What would your workplace look like if it was just a little more fun to be there? Would employees take advantage of you, or take their performance to new heights? Those are some of the questions Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher attempt to answer in their new best-seller “The Levity Effect” (Wiley, 2008).

This feel-good affair is a bit different than many of the others we see on the marketplace, as the authors have taken a more academic, research based approach to the lighter side of workplace motivation – meeting the stiff bosses’ objections at the door and paving a path towards buy-in from their target market beginning to end. Though they never really address the “chicken and the egg” question about whether companies succeed because they’re providing more levity, or are providing more levity because they are successful.

Regardless, tips and case examples abound regarding winning new business and staking a greater claim with current buyers through rapport building “fun”. And executive leaders out there who simply aren’t comfortable with becoming the office crack-up will find plenty of company as the book states several examples of known execs “coming out of their shell” and providing a different version of themselves when the situation calls for a little humor.

Check out Chapter 7 for 142 ways to bring levity to your workplace, and stick around for some advice about taking some back home with you as well.

Is the book going to turn around a failing company? No. Is it going to give you some solid information on ways to attract more high performing employees, maintain positive attitudes, foster general well being, and perhaps lead you to a bit more profit to the place where we all spend our toiling hours? Yes, and now the ball is in your court.