“The world, including my office, is my playground. The world, including my playground, is my office.” Jonathan Flaks.

Making your work place fun has significant, exciting benefits. Getting people engaged in work is one of them. In 2012, talent recruiter Towers Watson did a Global Workforce Study of 32,000 professionals at large and midsize organizations across a range of industries in 50 companies. Those with what they call a "high sustainable engagement" achieved an average operating margin of 27.4% which is almost three times higher than the average operating margin of other companies.

Whether you are in a position of transformational leadership, or if you are in a business development role and you are looking to get clients, or if you are looking to make a change in your career or get a new job, going about any of these serious matters with an attitude of fun just works.

It also lowers stress. Virtually all studies on the subject show that stress is a major factor in health, healing and wellness. Fun at work lowers stress and that reduces absenteeism. According to a 2001 Bureau of Labor Statistics study, “The median number of days away from work as a result of anxiety, stress, and related disorders was 25 days per year – substantially greater than the median of 6 days per year for all nonfatal injury and illness cases.”

Research by author Dan Clemens, founder of Quiet Path Communications and former Employee Communications Manager during the US West/ Qwest Merger impacting 52,000 employees, found that:

• Making work fun leads directly to better performance on the job. Having fun drives people to do their best work.

• To have a positive impact on productivity, quality, engagement and retention, fun must be ingrained in the work, rather that be special events separate from the work.

If fun reduces stress, and energizes people to produce greater output and profit, how do we bring this into the work place?

G. Guidelines – a well-conceived game is exciting. If you let people know that a game is being created, and take time to specify goals, explain expectations and expand the availability of resources, people with be crystal clear about how to play. When we all know what results we’re aiming for, we get to play with all we have.

A. Actions – as the game gets started, you’ll have better results if clear communication is provided as to who is responsible for which actions in order for the team to win.

M. Measure results - keep a scorecard and make sure actions and results are both held as valuable. Let people check in to see how they are doing and coach them to improve their performance.

E. End with excitement – morale is boosted if there is a celebration after every game, win or lose, You’ll get more out of every game if you celebrate victories and also celebrate efforts and learning from mistakes or setbacks.

S. Start over – don’t wait too long to get complacent after a win or dejected after a loss. Get back into planning the game as soon as the last celebration is completed and you’ve all had a little rest. Soon, you’ll have a sustainable spirit of fun at work.

This kind of good sportsmanship creates a lively culture in your workplace, and brings a competitive advantage in marketing, recruitment and retention and just feels great. You may never feel like you’ve really worked another day in your life. Fun at work works.

What about you? What’s an aspect of your work you can energize with a spirit of fun and sportsmanship?

Next week we will talk about finding your passion and purpose that will bring you joy in your career.