What party science can teach us about improving remote work.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
Sounds cryptic but for me this is such a truth. When I rock up to work dragging my heals and getting lost in the ‘to-do-list’ I forget that it really doesn’t have to be that way. Why should work be a place where I go to be serious, try and look important and achieve things? Work can absolutely be fun, fulfilling and packed with meaningful moments of connection. Why shouldn’t work feel like more of a party?
I was delighted to have the opportunity to meet with Jacques the Party Scientist this week and learn how we can improve remote work through applying concepts from research into party science.
Here’s what I learnt from our unique vyve experience….
Alongside EQ and IQ we need to be thinking about our FQ or Fun Quotient (as Jacques calls it). This absolutely rings true for me and ‘vyving’ was definitely a lot of fun. It reminds me of a great google talk by the neuroscientist Friederike Fabritius who talks about ‘Fun, Fear, and Focus’ being the key factors for peak performance as they release a certain cocktail of neuro-chemicals in the brain. Vyving had all three ingredients for me.
As Maya Aneglou famously said ‘People will forget what you said and did but people will never forget the way you made them feel’ It’s true isn’t. Even if you don’t remember the details, if there was an intense emotion present it’s pretty likely that you’ll commit it to memory. I remember Shazia Ginai and the wonderful team at Neuro Insight showing us how this works through advertising, with emotional intensity being a key driver of memorability, but it’s absolutely true in day to day life or virtual meetings too. Think back to your virtual meetings this week. What stands out most? And was there a strong emotion attached to it?
Being vulnerable increases connection with others. As one of the party exercises we played a meaningful song on the virtual jukebox and all sang along to it. There was vulnerability both in sharing the meaning behind the song but also in singing it to each other. It felt fairly (very) awkward to start with but definitely worked to increase connection with colleagues.
Celebrating risk takers with positive reinforcement. I noticed that Jacques gave lots of positive reinforcement to the people in the group who were the biggest risk takers or throwing themselves in wholeheartedly to the experience. This seemed to normalise risk taking for others and encourage more people to join in fully. In some ways this is such an easy thing to adopt into our working life but how often do we close down the things that are different or feel risky? What if we could just go with the flow for a bit and join in with the party? How would that change things?
Creating synchronicity amplifies connection and the feeling of togetherness. Music and dance are such great ways of creating togetherness through synchronicity at parties but what simple things could we do to bring this more into remote meetings? Jacques showed us a number of ideas here, either through stretches or dance moves or taking a few breaths or hand/arm movements in unison. Sounds so simply but it was really so effective in reminding us that we’re all here sharing this moment together, even if we’re apart.
And here are 3 of my favourite practical exercises Jacques shared to bring more party science to zoom meetings.
- Group Stretch — elevating energy and focus though stretching together. Taking it turns to lead a stretch and pass on to the next person.
- Appreciation singalongs — energizing the group, cultivating psychological safety and having fun through appreciation of others. One person is nominated to receive acknowledgement and the rest of the group turn flashlights on phones and serenade them with a song of choice.
- Power Strikes — having fun and elevating physical energy and focus. The group takes it in turns to strike a creative pose, everyone else repeats and then pass on to the next person.
If you’re reading this thinking ‘thank goodness I’m not in any meetings like that’ then I’m sure you’re not alone. I felt them same for a long time but nowadays I’m big on the fun factor. For me work should a place where we come alive. A place to have fun, laugh, create something meaningful together and eventually leave happier and healthier than the day we joined.
So I’m going to be vyving all the way to retirement. Thanks Jacques and see you at the next party.