Inspiring Workplaces: Points of Pride

Published: Wed, 05/20/15

Humor at Work

ISSUE 583 - May 20, 2015


			Points of Pride

	Hills Pet Nutrition is lauded for its inspiring culture, driven largely by its ability to leverage the pride employees have in their company. Pride, as I often talk about, is an incredibly powerful motivational trigger. What great workplaces like Hills does so well is nurture a culture where employees are encouraged to express their pride about numerous aspects of their work. So employees at Hills Pet Nutrition are proud of their products, yes, but they're also proud of their teammates, their mission, their customers, and their great work environment. Their culture offers some good reminders for all workplaces: There are often overlooked sources of pride in organizations. So...are you building a culture where employees are proud not just of your company or the services and products you offer, but also proud of your customers' successes? How about pride of your workplace culture? Pride in your teammates' skills and accomplishments? Pride in your community involvement? A major way that Hills instills a sense of pride is by giving employees the freedom to design their own processes for measuring standards and performance targets. Empowerment and pride go hand in hand. The walls of the plants at Hills Pet Nutrition are covered with their standards and targets, so that employees never lose sight of what really matters and are primed to anticipate feelings of pride once those targets are achieved. Hills has a "vision wall" where employees are encouraged to write a heartfelt page about how they feel about the values and vision of the company, fueling yet more pride in what they do. Don't underestimate the power of pride in your workplace and in your own performance. Remind yourself of how proud you will feel once "x" is finished. Share stories of your wins. Add a "moment of pride" to your meeting agendas. And never stop celebrating the great work you, your teammates, and your organization achieve.

		Mike's Fun at Work Tip

May 21st is Red Nose Day in the United States. It's a FUN-raising day involving the sales of clown noses and fun events across the country to raise awareness and money for children and young people living in poverty. It's also a great reminder of how humor can go a long way when contributing to a good cause. So this week's fun at work tip is to challenge your company to come up with an outrageous fun-raising idea directed to a good cause in your community. The Red Nose website offers some simple fun-raising suggestions that you could adopt for a good cause: - Wear more clothes for more money. Get sponsored for the amount of clothes you are able to wear to work (scarfs, hats, jackets...you name it). The more layers you are able to wear, the more money you get. - Set up a swear jar in your office for a day...or week...or month. - One company offered employees a chance to throw a wet sponge at their boss at a cost of $10 per sponge. - Get people to sponsor your executive team or all your employees to wear a wacky wig or outrageous costume for a day. - Challenge another business to a "dance-off." Drop me a line if your company already does something a bit offbeat or wacky for charity, I'm compiling a list for an article so I'd love to hear from you: mike@mikekerr.com
		Quote of the Week

"A good sense of humor is the sign of a healthy perspective, which is why people who are uncomfortable around humor are either pompous (inflated) or neurotic (oversensitive). John Cleese
		It's a Wacky World

A study sponsored by Microsoft (oddly enough) found that humans have a shorter attention span than - SQUIRREL! Sorry, where was I? Oh, right - evidently we humans now have a shorter attention span than goldfish. Our attention span has been falling since the year 2000, primarily owing to our addiction to smartphones. Lacking opposable thumbs, goldfish have not developed this habit and are able to maintain their attention, on average, for 9 seconds vs. only 8 seconds for humans. Which means, yup, it's just a matter of time before we'll be reporting to our goldfish overlords.

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