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Who is your Minister of FUN?!

Sean Fitzgerald


Who is your Minister of FUN?


In my last corporate role, I had several Ministers of Fun (MoF) over the years. Team members who turned everyday challenges into fun activities that created positive energy in the workplace. True, it wasn’t for everyone but it put smiles on the faces of many and developed an emotional engagement for my team with their time at work.


Remember the ice-bucket challenge? One MoF created a similar style challenge  to drive uptake of a new phone based shopping app with my team (without the bucket of water!Phew!). As my team learnt how to use the app, they posted photos and nominated others to do the same. The result was team members increasing knowledge to support customers to use the app  and we went to the top of the league for uptake / usage across Waitrose.


My last MoF was identified through a rather unusual process! They were highlighted to me by a central team who reported that this person was creating ‘brand damaging’ tik tok videos. Basically hiding and jumping out to shock other employees whilst filming - queue four letter expletive filled videos, of uniform wearing employees, filling their tik tok feed! Some were quite funny but you didn’t hear that from me!


My conversation with this person to get the videos removed was short and successful but it seemed a shame to waste such creative energy with disciplinary action. So, after discussion and with real clarity around expectations and boundaries, my next MoF was recruited! 


Empowered to go and create FUN they rose to the challenge! Enlisting the support of others, their mission was to create random light hearted activity in a relentless world of busy. Treasure hunts around the workplace, quizzes and competitions that everyone could get involved in with prizes and particularly focused on busy trading periods with the aim of keeping smiles on their faces!


Small but regular interventions of FUN helped morale stay high, employee satisfaction survey results in  the upper levels and contributed to my “North Star’ status for employee engagement in JLP


FUN?! At work?! We spend a lot of time at work. Why shouldn’t it be fun?!


The benefits of fun in the workplace are well documented but here’s a final thought. In conversation about work, people don't tend to ask “how engaged are you there?” and are more likely to be interested in “do you like it there?” 


So have you identified your Minister of Fun? Is it time to set them to work?

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