Long ago I observed that people get more things done when they're having fun . At the time, I had no idea why. Now I think I have an answer. When children play, look at the energy that's put into it, that's shared with everyone else. This sort of energy brings people together, unleashes their creativity and indeed inspires them to do amazing things

Patnode, Norman H.

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24 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERSHIP 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20120000514 2019-08-30T18:32:04+00:00Z
Grins 8.. Giggles 
The Launch Pad to High Performance 
By Maj. Norman H. Patnode 
Long ago I observed that people get more th ings done when 
they're having fun . At the time, I had no idea why. Now I think I 
have an answer. When children play, look at the energy that 's 
put into it, that 's shared with everyone else. This sort of energy 
brings people together, unleashes their creativity and indeed 
inspires them to do amazing things. To steal a phrase from Dr. 
Owen Gadeken's article in ASK 7, it's their "activation energy." 
Amazing stuff! Dr. Gadeken highlighted the need for activation 
energy to propel a team to high performance. I'd like to focus 
your thoughts on creating this energy . 
ASK 12 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 25 
AITER YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WITI I TEAMS, I'VE COME TO 
recognize the absolute necess ity of grins and giggles-of 
having fun. This is hands-down the bes t way to crea te 
the activa tion energy needed to move a team forward. I'm 
so convinced of this that when I join a team, if it's not safe 
to have fun , I work to change that. In whatever way 
possible, no matter how stilted or silly, it's essential to 
As a team moves 
towards higher performance, its 
members begin to see the differ-
ences between themselves not as 
obstacles, but as opportunities. 
inject humor into a team's work , and the earlier the better. 
Once when I jo ined a small team of engineers who 
were responsible for managing tests of reentry vehicles, 
[ found myself surro unded by people who were not 
having fun. They would frequently, after getting off thc 
phone with a customer, begin to rant and rave about 
how stupid the customer was and how much trouble the 
customer was causing them because of some new 
funding or schedule change. 
My solution? I brought a toy plasti c dart gun to 
work. Whenever one of my teammates began to rant and 
rave, I grabbed my gun and shot him, over and over until 
he shut up. At that point thc whole team was ga thered 
around , and after we all quit laughing at the ridi culous-
ness o f the spectacl e, we began to talk about the 
problem and what wc could do about it. In a matter of 
wee ks, the attitude of the team had shifted . We began to 
work together and to foc us on how we could make our 
jobs eas ier by making our customers' jobs eas ier. 
And the dart gun? Bclieve it or not, within a couple of 
weeks everyone had one, and we continued to use them as 
a fun way to blast the nega tive energy out of our team. 
Fun doesn 't have to be thi s dramati c. The key is to 
bring peo ple together-so that they can share, explo re 
and have fun. This can be done with something as 
simple as a lunchtime card game. 
I still remember one of my earliest team experiences. 
Fourteen of us were doing stab ility and control work for 
high-speed military aircraft programs. Most of us were 
young, right out of coll ege, which meant we were 
strapped for cash. We ate our sack lunches each day as 
we sat at our desks and reviewed reports or read technica l 
26 APPL THE NASA ACADEMY OF PROGRAM AND PROJECT LEADERS HI P 
journals. All that changed the day that Paul, a 
senior engineer in our group, brought in a 
couple decks of ca rds and herded us into the 
new central conference space. "Bring your 
lunch," he sa id , "we're gonna have some 
fun. " We were a little apprehensive-was 
this allowed? 
After ass uring us th at we weren ' t 
breaking any rules, he said we were going to 
play Hea rts, and he started explaining the 
rules. We ate, played and kept score. More 
importantly, we started talking to each other. 
Just in that first day I learned that Bill raced hi s 
ca r on Saturdays at the loca l drag strip, Jose had a 
girlfriend in Toledo and Joe was taking classes at 
night in hopes of getting into medica l school. ft was fun , 
and we agreed to play again the next day. 
Pretty soon we were competing fo r bragging rights. 
Then one day, after Bob had won several days in a row, 
it happened- we ga nged up on him. Wh ile it's true we 
"ga nged up" on him, what rea lly happened was we 
started working as a team. Looking back on it , I rea lize 
that as we got to know each o ther, it became much 
eas ier to ask those "dumb questions," and to ask the 
team for help when we needed it. We also got a lot better 
at working together, solving pro blems, and getting 
things done-all because of a silly ca rd game. 
If it hadn't been fo r those ca rd games, I'm sure none 
of us would have made that three-hour dri ve to Toledo 
seven months later to see Jose and Lori get married. 
Fun comes in many shapes and sizes, but one of the 
bes t ways to bring on those grins and giggles is to tell a 
I n whatever way 
possible, no matter how 
stilted or silly, it's essential to 
inject humor into a team's work, 
and the earlier the better. 
good story. We all recognize how much learning can be 
fo und in a good story, but we shouldn 't neglect the fun 
that can be squeezed out of one, as well. On o ne of my 
more recent teams, we made a po int to share our stories 
in a fun and humorous way. 
Every Friday afternoon we'd meet in the courtyard 
fo r refreshments, a much-deserved break, and the 
· -----
Owen Gadeken and Maj. Norman H. 
Patnode met in January 2000 when 
Gadeken was the faculty advisor to 
Patnode's section in the Defense 
Acquisition University's (DAU) 
Advanced Program Management 
Course. "Although Norman sat in the 
back corner of the room, he was not 
shy about commenting on virtually 
anything that caught his interest 
during the course," remembers 
Gadeken, whose article in ASK 7, 
"Activation Energy," brought out 
the "Grins and Giggles" in Patnode. 
Says Gadeken: "Whenever I had a 
particularly dry or even complex 
subject to discuss with the class, I 
could always rely on Norman to come 
up with some interesting insight on the 
topic." Gadeken soon discovered that 
Patnode also had a well-developed 
sense of humor, probably honed from 
the experiences he relates in his 
article. Eventually, with Gadeken's 
encouragement, Patnode joined the 
DAU faculty. "I continue to be 
amazed," says Gadeken, "at the 
insights Norman can draw from both 
his and others' seemingly routine 
project management experiences." 
•
- . MAJ. NORMAN H. PATNODE 
.' . is a Professor of Program 
R Management C. Leadership 
at the Defense Acquisition 
.'. University, where he provides 
training in strategic leadership, critical 
thinking, teamwork and teambuilding, the 
application of Myers-Briggs (MBTO, program 
risk management, coaching and conflict 
management. He also teaches a number of 
the basic program management tools. He can 
be reached at norman.patnode@dau.mil 
presentatio n of what we called the "Clue Bird" award . 
(A "Clue Bird," an expression used by pi lots in the 
mi litalY, is a good luck s ign because it lands o n one's 
shoulder when one needs it most.) The rul es were 
simple. Anyone could get up and tell a story about 
someone on the team. Usually the stOlY involved some 
"noteworthy" activity from the previo us week, such as 
how Dan had become a hero by screwing something up 
in a way that caused the rest of the team to take note of 
an impending disaster, and avert it. 
This was a big team, responsible for the Herculean 
task of manufacturin g and deliverin g the Air Fo rce's 
newest large cargo aircraft, so there was never a shortage 
of stori es each week. The stories were always clean and 
in good taste, but s ince it was widely accepted that only 
10% truth was req uired for a good story, they always 
brought plenty of comic relief. 
After everyone had told their stories, we'd all vote by 
applause and the "Clue Bird" would be passed o n to the 
winner to display proud ly at their desk for the week. As 
we all headed back to o ur desks, laughing and refl ecting 
on the stories we'd just heard, and what we'd learned 
from them, you could actually feel the increased energy 
in the tea m. 
The thread that weaves these three examples of 
tea ms sharing grins and giggles is the very fact that the 
were "sharing." Shared experiences create space where 
team members can get to know o ne another, and 
discover how much they have in common with each 
other. These commo nalities are the bui lding blocks of 
trusting relationships. And trust is the foundation 
required to bui ld a high peIformance team. With a high 
performance team, yo u can acco mplish anything. 
As a team moves towards higher pelformance, its 
members begin to see the differences between 
themselves not as o bstacles, but as opportunities. 
Exploiting these o pportunities leads to more inn ovative 
ideas and increased performance. Team members lea rn 
to move pas t superficial differences in how they look 
and speak, and begin to recognize the differences in how 
they th ink, explore and even dream. They find new and 
creati ve ways to put those differences to work for the 
team. As a result, performance soars. 
As fo r the team members, they' ll tell you they're 
having the time of th ei r life. They'll tell yo u what they're 
doing is fun, not work. Then they' ll make you swear not 
to tell anyo ne. So do n't. Just keep on grinnin g. • 
LESSO~S 
• Wo rk can and should be fun. Think abo ut a child at 
play-curious, open-minded, learning and di scovering. 
Play can stimu late a cycle of solving problems and un-
covcring new ones by bringing out the best in each of us. 
• Regardless of your position on the team, you can 
create the fun and energy needed to launch your team 
o n a path to high performance. 
Q UESTIO:"l 
If nol by play. what ways do you tap the "ac/ivation energy" of 
a project team? 
ASK 12 FOR PRACTITIONERS BY PRACTITIONERS 2 7 


Grins and Giggles: The Launch Pad to High Performance

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