Find the Frog: Improving Workplace Culture & Productivity

As business owners, we all want to create the best possible working environment for our staff; fostering community, while promoting a high level of production.  And as employees, we all want to be part of that working environment.  One that is fun, but not so fun that nothing gets done.  Friendly, while not resulting in a team that is chatty all day long.  Engaging, while still leaving plenty of time to focus on completing tasks.

As a business owner, developing this type of workplace culture can be difficult to achieve, and yet studies have shown us that companies that accomplish this elusive balance boast, not only an improved company culture, overall, but an improved rate of production, employee retention, realization, and more.

There are elements of corporate operations that have been shown to add to employees’ mental health, bringing about the desired effects noted above.

• Taking short, frequent breaks
• Intermittent breaks during tasks that require high-cognitive effort
• And breaks that include physical activity

I know what you’re thinking – that sounds like a lot of breaks.  Or maybe, not a lot of work getting done.  But, studies have shown that making time for breaks like this, can help maintain focus and energy levels, leading to higher productivity.

Other notable improvements include:

• Improved focus
• Mental refreshment
• Reduction in fatigue
• Increased creativity
• Calmed stress levels
• Improved mental health
• And when breaks include physical activity, such as taking a short walk around the parking lot, physical health is improved, providing extra energy, resulting in less burnout

But how can you, as a business owner, improve the energy, creativity, mental health, and productivity of your team?  You already have so much on your plate; you do not have time to add one more thing.  The trick is figuring out how to implement something – one thing – anything – that can accomplish all of this without creating a lot of extra work for yourself.

If achieving this workplace-culture ‘utopia’ feels like a search for the Wizard, here’s one idea you may want to give a shot.

Find the Frog!

You read that right.  One way to achieve all of the above, is to introduce small, non-time-consuming, long-play games that can be played by your full team within your existing work environment.  We have fondly named one such game, Find the Frog! (not to be confused with the phone app game or the word search book, both of which have the same name.)

As you can imagine, Tax Season is a time of year when our team members are under a lot of pressure, have a lot of projects to get through, and are being asked to adhere to an intense time commitment for 4 months straight.  For the ultimate test of this game, our ATLAS Westminster team implemented ‘Find the Frog!’ during our current Tax Season as a strategy for mental health, physical health, and improved focus – and they are loving the results.  The rules are simple:

• Select a manager or team member willing to be the game leader, rather than a participant.
• Each day, the leader hides 5 frogs around the office.
• And each day, team members are encouraged to take short breaks to hunt for frogs.
• And at the end of our tax season, the person with the most frogs wins!

Stuck on a project?  Take 5 to look for a frog.
Having a difficult time with a calculation?  Walk away from the problem to find a frog.
Headed to the kitchen for a coffee refill?  Look for frogs on your way!

The frogs are MUCH cheaper than bringing in motivational speakers, mental health coaches, or scheduling team building activities (we grabbed these.)  The game is simple for anyone to play.  The level of participation is up to each team member.  This works for those who are highly competitive, and those who are not.  It gives team members a reason to take ‘intentional’ breaks – breaks during which they get up and move, rather than burying their face in their phone.  Energy is boosted throughout the day with the jolt of excitement at finding a frog.  Team members share their ‘wins’ by announcing that they have found a frog in the team chat.  Focus is rejuvenated after each short break, allowing team members to face challenges with ‘fresh eyes.’  A little bit of competition arises, and yet a community forms among team members as they start to help each other find frogs to keep the game going.

If you are looking to instill some culture into your organization, without breaking the bank, and without having to spend copious amounts of time party planning, event scheduling, and motivational-speaker hiring – try this!  This game could translate into any organization, industry, or season.  And just might be what your company needs to create the workplace ‘culture’ you have always dreamed of.

 

Special thanks to Janice Christensen of our ATLAS Westminster office for introducing us to this idea!

 

The content in this article recognizes the Journal of Applied Psychology, Cornell Health, Harvard Business Review, and the University of North Carolina Learning Center for the information they have shared, and studies performed, on the subjects of intermittent breaks and improved productivity.