gravitate to those who give us positive feeding energy. Positive energy can mean a lot of things, but giving people compliments triggers the reward system in their brain. Like laughter, feeding energy is infectious. You never know how it could change one’s mood, day, or even life.
Cloud encouraged us to add in “energetic resets” and incorporate things into the day to be unconventional and be unexpected to lift people up. She also left us with something that resonated with me: “Don’t dim your light, be your authentic self.”
This is great, right, but how do companies incorporate laughter and fun into the daily grind? How do you encourage energetic resets? The CLT Alliance supports a healthy balance by offering quarterly staff outings and team-building activities. From Knights baseball games, to community volunteer work, to funny bus tours, we make it a priority to get together and have a little fun and few laughs. We also have monthly staff trivia with fun facts about our colleagues, and have spaces to encourage our personal creativity and spaces to collaborate.
Sound off: What are things your company does to encourage fun, team building, laughter?
