The Fun Standard - a new code of conduct
Here is
a policy for maximizing the work experience. It's called The FUN
Standard. Too bad it isn't used at every company around the world.
Copy it to your Human Resources department and share it with your friends.
We can make a difference in our company today by seeing this policy become the
new Fun Standard.
The Fun Standard
Document
number: 37IWS
Date effective: Today
Owner: Everyone
1. Purpose
-----------
There are standards to
describe all sorts of processes in all
kinds of organizations all over the world. These processes
preserve best practices and prevent the wasteful reinvention of
excellence, but they can't create success by themselves. People
must also enjoy their work to be productive. Maximum productivity
is obtained by having fun. This standard collects activities that
help organizations have fun. Addition of the final ingredient,
the actual "fun" itself, can only be done by you.
2. Definition
--------------
Fun: Consisting of animation,
bliss, buoyancy, cheer, chuckles,
delight, ecstasy, gladness, happiness, jests, jokes,
joviality, joy, laughter, light-heartedness, merriment,
mirth, play, pleasantries, quips, rapture, sport,
tranquility, and witticism.
3. Process
-----------
The organization shall be
predisposed to mutual cooperation,
trust, communication, and goodwill.
3.1 Every Manager will:
------------------------
- View themselves as an
employee of their organization, and focus
on removing roadblocks and providing the resources their staff
needs to perform their work.
- Improve the plan,
manage the schedule, put the right people in
the right place, and ensure that everyone knows how they can
help the team.
- Have at least one
meeting a week, mandate attendance at no
more than 2 hours of meetings a week, hold regular meetings
in the afternoon, and start each meeting with a statement of
its purpose.
- Request and read a
maximum half page weekly report from all
direct reports, and ensure that no staff member needs more than
half an hour to complete all of their weekly reports.
- Praise in public,
criticize in private.
- Make promotions on
merit, plus demonstration that at least one
member of the their staff can do their job as well as they can.
- Assign responsibility,
authority, and accountability as a
single package.
- Schedule based on
bottom-up estimates prepared by people who
perform the work, and plan to minimize overtime.
- Provide a feedback
mechanism for all employees to communicate
with top management, and visibly action and reward useful
suggestions.
- Share profits with
everyone in the organization.
- Share credit for all
successes, and take responsibility for
all failures.
3.2 Every Employee will:
-------------------------
- Place first priority
on fulfillment of the goals of the whole
organization, and refrain from construction of disconnected
empires unrelated to business goals.
- Never ask for
something they don't need, never promise results
they know can't be delivered, write down and do anything they
say they'll do, and provide notification as far in advance as
possible when circumstances prevent fulfillment of their
commitment.
- Share information with
everyone, never use technical double-
talk, and say they don't know when they don't know.
- Maintain a good
working relationship with all departments, and
respect all personnel independent of their area of expertise.
- Decrease the
complexity and shorten the cycle times of all
processes under their control.
- Write documents to be
read, and use brevity to maximize
clarity.
- Double-check anything
they give to others for accuracy,
completeness, and consistency.
- Relate to their boss
the way they would like employees to
relate to them if they were the boss.
3.3 Human Resources
will:
--------------------------
- Ensure that all
personnel receive at least three weeks of
vacation a year, and that at least three weeks of unused
vacation can be carried over from one year to the next.
- Facilitate flexible
working hours, and allow overtime hours
worked to be taken in time off.
- Provide all personnel
with medical, dental, and disability
insurance, and repay out-of-pocket expenses within a week.
- Ensure that all
personnel receive at least two weeks of
training a year, and allow employees to choose their own
training if not chosen by their management.
- Ensure that jerks and
meanies are counseled, and, if
unresponsive, allocated to a peripheral group where they
can't damage the rest of the organization and have to work
exclusively with each other until reformed.
3.4 Facilities will:
---------------------
- Ensure that at least
three live plants and one outside window
are visible from every working area.
- Reduce, absorb, and
deflect noise wherever possible.
- Use only halogen,
incandescent, and full spectrum fluorescent
lighting.
- Ensure that bathroom
stalls are at least three feet wide,
toilet paper has a roughness level less than plywood, water
taps stay open for at least five seconds after being turned
on, and at least one shower is available.
- Make large printable
whiteboards and markers in at least three
colours available to all staff.
- Provide all personnel
with a computer no more than three years
old, with word processing, spreadsheet, database, and graphics
applications, and email, news group, and world wide web access
to the Internet.
3.5 All Personnel will:
------------------------
- Strive for excellence
through continuous improvement in all
aspects of their job.
- Actively listen to
everyone, never interrupt, and change their
mind when they hear a better idea.
- Be gender, disability,
religion, and color blind, respect all
personnel as human beings of equal value, and never try to
increase their sense of self-esteem by decreasing someone
else's.
- Never spread harmful
gossip about others, and congratulate
others whenever possible with specifics.
- Turn complaints into
constructive suggestions for improvement.
- Protect the
environment and save costs at the same time.
- Never come to work
with a contagious or infectious illness.
- Erase the whiteboard
at the end of each meeting.
- Take coffee from the
second pot, and make a new pot when the
second pot is empty.
- Never raise their
voice, keep a sense of humor, and smile at
least twice an hour for at least five seconds each time.
4. Exit Criteria
-----------------
This process ends when all
personnel look forward to coming to
work at the start of each day, and leave at the end of each day
with a real sense of joy, self-worth, and achievement.
Failure to have fun will not
be tolerated.
This version supersedes
previous issues, and takes precedence
over constitutions.
5. References
--------------
The following references are
applicable to this document.
a.
Scott Adams, "The Dilbert Principle"
b.
Norman Augustine, "Augustine's Laws"
c.
David Firth, "How To Make Work Fun"
d. C.
Northcote Parkinson, "The Law"
Unrestricted permission
granted to copy, distribute, modify, improve, or reuse in any form.
The latest version (including international languages) can always be
found at http://www.livinginternet.com/fun/funstandard.html
Please
send comments to Bill Stewart at seven@fox.nstn.ca
V20000108
