The Importance of Fun in Business

- Andy Habermacher

In the model of the brain I propose to business leaders I always talk about the basic need for pleasure [1]. However there seems to be an instinctive desire to say, “We’re here to work not have fun”. Sure many understand that fun is a good part of work but only as an additional add on. It is not deemed something that is an essential part of work.

However, I beg to differ! Fun is an essential component of work. Not only that, if you do not have fun, pleasure that is, you cannot be performing at your peak. Obviously the concept of fun differs from person to person. And fun does not mean just having a party - that is the challenge to the business leader. But first let’s look into the brain and why I say pleasure is an essential part of the brain and of peak performance.

The pleasure system in the brain is actually pretty large and pretty complex (as is everything in the brain) - one of the first researched areas was that of the dopamine system. Dopamine is a chemical that operates as a so-called neuromodulator (that is it communicates between brain cells). It is released when doing pleasurable activities such as eating and having sex and can induce feelings of elation. Cocaine for example directly impacts this precise system. So far so good, however, if we look a little more closely we can see that the dopamine system circulates in the left hemisphere and to the frontal regions of the brain. What does this mean? Well for us in business this is crucial because the frontal regions control our executive functions: planning, cognitive agility, dealing with complexity and decision making. In short our cognitive processing centres are strongly influenced and driven by dopamine - dopamine is crucial for higher cognitive performance. And to top this we know that attention and ability to focus is driven by dopamine - children with ADHD normally have a dopamine dysfunction and ADHD drugs often target the dopamine system (Ritalin for example).

This is in itself interesting - what is more interesting is that recent research has shown that dopamine is not only a pleasure chemical, it is much more importantly the motivation chemical. Dopamine is what is needed not just for goal-directed action but also for actions involving delayed reward. Delayed reward means working now for a reward later. This is precisely what most business expect from their employees and need to deal with day in and day out. 

So in short the pleasure chemical in the brain is also the motivation chemical - this is a crucial take away for business leaders.

Are you having fun in business? If you are a leader, are you enabling others in the business to have fun? You may want to try it.

[1] Ghadiri, A., Habermacher, A. & Peters, T., Neuroleadership - A Journey Through The Brain for Business Leaders, Springer.

P.S. Humour in business has also been shown to lower stress & improve productivity.