Page 255 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHAT DELIGHTS ME? (CIVILITY AND HAPPINESS)

and accessibility to his considerable academic credibility
allowed Kotter to significantly broaden the impact of his
ideas. Our Iceberg Is Melting has sold more than 500,000
copies.
Of course, if your work setting already struggles to get
people to put down the whoopee cushions and get down to
business, you will have to take this section with a grain of
salt (or maybe consider how to channel that lighthearted-
ness into friendly competition or great customer relations).
If your office needs to present a high degree of decorum to
convey an appropriate professionalism to clients, playfulness
may have to be reserved for the commute home (or maybe
ask yourself whether all clients really want all that propriety
all the time). To start, put an X to indicate where you would
currently put your company or team in terms of playfulness,
humor, and fun:

Frat house wannabe 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Funeral home on Valium

Now, where do you think your best customers would like
you to be? Circle that number. Finally, what would your best
employees prefer? Put a big E on the line for them. If there
is a mismatch, consider a few suggestions for how to shift the
balance toward a little more playfulness. Or, if you need to
tone it down, consider the next section on civility for some
ideas.
Wendy: Dave is the playfulness expert in our family and
hands down the hardest worker of any of us. Thanks to him,
each of our kids has developed an ability to have fun along
with a solid work ethic. For Dave, the two are closely related.
Dave is certainly able to put in long hours at thankless work
when necessary, but he also gets a huge kick out of much

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