God, grant me the ability to be as good of a person as my dog thinks I am. – Anon

In a previous blog post we explored The 7 Mistakes Change Leaders Make, and how mistakes are necessary to actually develop success habits. Using the metaphor of the growing cycle we explored Mistake #1 which is Planting Your Idea in Barren Soil. Then we looked at mistake #2 which was Choosing the Wrong Kind of Idea Seed. The 3^rd mistake many change leaders make is to not watering or fertilizing your idea enough.

Linda wanted to help address exhaustion and tension at work. There was a bad “vibe” ever since the latest project went overtime and over budget. While a problem solving meeting had helped, she knew people needed something that buoyed their spirits but that didn’t take much time or money.

She had heard about the simple idea of creating fun contests that would run in the organization’s online newsletter. She went to her boss and shared stories of other companies that did a baby picture contest and a cartoon caption contest and how it improved the mood at work, enhanced relationships between people, and sparked creative thinking. Her boss reluctantly agreed as long as it didn’t pull too much focus from their deadlines.

The pilot project included asking people to send Linda a photo of their pet for a contest in which everyone was then invited to guess who the owner was. Within half an hour Linda was inundated with photos of Portuguese Water Dogs, Persian cats, and love birds. One staff member complained that she wanted to participate in the contest but didn’t own a pet due to allergies. They decided instead that she would send a photo of her favourite Boston fern.

The next week the photos went out to all the staff with a deadline. By Friday, you had to guess the owner. The person with the most correct answers would receive a $75 gift certificate to a nearby restaurant. The restaurant owner had gladly donated the prize. The contest entries came through in droves and one man in accounting got all but four answers correct. He took his two colleagues out for lunch the next week.

Linda’s boss was thrilled with the results of the contest because he saw people laughing again while they tried to trick people into divulging the type of pet they owned. He noticed two people who barely talked to each other were now comparing notes on the idiosyncrasies of Portuguese Water Dogs. Meetings had a more light-hearted atmosphere, ideas about dealing with the project seemed more innovative than before, and less people seemed to be showing up late or calling in sick.

Linda got the green light to do a new contest each month. The only problem was that sometimes people attracted to leading change are not the same type of people who like to maintain the change. Change Artists are those who can do both or at least delegate to and steward those who will maintain it. Linda was enthused about the pilot project, but lost enthusiasm when it came to the on-going “watering and fertilizing” of her change initiative. The next month’s contest was to name the organization’s mascot (a wind up pig that grunted), which was successful, but not as successful as the first one. She skipped the third one because her idea ended up seeming too complicated. The fourth contest didn’t seem to appeal to people, and so by the fifth month she dropped the project.

Linda overhead one day, though, that people were disappointed that there were no longer any contests. She realized that she needed to delegate the on-going maintenance of this idea to someone who liked maintenance. She asked four people with that personality style and one of them agreed to take it on for the next 3 months. Walter in IT made the whole project take off again because he was already handling the “news” section of the organization’s web site, so it was easy for him to do. He elicited suggestions from staff and searched the web for new contests ideas. He made sure others helped him during busy months. And generally, he enjoyed the monthly attention to detail and the joy it seemed to bring people. After five years this organization still does about 10 contests a year. The role of contest maintenance has been passed along gleefully several times to people who enjoy this kind of task, and thus the spirit and purpose of the original idea stays well nourished.

Congratulations to Jan and her team!

“We are the regional office of a Commercial Insurance Company with a staff of 68 people.  We did some “Christmas Challenges” for fun during the holidays.  Employees were to check their e-mail at certain times during the day to find out what that day’s challenge would be.

One of these challenges was to build a “snowman” using only items from your desk.  The rules were, you had 10 minutes to create your snowman and bring it to the breakroom.  You were not allowed to get up from your desk to get supplies from other desks or the supply cabinet, and you were not allowed to use any Christmas decorations that you might already have at your desk for the holidays.

We had a small panel of “judges” and gave small prizes for the most creative snowmen.  Attached are a couple of photos that show a few of these creations. “

Don Isaac from District of West Vancouver submitted 5 entries- “The Phone Less Cord,” “Don Goofiness,” “Sea Monkey Burial at Sea,” “Tree and Boots” and “Glass Eye Collection.” Don and his team won Honorable Mention for these great entries!

The Phone Less Cord

“The Phone less cord” was a stolen humour joke. I sent the photo to management stating that I found a new electronic device that would save us money on phone calls. (A phone less cord)”

Don Goofiness

“Don Goofiness was taken on the day (Halloween) when the new Municipal Manager was coming for a tour of our Cemetery. He had never met us and so he didn’t know what we looked like. I walked over to the next building to greet him with the mask and hat and present him with a treat. (granola bar)  The trick was I actually look fairly similar to what the mask hides (be it the mask has more hair)  I try wear this mask every Halloween in the office for staff only.  You should see what we do on April Fool’s Day. “

Sea Monkey Burial at Sea

“Sea Monkey Burial at Sea was taken a few years back. It came to be from a present we received from a Summer/Seasonal employee. He thought we needed a mascot/pet at the Cemetery. We couldn’t have a pet that moved like a cat etc. due to them setting off the motion sensors connected to the alarm system. Sea Monkeys were the solution and quite popular (we had them as kids) until the sad day when we had to say goodbye. Being Sea Monkeys they had to be buried at sea and so we introduced them to it. We even had a little stick puppet snowman say a few words.”

Tree and Boots

“Tree and Boots was a set up photo. Over night we had a ornamental plum tree fall down and so before we cut it up and removed it, I positioned my rain boots under it and took a photo. I eventually sent a copy of it to my friend the District Health and Safety Officer with the remarks I hate when this happens. “

Glass Eye Collection

“Glass Eye Collection” is just another sample of Cemetery Humour “

The next two images were contributed by Genalyn Fisher, from Alberta Health Services – Community Health .

“Here is a picture with the staff wearing costumes on Halloween…

…we had a pumpkin carving contest and then auctioned them off, the money raised went to the women’s shelter.”

The rules were to send in a photo of something that created fun in your workplace. After all, joy, laughter and appreciation are great ways to get the creative brain working more effectively, and it’s also a great way to boost morale through the winter blues!

The first entry below is from Cheryl Stafford at BC Children’s Hospital Foundation

Kitty Litter and Fingers Dessert

winner of Carla’s honorable mention award! (A Far Side Book)

Cheryl writes, this is “From our Halloween Potluck which almost all staff attended – kitty litter and fingers (desserts).  The kitty litter actually won an award for most creative / best food!  It was pudding and cake with tootsie rolls!”

The next submission is also from Cheryl Stafford at BC Children’s Hospital Foundation

Pin the nose on Knut

“From our Holiday Open House – we had a number of games going on such as “wack a penguin” – electronic set up in one of our meeting rooms and pin the nose on Knut (he’s one of our VP’s).  The picture is of Knut before the red dot noses were put on him for the contest.  Contestants were blindfolded and had to walk up and place a red circle sticker on the picture – closest to the nose won! “

Ed DeBruyn from Fisheries and Oceans Canada challenged his staff in the district offices in Ontario to submit pictures of their best decorated doors. His organization held their own internal contest with prizes.  Check out one of the successful door designs below:

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The next photo was sent in by Narinder Serown, from BC Community Corrections

Narinder at Work

Narinder writes “here’s a picture of me for the Fun at Work contest.  This was taken shortly after I arrived at the Kamloops Community Corrections office.  This was sent around to my former colleagues and it created a few chuckles.”

Michelle Nelson from Tap Communications Inc., an advertising and communications company in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan also won a Honorable Mention for her photo contribution

Amazing Race

Michelle writes “Last year we held a car rally with different points around the city where we had to race to in order to gather clues to the next location. We had so much fun at that party that we decided to invite spouses in on the fun for our 2008 party, but to change it to a foot race so that it would be a safer event. “

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