Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work

Leading-edge organizations have discovered that fun can--and does--translate into bottom line success. By harnessing the power of fun, companies find they can better retain employees and customers, motivate teams, improve productivity, increase innovation, and create a sense of community.Leslie Yerkes details precisely how eleven successful companies--including Southwest Airlines, Pike Place Fish, Isle of Capri Casinos, EmployEase, and Prudential--have integrated fun into the normal course of business. This new edition provides updates on how these same companies have grown, prospered, and continued to thrive--in spite of national tragedies, natural disaster, growing competition, and changing economic conditions--in part because of the culture they have created through what Yerkes calls "The Fun/Work Fusion."Yerkes illustrates eleven principles--from capitalizing on the spontaneous to hiring good people and getting out of their way--that will inspire you to inject a sense of playfulness and joy into your workplace. Full of real-life examples, strategies, ideas, resources, tools, tips, and techniques, Fun Works will help any company in any industry become a place where people love to work.

“"Fun not only works but is essential for healthy companies. It's not about doing funny things but being fun, something Leslie Yerkes has made perfectly clear in this very readable book." -- Lena Andersson OD Consultant Lindingo, Sweden "As a member of the board of the nonprofit organization I direct, Leslie practices what she writes about. She makes the work of the board much more interesting. Her book contains simple steps you can take to bring your whole self to work and grant permission to others to do the same." -- John Colm President and Executive Director, WIRE-net Cleveland OH "Leslie Yerkes' new book chronicles high-performing companies that create positive work cultures that drive out fear, increase risk-taking, strengthen trust, and encourage success. If you want your work to be like this, read this book. I loved it." -- Dorothy Marcic Dr. Dorothy Productions Author of Respect the Musical Nashville TN " Sometimes, we forget that work is supposed to be fun. Leslie's book reminds us how to return to the fun we have within us in a way that is good for business and good for our spiritual and financial health." -- Mark Albion Author of the New York Times bestseller Making a Life, Making a Living Denver CO "Fun Works should be taken seriously by any organization committed to success. It gives businesses compelling reasons to ask: 'How can having fun at work energize our productiv- ity and profitability?' I'm giving this book to one of my clients." -- Marilee Adams, PhD Author of Change Your Questions, Change Your Life Lambertville NJ "I used to wonder how a financial-related business could emphasize fun. After reading Fun Works, I realized that fun does not necessarily mean silly or boisterous. I may not be able to express fun in all the ways shown here, but I do believe the workplace can be a place where it is fun to be and that work can be fun, too. I will consciously try to put into practices the principles of Fun/Work Fusion." -- Donald G. Hart President, United Church Foundation New York NY "It's not easy to get everyone at work on the same page. When it happens, it's powerful. Leslie's stories illustrate that fun can do just that. Fun does indeed work." -- Steve Peplin President, Talan Products Cleveland OH "Leslie's book makes you realize that when fun permeates the environment of an organiza- tion, it is irresistible, contagious, and automatic. When a company feels like a family, when you laugh, cry, and have fun together, retention is higher and growth is stronger and faster. But the smiles around the office on any given day are really the truest measurement." -- Debbie Donley Principal, Vocon* Cleveland OH "Fun Works creates the desire to encourage fun in any workplace. Leslie suggests that fun is not something bolted on as an afterthought, that fun at works comes only when fun is incorporated into your fundamental, everyday business processes. To every leader who wants a staff that looks forward to coming to work each and every day, I recommend Fun Works. To read and know Leslie Yerkes is to know that fun is always just around the corner and that without knowing it's happening, Leslie will pull you around the corner with her!" -- Bret Brentall, Jr. President, Raritan Engineering Millvale NJ”

“Fun not only works but is essential for healthy companies. It’s not about doing funny things but being fun, something Leslie Yerkes has made perfectly clear in this very readable book.”
— Lena Andersson OD Consultant Lindingö, Sweden

“As a member of the board of the nonprofit organization I direct, Leslie practices what she writes about. She makes the work of the board much more interesting. Her book contains simple steps you can take to bring your whole self to work and grant permission to others to do the same.”
— John Colm President and Executive Director, WIRE-net Cleveland OH

“Leslie Yerkes’ new book chronicles high-performing companies that create positive work cultures that drive out fear, increase risk-taking, strengthen trust, and encourage success. If you want your work to be like this, read this book. I loved it.”
— Dorothy Marcic Dr. Dorothy Productions Author of Respect the Musical Nashville TN

“ Sometimes, we forget that work is supposed to be fun. Leslie’s book reminds us how to return to the fun we have within us in a way that is good for business and good for our spiritual and financial health.”
— Mark Albion Author of the New York Times bestseller Making a Life, Making a Living Denver CO

“Fun Works should be taken seriously by any organization committed to success. It gives businesses compelling reasons to ask: ‘How can having fun at work energize our productiv- ity and profitability?’ I’m giving this book to one of my clients.”
— Marilee Adams, PhD Author of Change Your Questions, Change Your Life Lambertville NJ

“I used to wonder how a financial-related business could emphasize fun. After reading Fun Works, I realized that fun does not necessarily mean silly or boisterous. I may not be able to express fun in all the ways shown here, but I do believe the workplace can be a place where it is fun to be and that work can be fun, too. I will consciously try to put into practices the principles of Fun/Work Fusion.”
— Donald G. Hart President, United Church Foundation New York NY

“It’s not easy to get everyone at work on the same page. When it happens, it’s powerful. Leslie’s stories illustrate that fun can do just that. Fun does indeed work.”
— Steve Peplin President, Talan Products Cleveland OH

“Leslie’s book makes you realize that when fun permeates the environment of an organiza- tion, it is irresistible, contagious, and automatic. When a company feels like a family, when you laugh, cry, and have fun together, retention is higher and growth is stronger and faster. But the smiles around the office on any given day are really the truest measurement.”
— Debbie Donley Principal, Vocon• Cleveland OH

“Fun Works creates the desire to encourage fun in any workplace. Leslie suggests that fun is not something bolted on as an afterthought, that fun at works comes only when fun is incorporated into your fundamental, everyday business processes. To every leader who wants a staff that looks forward to coming to work each and every day, I recommend Fun Works. To read and know Leslie Yerkes is to know that fun is always just around the corner and that without knowing it’s happening, Leslie will pull you around the corner with her!”
— Bret Brentall, Jr. President, Raritan Engineering Millvale NJ

LESLIE YERKES IS PRESIDENT of Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc. an organizational development and change management consult- ing firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. Leslie's business goal is to help people create sustainable organizations. Her life goal is to create a framework in which people can draw on their own resources to find creative solutions. Her clients have included ChryslerCorporation, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, United Church of Christ, International Steel Group, Mittal Steel USA-Cleveland, and NASA. A subspecialty of Leslie's is making non-profits healthy and sustainable.Leslie is a recognized consultant, author, and speaker through- out the United States and Europe. She is considered an expert in her field and is frequently quoted in the media. She is the coauthor of the bestselling 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work, Beans- Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad, and They Just Don't Get It! Changing Resistance into Understanding. Her works have been trans- lated into more than a dozen languages selling hundreds of thou- sands of copies world wide.A graduate of Wittenberg University and Case Western Reserve University, she has taught at John Carroll University and Baldwin Wallace College. She is on the faculty at the Weatherhead Dively Center of Executive Education and the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case Western Reserve University.

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