Can fairy godmothers, office poetry and treasure hunts motivate workers?
By James Temple When a college professor asked Nance Cheifetz about her career plans, she replied, without a trace of sarcasm, “I want to be a fairy godmother.” But, as in most professions that increasingly favor specialists over generalists, Cheifetz found she had to settle for a niche role: ‘corporate’ fairy godmother. Through the company she founded in 1998, Sense of Delight, Cheifetz has already sprinkled her brand of fairy dust across many Bay Area businesses, typically while donning ruby slippers. She developed a mock Academy Awards ceremony to recognize Visa employees, personalized fortune cookie goals for Wells Fargo workers and encouraged Pacific Bell’s people to play with Styrofoam building toys (Naturally, they created a ‘deregulation deflector’). Her programs are conspicuous because of their levity and mirth, but Cheifetz, who earned a master’s degree in education and expression therapy, says there’s a serious business philosophy underlying their design: To motivate employe
