5 WAYS TO REVITALIZE THE SPIRIT IN YOUR WORKPLACE. by Joan Marques
By now we all are hopefully aware of the value of making a serious effort in continuously maintaining or transforming our entire workplace into a pleasant one. That is, a place where all stakeholders --customers, co-workers, suppliers, visitors, and shareholders-- feel comfortable, uninhibited, satisfied, motivated and cared for. Yet, we also know that such is not always the easiest thing to achieve. Especially the work environments, where offices are minimized to cubicles with an extremity in space-, privacy- and moving limitations, require some kind of inventive approach to impede the logical consequential loss of creativity, motivation, and general work spirit that these maze-like settings cause.
The following 5 suggestions may help you to revitalize the spirit in your workplace, if you feel that it's diminishing, or -if no damage has been done yet- confine the positive approach with which you stepped into this work environment.
1. Bring in some of your little personal belongings --a picture of the kids, a painting from your son, a funny sculpture from your daughter, or your beloved Garfield desk calendar-- and place them where you can often see them. The regular confrontation with familiar thingamajigs coming from an environment where you feel contented may help you to obtain a sense of comfort in a more stressful place.
2. Plants always do well. Now, a real plant may not work out for all of us, especially if we're the forgetful, non-watering kind. And foliage the size of a mini tree might narrow your workspace even further. But there are small plants and flowers that absorb a minimum of space, yet enliven the area they are placed in. Those are the ones to look for.
3. Take regular breaks (no matter how short) through the day to walk to a place where you can see the world outside. Some workplaces have a total lack of this human necessity at the workers' production location. Staff members in these places therefore lose their sense of time entirely until the workday is over. But we should never underestimate the value of seeing trees, people, the weather, or anything else that reminds us of the world that exists outside of the camp we spend our days in. It may be crucial to our imaginative capacities to maintain the touch with these simple seeming things.
4. Keep your career-dreams alive. Depending on what they are, you will have to find a way to execute this process. For instance: if you want to have your own office someday, enroll in evening or weekend college and learn the skills required to apply for the job that will provide you a more desirable work climate. If you don't know yet what exactly it is that you want to do, just read. Magazines or online sources such as Entrepreneur, Fortune, Forbes, etc. may trigger some positive vibes in you, stirring up your creative juices, and surfacing an idea for your future direction. Keep a few of these magazines within reach at your desk.
5. Guard your attitude. Many wizards in past centuries have emphasized the importance of attitude under the most discouraging circumstances. The concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl and the Greek slave Epictetus are some of them. Their perception is that we may not always be able to decide upon our circumstances, but we do master our attitude toward them. And since the cubicle-labyrinths are such ideal hearths for transmission, you could make your healthy attitude the source of proliferation. What often helps is to post some of your favorite motivational citations there where you (and your colleagues) can often see them. "A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier." (Source Unknown).
Burbank, California; August 4, 2003; Joan Marques, MBA, Doctoral Candidate (URL: http://www.joanmarques.com)
About the Author:
Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Leadership, and a university instructor in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com
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