Like, real short. Wait... was that a butterfly? Oh look, something pretty.

Yeah, I've got it bad. And *confession time* unless something captivates my attention, I mentally check out. My eyes glaze over and I start thinking about chocolate or something much more interesting than whatever monotonous thing is in front of me. Maybe it's a 'me' thing or maybe it's an 'everyone thing, but it's that very same need that I have to be captivated by shiny things that accidentally gets infused into all of my change work.

And it works.

It. Works.

It gets real, excellent, hard, captivating, exciting, fantastic results. 

So let me tell you about a little thing I like to call FUN and how we should, where appropriate, infuse fun into our project lifecycles and change initiatives. Give me a few moments of your time to convince you that shiny things might just be the droid you're looking for [Star Wars reference].

Jaimi's Case for Fun

Projects = change (almost always, otherwise, what's the point). And change, by its very nature, can be a bit messy and tricky at times.

Why? Well, change naturally pulls us out of our comfortable habits and routines, which means it often challenges our comfort zones.

Example: Have you ever nipped into your favourite cafe and someone is sitting in YOUR very special spot? I have and let me tell you nothing makes me go from 0 to 100 in righteous indignation than that very scenario. It sucks. That was my special seat. And now my habit and familiarity has been disrupted, how dare you do that to me, unsuspecting stranger. Now I have to sit somewhere else and, suddenly, my coffee doesn't taste as good as it would have if I was in my special spot.

That pretty much crudely summarises change in the workplace too.

As business leaders and team leaders, we are often hyper-focused on processes, endless KPIs, timelines, PowerPoint (don't try to pretend) and getting deliverables delivered. Fair enough too, there is a heap on your plate and you get paid for results. So that's your focus, I get it.

But in that mix of Very Important Things, something often gets missed. Something equally Very Important.

What gets missed are people. Human beings. Emotional, relational human beings with feelings and brains and hopes and dreams. People who might be experiencing their special seat getting taken away from them or their special seat being moved or replaced.

It's right there in the emotional / relational landscape of change that one of THE MOST underrated levers resides... FUN!! PLAY!! SHINY THINGS!! And I'm not the only one who thinks this too.

In their book The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up, authors Gostick & Christopher argue the point that humour, levity, lightness and playfulness in the workplace are not frivolous past times but, instead, powerful drivers of performance and engagement. Oh, and creativity and innovation too.

In fact, they go so far as to say, "It turns out that fun is serious business" (2007, p.38).

And I agree with them, it really is.

Now, when we say 'fun' are we talking about inflatable flamingos in the boardroom or forcing everyone into awkward team-building games? No, not really, but - I mean - knock yourself out if that's your thing.

We are talking about creating the kind of psychological conditions that allow people to think, connect and adapt much more freely because when we are having fun, our brains release dopamine (we like that) and that mighty chemical fuels our motivation, our curiosity aaaaand our memory!

So in other words, fun isn't a distraction from the work, it's the thing that makes our brains want to do the work.

And suddenly, my need for shiny things feels validated!

Infusing Fun Into Change

From a human centred perspective, change initiatives are kinda sorta social experiments. They ultimately rely on people stepping into new ways of working while tolerating uncertainty, which we kinda don't love all the time. These conditions can be inherently stressful and stress narrows our focus, which can stifle experimentation. Heck, stress undermines collaboration!

But... introducing play can counterbalance that pressure.

It can signal that the organisation sees people as humans FIRST and agents of change SECOND.

Alrighty, Jaimi, so what are we talking about here when we say 'fun' and 'play' if we aren't talking about inflatable flamingoes and going around the room sharing a fact about ourselves that we've never shared before (by the way, my Go To fact is that I used to be able to kick flip on a skateboard. Been a few years since I've tried).

Let me give you two examples to highlight what fun and play can look like in a workplace + change + project context.

😭 Example with no shiny things

Let's say a change is happening and you're in a meeting staring at a beautiful Gantt chart in pastel corporate colours. Lovely. Look at it, it's beautiful. Everyone's talking about milestones, dependencies, sign-offs, other Very Important Things, blah.

After that, a launch email goes out and it's all very monochrome in its vitality.

After that, little updates are emailed out that only two people read and then meeting after meeting take place in the background where people talk about the same topic except from different angles and somewhere in that dullness my soul decided to leave my body.

Sadly, the people impacted by your project don't really care about what you're doing. They're busy doing their work and your project is just... well, the kind of noise you'd block out just as you would if there was a fly buzzing around.

Project closes, people shake hands and pat themselves on the back, then rinse and repeat for the next phase.

🤩 Example with shiny things

Okay, so now we have the same project timeline with pastel corporate colours. BUT instead of a sterile kick off meeting, the team holds a 'Welcome to the Adventure' session, which achieves the same purpose and is still structured but now has a short, creative icebreaker built around what people are most looking forward to (or least looking forward to, even better).

Internal updates are delivered as short, themed videos made by your people, each one highlighting progress in a fun, playful way.

Leaders unexpectedly pop into meetings to share notes of appreciation that probably tie back to inside jokes from earlier phases.

Oh, and somewhere in there, a competition is being held to win a t-shirt or lunch with the CEO. Maybe it's the first person to finish tasks in their UAT or something like that.

The very same milestones exist but now the energy around them shifts a little. People look forward to the next phase or drop or thing because they feel part of something, well, fun!

The project closes, people shake hands and pat themselves on the back and all corporate computer wallpapers are changed to something relatable and amusing for two weeks while leaders drop into a handful of regularly scheduled team meetings unexpectedly to share the good news with a smile and a laugh.

Now your project is memorable. Now people are more likely to listen up for the next one.

When we apply fun to change initiatives, we are thinking about the human experience just as intentionally as we are thinking about timelines and budgets.

Micro-moments of play might be subtle too. Unexpected recognition (love that), a creative way to share updates or just any other moment that signals "We are all good here to experiment and contribute."

Fun, levity and play also send a signal about leadership.

It shows that leaders value people as humans, not just resources. And that the organisation cares about how work gets done, not only what gets done.

In this way, the emotional texture of change - relationships, trust, engagement, innovation, creativity - all become deliberate parts of the plan instead of an afterthought.

So when leaders say they don't have time for fun, I'd argue they don't have time not to. Fun isn't frivolous, it's functional.

It's one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal to make change adoption happen. Imagine walking into your favourite cafe and, somehow, magically, it becomes fun to sit somewhere different from your special seat?