A few years ago, we stumbled across a happy accident. While work - especially in fields like training, skills development, and campaign support - isn’t inherently designed to be fun; if it is enjoyable, it transforms the entire process.
I have always prioritised the well-being of my team, aiming to ensure they feel good and enjoy their work. My primary goal has been achieved: my team is happy, and we have a great time working together, and as a result I noticed the creativity, productivity and quality of work from the team increase
But I started to notice this positive trend extends beyond my core team. We've found that making work enjoyable not only boosts creativity and engagement but also enhances the quality of outcomes for both our team and our clients. By fostering a fun and collaborative environment from the planning stages onward, we've seen significant improvements in project strategy and overall success.
Our approach
So what is it that we do at Trimble Group that has allowed us to find this out? Well, first of all we take a collaborative approach to pretty much everything we do.
This approach means that my team can bounce ideas off each other, thinking of innovative solutions and creative ideas. It's this social aspect of collaboration that I can see makes each process more fun and keeps the team engaged in each aspect of the work we do. I love seeing this in action each working day at Trimble Group. What's even more interesting is that we've set up our team with hybrid working locations, and we've seen that this approach is effective even when the team isn't face-to-face
This approach extends to our work with clients as well. Our projects are never just a "here’s the brief, let us know when you have a draft to look at" scenario. Instead, we work closely with our clients to fully understand their goals, desired outcomes, and specific deliverables.
But is fun in the workplace more of a nice-to-have? It's easy to assume that fun and enjoyment might not play a role in building significant commercial projects or might even be seen as distractions. But, once we began incorporating our work culture into our client collaborations, the improvements were remarkable. Clients engaged more deeply with projects, and the quality of information we gathered during the planning stages significantly increased. This includes critical elements like strategy, goals, and deliverables needed—areas that typically require substantial cognitive effort and aren’t naturally fun.
This is powerful because if we can make processes like strategy development more enjoyable, creative, and productive, then your project's roadmap will be much more defined.
Secondly, we actively cultivate a vibrant, immersive, and engaging environment. This goes from the way we fill our spaces, to the way we act in them. We fill our spaces at our offices and Trimble Studios with cosy furniture, tailored lighting, and even creating film set-like atmospheres for clients to practice in.
One of the perks of our work is our interest in neuroscience and understanding what makes people tick. This insight naturally seeps into our work culture to create an environment that’s engaging, positive, and enjoyable.
So, what’s the evidence?
The broaden-and-build theory suggests that experiencing positive emotions expands people's immediate range of thoughts and actions. It suggests that when people feel happy, they have more enthusiasm and an increased cognitive ability to think better about new ideas, planning, and creativity.
If you have a negative mindset you can feel like you don’t want to do the work, or even that you won't be good at getting the work done.
But there’s even more to it than that. On a deeper level, people that feel good feel relaxed. And this changes our hormones - dopamine and endorphins release increase, and stress hormones reduce. What this means is that people have higher mental engagement.
Productivity and creativity isn’t just a tap that people can turn on - it often is aided by external factors, like positivity and enjoyment in your surroundings. So if we take note of this, we can nurture productivity and creativity at work through a fun work environment and not leave it up to chance.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of ‘Flow’ describes a state of deep enjoyment and involvement in life. This positive state, which can be controlled, is essential for productivity.
I recently discovered a captivating new book that contains the core principles of our ethos at Trimble Group: "Feel Good Productivity" by Dr. Ali Abdaal, a former medical doctor and productivity expert. This book is particularly intriguing because it aligns with everything we have experienced and learned ourselves on this topic over the years at Trimble Group. Ali draws on decades of psychological research, demonstrating that the key to productivity and success is not relentless effort, but rather feeling good.
To conclude
Ultimately, when work is enjoyable, it sets the stage for success. We happened upon this by accident, but the research backs up our suspicion we were onto something. By creating an engaging and fun atmosphere, we empower our team and the clients we’re collaborating with to produce high-quality results, which is immensely valuable. As we advance and innovate, our dedication to making learning enjoyable and cultivating a vibrant, dynamic workplace for both our team and clients remains unwavering.
.jpg)
