The Laugh Metric

In this Computerworld article by Matt Hamblen, we learn about Dale Sanders, CIO of the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation Inc., who apparently actually says that: "Of all the metrics we fret over in business these days, the most important is the laugh metric...You can predict the outcome of a business by observing the number of times people laugh in the workplace. You can predict a successful business if you can hear heartfelt laughter 10 to 12 times a day...If people are laughing here at work, they will take it home to their husbands and wives."

Sanders adds a cautionary note of hard-won wisdom: "You can't suddenly say your group is starting today to have fun. It has to be ingrained in the organization, or it won't work."

Such is the nature of the workplace that fun actually has to be mandated, and not just by your boss, but by your boss's boss's head boss. We learned this the hard way when I was working at Mattel. We were able to make it fun, deeply, significantly fun, for the entire Mattel Media staff, for almost two years. But ultimately, even our boss couldn't protect us from his. After a while, I had to take off my Dr. Fun lab coat. And a short while after that, I had to take off, entirely. And that's in a company whose most important product is fun.

And so it goes. And so did I.