Don't be confused about what makes a workplace fun

Having access to toys does not create a fun workplace.
Nor do tree houses and slides. It doesn't hurt to let people bring their stuff to the office, but that should be an outward sign of your willingness to let people be themselves at the office.

Glenn Llopis points to the things that create a truly fun workplace:

• Allow your people to be their best selves and figure out how they can make the greatest contribution. Don't confine them to to your expectations.
• Demand that your people work together and come up with better ways to function by collaborating.
• As a leader focus on communicating both your vision (how things could be) and what you see as the current situation. Then listen to learn what your employees are seeing as well.
• Be a whole person everyone can see with your own vulnerabilities.
• Expect people to be grown ups but know they have to grow to get there. Demand growth and model it.
• Outline the culture with bold simple strokes and let others fill in the details.

Llopis Group Blog: 6 Ways to Make your Leadership and Workplace Fun Again, 2013-Oct-14 by Glenn Llopis

My father would tell me that the more simple you make things, the more believable, trustworthy and effective you will be with people. Perhaps we are beginning to understand why most leaders need a refresh. They need to simplify their approach and make it more fun and enjoyable for employees as this will increase productively, engagement and desired outcomes.

Finding someone to follow near the edge

One of the most important ways we communicate our values is by following someone. But you can't choose who to follow based on their destination. If you're trying to innovate, you may not even want to follow someone who's successful. Follow someone who's making decisions you admire.

Four Transformative Ways to Make More Money, 2013-Dec-2 by Penelope Trunk

It’s best to watch the people who are first and then do what they do but with less risk. Which means there’s someone who is earlier than you. A leader. So many self-appointed leaders have no followers, so it’s really the first group of followers that make the movement; the bleeding edge is not as optimal a place to be as next to the bleeding edge.

Insufficiently rearranged

The business world has started changing so fast that resources do not get efficiently rearranged in time. We have more and better information than we've ever had before, and fewer and fewer people with the time to study and understand it. Be one of the few!

The Media Audit Blog: Evolution, Irony, and Opportunities in Mining the Growing Sea of Data, 2013-Dec-4 by Phillip Beswick

With the incessantly growing number of media there is more data coming out than ever before.  Yet there are dramatically fewer media research people filtering that data to find the nuggets for the sales teams to sell.