My ego has been taking a hit lately.  As I prepare to work with a client I always ask what their main objective is for my session; what one thing they would like the group to leave with.  I expect (hope) to hear, "Oh wise sage, please impart what-ever knowledge you have gleaned from your years of experience.  Make these people better leaders, employees, and yes...human beings."  When I come out of that fog I hear the client say, "We just really need a good laugh!"  This statemnt is usually preceded by "Things have been really tough lately, so..." "We've been going through a lot of changes, so..." or "There is a lot of uncertainty, so..."

At those times I feel like the character Bruce Nolan played by Jim Carrey in the movie, Bruce Almighty.  Nolan is a reporter for a news station.  He is always assigned to cover the goofy stories when what he aches for is a spot as a news anchor; a place where he will feel respected.  In the end he realizes that his ability to create laughter is a gift, not a curse.  (If you ask me, Bruce getting to marry Jennifer Aniston at the end of movie would have been proof enough of that, but back to the point...laughter.)

There are two methods of keeping teams productive, Team Building and Team Management.  Team Building involves everyone getting together for some fun outside of work.  It helps break down barriers, relieves stress, and allows everyone to see each other as something more than the jerk in the next cubicle who always forgets to refill the coffeemaker. Team management is the day-to-day process of keeping people focused and working together smoothly.  Smart business leaders know that, although these are separate processes, to keep them entirely detached is a mistake.  Those who see them as mutually exclusive are the ones who think of team building as just "fun and games," something you have to give the troops every now and then just to keep them happy.  Usually, by the time these managers recognize that team building is needed, it is too late.

Day-to-day management of a team involves much more than just assigning tasks and making sure everyone understands their role in the process.  Great managers can sense their team and tell when the energy has started to wane.  At that moment, they know that clarification of goals or providing better tools isn't going to make a difference.  Giving a lack-luster team good tools is a waste of time.  The saying, The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak may point to the frailty of humans' physical capability, but if the spirit isn't willing in the first place, forget it.

Dr. Stuart Brown, a physician, psychiatrist, and researcher, studied the impact that play has on human brain development and productivity.  He discovered that when you ask most people to name the opposite of play they say work.  Dr. Brown goes on to explain that work and play are not opposites, they go hand in hand.  Although their differences are marked-play involves an activity that brings joy, is not outcome based, and leaves the participant wanting to engage in more of the activity-one enhances the other.  If the human brain is deprived of play activity for long periods of time it begins to change.  It stops releasing chemicals that make the brain productive, critical thinking becomes difficult, and the brain begins to process the world through a cloud of stress.  Dr. Brown points out that the opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression.  And depression hurts productivity.

Of course work should be outcome based, but if performed well it can bring joy and leave you wanting to do more of it.  How often you feel this way is likely the result of team management and team building working together.  Proper team management-having clear goals, knowing how you fit into the overall process, and having the right tools to do the job-must be balanced with being in the right state of mind to work well. 

One distinct difference between play and work is the frequency of laughter.  Children laugh an average of 200 times per day.  Adults...not so much.  Women laugh 196% more than men (largely because they have men to laugh at).  This very fact can cause some to view laughter in the workplace with a skewed vision.  If laughter is practiced by children, and children are not concerned with productivity, then laughter must not be productive; A plus B equals C.  And if you look at how women are paid in America compared to men, that tells you how likely we are to take their advice on workplace behavior (to our detriment).

Current studies in neuroscience take advantage of new technology such as Functional MRI scans and EEG; fMRI shows where blood flows in the brain and EEG shows the brain's electrical activity.  Together they can tell us not only which part of the brain is activated, but when it shuts down.  This has revealed surprising insight into play and laughter as it affects teamwork.  First, the mere act of laughing causes the brain to speed up; neural synapses connect more quickly.  And following a laughter episode (usually lasting about fifteen seconds) test subjects were able to more easily solve difficult problems, and developed more innovative solutions in the process.  Want an even bigger surprise?  Laughing has been shown to actually raise IQ.  This is likely because laughter calls upon more areas of the brain to cross-communicate than any other form of human communication.

You don't even need to be the one to instigate laughter, you just need to laugh along with others; the mere act of laughter requires high-level activity in the Right Pre-Frontal Cortex of the brain (the center for executive thought-no, not the executive who puts together annual share-holder reports).  Laughter causes instant connections between brain centers involving language and semantics, social intelligence, plot (following a series of events), incongruity (discovering what is out of place), and satire (discerning the target or message of the humor).  If you could take a pill that would boost your brain power in just fifteen second bursts, wouldn't you take it?  Laughter is a drug that doesn't require an HMO.

Here is where leadership comes in.  Just as a fish is unaware of the concept of water, most people are unaware that they are in a play-deprived state.  When people go without laughter for extended periods of time, their brains shut down; often to the point where they don't even recognize the problem.  People rarely look up from their desk and think, "Boy, I haven't laughed in a while."  They do, however, shut down more quickly during meetings, create fewer cool ideas, and go home stressed.  If they spend enough time in this state, they will slip into what I call functional depression, having the ability to do the job you give them, but hating every minute of it.  The first opportunity to leave, and they're out the door.  And with 10,000 people reaching retirement age every day until the year 2030, business leaders will have to start thinking about how to keep the employees, not replacing the ones they lose.

Team building needs to be a part of team management.  A period of work must be accompanied by a period of play.  In truth, adults don't need these in equal measure.  Actually, too much "non-outcome based" activity can leave us antsy to do something productive.  And while high levels of stress will lead to increased illness and a shorter life span, moderate amounts of stress actually help focus the brain and keep us productive.  Just make sure you don't fall into the trap of thinking team building is that worthless activity you have to put into the budget in order to keep the staff off your back.  Find quick moments of play where you can.  Start staff meetings with something goofy.  Throw a beach ball into the cube farm once in a while and see how long people can keep it in the air.  And most of all, monitor the laughter levels in your office.  If you don't hear laughter every now and then, do something about it.  Don't make the fish keep track of the water

Stevie Ray is a nationally recognized corporate speaker and trainer, helping companies improve communication skills, customer service, leadership, and team management.  He can be reached at www.stevierays.org or stevie@stevierays.org.

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