Archive for the ‘Hoopla Team’ Category

The Quietly Happy Workplace

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

© Polushkina Svetlana | Dreamstime.com

There’s a common misconception that the joyful, engaged workplace has to include a lot of waved pompoms, ringing bells, and people popping up like toast over their cubicle walls with a spontaneous WOOHOO!

While I’m all in favor of getting wild and crazy in the interest of workplace engagement, all this woohooing is only an outward expression of an inner joy. And while many workplaces can and should allow their joy to spill over into public view, some others—a hospital ICU, for example, or a funeral home—might call for a little discretion.

But not TOO much discretion. These workplaces are just as prone to dysfunctional, crazymaking behaviors as any other. And they can be even MORE prone to the negative, depressed emotions that can drag a workplace environment into the pits.

So let’s say I’m the owner of a funeral home. A few of my staffers spend half their time working and the other half making everyone else miserable—gossiping, whining, backstabbing, the works. I can’t exactly encourage my staff to put clown noses on the departed, or to woohoo and greet grieving family members with a hearty, “Hey, how’s it going, dude?” They wouldn’t be there if things were going well.

Workplace engagement is founded on mutual respect and on being of profound service to others. Both of these are as compatible with my hypothetical funeral home as they are with any other workplace.

That doesn’t mean people in these “discreet” lines of work can’t go a little crazy in celebration. You can and you should. A party in a funeral home could have a casket full of ice for the drinks and ladyfinger cookies covered with frosting and standing on end to look like tombstones. Why not? Okay, that is a little too weird.

But engagement doesn’t start with wild parties. It starts with employees who care for each other and treat each other with basic kindness. This it both a matter of what we do (“I remember your daughter wasn’t feeling well—is she better now?”) and what we don’t do (no gossiping behind someone’s back—giving OR receiving).

But it’s also a matter of reframing EVERY aspect of your daily work in terms of being of profound service to others. That, not employee cheer pyramids or conga lines through the lobby, are what transforms a workplace into a place of genuine engagement and joy.

How Your TGIM Hoopla Team Will Save Your Company

Friday, May 1st, 2009
© Monkeybusinessimages | Dreamstime.com

© Monkeybusinessimages | Dreamstime.com

Admit it. The first time you heard the phrase “Hoopla Team®“—maybe last week, or last month, or ten seconds ago, in that headline—you rolled your eyes. Oh you did so.

But the eyes stop rolling when people hear about the remarkable turnarounds happening across the country when leaders get serious about the transformation of their workplace culture—a transformation that has the Hoopla Team smack dab in the center of it. (more…)

Creating a Celebration Culture

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
Credit:  © Monkeybusinessimages| Dreamstime.com

Credit: © Monkeybusinessimages| Dreamstime.com

When’s the last time you heard someone say, “The problem with working here is I’m just appreciated way too much?”  Healthy cultures have appreciation and celebration as their cultural backbone. They create an environment in which everyone oohs and aahs over each other’s successes and contributions.

Notice I said EVERYONE, not just managers.  You might convince yourself that the manager who high-fives the top salespeople is just doing his or her job.  But once you get celebration and congratulation flowing from peer to peer, you know you’ve created a celebration culture.

So how do you get there? By creating rituals of celebration. (more…)

Keeping the Party Alive

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

I’ve got to tell you – I’m a little mixed about this whole Wells Fargo thing.

People are having a lot of fun right now waggling their fingers at corporate overspending.  The Germans (who have a word for everything – remember Fahrvergnugen?) have a word for this kind of fun:  Schadenfreude, or delighting in somebody else’s misfortune.

And yes, it’s fun to point and laugh at people like John Thain, driving their companies into multibillion-dollar nosedives while buying $1400 wastecans and $35,000 antique toilets.

But Wells Fargo’s supposed sin is quite different.

In case you haven’t heard, they’ve taken quite a flogging in the press and in Congress for planning to fly their top people to Vegas for a big recognition event after receiving bailout money.

Sure, the planned event was pretty lavish – just the latest in a long Wells Fargo tradition that has included wine-tasting trips, helicopter junkets, and even a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas for a thousand employees.  The Vegas trip was to include twelve days and nights on the Strip.

Now it’s been called off.

So why are my feelings mixed?  (more…)