FUN IN URGENCY

Sitting in front of a crumbled spaghetti-marshmallow tower was a fun play. We had an exercise as a group and we just tried whatever we can to do without circumventing the rules, which were not at lot of anyway.

One of the participants remarked that time constraints allowed them to be more creative and less methodical in their ways, that failure is just part of trying.

Organizations that have a built urgency mechanism do not just sit back and let other entities control how they play in the marketplace. They have their own product timelines, marketing timelines, customer response timelines, regular reviews, so on and so forth. But these can also become part of tradition and become more of a fixture rather than a springboard for inspiration, creativity, and mental renewal.

How do you inject the sort of fun play, creative spark, and enjoyment into timelines and deliverables?

There must be rewards that are not pegged in terms of outputs and outcomes but are meant to encourage and allow creativity as a category. Second, there are less rules and mechanics to play so that everyone in the organization can participate regardless of their positions and levels of influence. Third, celebrate accidental discoveries of better 'ways of doing it' across the board. People in the organizations that are continuously improving and acting like they are part owners are generally more motivated and high performing. 

​If you do not have the right team, there is no way there will be fun in normal times, more so in urgency.