It is one of those exceptional days on the bus. The sun is shining, the road is clear, and everyone is in perfect step with everyone else. The team is singing Broadway show tunes, which soon give way to old Beatles tunes, and then Rufus starts belting out “We Are the Champions.” Joan follows that up with “Y.M.C.A.,” complete with arm movements, so everyone will have a chance to stretch. With every chorus, the arm movements get more elaborate and a little sillier—until everyone is laughing. It makes Drew happy to see his team so engaged and in perfect harmony with one another. It’s almost as if the bus has just gotten a fresh coat of paint, he thinks.
Close your eyes and visualize a kindergarten classroom. I can easily guess what you’re picturing in your mind, because all over the world kindergartens are bright, colorful, joyful places designed to spark a child’s imagination. But as we go up through the grades, classrooms become progressively more subdued, until by high school we’re looking at beige walls and a whiteboard or two. Where did we get this idea that growing up should equate to serious, somber, joyless environments?
At RCA, we’ve worked very hard to make our school a vibrant, playful, and magical place—not only for our students, but for our staff and visitors as well. Way back in the planning stages, I was determined to create a space that was completely different from any other school on the planet. We have a giant blue slide that connects the second floor to the first-floor lobby, and all our visiting educators are urged to become “slide certified” before they leave. To enter my classroom, you have to activate a sliding bookcase that reveals a secret passage—just like in the cartoon Scooby-Doo. I’ve given my staff wide latitude and a generous budget for decorating their own classrooms as well, in ways that reflect their personalities and style. We have a classroom with a glamorous Hollywood theme. A classroom that’s a Moroccan village. A classroom with a Superman phone booth. The entire school reflects the creativity and forward thinking that we apply to everything we do.
If you want your staff to put in extra hours, to show up early and stay late, then you have to allow them to create an environment that makes them feel inspired and productive. Let them paint their walls; paint is cheap, but the impact is priceless. If they don’t have walls, then let them paint or draw on their upholstered cubicle dividers. Encourage them to decorate the inside of the bus in a way that lifts them up and helps them to meet their mission. People need to be surrounded by art and toys and objects they love. The tech companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere seem to have embraced this notion of making the workplace more fun. Pixar even keeps a fleet of scooters at its headquarters and the staff can zoom down the hallways to a meeting.
Other companies are less willing to think outside the box or color outside the lines at all. A friend of mine who worked for a Fortune 500 company wasn’t allowed to change out her desk chair for a more ergonomic style. It was actually a company policy that every worker at the same level had to have the same chair. So the organization wanted her to work hard and stay into the evening but didn’t want her to be comfortable there or to have lumbar support. It’s a mixed message, and it can feel demoralizing to employees.
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In one of my favorite movies, 9 to 5, characters played by Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda go to extreme lengths to make their workplace a more comfortable and inviting place: they kidnap the boss and hold him prisoner while they redecorate the office and add any number of personal touches. It was hilarious on the big screen, but trust me, you don’t want your employees to reach a similar level of desperation!
So you can improve the ride by improving the physical environment. But there’s also a mind-set at RCA that we’re going to laugh and have fun at work. We have encouraged our staff to joke and laugh often with one another and in front of the students. We want the kids to see that they are in a joyful place with adults who appreciate and like each other. I was giving a speech in front of the entire school and two hundred visiting educators. I bent over during one of my stories, and my pants ripped straight down the back, and it was an audible rip too. No one said a word, but by the looks on everyone’s faces it was obvious the entire room knew what happened. Then, in the midst of the awkward silence, one of my staff members said, “Big booty Judy,” and the entire room burst into laughter. That, quite obviously, was the best way to handle the situation—through laughter. But in a culture where fun and laughter are not embraced, a staff member would never have been so bold as to say that to a supervisor in that situation.
At the end of eighth grade, we always ask our students to list their top five favorite moments at RCA. Inevitably, the list is always riddled with times where we were simply enjoying the company of one another. The students at RCA travel all over the world, but they will list trips in the school vans as their favorite moment, because it is in those moments we laugh, sing, and bond. Last year’s class listed one moment consistently. It was a time I was teaching a lesson using yardsticks, and Kim Bearden was observing. I made a joke about Kim’s age, and she grabbed one of the yardsticks and chased me around the room. The kids went wild with laughter, and that moment, that simple moment, was listed as one of the top ones—above four years of global travel. Those moments can be magical, and they can happen in your organization too.
But why are those moments so essential? It’s because laughter boosts productivity. It makes a task more manageable. It releases endorphins, forges emotional connections, and can encourage more honest communication. When your staff has fun at work, they work together more collaboratively. Every single day at work becomes a team-building activity.