Do you love your work environment? Is your work environment a fun place? Does your work environment motivate you? Every single day? Let’s go wild and imagine that one of your typical days at your office goes like this:
9:16 am
You arrive at the office. Small talk with a colleague, let’s call him Bernie. The first thing you need is a Café Latte from the new Nespresso coffee monster on floor 4.
9:35 am
Emails. More emails. Stupid emails.
10:07 am
The first meeting of the day starts seven minutes late. Your boss, let’s call him Mr. Fisher, got stuck in a traffic-jam. Everyone in the sterile room thinks, Yeah, sure! The boring white walls complement the gray carpet. The only variety the carpet offers is an assortment of coffee stains. More small talk about topics you don’t care about.
10:23 am
At last, the projector is in place. The weekly staff meeting can start. Mr. Fisher begins — generic leadership blathering — one minute, two minutes, three minutes. You’re desperate. Where’s my iPhone? Mr. Fisher keeps droning on while everyone keeps not listening.
10:46 am
Time for the individual presentations. One after another. All slides in the same layout. All text and data-driven. All more boring than waiting in the queue at the boarding counter — at least there you can people-watch. It’s your turn — the sales update. Paradoxically, and against all reason, you think that everyone will be listening to you. iPhones.
Continual interruptions by Mr. Fisher. Endless discussions. OMG, when is the lunch break?
12:15 pm
The only action point of the meeting is to organize another meeting.
12:20 pm
Lunch. Bernie and you. Bernie asks, How was your weekly meeting? You answer, Great.
1:02 pm
Conference call with your country heads of sales. The same procedure, but virtual. Less energy, more boredom. Nothing new in the East.
2:17 pm
Emails. More emails. Stupid emails.
3:01 pm
You create a PowerPoint presentation for the next meeting that you agreed on at the staff meeting. Delegation. Thomas, your team member, will do it for you. Based on your experience you say, Get the numbers from ORACLE!
3:05 pm
Another Café Latte. Latest gossip at the Nespresso monster. Mandy from the 6th floor is pregnant. Someone says in a sarcastic tone, Must’ve been her boss David! Sexist male laughter.
3:27 pm
Another meaningless meeting. Your final remark: We should do something about it. Everyone agrees that something should be done about it.
4:10 pm
Emails. More emails. Stupid emails. Why don’t they fucking call?
4:55 pm
Bernie calls. His son is sick. Can you give me a hand with my slides? Reluctantly you answer, Sure, no problem.
7:23 pm
You shut down your computer. Time for an after-work beer. The highlight of the day.
Does this sound familiar?
You might be an investment banker at Goldman Sachs and work more hours than anyone else on this planet. You might be a marketing director at Procter & Gamble and have tons of acronym-based meetings. You might be a number crunching accountant at Deloitte. Whoever you are and whatever company you work for, this is what white-collar people do, more or less. The same procedure every day. The same old song every year. Hamsters in a wheel. Sometimes you receive a bigger carrot to keep you motivated. Whee-hoo!
Are you a charismatic leader? THEN THIS IS NOT YOUR GAME!
The status quo in business is awful! The status quo stinks! Set new ways of collaboration! Establish new forms of interaction! Turn your work environment into a productive, fun place to be! More fun, more motivation.
How? I suggest that you call my friends from Smoking Brains today and start your journey into a more fun and motivating work environment.