149: Ways to Make Your Interior Design Business More Fun
149: Ways to Make Your Interior Design Business More Fun
with Michele Williams
The last year and a half have been taxing for businesses, and for business owners. The time we used to take to create a great team culture and to do things together was changed to how do we all do things apart from each other. On today’s podcast we are going to dig in to why it is important to have fun in the workplace and how to do that in a multitude of ways. I hope you can take away a few new ideas for your team to build fun again.
Topics Mentioned:
Fun
Celebrations
Outings
Appreciation in the workplace
Listen to the Episode
You have heard me say that employees don’t leave bad companies as much as they leave bad managers. I did not come up with this saying but can say I have seen it play out. I will go a step further and say that employees leave bad teams, too. You know it is true. In school we all looked to get on a good team when we had a project to do and were quickly hoping to be reassigned if the team, we were put on was horrible.
This same thing plays out in the workplace. We all want to be on a good team, and we all want to have fun. Now, more than ever, we need to build and rebuild community in the workplace. Today we are going to look at some low cost and no cost ways to do this – along with some investments in the people on your team.
Ok, let’s start with the no cost and low-cost ways to have fun.
Create a fun environment. This is as simple as being quick to smile, quick to compliment (honestly of course), and quick to laugh when something is funny. We can take our work seriously, but we don’t have to take everything around us that way. You can always find small things to lighten the mood and laugh about. Sometimes it can even be small mistakes. Laughing makes them more normalized and allows for an environment to learn in rather than an environment that is so perfection oriented that everyone is walking on pins and needles. Evaluate your environment. Do you feel free to laugh, to smile and to greet one another? Even if you are still meeting by zoom or online, make sure to take a moment to connect with people before diving into the serious part.
Invite fun into your team meetings. Take the same day-to-day fun and kick it up a level. Tell a good “dad joke”, or just recount something funny from the last week that everyone can connect with and laugh.
Let each person choose the music for the day or week. I once was helping a company look at morale and how to improve upon it. Interestingly, one of the employees mentioned how much they hated the music that they had to listen to every day. It grated on their nerves. They asked if there was a day they could listen to some of their favorite music. The employer said yes. It has been so fun to watch the company continue to thrive and to see the employees dancing around a little and knowing that even if they don’t like the current genre of music – their day is coming around again soon.
Birthday celebrations, family milestone celebrations and lunches in to celebrate company achievements are always a welcome treat. Also, things like a smoothie day, ice cream day, etc. At one of my companies, we had banana split day. It was so fun to set up the ice cream bar and see how each person topped their sugary treat. We all went outside and ate it and enjoyed some fresh sunshine. Another idea is a company picnic. This could be as easy as everyone bring their own picnic lunch and you all go outside together to eat as a group. Super low cost, but time to relax and break up the normal rhythm of a day.
Create a celebration around small company milestones or accomplishments. This could be a Friday afternoon off in the summer with pay or all going to a movie together. In our area, you can even rent out a theater for under $200 to watch a movie together. Even if it is an oldie, that and popcorn break up the monotony and the hard, long days we have been having trying to meet the needs of our clients.
Create a campaign where your employees recognize and thank each other. This can be done at a team meeting and as simple as preprinted recognition stickers or cards that they can give to each other to say thank you for assisting. Allowing your team members to recognize the work and help of others goes a long way. And it can be received differently coming from a peer than from the manager or owner of the firm.
Let your mind use these ideas as jump off points to create fun in your workplace.
Now let’s look at a few ideas for fun that might take a bit more of an investment of time and money.
Take your team on an overnight retreat. We did this at least once a year when I worked corporate. We would do team building exercises and also learn to relax and have fun together.
Some outdoor ideas could be going on a hike, a boating day, a day around the pool, a ropes course, visiting a winery or brewery with a tour, go-cart racing, or even a scavenger hunt.
Some indoor fun could be found at an indoor racetrack, a spa day, a mani-pedi afternoon, a gourmet meal with a chef teaching them how to prepare the food.
If you are wondering what your team would like to do, ask them. Learn your team well enough to know how much adventure they like or are comfortable with. Do they like indoor outings or outdoor outings? When your company work slows down enough to play a bit – what is available? Send out a survey and give them things to choose from or create it all to be open ended and see what they say.
Another thing to consider is how your team members individually feel about being appreciated. In the book, “The 5 Languages of Appreciation In The Workplace” by Gary Chapman and Paul White, they mention that every person does not want to be appreciated the same. Much like the 5 Love Languages, we all have a way that we receive appreciation. My appreciation language is words of affirmation and acts of service. Yours might be gifts and quality time. Neither is wrong – it just is. Knowing how to appreciate your team and have them receive it is time invested well. Check out the book and accompanying resources.
No matter what, look for ways to lighten the mood, bring in cheer (I like fresh flowers), and create a place where people want to be. Many of us spend most of our waking hours at work – and it can be a great experience, or it can be exhausting.
Also remember this, it is never too late to begin. You don’t have to wait until the new year. Just make sure whatever you put into practice that you are consistent in the application. For example, don’t have a birthday for one person and not another. Don’t recognize one person for a job well done and ignore the rest. Like any good benefit, it needs to be applied evenly across the board.
Maybe you are a team of one and thinking this does not apply to you. Oh, yes it does. Take time to put on a dance party in the middle of the day. Stop and go for a walk, invite a friend to lunch. We can create the fun if we let ourselves. As a team of one we have no one to blame for a super serious work environment but ourselves. So just do it. Create the fun you want to have.
And maybe you are a virtual team wondering how this applies. You can do many things together – create a zoom call for cocktail hour. Create fun backgrounds for meetings (appropriate of course). Deliver flowers to your teammates. Deliver food to them. Be creative – I know you can do it. Just make a plan to find one way to have fun each month and remember to get the team involved in doing this. It doesn’t have to all come top down.
Being intentional in our work allows us to be responsible for creating the environment we want to work in. This intentionality is what I see missing quite often when I take on new clients. Taking a step back and realizing we work to live not live to work helps us create a priority that gets the work done well and on time, but allows us to enjoy it each step of the way. If you are looking to scale and need to know what is involved before taking the next step, go to my website www.scarletthreadconsulting.com and check out the free masterclass to help you regain your time, reduce your stress and pay yourself more. And we can all get onboard with that idea! Fun in the workplace is profitable – and profit doesn’t happen by accident.
Key Thoughts:
I really want to encourage you to take a step back and look critically at your teams and ask yourself, even though they may be great at what they do, are they loving their job? Do they want to come to work every day? Michele (3:19)
Evaluate your environment, do you feel free to laugh and to smile and greet one another and to encourage your teammates. Even if you're still meeting by Zoom or online, make sure to take a moment to connect with people before diving into the serious part. Michele (5:35)
Another thing that you might want to consider is how your team members feel individually about being appreciated. Michele (13:10)
It’s never too late to begin. You don't have to wait until the New Year. Just make sure whatever you put into practice that you are consistent in the application. Michele (14:16)
Contact Michele:
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
References and Resources:
AIM Masterclass - Watch now
The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People by Gary Chapman